4.12 development update discussion and feedback

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by majorfailure

Health - I don't know. I'd think that most pilots were fit. And it would not make much of a difference if Average Joe or Superfit Bob would be hit by gunfire, they'd both be severly incapacitated. And if the AI can endure G-stress for 3:30 or 4:00 - not worth the effort of having to programm it. And as long as the player can endure it indefinitley its plain unfair to limit the AI.

Perhaps. I was thinking more along the lines of pilots who were flying while sick or otherwise not qualified to fly. It didn't happen often, though, so perhaps its not worth modeling.

What would be worth modeling in a campaign is pilot/aircrew readiness. Units living in crummy conditions with poor supplies would have more men rendered temporarily or permanently unfit for flying duties. This could represent anything from casualties due to malaria, dysentery and dengue fever in the tropics or desert to colds and accidental injuries in more temperate climates. After all, during WW1 Eddie Rickenbacker was sidelined for much of the war by persistent ear infections. During WW2, Johnny Johnson had to sit out most of the Battle of Britain due to a shoulder injury.

Originally Posted by majorfailure

Morale on the other hand could be more useful -at least for campaigns. Use general numbers for airforce and theatre, add losses/victories of unit and other units in the area over the last few missions, progress of war in general, some psychological affinity, different reactions depending on personality type(some pilots seeing their comrades killed will lash out, acting agressive to suicidal, others will lose the will to fight).

This would be very interesting and much more applicable. Psychological breakdown was a much more subtle factor than simple illness. Incipient or actual PTSD was quite possibly a factor in the deaths of WW 1 aces such as Albert Ball, Mick Mannock, Werner Voss and Manfred von Richtofen. I can't think of any WW2 casualties which were directly related to "combat fatigue," but I'm sure there were a lot of them.