Aircraft Replacement & Upgades

[pad152]

Will the player have control over aircraft upgrades?

Aircraft Replacements, In UV if you disbanded an airgroup the group would return some weeks later, even if there were no aircraft of that type of available. You ended up with a air group with no aircraft. Yet there are other aircraft types available in the replacement pool.

Example: A figther group of A6M2 zeros was disbanded, the group returns several weeks later but there are still no A6M2's in the replacement pool. If there are other fighter types available, could we have the option to re-equip the group with A5M4's?

Were aircraft down-grades ever done?

[siRkid]

Originally posted by pad152
Will the player have control over aircraft upgrades?

Aircraft Replacements, In UV if you disbanded an airgroup the group would return some weeks later, even if there were no aircraft of that type of available. You ended up with a air group with no aircraft. Yet there are other aircraft types available in the replacement pool.

Example: A figther group of A6M2 zeros was disbanded, the group returns several weeks later but there are still no A6M2's in the replacement pool. If there are other fighter types available, could we have the option to re-equip the group with A5M4's?

Were aircraft down-grades ever done?

This is on request list but no decisions have been made yet.

[emorbius44]

The ability to change air unit types as well as the production of types of aircraft was available in pacwar (at least for the japanese player) within limits (I think, it's been awhile since I played it).
The ability to manipulate the aircraft industry production and unit type in air groups is one of the few ways a japanese player might help even the odds (even if it's just improving things from hopeless to a disaster) so I for one would hope that this feature is included in the final game.
It is irritating to have bunches of surplus pilots with empty air groups sitting around for a specific type of plane and then have piles of obsolescent aircract likewise sitting around because the they don't match. In reality you use what you got.
If Gary still remembers me from the pacwar playtest days my big thing was having a game with features that made sense or trying to keep features out that didn't and this is the sort of thing where it really would make the most sense to have these features included since they already were the last time this subject was tackled by Mr. Grigsby & Co. I know there is a limit to how much you guys can cram into a game but unit change/production manipulation goes back all the way to Second Front, Pacwar, etc and if it fit in a 640k game it seems to me it should fit in this one.

Just my two cents;

Bob

[TheElf]

Might be a little off the mark for this thread but here goes...

Wondering if there will be a way to track pilot losses. I regularly check my top pilots list, but I'd like to see those that aren't displayed as KIA in AARs due to low EXP or Kills. If I lose an average to good pilot with no kills operationally, I'd love to have a screen where his stats are displayed ie. his unit, EXP, How he was killed (OPER., Air to Air, or Flak), and the date. Maybe even where he was killed, for ex "KIA on sweep over Gili Gili 8/19/42"

I'm often left wondering in UV who was lost. Was he an experienced pilot or a nugget? Did he have potential? Was he a famous ace that hadn't yet come into his own in the game. For example Richard Mehle, a Wildcat/Hellcat pilot aboard the Big E ended the war as a 6 victory ace. As an allied player he'd be someone I'd watch to see if he's contributing to the cause. But if he's killed on his first game mission without ever scoring a kill he'd go unnoticed in the AARs and the Tops Pilot's List.

Maybe this level of detail is too much for some, but i for one would like a more comprehensive pilot tracker implemented. Has anyone mentioned this?

[Yamamoto]

Originally posted by Kid
This is on request list but no decisions have been made yet.

I’m really surprised that this is just “on the list” and not definitely planned for being in the game. Control of production and changing the plane type that a unit flies is really essential to a game of this scale. I really expected everything in PacWar to be in WitP, only bigger, better, and with a better interface.

Yamamoto

[madflava13]

Seeing some of the Alpha screenshots with those mysterious production icons makes me think that we will have some control - I mean Pacwar allowed it and that was over 10 years ago, right? My money's on us having some control and this being a Matrix/2by3 smokescreen...

Kid, we demand more details! hehe...

[TheElf]

Any word on these issues?

1. Aircraft production- even as something that could be toggle or a % like ship cmmitment in UV?

2. more advanced/detailed pilot tracking