TRACOM Instructors

[Admiral Scott]

Is there an optimal amount of pilots needed for TRACOM?

What are all the benefits of having a lot of instructor pilots in TRACOM? Does it only speed up training time?

Are all instructors considered equal, or do the very best instructors contribute more?

[Platoonist]

In order for Tracom to work best you need at least ten Tracom pilots of a given nationality to speed up the training of pilots of that nationality (For Japan, the IJA and IJN are considered two different nationalities). As long as the instructor pilots experience is at 81 any number higher than that probably makes no difference.

The primary benefit of Tracom is to speed up the process for training rookie pilots at flight schools, so they spend less than 12 months in training and become available sooner to be assigned to squadrons. The second benefit is a bit more arcane. Pilots do not graduate from training at the nationality experience level, but within a range in which the high point is the national average. Having pilots in Tracom will aid in reducing the negative spread but won't push them to above the national average.

The faster graduation actually occurs much less than 50% of the time. Allied players, provided they have at least 10 pilots of a certain nationality in Tracom, will tend to see it more often because they have many more nationalities available than do Japanese players who are limited to only two nationalities. You could argue that Tracom is more valuable to the Japanese than the Allies because it saves them heavy industry points and the Allies get a lot of decent pilots that just show up as regular reinforcements with their squadrons.

[Admiral Scott]

Ok, thank you.

[RangerJoe]

Instructors in lots of ten really help the Japanese since I do believe that each lot of ten instructors gets a change to increase the training rate. This helps to save HI since each pilot in the training program uses 5 HI per month. However, keep the bomber experts on the map in the same type of aircraft since you get too few of those and if they go to a different type of aircraft they will lose experience and thus may no longer be experts.

The Allies don't need to worry about HI, I find it better to keep those in my units that are training pilots up to my standards.

[Bella]

What is this Tracom you speak of?

[Platoonist]

What is this Tracom you speak of?

Training Command. A national pool you can assign pilots with experience above 80 to help your student pilots graduate a little faster. It can also act as a reserve cache for skilled pilots.

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[Bella]

What is this Tracom you speak of?

Training Command. A national pool you can assign pilots with experience above 80 to help your student pilots graduate a little faster. It can also act as a reserve cache for skilled pilots.


Tracom Candidate.jpg

Very useful! Thank you!

[Sardaukar]

TRACOM is essential for Japan, mainly irrelevant for Allies.

For Allies, I use it to store exceptional pilots to transfer to units in need of some "old hands".

[Bella]

So, questions:

1) Does each Allied country have their own Tracom and thus a need minimum of 10 pilots per country (US, Britain, Australian etc.)?

2) Do US Navy, Army and Marine count as separate “countries”?

3) AVG units. Do the pilots count as American?

4) Do the Chinese have their own Tracom? (FYI I have 5 Chinese fighter pilots with 90+ experience and +20 kill counts. The Japanese keep bombing Chungking with just Betty’s and no escort. Bloodbath.)

[Bella]

One more question: where do I check to see what instructors I have assigned to TRACOM?

[Platoonist]

One more question: where do I check to see what instructors I have assigned to TRACOM?

Go to the Reserve Pilot screen which you can access through the Pilot Replacement screen. In the upper right there are yellow text filters for showing the various pilot pools. Just click to cycle through. Reserve, Group, Any, TRACOM.

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[Platoonist]

So, questions:
1) Does each Allied country have their own Tracom and thus a need minimum of 10 pilots per country (US, Britain, Australian etc.)?

Yes.

2) Do US Navy, Army and Marine count as separate “countries”?

Yes. The game uses the term "nationality" but it's the same concept.

3) AVG units. Do the pilots count as American?

Yes. They are considered US Army pilots.

4) Do the Chinese have their own Tracom?

Yes.

[Admiral Scott]

Are 10 instructors needed?
Will less than 10 be helpful?
I have 1 or 2 instructors in TRACOM, would it be better if I waited until I have 10 available to move to TRACOM at the same time, or is it better to send them one at a time as they become available?

[Platoonist]

Are 10 instructors needed?
Will less than 10 be helpful?
I have 1 or 2 instructors in TRACOM, would it be better if I waited until I have 10 available to move to TRACOM at the same time, or is it better to send them one at a time as they become available?

I believe the formula quoted was that for every 10 instructors in TRACOM (of the correct nationality), the monthly EXP might be increased by one. If someone knows more they can correct me on that.

It's probably a good idea as an Allied player not to get too worked up over TRACOM. It was originally designed as a feature solely for the Japanese player's use because historically it was the Allies that were swimming in well-trained replacements. So much so that by 1943 they realized they had a surplus and began trimming back the fat. As the Allies you do get a lot of hard-coded decent pilot reinforcements to the point where it's challenging to find jobs for all the nuggets.

[RangerJoe]

Not only can the experience and such be higher with pilots in Tracom, the real savings for Japan is when pilots are "accelerated" and jump one month into the training cycle. That saves the 5 HI cost for each pilot per month in the training cycle. I haven had a few Chinese pilots accelerated with no pilots in Tracom.

[Chris21wen]

Are 10 instructors needed?
Will less than 10 be helpful?
I have 1 or 2 instructors in TRACOM, would it be better if I waited until I have 10 available to move to TRACOM at the same time, or is it better to send them one at a time as they become available?

Going by what has been said before, ten is the optimal value where an increase is most likely, using less reduces this chance. It's a bit like 30 factories being the optimal value for building one ac a day.

One little appreciated fact is any pilot with a better skill than another has a chance of imparting his skills to him. The better they are the better the chance but I do not know overall what that chance is. I suspect it's not very high.

[Arkham]

I think theoretically high skilled pilots in TRACOM can die in accidents, but the chances are pretty low.

Some people advise using allied TRACOM as a parking area for elite pilots that you then can then later on pull out to create an absolute god tier unit, but IMO I'd rather park them into the reserves and then ship them back stateside/out of the war zone and have a few of each assigned to training units to bump up the relevant skills of the pilots involved. Allies don't need to speed up training schools the way the Japanese forces do.

[Platoonist]

I think theoretically high skilled pilots in TRACOM can die in accidents, but the chances are pretty low.

They do seem to have their share of accidents doing their jobs. Tracom is not quite the safe rear-area billet it used to be.

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[Chickenboy]

A key deficit of the long-term Japanese training of pilots was their use / abuse of barely trained pilots at the front line-particularly later in the war. The downward trend of pilot experience for IJA/IJN pilots later in the war reflects this reality.

I will periodically 'harvest' highly skilled Japanese pilots from most of my field units and safely stow them in TRACOM for the mid-late war slog. I don't need S. Sakai having his eye shot out by some Dauntless gunner over the Solomons, thank you very much. My goal is to-late war-fit newly arriving superior fighters (for example) with all-star platforms for them to showcase their skills to greater effect. Having a good supply of armored fighters (lacking in early war platforms) further reduces their attrition too.