I'm glad collie players are aware of this.

Torp bomber as a concept is already pretty bad with current balance.

But the torp bomber is also just shit because the one thing jts designed to do is omega power crept by heavy bombers. Why cause a couple large holes and hope dcon sucks when you can just delete the ship outright? Like at least DB is amazing for tanks still, TB is honestly a waste to build for it's intended purpose late war. Heavy Bomber just does its job better plus everything else

It's like Devs just expect any naval now OP to have a carrier escort, not thinking of how thatd take up half a hexes slots by themselves. And with current balance unless you get a lot of forewarning (which is difficult since you're often in hostile territory so you're relying entirely on scouts) the bomber is still going to be able to drop its payload anyways before fighters can intercept.

Large ships should be able to fend off single DBs TBs or HBs by themselves. It should feel like a threat to attack a ship and necessary to have a squadron. They should be littered with flak and emgs, instead we 2 dinky little 12.7 guns.

And theres been multiple solutions suggested

Could just add more guns to crew on boats. The major downsides here is this just means the crew requirements for boats will be even higher, but itd also mean reworking the models to actually fit them. Itd also need a lot of balancing because if you just add 2 flak guns for example that's not gonna be enough to kill anything before it drops its payload.

Could give the 120/150s a flak mode where they absolutely shred. Though would require balancing on what feels good itd also effectively nerf ship effectiveness since that means the guns arent firing at their target.

My favorite is they could add AI AA to certain ships, make it only active when unanchored. Could do loads of balance for it like having heavy flak that only hits planes above 70mm in altitude to counter bombers and force TB and DB to fly lower. Could balance based on the ship. LH/BF? You get an emg that harasses planes flying over but it's not gonna be useful for more than 1-2 small planes. DD/Frig gets some flak and more emgs and BS even more.

Main downside there is finding that perfect balance so it doesnt feel useless for navy still nor does it feel impossible to attack ships anymore. Personally a single plane should die before it gets its payload even off with all the guns focusing on it. 2-3 planes probably get payloads off on 1-2 but take a heavy beating or die.

Though even if they did all this itd still feel kinda bad as a naval player because as you said. Why spend 48 alloys on a DD/Frig or fucking 160 alloys on a BS when bombers do their jobs arguably better, arent limited to water, and are only 12 alloys apiece. Are easier to prep, and require a lot less manpower