Missing pilots?

[pionkki]

It's January 1944 in my CHS PBEM. My squadrons lost hundreds of pilots all over the map in one night. Just buff... Is anyone aware what happened?

[Terminus]

Well known bug.

[pionkki]

Ok - thanks T. Any workarounds? Such as a redo?

[Q-Ball]

I am expecting this to hit in my 2/44 game any day. I would love to hear the response, but I think it's been covered:

Nothing you can do. There are limited pilot slots, and the two of you hit the limit. When new units come in, old pilots have to disappear to provide slots for the new ones.

There is no workaround. You can start getting more pilots killed in battle instead, that will help delay the problem.

[NormS3]

Is this because too many pilots are in the pools and currently in units, or is it the total number of pilots used throughout the game?

[Q-Ball]

There are too many pilots ON THE MAP. The ones in the pools don't count. Though, as you pull them out of the pools, they have to displace a pilot somewhere on the MAP.

I think the total limit is 10K pilots on the map.

The bug favors the Allies, because while the Allies probably have trained pilots in the pool to replace the ones that disappeared, the Japanese likely do not. They can only replace with Rookies.

AE is supposed to fix this.

[NormS3]

thanks,
i had thought that the number was 20k though. I guess i was also thinking that it was total number, so i missed something somewhere.

[Feinder]

The bug favors the Allies...

(nothing personal, I just love the opportunities to post this one...)

[;)]

[RevRick]

ORIGINAL: pionkki

It's January 1944 in my CHS PBEM. My squadrons lost hundreds of pilots all over the map in one night. Just buff... Is anyone aware what happened?

That's easy to explain! Haven't you ever heard of repple-depple?
The Fairy Godmother of the replacements just waved her magic wand, and your vets just got grabbed and a bunch of newbies are ready to be indoctrinated! They're YOURS!!!!

[Cuttlefish]

Having experienced this myself I am morbidly convinced that it is the game's way of punishing Japanese players for doing well. And yes, since AE has a greatly expanded pilot data base this problem should be a thing of the past once it is released.

[Cathartes]

Can (1) disbanding units, or (2) setting up a pre-arranged slaughter area between players alleviate the problem?  It's an immersion killer but can it work?

[USSAmerica]

Heck, I'm counting on this bug to save my Allied ass in my game vs. Mynok!  [:'(]

[jumper]

It puzzles me, that such serious bug is not being solved..[&:] It seems like everyone is accepting it as a part of the game, but it seems like game killer to me. It si PITA for allies, but it breaks the spin of IJAF. Or is the kind of a bug which simply can not be corrected by some patch?
 

[Yakface]

ORIGINAL: jumper

It puzzles me, that such serious bug is not being solved..[&:] It seems like everyone is accepting it as a part of the game, but it seems like game killer to me. It si PITA for allies, but it breaks the spin of IJAF. Or is the kind of a bug which simply can not be corrected by some patch?

As the original posters Japanese opponent, I think Jumper has a good point. Lets riot.

[Feinder]

The actual problem is that there is a finite size the database. 
 
There are only 19,999 pilot slots.
 
They did put something in a while ago that would purge most -dead- pilots (yes they used to take up slots as well).  But if you get to having 20k pilots in play at once (plus some of the "dead pilots who just won't die" - like the aces), you're SOL.
 
But there isn't a "fix" per se.
 
"Just expand the database".
That's king of like stacking another chest-of-drawers on top of the old one.  It's a big enough issue by itself, that even once you do that,
 
Oops.  you're two year-old can't reach the upper drawers anyway.  As in, even if you did expand the DB to 40k or whatever, the current program can't even "see" the extra 20k spots that you added without without further changes.
 
Yes, it sucks, and as a developer myself, it kinda makes me groan.  But one can play "couldda-shouldda-wouldda-mighta-didn't" all day (actually it's gone on many times before on these forums).  But when it all boils down, it's just a matter that it never occured to anyone that the game would generate so many pilots; and that's just the way it is.
 
-F- 

[Q-Ball]

Question: Has anyone implemented a House Rule to essentially "Allocate" slots to stay out of trouble? I play Japan, and I could just limit the number of pilots to a certain level, by counting the total number of planes and managing to that.

Anyone have any ideas?

And, can someone confirm that 10,000 is the total number of pilot slots available?

[Feinder]

It's 20k.  You can look in the DB-editor.

-F-

[Q-Ball]

Thanks Fiender! Then it should be fairly easy to determine when the danger zone starts; when the total number of A/C in play reaches close to 20K (I understand that named pilots that are KIA or WIA also count toward the total, but may not be on the map)

What would be a fair allocation if we are trying to limit that then, any ideas anyone?

[Yakface]

Just to get this clear:
 
A) do pilots in the reserve pools matter, or just what is on map + the few WIA, MIA and KIA?
B) do dead pilots (other than noted above) have any effect or do they just vacate the database?
C) Is it correct to say that once the on map pikots of both sides reach 20,000 any further that are drawn from the pools eliminate a similar number of existing pilots.
 
Thanks guys

[Feinder]

As I understand it..

A) do pilots in the reserve pools matter, or just what is on map + the few WIA, MIA and KIA?

"Most" reserve pilots do not matter.  There are specific "reinforcement" pilots that come in, that are added to the pools once their availability date is hit.  But the "generic" pool pilots only matter once they are actually drawn.  So you need to worry about (who is on the map + few WIA/KIA/MIA + reinforcment pilots).


B) do dead pilots (other than noted above) have any effect or do they just vacate the database?

KIA/MIA pilots that are not aces are -supposed- to be purged from the DB each turn, to free up those slots.  That was fix they put in a while back.  There has been some discussion however as to how "completely" they are purged however.  I have to believe that they put something something in that says "run thru the DB, and if a pilot is KIA or MIA and less than 5 kills, free the slot", and it worked : that shouldn't be that hard.


C) Is it correct to say that once the on map pikots of both sides reach 20,000 any further that are drawn from the pools eliminate a similar number of existing pilots.

Those 20k pilots are both sides to share.  So you could get 12k Japanese pilots, and 8k Allied pilots (or whatever). 
"and any further are drawn from the pols eliminate existing pilots"
I *think* so. 

-F-