[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by Laurwin

I suppose the rookie level AI is a little bit too good in this game.

I've thought this myself. "Pitiable," "Turkey Shoot" or "Straight from the Farm" level AI would certainly be suitable for most kamikazes, or possibly the worst of the Chinese pilots.

Originally Posted by Laurwin

I mean, we are talking about the lowest level skill pilot we can have in game. One could argue they're quite a bit better than the new pilots Germany had in 1945 for example (re-assigned bomber pilot into fighters, practically no advanced fighter training etc....)

This isn't quite fair. Reassigned bomber pilots might have thousands of hours flying heavier combat aircraft types, meaning that they'd have Veteran to Ace level skills in navigation and target identification, and Average to Veteran level routine piloting skills and situational awareness, but Rookie level gunnery, combat maneuvering and combat situational awareness.

This means that they'd be quite good at doing things like taking off, landing, holding formation and following fighter intercept to the target, then identifying targets and setting up attacks, but not so good at hitting the target, and potentially quite poor in a dogfight.

Sadly, IL2 doesn't give mission builders the ability to set different skill levels for different tasks.

Originally Posted by Laurwin

Rookies were the guys who confused their flight leaders for enemies (like Erich hartmann once did ) and tried to dogfight them. Or then they would just get lost in the skies.

IL2 doesn't model the risk of deliberate attack by friendly planes due to failure of target identification. This was a real problem for Allied planes like the P-51 or Typhoon (or Soviet fighters encountering Western Allied fighters). I don't think it would be that hard to implement as an AI feature, but for now such encounters have to be set up as specific missions with the "friendly" planes being assigned to the opposing side.

Originally Posted by Laurwin

I mean these people were given limited training before sent to the front (for example, even American flight training was quite limited in scope, before pilots were sent from flight school to the front). And compared with most countries fighter training, it (American) was the most comprehensive one.

I think that U.S. training was actually pretty good, at least by 1944. Pre-war training was good, but there was a dip in quality in 1942-43. It wouldn't be unreasonable to call "rookie" 1944 U.S. pilots "Average" in terms of IL2 pilot quality.

If it was possible to do so, I'd give your typical newly-minted USAAF/USMC 1944 2nd Lieutenant/USN Ensign fighter pilot:

Navigation: Average.
Target Recognition: Average
Routine Piloting (e.g., aircraft system maintenance, formation flying, landing and take-off): Average
Combat Situational Awareness: Rookie
Air Combat Maneuvers/Aerobatics: Rookie
Gunnery: Rookie
Bombing: Rookie
Rockets: Rookie

By contrast, a 1940 British Pilot Officer or 1942 Soviet junior Lieutenant straight from training might be "rookie" across the board, while a 1945 kamikaze would be "turkey shoot" quality in all but target recognition which would be "average."

Originally Posted by Laurwin

-aircraft identification (esp headons). So they don't always know to blast away, would such a thing happen in real war? Before you can know if he's friend or foe? Merge happens for example, because of IDing bogey. In WW2 it meant silhouette ID or the insignia, if you wanted to be certain of friend-or-foe.

In some cases, it's possible to identify an aircraft from head-on by things like size, wing angle and fuselage cross section. Additionally, even with a big HD monitor, the human eye gives more detail than a computer screen can, which might be enough to pick up things like color and distinctive reflections.
Finally, IL2 doesn't include the option for radar vectoring or mission briefings, which give useful information like altitude and heading for bogies, or "any twin-engined planes in the sky today will be hostile."

Even so, target recognition was a problem, especially with sun glare, clouds and darkness, and IL2 doesn't reflect that.

I'd simplify target recognition down to a percentage change of mistaking a target from each "o'clock" angle, with chances slightly increased for rookies and reduced for veteran or better pilots, and possibly with increases for planes of a rarely-encountered nationality. And, with exceptions for distinctive planes like the P-38 or Me323.