Matrix Games Forums

Can anyone infact confirm to me that having a high skill pilot (>80) assigned to a training unit in the field helps train pilots faster? I've been moving a lot of pilots to TRACOM but I am having an acute pilot shortage in frontline units now and I need to accelerate my field training. I've heard that moving highly skilled pilots into training units helps accelerate training. Is this truth or a theory.

Example: If I pull a TRACOM pilot into reserve and assign him to THIS unit, will it expedite the training of lower skilled pilots?

yes, it should overall do you see how above air it shows (48) the higher that is the faster pilots should train to that number same with defense and stuff so having higher exp pilots does help.

deaniks wrote: Mon Mar 28, 2022 8:30 pm yes, it should overall do you see how above air it shows (48) the higher that is the faster pilots should train to that number same with defense and stuff so having higher exp pilots does help.

Thank you for pointing that out! I've gone through all my training units and assigned a former TRACOM pilot as their lead trainer so we can expedite the training of those pilots.

The number above each column is nothing more than the numerical average (rounded to the nearest whole number) of that group of pilots in that particular skill set. It is informative only and has no impact on any skills or advancement of an individual pilot that I have ever read about. It is my understanding that the training advancement of individual pilots in active squadrons is a matter of the "training" setting (% of unit "training" as selected by the player), opportunity (weather, available AC, etc.), pilot fatigue (there IS such a thing as overdoing it) and time. Outside of TRACOM I've not read of any specific advantage that experienced pilots bestow upon their lesser-skilled squadron mates. I recently posted about TRACOM and the impact of highly skilled pilots in that aspect of the game is not totally clear, but there is SOME positive impact. I appreciate the OP's desire for a definitive answer, but outside of developers, that's hard to come by. I can only say that in my anecdotal experience there doesn't appear to be any boost in an active squadron. An effective sidebar might be that experienced pilots allow newbies to survive longer and thus live to fight another day at a higher skill level (which is a good reflection of reality).

dr.hal wrote: Mon Mar 28, 2022 8:54 pm The number above each column is nothing more than the numerical average (rounded to the nearest whole number) of that group of pilots in that particular skill set. It is informative only and has no impact on any skills or advancement of an individual pilot that I have ever read about. It is my understanding that the training advancement of individual pilots in active squadrons is a matter of the "training" setting (% of unit "training" as selected by the player), opportunity (weather, available AC, etc.), pilot fatigue (there IS such a thing as overdoing it) and time. Outside of TRACOM I've not read of any specific advantage that experienced pilots bestow upon their lesser-skilled squadron mates. I recently posted about TRACOM and the impact of highly skilled pilots in that aspect of the game is not totally clear, but there is SOME positive impact. I appreciate the OP's desire for a definitive answer, but outside of developers, that's hard to come by. I can only say that in my anecdotal experience there doesn't appear to be any boost in an active squadron. An effective sidebar might be that experienced pilots allow newbies to survive longer and thus live to fight another day at a higher skill level (which is a good reflection of reality).

I may be wrong but that's what I've heard and assumed was correct in General having trained pilots does help I've noticed if you stuff a good 10 or 15 in should cut training from around 3 months to two months from my experience but it also depends on how many pilot's you are training.

It is true though that pilots with skill 'under' the squadron average get a priority in increasing them. Just open any squadron that have a mix of good & 'less good' pilots that have been training for a couple of weeks, you will that the gain is disproportionately in the lower half of the experience range.

This does not mean the pilots with lower skill train faster, it just means those pilots will train 'up' first. No idea what it looks like once everyone is getting closer to the 70.

It is also logical & realistic. Old dogs training with newbies are having a harder time acquiring more advanced skills, but everyone, always, needs to reinforce basic skills & procedures.

My understanding on-map training are below:

1. We should differentiate XP from skill levels. A fighter pilot can have 70 XP, 65 Air, 60 Def.
2. Training for pilots under 50 XP is faster, getting the benefit of squadron average for the relevant SKILL, if it is applicable
3. Lower XP pilots gets priortized for training missions, in which they gather "points" that go toward improving the skills (and XP).
4. The higher the skill point, the slower it advances, since we now need more points before "levelling up"
Eg, a 70 XP, 50 Air pilot will gain air points faster than a 70 XP, 60 Air pilot.
5. One need not necessarily use TRACOM (defined as 81XP+) pilots for "averaging" up the squadron stats. a 75XP, 79 Air skill pilot works equally well, since it is the air stat that we really want to "average up"

To OP:
In the posted squadron photo, I would just use several (25% of squadron max size) 70~75 air/def pilots to average up the squadron stats, than use a full fledged TRACOM grade trainer. So maybe 3 trainers, and the rest (12) trainees under 50XP. Those 50+XP pilots you have in the squadrons should be discarded and moved to suicide frontline duties. They are just using up training capacity of the squadron with low returns.

On thing does not make sense to me in all this, feel like I am missing something obvious:

How do you train up skills without training XP? I thought XP will always get trained?
If XP is always going to be trained, no matter the training mission, you will always get pilots in 50 range until you push them up so why ask the OP to toss his pilots?

Training skills always contributes points towards Experience, but it takes a lot more points to get a gain in experience than it does to get a gain in skill at the same level.

JanSako wrote: Tue Mar 29, 2022 4:59 pm On thing does not make sense to me in all this, feel like I am missing something obvious:

How do you train up skills without training XP? I thought XP will always get trained?
If XP is always going to be trained, no matter the training mission, you will always get pilots in 50 range until you push them up so why ask the OP to toss his pilots?

It is a fairly straight forward exercise to get 70 Air/60~65 Def/50 XP fighter pilots if one were to train a new batch of rookie pilots, just that the process is 6mths long. Japan only has so much training capacity, it is how you use them. (I understand, for IJN pilots, one can skew the conditions by expanding airgroups for training, but even that costs supply, which is a finite resource for Japan, in some ways)

Japan will need some sort of "ablative armor" to escort the large naval strikes later in the game, these tend to be one way tickets. Putting 70 air/65 def pilots in those roles would be very much of a waste, yet one should not be sending 35air/35def untrained pilots in those roles, this is where the 60air/55 def pilots come in. I see a couple 60 air/60 def pilots, these, imho, are mildly salvageable as low CAP pilots if needed. Otherwise I tend to prioritize saving 70 air/65 def/50 XP for local CAP roles over the many 60air/55 def/55 xp pilots that Japan start with. I guess you can consider this a personal preference, ymmv.

As Allies, I use TRACOM for storing elite pilots. Where there is heavy air combat somewhere, I can prop up squadrons there by adding couple of elite pilots.

Allies really do not need TRACOM for anything else (unless wanting to "cheat" a bit and stuff TRACOM with lot of elite pilots and taking advantage of small bug that increases experience of new pilots instead of just numbers).

BananaConvention wrote: Mon Mar 28, 2022 8:16 pm Can anyone infact confirm to me that having a high skill pilot (>80) assigned to a training unit in the field helps train pilots faster? I've been moving a lot of pilots to TRACOM but I am having an acute pilot shortage in frontline units now and I need to accelerate my field training. I've heard that moving highly skilled pilots into training units helps accelerate training. Is this truth or a theory.

Example: If I pull a TRACOM pilot into reserve and assign him to THIS unit, will it expedite the training of lower skilled pilots?

From the pilot management addendum found in game files, particularly the last line of text:

. Training
Skill and experience training has been changed slightly. They both increase
incrementally.
Points are accumulated for each skill/experience and once a certain level is reached, a
point is added to the actual skill/experience level.
The cutover level is based on the current skill/experience level with some randomness
thrown in. So as the skill/experience level increases, it takes more accumulated points
to reach the next level.
Combat gains points faster than straight training, and combat is generally required to
reach 70+ skill/experience levels.
Experience levels behave like skill levels with the one exception.
If the Experience level is higher than the best skill by more than 5, then a skill, based
on the group’s mission, might gains the accumulated points instead.
Groups can fly normal Training missions (with a training percent) which occur in the
AM and PM air phases. These gain both skill and experience points.
Groups will also gain skill and experience (after passing a training check against the
training percent of the group) at the end of each day:
1. if the pilot’s experience is less 50 (plus pilot’s missions and kills) and less
than the overall group experience level
2. if the pilot’s experience is less 50 (plus pilot’s missions and kills) and less
than the leader’s skill
3. if pilot is in a dedicated Training group with some Instructors (adds higher
increments to accumulators)
4. if pilot is in a dedicated Training group without Instructors (higher success
and slightly higher increments than a normal group)
5. if pilot is in a group with some training percent (number of veteran pilots
(experience of 80+) increases chance of successful training)

BananaConvention wrote: Mon Mar 28, 2022 8:49 pm

deaniks wrote: Mon Mar 28, 2022 8:30 pm yes, it should overall do you see how above air it shows (48) the higher that is the faster pilots should train to that number same with defense and stuff so having higher exp pilots does help.

Thank you for pointing that out! I've gone through all my training units and assigned a former TRACOM pilot as their lead trainer so we can expedite the training of those pilots.

Yes is the answer but you most definitely should not expect miracles and the training they give has nothing to do with any training regime. As I've always understood it's there experience that rubs off when flying missions.

The manual say this page 219 final manual

'5. if pilot is in a group with some training percent (number of veteran pilots (experience of 80+) increases chance of successful training)'

Pilots train up to the average skill and experience level plus 5 points higher, then it slows down. So having a full squadron of trainees of 1 trainee per aircraft with the rest higher level pilots to raise the averages will have the pilots train faster and to a higher level compared to not having the better pilots. Sometimes the better pilots will also gain a point of skill and/or experience.

RangerJoe wrote: Tue Apr 07, 2026 8:50 pm Pilots train up to the average skill and experience level plus 5 points higher, then it slows down. So having a full squadron of trainees of 1 trainee per aircraft with the rest higher level pilots to raise the averages will have the pilots train faster and to a higher level compared to not having the better pilots. Sometimes the better pilots will also gain a point of skill and/or experience.

Training newbies always brings the opportunity to practice emergency efforts to regain control of the aircraft ...

BBfanboy wrote: Tue Apr 07, 2026 11:05 pm

RangerJoe wrote: Tue Apr 07, 2026 8:50 pm Pilots train up to the average skill and experience level plus 5 points higher, then it slows down. So having a full squadron of trainees of 1 trainee per aircraft with the rest higher level pilots to raise the averages will have the pilots train faster and to a higher level compared to not having the better pilots. Sometimes the better pilots will also gain a point of skill and/or experience.

Training newbies always brings the opportunity to practice emergency efforts to regain control of the aircraft ...

Only if the instructor pilot is in the same aircraft with controls for the aircraft.

Reminds me of saying when they were training B-26 pilots in Florida...

B-26 had brutal characteristics, more so with early model before they lengthened the wings.

"One in a day into Tampa Bay..."

Fire in the Sky by Bergerud (excellent book about air war in SW Pacific) quotes a pilot that flew both B-25 and B-26:

"If you lost an engine during take-off in B-25, you were mostly OK. If you lost an engine in B-26 during take-off, you were dead, unless you were very good."