Pilot allocation messed up.

[XPav]

As I previously detailed, there is a problem with regard to pilots moving from one squadron to another on disbanding and not going back to the original squadron.

But after finishing a game against the AI, I think I can safely say that there is a serious problem. Checking out what the AI had after the game, I came across this:

3/E-1 Daitai
Daitai - IJ Navy (27)
Attached to: Independent
Based at: Truk
A6M3 Zero - Fighter

Aircraft Ready: 5
Aircraft being Repaired: 0
Aircraft in Reserve: 0

Ready Pilots: 173
Average Experience: 64
Morale: 99
Fatigue: 0
Kills: 27

I believe these are left overs from some massacres of carrier groups. Many of the pilots are fairly sucky (60ish), but there's a good chunck of 80-90 pilots in there that could have been used to good effect down south.

I don't even think a human player could recifty this problem. Disbanding the airgroup would just combine it with yet *another* airgroup of the same type. Withdrawing it would make the pilots come back later, but would they all just pile back into the same unit?

So -- the problem is chronically overmanned squadrons. How does this get resolved?

[XPav]

In addition -- patrol groups seem to have a very small replacement pool. I see numerous PBY and Emily units on both side have a 3 or 4 99-experience pilots, and 9 aircraft in the squadron.

[Black Cat]

Originally posted by XPav
In addition -- patrol groups seem to have a very small replacement pool. I see numerous PBY and Emily units on both side have a 3 or 4 99-experience pilots, and 9 aircraft in the squadron.

Same thing. Two of my PBY Sq`s are at 2-5 Pilots each with12 AC available.

I suspect that when new PBY Sq`s come into the game the AI is
staffing them out of the pilots from the existing ones..just guessing here.

[Bernd Hesberg]

I've noticed the same thing. And there are some more mission types which don't trigger pilot replacements: ASW patrol, training and naval attack/rest (if no attack is flown).
As a workaround, I'd propose to change the mission to "supply transport" for one or two turns. But even then it's not guaranteed that the squads will get enough pilots for *all* planes.

[seeker124]

I'm not sure about my TCS, but I've got B-17's at Port Moresby with wild pilot distributions: 57 in one squadron, zero, two, and two in others. I don't really know how the pilots got maldistributed like that. It may be having an effect on my raids; my last strike on Rabaul had only 12 B-17's in it, despite having about 10 squadrons participating. Good weather, too. This is in an older game upgraded to 1.20.

[JohnK]

I'm beginning to lose hope of this ever beeing fixed before WITP.

The pilot allocation system is fundamentally broken; every game ends up with one squadron somewhere with far more pilots than planes and the opposite for a squadron of the same plane somewhere else. And there's absolutely no way for a player to fix it. I'm seeing this with Zero squadrons in the game I'm playing now.

And the same goes for Patrol Squadrons...the one that the Japanese have that starts out with 3-4 aircraft will NEVER get any more pilots, ever...even as the squadron grows to 9 planes.