Pilots - Japan

[RangerJoe]

DB and TB pilots can fly actual missions on Naval Search to increase that skill and Experience. That does not require waiting for the enemy to show up. But that must be balanced so that pilots and planes are not too fatigued to fly strike missions when the enemy does show up. So many nuances in the game ...

That is true but then they can't attack enemy ships for a naval attack mission. I should have been explicit with that in my statement but some fighters with a CAP mission should fly every turn but with the naval strike mission, the bombers may not fly at all.

Are you saying that if I set a squadron to Naval Attack with a percentage of the squadron set to Search then none of the bombers will make a naval strike? That has not been my experience.

I did not state that at all.

[Chris21wen]

Been doing some more digging and this may clarify pilot taining more (or not).

All this is applicable to both sides, equally.

Every active pilot has a random chance or improving his skills or experience but it is extremely slow and can be ignored as a training method.

The fastest way to improve a pilot is to train. It matters not how, a dedicated training mission or as a patrol option but the rate at which it increases slows down the closer the skill or exp gets to 70. Training has no effect above 70.

In between these two is flying (on-the-job training) and it does appear to be more complicated than I thought or originally tested for. Here's what I found yesterday.

My initial observations during testing showed that a pilot actually had to fly to have any chance of of improving, just setting a mission such as Naval attack would not improve the pilot unless the mission was carried out. Now I'm not so sure. I've retested looking for this and sometimes a pilot will improve even when no attack is carried out but it is slow, very, very slow and maybe down to randomness!

There's another complication, range. In some tests I set the range to less than the distance to known target and although the mission wasn't flown pilots sometimes improved. Not quickly and it it did appear that the targets actual range mattered. But is this also down to randomness?

There are also other factors in play such as: a unit set to escort only improved if the escorted bombers actual flew.

Then there's patrol levels. These seem to have their own rules when it comes to training. They appear to be mini versions of the primary mission but only for CAP and LRCAP. For Search and ASW it depends upon the primary mission. For instance setting a Search mission but using ASW patrol levels trains Search and not ASW and vice versa.

Here's what's important but there is some randomness involved in on-the-job training. I'd ignore the vagaries, look at them as a bonus.

• Hitting something boosts training speed, killing something even more so.
• Only active pilots train. Inactive or those at rest don't train.
• Experience gain is possible on any mission.
• Only primary skill relevant to the mission are trained.
• A mission has to be flown and not just set. No fly, no training.
• Don't expect patrol levels to affect training. They can but the affects vary.
• Setting a Training patrol trains for the primary mission.

[Sardaukar]

Something interesting I have found about patrol levels.

When I put e.g. Catalina squadron to 10% ASW, 50% Naval Search...ASW skill seems to improve overall better than NS.

This is probably because starting ASW skills are usually very low (15-20 or so).

I usually also put extra pilots (and planes) to counter fatigue and plane fatigue, e.g. 14-15 pilots in 12 plane squadron plus 3 reserve planes.

[Chickenboy]

Since fighter pilots tend to fly more actual missions because they fly defensive CAP, they should gain experience faster than the DBs and TBs who wait for an enemy to show up.

That's only an accurate statement if you're limiting DBs and TBs to binary "fly or sit" activities, like Naval Attack. DBs and TBs are often recruited for ASW, recon or NavSearch functions which are frequently flown without the enemy showing up. In so doing, they should see their EXP raise every bit as fast as a fighter pilot.

[RangerJoe]

Since fighter pilots tend to fly more actual missions because they fly defensive CAP, they should gain experience faster than the DBs and TBs who wait for an enemy to show up.

That's only an accurate statement if you're limiting DBs and TBs to binary "fly or sit" activities, like Naval Attack. DBs and TBs are often recruited for ASW, recon or NavSearch functions which are frequently flown without the enemy showing up. In so doing, they should see their EXP raise every bit as fast as a fighter pilot.

Only the ones actually flying the missions, the others may get theirs raised but a lot slower if they are not actually flying missions nor training.

[Chickenboy]

Since fighter pilots tend to fly more actual missions because they fly defensive CAP, they should gain experience faster than the DBs and TBs who wait for an enemy to show up.

That's only an accurate statement if you're limiting DBs and TBs to binary "fly or sit" activities, like Naval Attack. DBs and TBs are often recruited for ASW, recon or NavSearch functions which are frequently flown without the enemy showing up. In so doing, they should see their EXP raise every bit as fast as a fighter pilot.

Only the ones actually flying the missions, the others may get their raised but a lot slower if they are not actually flying missions nor training.

Hai!