General guide to earning awards in WWII career mode

[JG27_Mainz]

On 3/29/2023 at 6:00 PM, LukeFF said:

So, with this update, I adjusted the way some of the British and American awards can be earned.  I call it the 60% rule: that is, once a player has reached the 60% threshold for a particular award's requirements, then the pilot has a 60% chance of being awarded that medal. For example, the DFC is normally awarded for 5 kills. Now, instead, you will have a 60% chance of being awarded the medal once you reach 3 kills or if you shoot down three planes in one mission. This way, the awarding of certain medals is less automatic and more "abstracted" (e.g., the command is taking time to process your award recommendation, they turned it down, etc). 

 

The awards affected by this new rule are as follows:

 

USA:

• Silver Star Medal
• Distinguished Service Cross

Great Britain:

• Distinguished Flying Medal
• Distinguished Flying Cross
• Distinguished Service Order

Additionally, British officer pilots now have the chance to have a DFM listed in their awards, to simulate them being prior enlisted pilots before being promoted into the officer class. 

If a pilot gets 3 kills total and fails the RNG roll for the DFC, is he then out of luck? Is the DFC at 5 kills no longer guaranteed? Is it then possible that a pilot can get several 3-kill missions and not get any DFC? Similarly for the other medals to which this new system applies.

[LukeFF]

2 hours ago, Thomas_1945 said:

Hi LukeFF,

 

I have question regarding MOH. Trying in vain to get it but it is either having no enemies in the air or not enough ammo. Last time I killed 5 and was wounded as tried to land. In theory this would make me eligible for MOH but got DSC instead. At the same time I can transfer to RAF squadron and back again to USAF. Thanks to that I was able to get VC after killing 7 on mk IX. Yet again when back on P51 I didn't get my MOH. Why is that?

 

Thanks

Tom

 

Was that after the last update? If you were wounded as a result of landing, the game might not count that as being wounded in action.

 

I'll report the issue about being able to transfer to the RAF.

1 hour ago, JG27_Mainz said:

If a pilot gets 3 kills total and fails the RNG roll for the DFC, is he then out of luck? Is the DFC at 5 kills no longer guaranteed? Is it then possible that a pilot can get several 3-kill missions and not get any DFC? Similarly for the other medals to which this new system applies.

 

Well, kind of. Say your pilot has 0 kills and goes out and shoots down 3 planes on one mission. If your pilot doesn't receive the DFC that day for shooting down those 3 planes, he's still eligible going forward to receive the DFC, since he's reached the minimum threshold of 3 kills. The mission generator will "roll the dice" every day until you are then awarded that medal. 

 

I'm thinking of further refinements like this might be useful:

• 60% chance of being awarded a medal once the 60% threshold is reached, then...
• 80% chance of being awarded a medal once the 80% threshold is reached
• 60% chance of being awarded a medal if 3 planes are shot down on a single mission, or...
• 80% chance of being awarded a medal if 4 planes are shot down on a single mission

Thoughts?

[JG27_Mainz]

1 hour ago, LukeFF said:

Well, kind of. Say your pilot has 0 kills and goes out and shoots down 3 planes on one mission. If your pilot doesn't receive the DFC that day for shooting down those 3 planes, he's still eligible going forward to receive the DFC, since he's reached the minimum threshold of 3 kills. The mission generator will "roll the dice" every day until you are then awarded that medal. 

 

I'm thinking of further refinements like this might be useful:

• 60% chance of being awarded a medal once the 60% threshold is reached, then...
• 80% chance of being awarded a medal once the 80% threshold is reached
• 60% chance of being awarded a medal if 3 planes are shot down on a single mission, or...
• 80% chance of being awarded a medal if 4 planes are shot down on a single mission

Thoughts?

Why not keep the guaranteed chance of earning the medal at the 100% threshold?

 

• 60% chance of being awarded a medal once the 60% threshold is reached, then...
• 80% chance of being awarded a medal once the 80% threshold is reached
• 100% chance of being awarded a medal once the 100% threshold is reached

 

This system would also make the "shoot x planes down in a single mission" redundant, because if you already have 3 kills and have reached the 60% threshold, for example, and the game is going to roll the dice every day anyway, it doesn't matter how many planes you shoot down each mission. Only total kills matter, which you have already reached.

[Thomas_1945]

I think being able to transfer between USAF and RAF is really cool. Please leave it as is. Regarding my 5 kills and being wounded on landing... I was attacked by another Fw190a8 on the approach and shot to pieces but still managed to land.

[LukeFF]

1 hour ago, JG27_Mainz said:

Why not keep the guaranteed chance of earning the medal at the 100% threshold?

 

• 60% chance of being awarded a medal once the 60% threshold is reached, then...
• 80% chance of being awarded a medal once the 80% threshold is reached
• 100% chance of being awarded a medal once the 100% threshold is reached

 

This system would also make the "shoot x planes down in a single mission" redundant, because if you already have 3 kills and have reached the 60% threshold, for example, and the game is going to roll the dice every day anyway, it doesn't matter how many planes you shoot down each mission. Only total kills matter, which you have already reached.

 

Okay, I'll think about it. I'd really like to nail down a system that abstracts more of the waiting time that came with being awarded medals instead of being instantly awarded them upon landing. 

[JG27_Mainz]

4 minutes ago, LukeFF said:

 

Okay, I'll think about it. I'd really like to nail down a system that abstracts more of the waiting time that came with being awarded medals instead of being instantly awarded them upon landing. 

What about a system that guarantees the award of medals but randomizes the waiting period? So for the DFC, for example, the pilot does becomes eligible at five total kills. But the mission then rolls a random number between 1 and 7 (for example) as the actual day on which the award is granted. So the DFC is guaranteed to come eventually once the pilot reaches five kills, it is only a question about time.

[LukeFF]

20 hours ago, JG27_Mainz said:

What about a system that guarantees the award of medals but randomizes the waiting period? So for the DFC, for example, the pilot does becomes eligible at five total kills. But the mission then rolls a random number between 1 and 7 (for example) as the actual day on which the award is granted. So the DFC is guaranteed to come eventually once the pilot reaches five kills, it is only a question about time.

 

Oh, believe me, I would love to have something like that. But, right now that isn't supported in the code. However, the awards parameters have been improved a lot since the original ROF career mode came out, so hopefully, it's something that can be added.

 

One other parameter I'd like to see added is being awarded a medal for scoring a large number of kills over a short period of time. When I looked through award citations from all three US branches, it was not uncommon to see awards like the Silver Star or Distinguished Service Cross/Navy Cross handed out for scoring a large number of kills over say, a 15- or 30-day period.

[jojy47jojyrocks]

The max times DFC awarded to USAF was 7 and Air medal 15 (can be restricted to 5-6) times for Richard I. Bong.

 

I think the awarding system could be refined as the development goes forward and add a slight bit of flexibility...

Edited April 4, 2023 by jojy47jojyrocks

[LukeFF]

8 hours ago, jojy47jojyrocks said:

The max times DFC awarded to USAF was 7 and Air medal 15 (can be restricted to 5-6) times for Richard I. Bong.

 

I think the awarding system could be refined as the development goes forward and add a slight bit of flexibility...

 

The current requirements are based on the research found in this very lengthy document published by the Air Force: Distinguished Flying Cross and Air Medal Criteria in the Army Air Forces in World War II

 

What Richard Bong earned doesn't really factor into this, since he was of course in the Pacific. What we have here is the requirements set forth by US Ninth Air Force in 1944-45.

[Letka_13/Arrow_]

17 hours ago, LukeFF said:

 

The current requirements are based on the research found in this very lengthy document published by the Air Force: Distinguished Flying Cross and Air Medal Criteria in the Army Air Forces in World War II

 

What Richard Bong earned doesn't really factor into this, since he was of course in the Pacific. What we have here is the requirements set forth by US Ninth Air Force in 1944-45.

I have a question for Distinguished Flying Medal, I have already 10 air kills I received DFC and bar, but haven't received the DFM, is that alright?

[jojy47jojyrocks]

18 hours ago, LukeFF said:

 

The current requirements are based on the research found in this very lengthy document published by the Air Force: Distinguished Flying Cross and Air Medal Criteria in the Army Air Forces in World War II

 

What Richard Bong earned doesn't really factor into this, since he was of course in the Pacific. What we have here is the requirements set forth by US Ninth Air Force in 1944-45.

 

 

Oh.

 

I thought some SEMI-FLEXIBILITY could be added since in a way we are scoring in the sense of alternate reality and what ifs of if we somehow managed to achieve more than say, Erich Hartmann, Gabby Gabresky  and the likes...in this pseudo alternate sim reality.

 

I mean we do have Brits getting here VC more than once as opposed what was in real. So, double MOH awarding, it was awarded for ground forces at least. There were double MOH awardees in WW1 too.

Edited April 5, 2023 by jojy47jojyrocks

[LukeFF]

6 hours ago, Rudolph said:

I have a question for Distinguished Flying Medal, I have already 10 air kills I received DFC and bar, but haven't received the DFM, is that alright?

 

The DFM is for enlisted pilots only.

 

5 hours ago, jojy47jojyrocks said:

I mean we do have Brits getting here VC more than once as opposed what was in real. So, double MOH awarding, it was awarded for ground forces at least. There were double MOH awardees in WW1 too.

 

There have been 3 double-VC winners: once in the Boer War, once in WWI, and once in WWII: https://historylearning.com/world-war-two/double-victoria-cross/

 

Double MOH awarding would require new artwork and since, as far as I know, there were no double MOH awards in WWII, it's unlikely you will see that here.

 

5 hours ago, jojy47jojyrocks said:

I thought some SEMI-FLEXIBILITY could be added since in a way we are scoring in the sense of alternate reality and what ifs of if we somehow managed to achieve more than say, Erich Hartmann, Gabby Gabresky  and the likes...in this pseudo alternate sim reality.

 

Well, you certainly can do that already. ? The vast, vast majority of pilots never even came close to earning as many awards as we do here in the game already - on the American side alone you can go home with multiple Silver Stars and Distinguished Service Crosses.

[jojy47jojyrocks]

I have never tried this...but would these awards or can these awards be carried over to the WW2 timeline front after the WW1 campaign end? And, IF it is possible, for German front, would Iron cross 1 and 2nd clasps be added?

 

I have carried over within WW2 timeframe different campaigns of the same nation and that goes good.

[LukeFF]

3 hours ago, jojy47jojyrocks said:

I have never tried this...but would these awards or can these awards be carried over to the WW2 timeline front after the WW1 campaign end? And, IF it is possible, for German front, would Iron cross 1 and 2nd clasps be added?

 

I have carried over within WW2 timeframe different campaigns of the same nation and that goes good.

 

I've never tried that, so I don't know if any of that would be possible.

[LukeFF]

Hey guys,

 

After thinking things over some more, I made some more refinements that will eventually make their way to the Flying Circus side. In particular, I wanted a more accurate award system for the British awards. So, I went to https://www.rafcommands.com/database/awards/index.php, which has a searchable listing of practically every award and citation given to RAF crewmen during WWII. I then set up a spreadsheet for each medal and compiled the data on how many kills a given pilot had (according to the citation) when awarded a specific medal (unfortunately, things like numbers of missions flown, ground targets destroyed, etc. are practically never listed in the citations).

 

Once that part was complete, I ran the numbers through a standard deviation analysis (statistics has been a big part of my job for several years now) and developed a "spread" over which a pilot could be expected to be awarded a medal. So now, the chance of being awarded a British medal increases as the pilot's kill count increases. So now, the numbers for the British medals look like this (they'll be slightly refined in the future but probably won't change much from this):

 

Distinguished Flying Medal:

 

Minimum 3 kills, 100 sorties completed, or 200 hours of flight time

 

Bar to the DFM:

 

Minimum 10 kills, 200 sorties completed, or 400 hours of flight time

 

Second Bar to the DFM:

 

Minimum 15 kills, 300 sorties completed, or 600 hours of flight time

 

Distinguished Flying Cross:

 

Minimum 2 kills, 100 sorties completed, or 200 hours of flight time

 

Bar to the DFC:

 

Minimum 4 kills, 200 sorties completed, or 400 hours of flight time

 

Second Bar to the DFC:

 

Minimum 5 kills, 300 sorties completed, or 600 hours of flight time

 

Distinguished Service Order:

 

Minimum 6 kills or 300 sorties completed and in command of the squadron 

 

Bar to the Distinguished Service Order:

 

Minimum 12 kills or 600 sorties completed and in command of the squadron 

 

Second Bar to the Distinguished Service Order:

 

Minimum 21 kills or 900 sorties completed and in command of the squadron 

 

Third Bar to the Distinguished Service Order:

 

1200 sorties completed and in command of the squadron 

 

Some of the minimums may seem small but do note that the chance of being awarded the medal is also very small. For instance, if you have 5 kills, your chance of being awarded a second bar to the DFC is only 6.5%. By the time you reach 10 kills, however, the chance is now 39%. And, as I wrote above, the numbers will likely change a bit in the next release, now that I have a method in place to filter out the outliers (which aren't dramatic but will make a subtle difference).

[Hotaru_Ito]

@LukeFF I've been having an issue where none of my American and British pilots ever get the France and Germany Star or the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal at the end of the Rhineland and Normandy campaigns.

 

I had a look at 18awards.cfg and 22awards.cfg, and it seems like the conditions for when they should be awarded are set wrong: "((BattleEnd=7)|(BattleEnd=4))" should be "((BattleEnd=18)|(BattleEnd=22))" for both decorations. I haven't fully tested it yet, but after making this correction, my latest RAF pilot got the France and Germany Star at the end of the Normandy campaign.

 

Hope this helps!

[LukeFF]

1 hour ago, Hotaru_Ito said:

@LukeFF I've been having an issue where none of my American and British pilots ever get the France and Germany Star or the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal at the end of the Rhineland and Normandy campaigns.

 

I had a look at 18awards.cfg and 22awards.cfg, and it seems like the conditions for when they should be awarded are set wrong: "((BattleEnd=7)|(BattleEnd=4))" should be "((BattleEnd=18)|(BattleEnd=22))" for both decorations. I haven't fully tested it yet, but after making this correction, my latest RAF pilot got the France and Germany Star at the end of the Normandy campaign.

 

Hope this helps!

 

Hey, thanks! Yes, that's the correct code. I'll make the corrections and send it off for inclusion in the next update. 

 

(18 is for Rhineland and 22 is for Normandy)

[redmanfas]

Is everything ok with the game codes responsible for receiving DSO bars? I'm in command of the squadron and I destroyed over 200 aircrafts but I can't get any bars to DSO.

[LukeFF]

3 hours ago, redmanfas said:

Is everything ok with the game codes responsible for receiving DSO bars? I'm in command of the squadron and I destroyed over 200 aircrafts but I can't get any bars to DSO.

 

There should be, but I'll look again. 

[Aurosa]

On 1/13/2020 at 7:28 AM, LukeFF said:

Great Britain:

 

• Second Bar to the Distinguished Flying Medal: awarded to enlisted pilots after earning the DFM + Bar. The requirements are as follows:
  • At least 15 aircraft destroyed or
  • 300 missions completed or
  • 600 hours of flight time (simulating the completion of three tours of duty)
• Second Bar to the Distinguished Flying Cross: awarded to officers after earning the DFC + Bar. The requirements are as follows:
  • At least 5 aircraft destroyed or
  • 300 missions completed or
  • 600 hours of flight time (simulating the completion of three tours of duty)

 

Do those awards even work correctly?

 

If they did, I would have already been rewarded with the Second Bar to the Distinguished Flying Medal and the Second Bar to the Distinguished Flying Cross.

 

I am a Deputy commander Flight Lieutenant with 76 air kills, 53/53 sorties, 45 hours of mission time with 77 days of service, and I only got both medals with one bar, beside RAF badge, and being mentioned in dispatches.

 

My highest amount of enemy airplanes shot down during the mission is 6. 

 

UK career, so far, as for me, is the worst experience I had in IL2 Sturmovik, I don't think there is anything that can beat it. The most demotivating, unrewarding, experience a pilot can think of.  

Edited March 1 by Aurosa

[LukeFF]

I can double check, but I did check recently and I didn't see any issues with the parameters. 

[LukeFF]

First post updated with revised requirements for the RAF medals. Being someone who loves statistics, I noticed that I could do a better job with the kill counts and probabilities for each award (namely, the DFM, DFC, and DSO). Using the same data above from https://www.rafcommands.com/database/awards/, I recalculated the Standard Deviation and Z-Score for each medal so the resulting probability is more in line with generally accepted statistical methods. I still need to do the same thing with the WWI awards, but for the time being I think the WWII awards are about as good as they are going to get.

 

Now, for the nerds:

DFM:

• Average: 4
• Standard Deviation: 2

Bar to DFM:

• Average: 14
• Standard Deviation: 4

2nd Bar to DFM: N/A, since only one airman earned this award during the war (Donald Kingaby)
 

DFC:

• Average: 4
• Standard Deviation: 2

Bar to DFC:

• Average: 8
• Standard Deviation: 4

2nd Bar to DFC:

• Average: 11
• Standard Deviation: 7

DSO:

• Average: 12
• Standard Deviation: 6

Bar to DSO:

• Average: 18
• Standard Deviation: 6

2nd Bar to DSO:

• Average: 26
• Standard Deviation: 5

3rd Bar to DSO: N/A, as the only citation available with numbers is James Tait with 98 heavy bomber sorties. 

[Ghost666]

Liking numbers my shelf, 6 years working statistics for the B-2 bomber, and 10 years as an Electronic Technician on the railroad, I appreciate your work.