Anything new with the pilots?

[Honda]

Hi all (three of you left here)
It's been a while since I double-clicked the Kate icon. Five years, I think. I'm entertaining the thaught of starting another pbem, but one thing weighs heavily on my heart - the pilot bug. I feruse to invest a few years of my life to see it all crushed by this bug. I don't remember any more what the limit was on pilots in the database. I know is was enlarges to what was refered to as "maximum". I played a game v. Raver, a 41 scen. To cut the long story short, after his surrender in summer of '44, a friend of mine took over the Allied side, just for fun. I think the bug hit us towards the end of '44. I would like to know if the pilot bug has been eliminated. It probably hasn't, but I had to ask. The following is much more important and it concearns the expansion of the pilot database:
1: When was that expansion done (before of after 2005-2007 period of my last game)?
2: What are the exact numbers (or percentage in the rise of the number of slots)?
3. Which version of the game is it included in?

I'm asking to see I a start in 1942 could help to get us through the war without hitting the bug.

Thanks

[tocaff]

The bug is still there. My PBEM is in January 1945 and we've managed to avoid it so far by not overloading our air units with pilots.

[wdolson]

There is no active bug fix/maintenance going on with the original WitP. This was addressed in AE. It's not impossible to hit a pilot limit in AE, but the max limit is higher.

Bill

[Alfred]

Honda,

The total pilot array is 30k. Once the total number of named pilots for both Japan and the Allies reaches 30k, that is when you get the problem.

Read this thread and the link contained therein to refresh your memory.

tm.asp?m=2201732&mpage=1&key=pilot%2Climit&#2458687

You really should only be playing with v.1.806 as they were attempting to improve the situation right up to the end.

Alfred

[Honda]

Ok, thanks. A couple of beers smarter tonight, I have to notice that the limit for new games is set on 30.000? Is this correct? Also, from the linked thread I could conclude that there was some thaught to patch this somehow, but was abandoned to concentrate the effort on AE. Unfortunatly, AE doesn't interest me. Bear, sorry, beer with me, staring a new game now will it have a limit of 30.000 pilots and that would get me how far in tha game if we start in 5/42? It's a later start, some of the allied airgroups players always save (Dutch airgroups, for instance) are gone. Will that be enough to avoid the bug? Any thaughs? And don't tell me I have to start in 43 because I will disregard the answer and put you on ignore [:-]

[Alfred]

The start date is immaterial.

Players who play sensibly regarding populating their air groups with pilots can start on 7 Dec 1941 and not have a problem. If they don't handle their pilot recruitment sensibly, they could start on 7 Dec 1944 and quickly reach the aggregated 30k limit. Jwilkerson made it very clear what the problem is. That is players who have 1000+ pilots in individual air groups will reach the limit.

Just bear in mind that both players in a PBEM have to be sensible. Not much point in player A having only 8k pilots in total if player B has 22k pilots in total.

Alfred

[tocaff]

In my PBEM with Steve, see my AAR (shameless plug), we agreed to careful management of the number of pilots in our formations. Our game is now in mid January 1945 and so far so good.

[kmitahj]

Though hard limit is - as Alfred noted above - 30k pilot slots total it is worth to note that engine starts to purge pilots earlier. At the beginning it seems to target only inactive pilots but the closer it is to hard limit the more agressive it gets. Don't remember exact number which trigger the Great Purge but would suggest keeping good margin for safety - something like 25k should be good. Best imho would be to negotiate and divide that upfront: something like 16:9 or 15:10 division or whatever both players see to be fair and then use WitpTracker which makes trivial regular monitoring of player's share of pilot pool.

As for factors which makes it less/more likely to trigger the event one of important factors is bloodiness of air war. In stock scenarios air war is extremly bloody (to the point which make them unplayable to me) which makes the Purge less likely or at least later event. Scenarios (like BigB or CHS159/160) where air bloodshed is somewhat tuned down and (imho) more realistic are unfortunately more vulnerable.

[tocaff]

29 Janauary 1945 the pilot bug reared it's ugliness. There were my high experienced pilots and now they'll be replaced by green ones. Worse for the Japanese I suspect as at least my newbies are trained. The Black Death.

[Honda]

And now you're gonna blame me for jinxing your game...

[tocaff]

Was there ever any doubt that it was your fault? [:D]

[Honda]

Obviously not. It was such a coincidence that there is no way it was a coincidence. My logic is impecable.

[tocaff]

Then again do we really believe in coincidence?

I'm fleshing out my air units a bit at a time, but only for the front lines.