Wingmen Quality - Can they get better?

[Olham 164]

I wonder, if wingmen can have different qualities?

In Jasta 15, April 1918, I had the best wingies ever so far. They were capable of doing

their own fights, and most of the time, returned home with me, after having some

SPADs for second breakfast.

My recent wings all died within seconds. Can they have different qualities?

And can they develope?

Edited April 18, 2009 by Olham

[Hasse Wind 46]

I've flown in quite a few squadrons of all nationalities represented in OFF (Germans probably the least, but that's quickly about to change at my rate of dead pilots) and the rating of the squadron has pretty much correlated with how capable my wingmen have been. I've flown in an elite squadron (Esc. 26) only once, and those wingmen very really good, perfectly capable of taking care of themselves and often stealing my kills.

 

The worst experiences I've had with some low quality American squadrons in 1918, it often felt like I was the only one who even remotely knew what he was doing in that Spad XIII!

 

It would be interesting to know if all pilots in a poor squadron are automatically poor quality, or can there be some good pilots among them occasionally. And can there be some bad apples (in addition to me as the player) flying in the most elite of squadrons...

[Canvas Wings 1]

I've flown in an elite squadron (Esc. 26) only once, and those wingmen very really good, perfectly capable of taking care of themselves and often stealing my kills.

 

 

So far I've only flown in one Elite squadron too -with Richthofen's bunch just prior to his demise. Those guys would knock down the opposing flight faster than I could get to them, most of the time. And not only would they steal your kill -Lothar shot *me* once to get at my target. -and no, I didn't fly into his line of fire, I was holding pretty level tight on my opponent's tail when Lothar swooped in from above and behind and let us both have it.

To be fair, I only took minor damage while he blew the other chap out of the air.

[Winston DoRight 3]

After all is said and done, I find my wingmen are all but useless. It's a full time job trying to keep them alive, and a dissapointment to tell them to attack an enemy plane or ground target and watch them just fly around it. And this is starting a campaign with an elite squadron with good morale. Are they not frugal with their ammo? Are they running out and can't make the kill? Or are they truly wimpy? Perhaps another workshop setting is needed?

 

Wingman setting

Ace.________[]

Veteran_____[]

Rookie______[]

Wimp_______[]

Random_____[]

 

Actually I had an interesting experience just tonight. On an airfield attack mission flying N11's armed with rockets I ordered my 2 remaining wingmen to attack the AA guns around the airfield while I took out as many hangars as I could on one pass. They actually attacked this time! First time ever! I even made a second suicide pass on the airfield because now the AA fire was so reduced by their attack, I took out even more hangars with my guns. It's also a bit easier to evade the ground fire, with my tracer and smoke mod I can see and often evade it now.

[Interlocutor 0]

On an airfield attack mission flying N11's armed with rockets I ordered my 2 remaining wingmen to attack the AA guns around the airfield while I took out as many hangars as I could on one pass.

 

Winston, how did you order your wingmen to attack the AA guns? I didn't know you could do that.

[Bullethead 12]

It would be interesting to know if all pilots in a poor squadron are automatically poor quality, or can there be some good pilots among them occasionally. And can there be some bad apples (in addition to me as the player) flying in the most elite of squadrons...

 

I of course don't know how it works, but can only give the opinions I've reached after my experiences so far....

 

It seems to me that most, if not all, of the non-historical pilots in a squadron are the same rating as the squadron itself, at least initially. Maybe there's some variation amongst them, but if so it doesn't make enough difference for me to notice. This is the only thing I'm pretty sure of.

 

I've still got a bunch of questions, such as:

• Do my AI buddies "level up" if they get sufficient kills and/or flying hours?
  
• Do replacement pilots show up at a lower quality than the rest of the squadron and have to "level up" to reach the squadron norm?
  
• If either of the above happen enough, does this raise or lower the overall squadron rating on dates other than those shown as you page back and forth in time while creating a pilot?
  
• If you're in the squadron when a date with a hard-wired quality change comes along, does it still happen or are you stuck with the quality you had to start with?
  

However, most of this is really moot, because no pilot of mine ever lives long enough for this to see any changes happen

[Olham 164]

I think, you can pick various ground targets, when you're getting there.

Switch to "pause" next time; then to target "buildings", or maybe "vehicles", and then switch

with F4 to the target view; then through the targets possible.

I once saw a dozen or more Flak guns with crew that way.

Once you picked a target, order "attack".

[Winston DoRight 3]

Winston, how did you order your wingmen to attack the AA guns? I didn't know you could do that.

 

Bring up your TAC (and target brackets if you want)

Cycle it to show vehicles

Pick a likely ground target (AA is where the tracers and smoke are coming from, and you can check your "target view" if you want)

Press A once

Repeat the above and press A again if you have more than 1 wingman

 

I always use this in campaign against airfields and railyards. You can really get 'em burning by putting your wingmens armament to good use. Remember tho, if you are armed with bombs and order your wingmen to attack air targets before you get to your objective, they will jettision the bombs before engaging enemy planes.

Edited April 19, 2009 by Winston DoRight

[Hasse Wind 46]

• Do my AI buddies "level up" if they get sufficient kills and/or flying hours?
  
• Do replacement pilots show up at a lower quality than the rest of the squadron and have to "level up" to reach the squadron norm?
  
• If either of the above happen enough, does this raise or lower the overall squadron rating on dates other than those shown as you page back and forth in time while creating a pilot?
  
• If you're in the squadron when a date with a hard-wired quality change comes along, does it still happen or are you stuck with the quality you had to start with?
  

 

 

All very good questions! I wish the developers would enlighten us with their wisdom... :yes:

 

 

However, most of this is really moot, because no pilot of mine ever lives long enough for this to see any changes happen

 

So very true! I managed to kill a promising young American scout pilot today after only two missions. I've no idea how many pilots I've lost, because I had to remove most of the old dead from the dossier to make some room for new ones. Was getting crowded...