[Suhiir]

Originally Posted by DRG

Yes we are aware that for some nations being the presidents second cousins son counts far more than it should when the "good jobs" are doled out and the overall capability of the pilots may be that they can get the aircraft into the sky and down again without breaking it and that ability is "good enough" for the yearly flypast on armed forces day but in real combat he's last less than 3 minutes


That said there are a number of ways to look at this and I am confident that no matter what we do some bright light will disagree but that's been the nature of this project from the beginning.

One way would be to look at every nation listed, do some research and make adjustments to the experience/morale ratings based on how that will translate into the game once all the random factors are taken into account. That way one nation might get +5, another +10 and another +3 and maybe another gets -2. That way is, to be frank, a PITA because the random toss most of that detail work out the window. What we would try to do at it's most basic is decide if under most circumstances do we want to boost the ability of a standard pilot up one level beyond where they are now. For example if the pilots for a nation are appearing half the time as "corporals" ( so experience below 80 ) adding 5 to that nation would ensure that the vast majority of pilots would have experience levels above 80. A nation that starts out at 55 experience getting that extra 5 won't do much of anything but a nation that starts out at 55 would fall into the category of nations discussed in the first paragraph. Even +10 would help that much whereas +10 for the nation that starts out at 80 is still going to keep most pilots under elite but give a few that status. In cases like that just adding +10 experience to all strike elements / attack helos for all nations gives us what we want.......the good nations get a good boost that pushes them up the ladder and the mediocre ones get a boost but it doesn't push them to the next level.......

.........and that saves a whole lot of time deciding if Angola should get any kind of increase or +5 or +10 because any one of those isn't really going to make them all that effective relative to a USMC/Navy Pilot even though both nations may have +10 experience ratings for their strike elements.

OR the +10% rule could be applied so that a nation with 80 experience gets a +8 and on with 60 gets +6 but that really doesn't do all that much in the big scheme of things that a flat +5 or +10 doesn't do as well and it's much simpler to apply ( most times simple is good )

Don

Obviously you guys have batted this issue around a bit at the office. And to the suprise of no one with a working brain you've come up with a tentative solution that hits most of the main issues with such a project.

Just to throw an additional very subjective monkey wrench into the works one wrinkle I'm considering is the difference between "Strike" and "COIN" aircraft.

In general Strike aircraft tend to attack vehicle targets more often then COIN aircraft, and often have a weapon load more suited to do so effectively (for example AP VS HE cluster bombs). Also in general COIN aircraft tend to be dedicated ground support types rather then "fighters" performing ground support missions. And while of course there are many many cases where the aircraft are one in the same in both cases it's also often the case that the pilots of dedicated ground support have better training in ground support then fighter jocks hauling a load of bombs because they're not otherwise occupied do.

Unfortunately game mechanics only allow for two types of airstrikes, and the formations tab uses the same formation ID# from 1946-2020 for airfract so differences in pilot training between the two types of pilots and over time are near impossible to model in-game.

That said...one might want to attempt to consider, if possible, national (and due to game mechanics the USMC is a "nation") differences in the amount of bonus (if any) one gives "SEAD", "Strike", and "COIN" formations.

For myself I've given "SEAD" formations a larger bonus in both morale and experience then "Strike" or "COIN" formations and "COIN" formations a larger experience bonus then "Strike", and "Strike" formations a larger morale bonus then "COIN".

I'm still playtesting to determine if all this complication is worth the effort and results is a more "realistic" simulation of airstrikes in general.

Just a little something to help your head explode when you guys go back to tossing this whole idea around at the office...no need to thank me

((BTW - any chance of getting your web site guru to add a "spell check" button ? ))