Puzzled by Squadron Commander Reassignment

[Chryse]

Hoping someone can explain this for me because I am really stumped as to what is happening.

I have recently changed some Squadron commanders for my air units. The replacement arrives in short order and assumes the duties of commander but never appears in the pilot list. He has definitely arrived (not in transit and I did recieve the arrival message) and he is listed on the squadron details screen as commander but he is not flying. Am I missing something?

Of the 7 commanders I have changed, 6 are apparently deskbound. One of them did take his place in a cockpit.

This is with the new public beta patch btw. Cannot say I noticed this prior to the beta patch.

Is it a bug or am I missing something?

[wdolson]

This goes back to WitP.  Some air leaders are also pilots.  Those that are will fly with their units.  If a leader is not also in the pilot's table, he will not show up on the pilot's list and will not fly.  The only way to fix this would be to go through the leader's table and ensure that all air leaders also show up in the pilot's list.  Though that will not help the situation when the game creates a leader when there is a shortage.

Bill

[Chryse]

ORIGINAL: wdolson

This goes back to WitP.  Some air leaders are also pilots.  Those that are will fly with their units.  If a leader is not also in the pilot's table, he will not show up on the pilot's list and will not fly.  The only way to fix this would be to go through the leader's table and ensure that all air leaders also show up in the pilot's list.  Though that will not help the situation when the game creates a leader when there is a shortage.

Bill

Thanks for the reply. So I guess my next question is, when you mention a "pilots table", I am not quite certain what table you refer to. Is there an overall list of pilots somewhere that I have not yet stumbled upon? I have looked but all I have really found is a top pilots list.

Probably the more important question is, does it really matter if the squadron commander is also a pilot or not?

[wdolson]

The scenario editor has a named pilot section.  These pilots either go into the reserve pool or the specific unit they were assigned to in the real world.  Some units have a lot of named pilots like VF-17 and the AVG.

As pilots are drawn out of the trained pilot pool, they are given a name and go into a unit.  If you move them from the squadron to the reserve pool, either manually, or disband the unit, they will be added to the list of pilots in the reserve pool.  So the reserve pool has a mix of pilots who were created in the scenario editor and pilots created in game.

The air leaders should be represented in the named pilot pool too.  If they aren't, they will command units, but will not fly.  This is a data quirk that has existed since WitP.  I believe it was on the AE list to comb through the two lists and make sure all air commanders were also pilots, but I don't think it made the cut.  Someone can fix it in a mod if they like.

Bill

[crsutton]

It should not matter though. A good leader is a good leader and I don't think whether or not he is a flier makes much difference to the airgroup. I would not switch out a good leader for that reason.
 
Besides in my game Pappy Boyington died on his first mission. [:@] Denying me of his leadership skills which were pretty good.