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ive noticed on the production screen for the full campaign that as the allies im not producing any recon aircraft at all.

am I missing something or is that in fact the case? losses are obviously incurred so what to do when ive no recon aircraft left?

also,

should I be messing with manual plane upgrades or does the auto function do a decent enough job?

The recon planes are 'converted' from other plane types. You can see the process happening in the log file.

ORIGINAL: cato12

ive noticed on the production screen for the full campaign that as the allies im not producing any recon aircraft at all.

am I missing something or is that in fact the case? losses are obviously incurred so what to do when ive no recon aircraft left?

also,

should I be messing with manual plane upgrades or does the auto function do a decent enough job?

LS is exactly right about US types. You can see them in the log as "Exports", "P-38J/L exported to USA as F-5C" something like that

RAF types are produced

Do MANUAL upgrades; Recon is a good example, you need to manage the upgrades so you continue to use older types. You want to manage the pools so you don't run out of Recon planes. All types, even older ones, are useful.

ok ive set all my fighters to manual and left everything else on auto upgrade.

ive noticed the last couple of turns there aren't any planes being converted to recon aircraft. do fighters need to be set to auto upgrade to convert?

im trying to minimize micromanagement as much as possible as I really don't want to be checking all the various plane types every turn to see what needs to be converted/upgraded.

Recon planes will be produced automatically by the production system by turning existing bombers/fighters into recon aircraft.

If you have enough planes, and your recon squadron is 'beat up' enough, it will swap out what it currently has with a model that has a surplus in the pool. It will do this automatically if you have it set on 'AUTO'

You can see this process in the log file. It will say (somewhere near the bottom) 'xxx plane exported to Germany from Germany as yyy'

Up near the top, it will say Aircraft Swap Summary...and will say something like ## xxx plane swapped for ## yyy plane. It will even tell you the squadron that swapped its aircraft.

I usually leave most of my squadrons on AUTO and just put the squadrons I don't want to upgrade on Manual.

Im still having issue with recon planes converting.

for example, I have the spitfire PR IV on auto upgrade as its been down to 4 ready planes for several turns with none in the pool yet turn after turn no conversions happen.

I thought it might have been because all my spitfire squadrons are on manual so I set one squadron of spitfire vb's to auto and ran a turn yet still no conversion happened.

also,

Do the allies receive any more long range recon aircraft to obviously assist with the more longer ranged bombing sorties?

You should have some Mosquito and Spitfire recons producing and US F-5/F-6 converting from P-38/-51 plus several may arrive with new units.

for example, I have the spitfire PR IV on auto upgrade as its been down to 4 ready planes for several turns with none in the pool yet turn after turn no conversions happen.

It really depends on the pool values for the alternative planes. Tricky part is that plane replacement/swap phase happens before production. So if you see some values in the pool after logistics, it doesn't mean there were some when swap routine was called.

So just to clarify,

Do both the recon aircraft that im short on and also the planes that convert to the recon aircraft need to be on auto upgrade for the conversion process to happen?

I prefer to leave my fighters on manual upgrade to use up the older aircraft pools first before setting them to auto.

ORIGINAL: cato12

So just to clarify,

Do both the recon aircraft that im short on and also the planes that convert to the recon aircraft need to be on auto upgrade for the conversion process to happen?

I prefer to leave my fighters on manual upgrade to use up the older aircraft pools first before setting them to auto.

You specifically mention the SpitIV PR - its an obsolete type that's already finished production at game start.
You have however many you have in the pools, and when its gone, its gone.
You will need to upgrade those groups still using it to something that is still in production.

In regards to types which convert from one type to another - No, the auto upgrade setting is irrelevant.
Auto-upgrade only affects on map squadron upgrade paths. Conversion or import of aircraft types is a part of production and will happen irregardless of what you do with the aircraft once they reach the squadrons.

**EDIT - By "Game Start" I am referring to the main 1943 - 1945 scenario.