National Proficiency Ratings?

[Dimitris]

IIRC the Iraqi Air Force suffered from a large round of severe purges in 89-90. The capable pilots who did survive this ordeal were the ones that gave the most trouble to coalition pilots afterwards.

[mrfeizhu]

Its a personal choice of what the ratings should be, as long as you just play the computer its up to you.( you payed for the right $80)if you play against some one than you need to decide on the levels. Every one has their on feeling on the subject. Some times experience can have a negative affect. Look at the french high command at the start of the Second War. (They had lots of experience and came from the winning side of the First war)

[cwemyss]

I'm happy to see I'm not the only one who remembers Flight Leader!!! We used to have epic 8-on-8 engagements in college. On the rare occasions that I can talk my wife into playing it, it's still a blast.

Edit: Damn phone. What the hell is a 'vlast'?

[riflebrigade]

It is probably impossible to accurately assess proficiency ratings for any countries units but the optional use of proficiency ratings is a major plus for the game. If a player wants to play a scenario only based on percentage chance to hit per weapon and percentage chances of detection they can set the proficiency rate to 100% for all units/countries.

A player can experiment with the proficiency ratings, especially if ratings could be set for individual units to see how the ratings influence the outcome of a scenario. This could be even more relevant and essential if ground forces become more integrated into the game.

The quality of a countries troops compared to the quality of the enemy troops can have a major effect on the strategy and tactics adopted by the commander of a force (and scenario designer). How many scenarios in real life would have exactly equal quality units apposing each other?

Why argue if the US should be "A" or "B" or UK is "C" or "B" based on Flight Leader that's what the ability to change proficiency settings is for, run a scenario several times with different proficiency settings.

I have Flight Leader and also SPI Air War (1980) which has Air Crew Ratings from 1 to 11 and the rules are more detailed than Flight Leader, both are great games.

An option to be able to apply a proficiency rating for each unit/aircraft, with the ability to also manually enter a proficiency rating for a unit to override the rating set automatically by the program would provide more variations for playing each scenario.

Perhaps something similar to the following could be discussed?

For Aircraft
The % spread of aircraft proficiency ratings in a unit may be as follows?: -

Base---- Novice--- Cadet---- Regular---Veteran----Elite
Rating--- Unit-------Unit------Unit--------Unit------- Unit
Novice- -60%-------30%--------0%----------0%----------0%
Cadet---- 30%-------50%------20%--------10%----------0%
Regular- 10%-------20%------50%--------20%--------20%
Veteran-- 0%---------0%------20%--------50%--------20%
Elite------- 0%---------0%------10%--------20%--------60%
Total----100%------100%----100%------100%------100%

For Navy
It may be more beneficial to assign proficiency levels for each ship.

For Ground Forces
If ground forces become more integrated into the game perhaps individual ground units could be given proficiency ratings as well.
The % spread of Ground Forces proficiency ratings in a unit may be as follows?: -

Base---- Novice--- Cadet---- Regular---Veteran----Elite
Rating--- Unit-------Unit------Unit--------Unit------- Unit
Novice- -60%-------30%------10%----------0%----------0%
Cadet---- 30%-------60%------10%---------10%---------0%
Regular- 10%-------10%------50%---------20%----------0%
Veteran-- 0%---------0%------20%---------50%--------20%
Elite------- 0%---------0%--------0%---------20%--------80%
Total----100%-----100%-----100%-------100%-------100%

System Maintenance/Malfunction
Could an equipment/maintenance breakdown/equipment malfunction rating based on a units proficiency rating be added to the game?: -

Chance of breakdown or malfunction
Base Rating-----------Novice------------Cadet----------Regular---------Veteran-----------Elite
----------------------------Unit----------------Unit-------------Unit-------------Unit-------------Unit

Base Rate------------Base Rate--------Base Rate------Base rate-------Base Rate------Base Rate
Proficiency %-------- /60%--------------/70%-------------/80%-----------/100%----------/120%

Alternative---------Base Rate---------Base Rate-------Base Rate-----Base Rate-------Base Rate
----------------------------x 4-----------------x 3----------------x 2---------------x 1---------------x .5

If it is possible to program into the game perhaps in 12 months time we may have additional optional factors such as unit/pilot experience, morale, fatigue ratings also implemented as options in the game, especially for long scenarios or scenarios starting midway into a campaign where troops are fatigued at the start of the scenario.
This game is so good and it has such high quality user and programmer support that the ability for the game to expand and become more of a simulation through options are enormous.