WIA Pilots

[mariof2]

Hi All,

What happens to WIA pilots. I am assuming that they make it back to their squardons or the general pilot reserve after a certain time?

[vonTirpitz]

There are probably other threads on the subject but it seems that fatigue is used to determine when they become available again. It seems they return to their unit unless it is already full. I am guessing they will then go to the pool if there is no room left in their original unit. Someone else might have more info about that.

http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=2658695&mpage=1

ORIGINAL: mariof2

Hi All,

What happens to WIA pilots. I am assuming that they make it back to their squardons or the general pilot reserve after a certain time?

[Rob Brennan UK]

I have a feeling they return to their original groups regardless if its full or not. Reason behind this is i keep getting 1-2 more pilots in my groups even though i keep them at the max level and do not let the computer draw in pilots. Th only way i can see them getting pilots is returning ones from the local hospital.

Can be really annoying as even 1 pilot over max tends to put several in reserve mode automatically rather than the usual pilot rotation.

Fiddly pilot pools ? never ! [;)]

[witpqs]

Rob - the database has pilots that arrive directly to certain units long after those units are deployed. As they are never trained up the way front line units are I find this a PITA because having a pilot with 39 Air Skill suddenly flying a very precious (read: "scarce") P-47 in front line combat is kinda bad.

For Treespider's mod he edited the pilot database by hand to make late-arriving pilots go directly to the General Reserve. I then got a conversion program running that went through and cross-checked all the pilots against their groups' (and if relevant their carriers') arrival dates to make a (hopefully) clean file the same way. I think that's the one he has (or maybe as an optional download?) posted for his mod.

So those might be WIA pilots you see returning, or they might be genuine new arrivals.

[Alpha77]

Mh, those new arrivals have so bad levels ? PITA if so. I always thought of the guys which "become available" (as reported in ops report I think) are some better special guys. [8|]

Btw: I often get a mate named "Oba" (or simmilar Japanese sounding name) quite often as "available for reassignment" is he kind of a zombie ?

[jcjordan]

In my experience WIA pilots return to their units regardless of how full it is, not sure what factors determine this other than what was said above. In the betas that Michael has been releasing I've found you can send the pilot to the general pool while he's still waiting to return or retire him altogether if you don't want him. As to new pilots I've found that if his name has 2 initials and/or a comma after the last name, he's a pilot in the database otherwise he's a generic pilot created from the trained pilot pool. I've gathered that most of these late war "historical" pilots aren't really historical at all and are really just eye candy for the more popular units/waste of game space & w/ going through the pilot db can be deleted if one wants to.

[witpqs]

ORIGINAL: Alpha77

Mh, those new arrivals have so bad levels ? PITA if so. I always thought of the guys which "become available" (as reported in ops report I think) are some better special guys. [8|]

Btw: I often get a mate named "Oba" (or simmilar Japanese sounding name) quite often as "available for reassignment" is he kind of a zombie ?

No idea about Oba. As far as the skills go, the pilot database does not have Skills. It does have Experience listed for each pilot, but not any of the Skills. The code assigns the skills possibly when the pilot arrives or maybe at game start. I'm sure there is a large random element, and equally sure that some things are taken into account. I have not been told that by the developers, it just makes sense given how many things in AE depend on sensible facts for input and also have lots of randomness built in.

So, you will see some pilots come in with decent Skills, some that are lacking, and some that are horrible. Bear in mind that when they programmed this they could not know what Skill levels players would settle on as "ready for combat". A pilot with 50 Air to Air Skill is fine against another pilot with 50 Air to Air Skill, but against one with 70 he's in trouble. The programmers had no way to know how much training players would perform or how many of our games would proceed in terms of pilot shortages due to combat losses.

[Alpha77]

Thanks, guess it´s really just a nice adition for "flavour"..... I really do not care much, as there are more important issues and personally I am satisfied with my plane drivers anyway...[:)]

[CaptBeefheart]

Some of those new pilots rock. McGuire and Bong, anyone?

Cheers,
CC

[PaxMondo]

I know at least some, and it seems like most, of my WIA return their group.  I can't say definitively they all do though ...

[crsutton]

The Allied player in most air units will get "named" pilot replacements that are hard coded to arrive. You can check this in tracker or the editor. This is in fact one of the great advantages to the Allies as I do not think the Japanese player gets many if any pilots this way. These are usually trained and experience pilots but generally in the 50 to 60 range in experience and air skills. It is a hassle but you need to check all your squadrons once or twice a month. If you are not desperate, you can simply cull these pilots back to the pool and then move them into a training squadron. Train them up to the 70 skill level and you will have great replacement pilots that are better than anything the Japanese can produce because the named pilots have higher experience than replacement pilots that are trained up all the way from green.

And as mentioned, quite frequently you will get some pretty hot pilots that don't need any training at all.

[morganbj]

ORIGINAL: crsutton

And as mentioned, quite frequently you will get some pretty hot pilots that don't need any training at all.

Here's an example of the hot pilots you'll see enter the game.

[bigred]

ORIGINAL: crsutton
Train them up to the 70 skill level and you will have great replacement pilots that are better than anything the Japanese can produce because the named pilots have higher experience than replacement pilots that are trained up all the way from green.

Are you referring to general air skill or to one or two specific skills?

[crsutton]

ORIGINAL: bigred

ORIGINAL: crsutton
Train them up to the 70 skill level and you will have great replacement pilots that are better than anything the Japanese can produce because the named pilots have higher experience than replacement pilots that are trained up all the way from green.

Are you referring to general air skill or to one or two specific skills?

Well these named pilots typically come with overall experience in the 55-65 range and individual skills in the same range (like air combat for a fighter pilot). You can't really train up the experiece skill in pure training to much over 50 for an army fighter pilot, but you can pull the air combat skill up to the max of 70 in a month or less. A 60 exp pilot with 70 skills is a very good replacment pilot. Compared with one that you trained up from green.

Some players train fighters with a mix of cap and training. I am experimenting with that now as it causes the overall experience to rise. Did not really do it but I just noticed that all my Soviet fighters-which have been on partial cap and training for two years. (I got to start paying attention [:-]) are all at about the 70-70 level which looks pretty darn good....

[Alpha77]

Whow

"Some players train fighters with a mix of cap and training. I am experimenting with that now as it causes the overall experience to rise. Did not really do it but I just noticed that all my Soviet fighters-which have been on partial cap and training for two years. (I got to start paying attention [:-]) are all at about the 70-70 level which looks pretty darn good"

Something I knew even before the almighty crsutton... this may be however the reason that my planes have better exp then skills (at least those flying the mix)......generally speaking. This is however a danger as noticed with asw missions.....my asw planes have good exp but not so good asw skill. Which means if I understand the cosenus here right, that they will seldom attack a sub at all (at least they find them but still need to send ships out which is a bit pita. Guess the approach to train specific for asw would have been better.

[Alfred]

ORIGINAL: crsutton


... You can't really train up the experiece skill in pure training to much over 50 for an army fighter pilot, but you can pull the air combat skill up to the max of 70 in a month or less...

Depends on how much time one is prepared to spend on training.

There is no absolute bar to training a green pilot up to 60% experience, merely a question of time. Such a long term trained pilot is going to have most of his skills at 70.

Alfred

[inqistor]

As a curiosity:

When you check "Reserve pools" at info screen, you can see when pilots will be available. WIA seems to have both air-units, and type-pools as destination of arrival.

I actually have literally hundreds of semi-skilled pilots in reserve pool, and I have surely did NOT released them there, so it have to be some returning WIA, as I have filled frontline squadrons with greenies, at the war beginning.