Slitherine

quote:

ORIGINAL: Zovs

Per the manual I only see this:

13 distinct Sub Skills are also displayed and tracked for each pilot.

But when I bring up the pilots list I see things that I am not familiar with nor defined in the manual. Being that I am a land lover and not experienced in the Pacific War as much as I am in the Eastern Front could I get an assist to the definition or meaning of some of these

I get the following: Rank, Name, Fat, Mis, Kills, and Exp, but what exactly are the rest?

Air (would this be air to air combat?)
Yes, air combat and to a certain extent airmanship - knowing the aircraft well enough to deal with problems and get the most out of it offensively

NavB (Naval Bombing, i.e. against ships?) Yes, bombing ship targets from 2000' or higher

NavT (Naval Torpedo/Transport?) Yes - using torpedoes from any altitude. The attack profile will make the bomber drop to 200' to drop the torpedo and then return it to the set altitude

NavS (Naval Spotting?) Yes, Naval Search. Not only the chance to spot the enemy ships/subs, but the higher the skill the better the details of the spotting. Also a chance of an attack being made on one of the spotted vessels.

Recon I get Another one where higher skill brings better spotting detail and quality

ASW I get This skill includes both searching for subs and attacking them. The NavS, NavB and LowN skills are not used when attacking subs at sea if the aircraft are on ASW patrol

Trans I get must be transportation Yes, Air Transport. Bombers can do this too, except for the troop carrying part.

GrdB (Ground Bombing) Yes, bombing troops in the field. Ground Attack Mission Does not include attacks on the AF or Port.

LowN (Low Naval?, whatever does that mean?) Yes, Low Naval attack - taking place below 2000'. This is also the altitude they will use to fly to the target. Attack Bombers seem to automatically use this to skip bomb from 100 feet if you have them set at 1000'. That gives them a much better chance of a hit, but exposes them to more AAA. The AB types will usually have a lot of forward facing MGs to suppress the flak.

LowG (Low Ground?, whatever does that mean?) Yes, attacking LCUs only from low level. Usually used by fighters carrying bombs. But at 100 feet the strafe skill is the only one used.

Staf must be strafing Yes, strafing is the only attack skill used for aircraft set at 100 feet, but they may drop bombs if they have them.

Defn (Defending? against what?) This would be dodging AA fire and attacks by fighters, or perhaps keeping formation with other bombers to defend against attackers. It could include a weather element - a chance of using the current cloud cover to hide, for instance (but that might be part of general Experience).

Delay (Delay of what?) Delay in arrival at the squadron. Some new/replacement pilots are nearby and can arrive at the squadron immediately, some take many days to travel the distance to the squadron. If it says Delay is '1', you can activate the pilot immediately by right clicking on him, or change the 'To Pool' text to 'Active' and left click in the pilot name.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Zovs

NavS: Naval Search - Not only the chance to spot the enemy ships/subs, but the higher the skill the better the details of the spotting. Also a chance of an attack being made on one of the spotted vessels. Searching at Sea, but there is a reduced chance a sub will be sighted.

quote:

ORIGINAL: rmeckman

quote:

ORIGINAL: Zovs

NavS: Naval Search - Not only the chance to spot the enemy ships/subs, but the higher the skill the better the details of the spotting. Also a chance of an attack being made on one of the spotted vessels. Searching at Sea, but there is a reduced chance a sub will be sighted.

When my aircraft do attack ships while on a naval search mission, it often increases the pilot's NavB skill. I'm not sure whether NavB affects the probability of an attack while on naval search or just the probability of a hit.

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ORIGINAL: jdsrae

Pilot experience is not an average of all skills, it is a separate experience level rating.

quote:

Zovs:
Tran: Air Transport - Bombers can do this too, except for the troop carrying part.
GrdB: Ground Bombing - Bombing troops in the field. Ground Attack Mission Does not include attacks on the AF or Port. Bombing ground targets Includes AF Attack, and City attack.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Maallon

Yes, I normally train at least two skills for every pilot, just to get the Exp and Def ratings up.
If I remember correctly Exp applies basically to everything that is not directly combat related. For example to bring a damaged plane back home safe or transfer between airfields without operational losses.
There are of course other variables at play here, as even the best pilot will have trouble landing a heavily damaged B-17 intact during a thunderstorm, but a high Exp rating will increase the chances.

edit: This thread has a lot of useful information regarding pilot training:
https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3540874

edit2: Fairly sure the Exp skill is not the average of all skills. If you look at the OPs screenshot, the pilot's Johnson K. highest skill is Def at 55, the other skills are mostly in the 20s and his Exp rating is 54, this doesn't add up.

The arithmetic mean of him would be: 32+27+26+20+22+25+26+41+30+29+55 = 333 / 12 = 27,75
I don't know an average type that would sum the above numbers up as 54.
Only thing that would come to mind would be a weighted average where every skill has a weight attached to it, that increases the higher the skill gets, but this is pure speculation.

At this point I am fairly sure that Exp is a separate skill that just increases with everything the pilot does and is not directly related to the other skills. Also you can have pilots with an Exp value higher than every other skill.
Though given the nature of Exp, it can be said that the higher the Exp rating is the better the skills of the pilots normally are.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Sardaukar

Note that when flying CAP fighter pilots train Air skill but not (or very little) Defensive skill. That's why you should always train Escort at least for a while to get Def up to decent value.

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ORIGINAL: mind_messing

quote:

ORIGINAL: Sardaukar

Note that when flying CAP fighter pilots train Air skill but not (or very little) Defensive skill. That's why you should always train Escort at least for a while to get Def up to decent value.

Better imo to train LowNav for both Allied and IJ. Gives you pilots for the fighter bombers or attack bombers, as well as pilots for the kamikaze pool.

Minor refinement.

"To meaningless French Idealism, Liberty, Fraternity and Equality...we answer with German Realism, Infantry, Cavalry and Artillery" -Prince von Bülov, 1870-

quote:

ORIGINAL: mind_messing

quote:

ORIGINAL: Sardaukar

Note that when flying CAP fighter pilots train Air skill but not (or very little) Defensive skill. That's why you should always train Escort at least for a while to get Def up to decent value.

Better imo to train LowNav for both Allied and IJ. Gives you pilots for the fighter bombers or attack bombers, as well as pilots for the kamikaze pool.

Minor refinement.

quote:

ORIGINAL: HansBolter

Aren't fighters and fighter bombers set to attack at 1k going to automatically drop to 100 feet and use the strafing skill, rather than the low nav skill?

Unless I have misunderstood this aspect, I see no value in training fighters pilots in low nav.

I train fighter pilots in sweeps at 100 feet to raise Defense.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Alpha77

quote:

ORIGINAL: HansBolter

Aren't fighters and fighter bombers set to attack at 1k going to automatically drop to 100 feet and use the strafing skill, rather than the low nav skill?

Unless I have misunderstood this aspect, I see no value in training fighters pilots in low nav.

I train fighter pilots in sweeps at 100 feet to raise Defense.

I believe NO to the 1st part. fighters need to be set to 100ft so they do "strafe" attacks. In this case also the strafe skill would be used. If you set em at 1k they would bomb from 1k and the low nav skill used.And probably have also reduced bombload? 2E land bombers at least when set to 1k half the bombload.

This is different for attack bombers tho.

But your 2nd part is right, seems 100ft "sweep" does raise DEF the best. When I am in a hurry and cannot decide what to train I simply hit general which also sometimes raises DEF.

I might be wrong on this one of course

quote:

ORIGINAL: Alpha77

Well if you have a plane with cannons it might be worth it to use the 100ft especially against smaller or cargo ships. An Oscar w/ 2 MGs of course would be a waste but a George, P38 or Hurricane can perhaps do some damage w/ 20mm. Or P47 a lot of HMG bullets may distract AA crews too.

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ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

quote:

ORIGINAL: Alpha77

quote:

ORIGINAL: HansBolter

Aren't fighters and fighter bombers set to attack at 1k going to automatically drop to 100 feet and use the strafing skill, rather than the low nav skill?

Unless I have misunderstood this aspect, I see no value in training fighters pilots in low nav.

I train fighter pilots in sweeps at 100 feet to raise Defense.

I believe NO to the 1st part. fighters need to be set to 100ft so they do "strafe" attacks. In this case also the strafe skill would be used. If you set em at 1k they would bomb from 1k and the low nav skill used.And probably have also reduced bombload? 2E land bombers at least when set to 1k half the bombload.

This is different for attack bombers tho.

But your 2nd part is right, seems 100ft "sweep" does raise DEF the best. When I am in a hurry and cannot decide what to train I simply hit general which also sometimes raises DEF.

I might be wrong on this one of course

You are both right because, if set at 1000 feet, fighters with bombs will both bomb and strafe - and their LowN level goes up so they are using that skill. If set at 100 feet, the fighters will both strafe and drop their bombs - but I never really noted whether the Strafe skill increases when they do this because I rarely use it.

It isn't that strafing is totally ineffective - sometimes you knock out devices on the ship or cause fires, I just think it exposes the fighter to too much small arms fire. At 1000 feet, the enemy has to at least 'lead' the aircraft a bit with their shooting to get a hit.