Allied pilots sprouting like weeds

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All Forums >> [Current Games From Matrix.] >> [World War II] >> Uncommon Valor - Campaign for the South Pacific >> Allied pilots sprouting like weeds

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Allied pilots sprouting like weeds - 8/4/2002 10:15:58 AM

Toast Master

Posts: 32
Joined: 5/17/2002
From: Belcamp, Maryland
Status: offline

I recently began a scenario 17 game vs the AI in which I played as the Japanese. For the first two months, I lured the PM airforce into raids against supply task forces resupplying Lae. My zeros stationed there, assisted by some carrier based fighter groups in the vicinity, cut these strikes to ribbons. By the end of July, total Allied air losses numbered close to 500 while my loses were just short of 40.

A good start I thought, :) so I decided to shift to the offensive. I brought some Betty's and Nells into Lae and began a couple of weeks of strikes against the PM airfield. I suspected that by now, the Allied squadrons stationed there would be demoralized and composed almost entirely of green pilots.

My initial strikes were met by rather effective CAP (roughly 1:1 losses of escorts to interceptors with a fair number of bombers shot down in each raid), but I figured this wouldn't last long. Afterall, I had enough zeros to rest each squadron of escorts for three days between raids and I knew the Allied CAP squadrons MUST be wearing thin by this point.

WRONG! After a little over two weeks of almost daily raids against PM, the Allied CAP actually became more effective (roughly 2:1 losses of escorts to interceptors and heavy bomber losses). I continued this for another frustrating week and could take it no more. :mad: I had to figure out how this Allied CAP could be so effective after sustaining such brutal losses in the preceeding campaign over Lae.

So, I resorted to a shameful tactic. I restarted my last save as the Allied player and took a look at the PM fighter squadrons. To my surprise, they were all at nearly full strength! But what was absolutely astounding was the fact that they all had over 100 pilots each! :eek: How could this be possible? Over 500 pilots to operate about 80 aircraft? And this was after recently losing almost 500 pilots in a two month span!

I felt like Hercules battling the Hydra! :( Where were these pilots (and planes for that matter) coming from? And did any squadron during the war ever "overstaff" to this extent? Also, I thought I read in the manual that squadrons would max out at 3 pilots over the maximum number of aircraft the unit could field.

What happened here?!

I don't want to sound like a complainer, because I do in fact LOVE this game. It is BY FAR the best computer game I have ever played. I suspect that since I enjoy playing this game so much, I want to understand why it produced such a bizarre situation as this.

Can anyone account for these "super squadrons" the AI created at PM? Any insight would be greatly appreciated. (And there's no need to haze me over the shady way I discovered the strengths of these Allied squadrons. I feel guilty enough as is!) :p

Post #: 1

- 8/4/2002 11:23:09 AM

pasternakski

Posts: 6565
Joined: 6/29/2002
Status: offline

Interesting ...

I have tried switching sides on saved games in order to improve my understanding of what's going on (or wrong), but a lot of weird things happen when you do that. For example, your newly-friendly task forces are represented by the same "cross at the bow and cross at the stern" generic AI TF icons. Also, air group morale and effectiveness numbers make no sense, and transport TF loadings look awfully strange.

I don't know if you're seeing what the computer actually had to play with or corrupt numbers due to the shifting of sides.

Maybe the powers that be can explain ...

----------------------------

I will now proceed to entangle the entire area

(in reply to Toast Master)

Post #: 2

Maybe a known bug - 8/4/2002 11:08:03 PM

seeker124

Posts: 7
Joined: 6/22/2002
From: Poulsbo, WA, USA
Status: offline

There is a known bug that seems to result in wildly mis-allocated pilots (some squadrons with a hundred pilots, others with none). It's possible that you are running into some version of this bug. I sure haven't heard of any example as severe as the one you describe though!

A short thread on this topic is in the Bug reports section.

(in reply to Toast Master)

Post #: 3

- 8/5/2002 10:01:39 PM

mdiehl

Posts: 5998
Joined: 10/21/2000
Status: offline

Of course, you have benefitted greatly from a bug that allowed you to shoot down 500 allied a/c losing 40 pilots. Never happened and never could have happened.

(in reply to Toast Master)

Post #: 4

- 8/6/2002 12:34:24 PM

Toast Master

Posts: 32
Joined: 5/17/2002
From: Belcamp, Maryland
Status: offline

"Of course, you have benefitted greatly from a bug that allowed you to shoot down 500 allied a/c losing 40 pilots. Never happened and never could have happened."

The Marianas Turkey Shoot (June 19-20, 1944) saw an even more lopsided outcome than this. Over 400 Japanese planes were shot down at a cost of only 17 American planes. So, not only could it happen, it DID happen (albeit in the reverse direction).

In any event, that was not the point of my post. According to the manual (or perhaps one of the patch additions), squadrons should have no more than 3 extra pilots above the maximum allowed strength of the unit. One hundred-plus pilots operating around twenty aircraft not only violates this rule, it is downright absurd.

As per the cause of this over abundance of pilots, I am now inclined to suspect the pilot allocation "bug" Seeker referred to. I am sure Matrix will be addressing this misassignment of pilots in an upcoming patch as it is fundamental to the operation of this otherwise EXCELLENT game.

If possible, could someone from the Matrix staff indicate when we might see this addressed in a patch?

(in reply to Toast Master)

Post #: 5

- 8/7/2002 4:31:39 AM

mdiehl

Posts: 5998
Joined: 10/21/2000
Status: offline

Never happened to the Allies, never *could* have happened to the Allies.

Well, *never could have happened* unless someone had sent all the pilots home, replaced all the pilots with late-war Japanese rookies, and shot a hole in the cylinder of each a/c or posited some other inane set of constraints.

To reiterate, if the actual losses are 400-500 allied a/c to 40 Japanese, and these are actual losses and not FOW exaggerated by an order of magnitude, and if there are no really bizarre mitigating circumstances, it's a serious flaw in the game.

(in reply to Toast Master)

Post #: 6

- 8/7/2002 5:00:27 AM

Spooky

Posts: 816
Joined: 4/1/2002
From: Froggy Land
Status: offline

[QUOTE]Originally posted by mdiehl
[B]
To reiterate, if the actual losses are 400-500 allied a/c to 40 Japanese, and these are actual losses and not FOW exaggerated by an order of magnitude, and if there are no really bizarre mitigating circumstances, it's a serious flaw in the game. [/B][/QUOTE]

Toast Master talks about CAP planes on PM at the beginning of the scenario 17. At max, in 2 months, 100-120 US fighters could have been shot down (just check the replacement rate for P-40, P-39 & P-400) ... and probably much less !

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Visit Spooky's UV & WITP Fansite !

(in reply to Toast Master)

Post #: 7

- 8/7/2002 5:47:58 AM

XPav

Posts: 550
Joined: 7/10/2002
From: Northern California
Status: offline

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Toast Master
[BIn any event, that was not the point of my post. According to the manual (or perhaps one of the patch additions), squadrons should have no more than 3 extra pilots above the maximum allowed strength of the unit. One hundred-plus pilots operating around twenty aircraft not only violates this rule, it is downright absurd.
[/B][/QUOTE]
See my post in the "Bugs" forum where 173 pilots were fighting over 5 planes...

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I love it when a plan comes together.

(in reply to Toast Master)

Post #: 8

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