War In The Pacific Updated to v1.801

[Tanaka]

All I have to say is WOW! You guys rock! Thanks Don, Joe, Michaelm, Mike and the Matrix Team!!! [:D] [&o]

[jwilkerson]

ORIGINAL: Tanaka

All I have to say is WOW! You guys rock! Thanks Don, Joe, Michaelm, Mike and the Matrix Team!!! [:D] [&o]

And Nik too - he is with us hour by hour on the 24x7 testing and WTFDWDN debates !

[bradfordkay]

Thank Nik? C'mon, now you're asking too much!! [:'(]

Really, thanks to all who have continued to support this great game...

[dtravel]

ORIGINAL: jwilkerson

ORIGINAL: Tanaka

All I have to say is WOW! You guys rock! Thanks Don, Joe, Michaelm, Mike and the Matrix Team!!! [:D] [&o]

And Nik too - he is with us hour by hour on the 24x7 testing and WTFDWDN debates !

If you guys actually listened to a homocidal Easter bunny I'm going to take that brownie point back!



[:'(]

[Nomad]

don't all jump on me, but I think you are going to get a lot of complaints with the new disband - add named pilot thing. [:(]

[jwilkerson]

ORIGINAL: Nomad

don't all jump on me, but I think you are going to get a lot of complaints with the new disband - add named pilot thing. [:(]

We've been wondering where they are ! [:D][;)]

[Nomad]

I'm wondering if it will just take time. On the face it is a good idea, but I wonder about using PBYs on 100% Naval Search for a while and then disbanding them so they can fly F4Fs. Or the allies flying supply from one end of the runway to the other and then using those 'trained' pilots to fly P-40s. I think there are a large number of exploits to this and there should be some complaints. Mostly just an observation, players do not have to use exploits, but some think that the game should prevent them. [;)]

[Williamb]

Argh glad to see more patched but I spent 4 hours making a new scenario based on Patch 1.8

Hmm any Data base or OOB changes ? might just run the new Scenario with the new changes

[jwilkerson]

ORIGINAL: William Amos

Argh glad to see more patched but I spent 4 hours making a new scenario based on Patch 1.8

Hmm any Data base or OOB changes ? might just run the new Scenario with the new changes

Nope no DB or OOB changes .. EXE only. Just load up and keep on playing or modding ...

[Blackie]

ORIGINAL: Nomad

don't all jump on me, but I think you are going to get a lot of complaints with the new disband - add named pilot thing. [:(]

What do the other members think about the named pilot thing, is it gamey. If so why, I mean if you are the Japanese and you have say 2-300 pilots flying who have high experience levels but they are flying transports or float planes or even recons and you have a desperate need for fighter pilots with experience even if thay do not have experience in fighters they can still fly they know how to navigate they know how to recognize dangerous situations. I think these traits make a good pilot, far better than what Japan was putting out of her training schools anyway. I for one think it is fair to use these pilots.

[DFalcon]

The named pilot pool will reduce a great deal of micro-management in maintaining air groups. This has to be a positive thing. Getting experienced pilots into the front line now is a major chore. It required weeks long juggling of air groups back and forth across the map.

The effect it has on experience levels is hard to guess right out the box. My guess is that it will not affect the IJN experience levels too much. Players who dedicated the effort were getting high experience replacements and they still will. What they will have is more front line planes on the front and not training. Second line planes will move back to do the training, at least with non PDU games.

The Allied player will now have a viable way to close the experience gap. That is something that took a lot of finesse before. Now it will be a lot easier. I am guessing it will have a more substantial effect on allied fighter experience than anywhere else.

It will take people some time to work out how to best use this new feature and to see how much it affects the experience levels. The time saving and elimination of tedious tasks will be immediate. I welcome that, and am willing to live with the implications.

We will probably look back at the circus tricks we use now to keep air groups maintained and shake our heads at the thought of ever going back there.

I am hoping the little bugs that crop up with this new feature can be squashed quickly.

[Ron Saueracker]

I'm just really impressed with the results we are seeing since Joe and Don have been recruited. No offense to Mike Wood, but it seems like he was stretched beyond reason. Good to see that some fresh programmers not encumbered by Gawd knows what projects have been added to help him out. Looks like the great work Mike did with ASW is now bolstered with some fresh blood and time![&o]

This is a hugely popular game and am just glad to see life breathed into it! What game on these forums has such a dedicated following? This is just freakking great![:D][&o]

[Kadrin]

Previously, disbanding airgroups gave you the option to reform the group in 60(90?) days or not and all pilots and aircraft went into a squadron with the same aircraft at the base. Withdrawing also reformed the squadron in 60(90?) days but only transfered the planes to the squadron in the base and kept the pilots for when it was reformed.

What does Withdrawing and Disbanding do now?

[Don Bowen]

ORIGINAL: Kadrin

Previously, disbanding airgroups gave you the option to reform the group in 60(90?) days or not and all pilots and aircraft went into a squadron with the same aircraft at the base. Withdrawing also reformed the squadron in 60(90?) days but only transfered the planes to the squadron in the base and kept the pilots for when it was reformed.

What does Withdrawing and Disbanding do now?

The same thing unless:

1. The airgroup is in it's National Home Base.
2. There is NOT an available squadron of the same type of aircraft for the airgroup to merge into.

In that case, you are asked If you want to Disband into Pool or Withdraw.

If you agree to Disband into pool, all planes and pilots are moved into the aircraft and pilot pools and you are asked if you want to reform the group in 90 days. This is the same as "regular" except the planes/pilots go to pools instead of another gorup.

If you agree to Withdraw, the Airgroup WITH all planes and pilots is withdrawn for 60 days. This is only useful if you want to keep the airgroup together while waiting addition aircraft production.

But there is a newly-discovered bug in the disband logic which would disband a group into a another group that is scheduled to arrive at the same base but has not yet arrived.

[Kadrin]

Thank you for clearing that up and the speedy response.

Now if you could just put in an option to turn off base repairs, and maybe even a supply level you'd like the base to maintain. [;)][:D]

[witpqs]

Don,

Can you withdraw for 60 days a group that has no airplanes? What if there is no other unit at the same base with the type of aircraft (as the group in question is supposed to have)?

[Charles2222]

ORIGINAL: Kapten Q

ORIGINAL: Charles_22

ORIGINAL: veji1

hey... This disband at national base can lead to exploits... Disband all the Floatplanes and transports, even all the bombers later in the war ( as JApan how can you use them anyway..) into the pool and then use it for fighter datais...

I am not sure this is good... had we have pools per type of plane ( fighter IN pool, LB IJN pool, FP IJN pool ), this would be great, but otherwise it is potentially source of gameyness :

put your green pilots in bomber squadrons, do the transport thing, and then put them in the pool, and again...

On the surface level that sure looks like a major hole. It's a good idea to get rid of some of those useless depleted groups anyway. I'm not too sure about this aspect in the PTO, but in the ETO at least, during the Battle of Britain, the RAF took a lot of bomber crews and put them into fighters, so it's not entirely without historical precedence.

The Germans did it as well, put bomber pilots in to single engine night fighter in 43-44. They were experienced and had actually got traning in instrumental navigation, a useful skill at night! There were no time for this skill in the german pilot replecement program during the late war.

But I must say I dont quite understand this namned pilot list thing. Can you select and assign individual pilots to daitais?

Q

Thank you. I hadn't heard of the Gerrys doing it, but it's none too surprising when you consider they put a lot of their surface ship crews into the submarine program too.

My interpretation of the named pilot thing is that those pilots will emerge somewhere or other after 60 days. I was thinking they would be relegated to the same type of airplane but I'm not entirely sure about that. I don't think there's any way they made these pilots completely controllable and assigned at any time. The only real pilot control I see going with this edition is that you can assign pilots in one lump instead of one-at-a-time if you want (saves a few keystrokes).

Oh, sorry, I see the designers explained this better, though I was somewhat wrong here.

[Don Bowen]

ORIGINAL: witpqs

Don,

Can you withdraw for 60 days a group that has no airplanes? What if there is no other unit at the same base with the type of aircraft (as the group in question is supposed to have)?

If it is at the National Home Base, I believe that you can. The whole intent of the "Home Base" extensions to Disband and Withdraw was to allow them to happen without having another group available with the same type aircraft.

I've never actually tried with a zero-aircraft group and don't have a test set up. If you do, give it a try. If it works, let me know. If it doesn't work, please hide it from me until tomorrow.

Don

[witpqs]

I'm really interested in options to preserve the unit, without regard to specific a/c or pilots. I never really caught on to the withdraw/disband thing - how are they different?

[Charles2222]

Now we have reasons to train transport groups [:D].