Experience Questions

[Q-Ball]

OK, some pilot experience questions:

1. What is NAVB used for, and what is LowN used for? My assumption is that Dive Bombers and anything under 6K use the "LowN" rating to determine hit accuracy, is this the case?
This is important, because most DB pilots have very low "LowN" ratings, when you would think they would be pretty up on Dive Bombing. They have good NavB ratings typically, which is more level bombing, right?

Or is the LowN really more meant for under 6K level bombing, i.e. like skip bombing?

2. What does "Experience" do for a pilot? If you are gaining in "Experience", but not any other skill, are you getting better somehow? How?

[anarchyintheuk]

1. Thought NavB was divebombing. Have to look when I get home.
2. Unless someone discloses the formulas used for a2a, nav attack, etc. . . . it's just another variable, the higher the better.

[Q-Ball]

thanks anarchy, anyone know on the skills for sure?

[Canoerebel]

I hate it when I know so little that I can't even understand a question.  Q-Ball, you're way ahead of me.  I hope you'll get an answer.

[Q-Ball]

Me too. Anyone know? It's kind of an important clarification, if you want your CV divebombers to hit things

[Admiral Scott]

What is LOWNav, low altitude bombing?

[Q-Ball]

Maybe this will help.....

[Admiral Scott]

Why isnt this all explained in the manual?

[Cathartes]

I believe "LowN" is skipbombing/antishipping.  I don't know that you want your dive bombers training for this as it generally works better when you're carrying multiple bombs.

[Cathartes]

Also, train for NavB if you have dive bombers, assuming you would rather use their bombs to hit ships vs ground targets.  

[USSAmerica]

I know for GrdB and LowG, both are ground bombing, which should include port and airfield attacks in addition to ground troop attack.  The difference between them is 6000ft altitude.  At 6k or higher, they are performing regular GrdB.  Anything below 6k is LowG.  Looks like there is actually another column for strafing, so 100ft would likely switch to that.  

[Nomad]

I know if you set fighters to 100 feet they will train in Strafe, but I have not checked medium bombers. I will in the next couple of turns.

As far as I can tell, NavB is dive bomber attacks and level bombers training on Naval attack. NavT is Torpedo bomber attacks. And LowN is for training level bombers for skip bombing and you have to use 100 feet.

[ckammp]

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[Admiral Scott]

GREAT, thanks ckammp!

[Q-Ball]

Thank you, I think that answers my questions! LowN is NOT divebombing then. It's skip bombing.

This brings up another question: In WITP, skip bombing happened when the Allied flew 2E planes with 80+ exp pilots at 100 ft. If you flew lower experience pilots at 100 ft, they wouldn't skip bomb.

Is that no longer the case in AE? In other words, lower experience pilots will skip bomb, just at lower hit rates? Or do you still need to be at a certain threshold of experience to skip bomb?

[USSAmerica]

ORIGINAL: ckammp

Hopefully Helpful Hints

Part I - explaining arcane air training terms

Exp: Average experience of ALL pilot skills
Air: Air-to-Air ATTACK
NavB: Level bombing and dive bombing of ships
NavT: Torpedo bombing of ships
NavS: Naval search
Recn: Recon
ASW: ASW
Tran: Air transport
GrdB: Level bombing and dive bombing of ground targets
LowN: Bombing of ships at 100'
LowG: Bombing of ground targets at 100'
Staf: Strafe attacks
Defn: Air-to-Air DEFENSE

Part II - mission skills

skills affected by misson:
Air = Escort, Sweep, CAP, Long Range CAP
NavB = Naval Attack, Kamikaze
NavT = Naval Attack (IF a/c has torpedoes)
NavS = Naval Search
Recn = Recon
ASW = ASW Patrol
Tran = Supply Transport, Troop Transport
GrdB = Airfield Attack, City Attack, Ground Attack, Port Attack
LowN = As NavB, when altitude is 100'
LowG = As GrdB, when altitude is 100'
Staf = Any offensive mission when altitude is 100'
Defn = Can be affected by any mission (usually a random/default selection)

Credit where credit is due:
Part I - TheElf
Part II - michaelm

Great stuff, ckammp!

I do have to quibble over the difference between GrdB and LowG. I read somewhere that anything below 6k feet was considered low level. I am not certain about NavB and LowN, but I know for a fact that I have planes training on Ground Attack (troops) at 5000 ft altitude, and the only experience increases I'm seeing are for LowG. They are P39's, and I specifically set them to 5k to train LowG.

[ckammp]

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[Q-Ball]

I think USS America is right: 6K is the cutoff from High/Low, not 100 ft. An important distinction. Unless we are wrong?[&:]

This also all points to how to manage the Japanese Pilot "Production", which is probably a separate thread topic. You really need to have an on-map training program to get the rookies into fighting trim, then deployed to front-line units. Still figure out how the pipeline works, but I have some working ideas.

[ckammp]

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[stuman]

ORIGINAL: Admiral Scott

Why isnt this all explained in the manual?

It's more fun to figure it out this way [:)]