Transport pilot skill (Full Version)

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USS Henrico -> Transport pilot skill (9/6/2010 3:35:31 PM)

For most pilot skills, the payoff in training is pretty clear. A2A skill increases a fighter pilot's chance of survival in a dogfight and the various bombing skills improve a bomber pilot's chance of hitting his target (if he has the right skill).

But for air unit transport squadrons, what advantage does a pilot with higher transport skill get? More skill in packing the aircraft so he can carry a higher load, a higher chance of making another trip that day, or simply less chance that he crashes the plane? How useful is it to specially train transport pilots before sending them out to do transport missions, assuming you have a choice?



castor troy -> RE: Transport pilot skill (9/6/2010 3:53:19 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: USS Henrico

For most pilot skills, the payoff in training is pretty clear. A2A skill increases a fighter pilot's chance of survival in a dogfight and the various bombing skills improve a bomber pilot's chance of hitting his target (if he has the right skill).

But for air unit transport squadrons, what advantage does a pilot with higher transport skill get? More skill in packing the aircraft so he can carry a higher load, a higher chance of making another trip that day, or simply less chance that he crashes the plane? How useful is it to specially train transport pilots before sending them out to do transport missions, assuming you have a choice?



they sure donīt pack more cargo and no matter if theyīve got skill 70 or skill 20 right out of the flight, MINE are crashing just as often. Seems like in MY game itīs far more dangerous to fly nav search or transports than actual opposed combat missions.



Grfin Zeppelin -> RE: Transport pilot skill (9/6/2010 4:25:03 PM)

Transport pilots with high expirience dont crash that often. Not sure what the skill does tho.



PaxMondo -> RE: Transport pilot skill (9/6/2010 4:26:17 PM)

Exp also helps with how many actually lift on a given mission.



CapAndGown -> RE: Transport pilot skill (9/6/2010 5:34:40 PM)

The reason to train seems to be not to raise the skill level, but the experience level. Training is a fairly safe way of raising experience levels, while actual missions result in many more ops losses.



Sredni -> RE: Transport pilot skill (9/6/2010 6:08:45 PM)

I dunno. I had that 25 plane chinese airforce transport group training in ledo for a year and a half before I started using it. 33 pilots (31 now, the pilots seem to live through some of their crashes, but I expect to have killed this whole squadrons worth of super transport pilots within a year), all with mid to high 60's experience and high 70's transport skill. I've still had 4 ops losses in that unit alone over the month and a half I've been running supplies from ledo to myitkyina. 2 planes per month... bleh.

Seems like transporting supplies is just inherently way way way more dangerous even then air combat.

It doesn't help that I don't think having part of your squadron on rest actually does anything. I've got the CNAC squadron and 3 13 plane american transport groups running supplies, all set to 50% rest, but I still see:

25 x C-46a Commando transporting supplies to myitkynia
13 x C-46a...
13 x c-46a...
13 x c-46a...

In my ops report every day. Though fatigue stays low, less then 5 on average, so who knows.

I'm thinking maby I should have just used super high experienced fighter pilots for flying transports. Tracom doesn't do anything anyways heh. But then I'd be killing crazy good fighter pilots instead of vetran transport pilots.

I was hoping too that the c-46a with it's higher durability (and correspondingly high service rating) would cut down on ops losses, but that hasn't seemed to have an effect.



Lomri -> RE: Transport pilot skill (9/6/2010 6:37:50 PM)


I am just speculating, but it seems possible transport skill helps with para-drops. 





erstad -> RE: Transport pilot skill (9/7/2010 2:19:23 AM)

quote:

It doesn't help that I don't think having part of your squadron on rest actually does anything. I've got the CNAC squadron and 3 13 plane american transport groups running supplies, all set to 50% rest, but I still see:

25 x C-46a Commando transporting supplies to myitkynia
13 x C-46a...
13 x c-46a...
13 x c-46a...


I think that's a reporting bug. (although I thought it was fixed? What version are you running?). As you note, the fatigue stays down with, say, 50% rest.

Edit: yup, (supposedly) fixed in v1.01.06g
quote:


11. Changed the "flying" message for transport supply/troops to show the adjusted
plane number.



Sredni -> RE: Transport pilot skill (9/7/2010 2:54:32 AM)

ahhh. Yeah I'm still running 1.0.3.1102a. I'm not really a big believer in beta stages, I'll wait for the latest patch to unbeta.

Still, 2 ops losses out of 25 planes per month. Flying at 30% rest for the first two months (I switched to 50% rest to see if it would help heh), that's 8% ops losses (or 11% if you only count vs the 70% active). I wonder what ops losses were like IRL for the transport groups flying supplies to china. Could be 8% is a generous give away by the devs and we'd be seeing more losses with more realistic figures.

I'd kinda hope a 2 engine plane would be a lot more survivable then a plane with a single engine, but these transports seem to crash in droves.



topeverest -> RE: Transport pilot skill (9/7/2010 4:39:35 AM)

I'd have to agree that transports have the highest occurance of operational losses of any class of aircraft in my game. I do not believe it is a reporting bug. My losses are real. I take all the customary precautions - putting in trained transport pilots, monitor fatigue, rest frequently...etc. I dont see any of the customary relationships valid in other missions holding true to any material degree.

If there is a magic pill that helps, I'm interested.



Alfred -> RE: Transport pilot skill (9/7/2010 7:33:16 AM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: USS Henrico

For most pilot skills, the payoff in training is pretty clear. A2A skill increases a fighter pilot's chance of survival in a dogfight and the various bombing skills improve a bomber pilot's chance of hitting his target (if he has the right skill).

But for air unit transport squadrons, what advantage does a pilot with higher transport skill get? More skill in packing the aircraft so he can carry a higher load, a higher chance of making another trip that day, or simply less chance that he crashes the plane? How useful is it to specially train transport pilots before sending them out to do transport missions, assuming you have a choice?


I think you need to approach this question from the following prespective.

(1) Transport pilots are not really intended to be deployed to any other type of air unit.

(2) There is no specific training mechanism available to improve pilot experience and defense skill. Both are improved as a byproduct of training for a particular skill. "General Training" can improve both but my, admittedly annecdotal experience only, is that pilot experience and defense skill improve more rapidly with a dedicated training mission whereas "General Training" spreads out the improvement to too many different skills.

(3) Bearing in mind both (1) and (2) above, the only appropriate training mission is "Transport".

(4) It is the increased pilot experience and defense skill which is the primary benefit, not the transport skill, gained from the transport training mission. It is significant that those two skills are universally valuable for reducing operational losses and bringing home a damaged plane back to base. In the context of transport units, one needs to remember that enemy fighters can intercept transport missions. I would expect that a highly experienced pilot with a high defense skill rating stands a better chance of not being hit by enemy fighters and if hit (and not immediately being downed) of being able to nurse the damaged plane back home.

Whether it is actually worthwhile to undertake extensive training is another question. The answer to that depends on whether you are flying over enemy air space, how vital the delivery of supplies is when measured against operational costs etc. But in all things to do with AE, it is always wise to assume that there is no totally redundant feature.

Alfred



jomni -> RE: Transport pilot skill (9/7/2010 7:50:55 AM)

Supply air drop more accurate (not lost in the jungle or land on enemy hands)?



witpqs -> RE: Transport pilot skill (9/7/2010 8:55:34 AM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Alfred

(2) There is no specific training mechanism available to improve pilot experience and defense skill. Both are improved as a byproduct of training for a particular skill. "General Training" can improve both but my, admittedly annecdotal experience only, is that pilot experience and defense skill improve more rapidly with a dedicated training mission whereas "General Training" spreads out the improvement to too many different skills.



I can second this. A developer explained a while back that as 'skill' gets further ahead of 'experience' the chances are greater for an experience increase in lieu of a skill increase.



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