bartbert

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Yup. That's exactly what I was going to say.

Yes, we were able to use a simplified fatigue model for campaigns because campaigns have the concept of "Turns". If your pilot sits out one turn, you get back two levels (18 points) worth of fatigue.

The other thing to keep in mind in the campaign game is fatigue. If you play through a few turns, you will see that the British player cannot put 2 fighters in every area on every turn. If he does, his pilots will be so fatigued that they will fall out of the sky with slightest pressure. The same is true as the Germans. You cannot bomb every area on every turn. Pick your targets carefully to maximize your points and minimize his. Sometimes you send in just enough bombers to damage the target to deny the British the points for that area.

Yes, I believe that one has been reported before. Dang these browser companies! Why can't they all work the same way?!

It must be a pretty balanced campaign if both sides think they have it tough.

We've added a new section to the DiF home page that shows a summary of the last 10 campaign games that have been completed. Now you can get a look at what other players have been playing and how they have been doing. From the looks of things, the AI Win/Loss record is not too good.

Mike is correct. It is just a game mechanic. We found that without fatigue, players would pretty much fly the same pilot over and over until they had maxxed out, or been killed. The fatigue system forces players to rotate through a set of pilots and develop them as a group.

That's Dan's department. But if he decides that it needs to be changed, it's just a matter of changing a value in the database.

That's probably more a question for Dan to answer, but it is an intentional part of the design that pilots are occasionally forced to fly while fatigued.

As a matter of fact, I'm working on that this weekend. Hopefully we'll have something out there in the next couple of days.

I updated the server software this morning. You should see a bit more varity now. The changes should also fix the problem with wingmen not receiving the Escape Death skill. [ October 16, 2005, 04:01 AM: Message edited by: bartbert ]

I think the numbers are correct, but maybe the way they are being presented is confusing. A Zero becomes damaged when it takes its 3rd hit, therefore it is "Ok" with 0-2 hits. A Zero is destroyed when it takes its 4th hit, therefore it is "Damaged" with 3-3 hits.

Well, I think I have tracked down the problem with wingmen not getting the ED skill. The skill is awarded using the same procedures used to award medals, and some medals have a requirement that they can only be awarded to a leader. There was some messed up logic where it was checking to see whether or not the pilot was a leader, but it wasn't comparing to see whether that particular medal was for leaders only. Consequently, wingmen always failed the check. I think this also explains why German wingmen weren't getting the Fighter Clasp medal. I will try to get the update installed on the server sometime later today. I just need to find a time when the server isn't busy, and I can slip it in.

I have a server update ready to go that will provide more variation in what high end pilots will face in the way of opponents. I'll try to get that update in place within the next day or so.

Maneuver cards give you a +1. Half Loop give you a +2.

The Wildcat is available for download. Enjoy.

Wingmen only get fatigue in the campaign game. Why is that you ask? Well, I think it's just the way things worked out. Originally, only leaders got fatigue. Then we developed the campaign game, and we noticed that if wingmen didn't get fatigue, it threw the campaign strategy off because fatigue is an important factor in limiting pilot operations. So we added wingman fatigue in the campaign game, but not for regular missions. I can't recall if there was some argument against doing it at the time, but the fact is, we just never did it. Maybe that's another one for the list. I guess I'd better revisit the wingman ED issue again in light of your data. Thanks.

I suppose that would be one way of handling the case where two pilots have Eagle Eyes. But I think it's more interesting to "roll the dice" and see if anyone comes out on top.

For now, they only affect online play, but the next time we put an update out for download, it will update local play as well. I'll probably be putting an update out later tonight that will include the Wildcat, so you won't have to wait very long.

Yes, I think "stacking the deck" so that wingmen only draw defensive cards when they are attacked would probably throw things too far in the other direction. I think there's only so much that we can do for the "poor wingies". If players decide that dog-piling on the wingman is a successful strategy, then wingmen are going to go down. However, it seems to me that this is a somewhat risky strategy. If you go after the wingman and fail to take him down, he and his leader may come back on you with a vengence. The "Redraw" skill becomes VERY powerful for the high end aircraft. I would have several of these in my back pocket for both the leader and the wingman.

I looked through the code for awarding the "Escape Death" skill last night, and my findings are as follows: 1. Any pilot (leader or wingman) who shoots down at least one enemy pilot has a 33% chance of being awarded an Escape Death. 2. Any pilot (leader or wingman) who does NOT shoot down at least one enemy pilot has a 20% chance of being awarded an Escape Death IF he survived the mission and WAS NOT shot down (ie, he was damaged or undamaged). As far as I can tell, there is no bias from a code standpoint that would make it less likely for a wingman to receive an Escape Death. However, players may be introducing a bias against wingmen by the way they are playing. If players have decided that the optimal strategy is to concentrate on taking out the opposing wingman first, and worry about the leader later, then it seems to me that they are indeed greatly reducing the wingman's chances of getting an Escape Death. If the wingman never gets an opportunity to shoot someone down, he won't fulfill the conditions of #1 above. If the wingman gets shot down, he won't fulfill the conditions of #2 above. The wingman is locked out. Game over. So, what we have done is to remove the requirement to have not been shot down in case #2 above. In other words, if a pilot did NOT shoot down any enemy pilots, they have a base chance of 20% to get an Escape Death. Period. This should mean that at worst, a pilot should receive an Escape Death once every 5 missions (on average). This change went into effect last night, so I guess we'll see how it goes. I'm still looking into the issue where you always have to fight the same aircraft and pilots at the higher levels. I can see why it's happening, and I just need to decide how to fix it and test it out. It should be done in a day or two.

If you are the attacker in a particular region (ie, you are the one doing the bombing), and you destroy the target, then you get the higher (destroy) value as victory points. If you are the defender in a particular region, and the target is undamaged, then you get the lower (damaged) value as victory points. If the target was only damaged, then neither player gets any victory points.

Dan was thinking that perhaps if we allowed the "Check Six" skill to be purchased multiple times, that it would help wingmen survive a little better. Do you guys think that would help?

I'll take a look at the logic for picking AI opponents while I'm in looking at the Escape Death issue.