Are Career Medals (At The Moment) Bugged Or Is This An Anomaly?

[[DNKN]GoNuts4Donuts17]

I've gotten back into flying the career mode after quite some time, starting with the Battle of Moscow as a Soviet I-16 pilot, a Major with the 495th IAP PVO at Rzhev. In just a span of not even two days yet, three sorties total, and I've been able to amass seven A/C kills (3 109's and 4 110's) and three convoy vehicles, yet every sortie has ended with me recieving an "Order of the Red Star" and my last so far receiving that, and the "Order of the Red Banner". I remember on some previous playthroughs on the Career mode about a year ago only receiving one OotRS and receiving other medals like the Medal for Courage and Medal for Battle Merit, Order of Lenin, etc. But never 3 OotRS in 3 sorties.

 

The same is going on the a German BoM career. 11 A/C kills in 6 sorties, usually Il-2's and Pe-2's with the some MiG-3 or I-16 thrown in. First day on my first sortie I received the Iron Cross 2nd class for shooting down two MiG's. Second sortie that day I got three unescorted Il-2M41's and was "wounded" despite taking no damage of any kind. and landing my 109 free of any holes. I was sideline four days and was awarded the Black Wound Badge. First sortie back and I bag two Peshkas and two MiGs and get the Iron Cross First Class. Next Sortie that day two I-16's while escorting 111's but no awards for that. Previously it had taken me several more kills in many more sorties to even get the Iron Cross First Class despite racking up kills in what could be described as at an Erich Hartmann rate.

 

Are the medals bugged in how they are awarded now and when/what for, or has the award criteria somehow changed?

[LukeFF]

Scoring kills that fast? Yes, you're being awarded medals at the proper rate. The IC 2nd Class is given for ~2 kills and the 1st Class for ~8 in the East (there's a different scoring system for kills in the West). 

 

I'd have to check the Soviet awards, but again, that sounds about right. If you had missions with multiple kills, it's not unusual to be awarded an Order of the Red Star or Red Banner. 

 

Ok, I had a check of the files - all is working right. The two Iron Crosses are awarded for the kill counts I mentioned above, and the Order of the Red Star can be awarded multiple times for shooting down two aircraft in one sortie (the Order of the Patriotic War can also be awarded for this achievement, from Stalingrad onwards).

 

One thing to keep in mind is the Soviets had much different thresholds for giving out awards. A 10-victory pilot, besides being a double ace, was considered a national hero and was formally eligible to receive the Order of Lenin and the Hero of the Soviet Union title. With the odds the Soviet air forces were facing in 1941-42, scoring that many victories was a very big deal. The Order of the Red Star was typically awarded for a pilot's first 3 kills (again, by regulation), so scoring 2 kills in one sortie is a way of your commander saying "officially, the requirement is 3, but you did so well on that one mission we're going to award you the medal now." In other words, there was the official, written policy, and then there were the exceptions, which were quite common in the USSR.

 

On the other side, the Iron Cross was awarded very liberally by the Germans. It can be considered the rough equivalent of an Air Medal or Distinguished Flying Cross.

Edited September 30, 2021 by LukeFF

[AEthelraedUnraed]

2 hours ago, LukeFF said:

On the other side, the Iron Cross was awarded very liberally by the Germans.

There were about 4,500,000 Iron Crosses 2nd class awarded, and an additional 300,000 1st class. Very liberal indeed.

[[DNKN]GoNuts4Donuts17]

16 hours ago, LukeFF said:

Scoring kills that fast? Yes, you're being awarded medals at the proper rate. The IC 2nd Class is given for ~2 kills and the 1st Class for ~8 in the East (there's a different scoring system for kills in the West). 

 

I'd have to check the Soviet awards, but again, that sounds about right. If you had missions with multiple kills, it's not unusual to be awarded an Order of the Red Star or Red Banner. 

 

Ok, I had a check of the files - all is working right. The two Iron Crosses are awarded for the kill counts I mentioned above, and the Order of the Red Star can be awarded multiple times for shooting down two aircraft in one sortie (the Order of the Patriotic War can also be awarded for this achievement, from Stalingrad onwards).

 

One thing to keep in mind is the Soviets had much different thresholds for giving out awards. A 10-victory pilot, besides being a double ace, was considered a national hero and was formally eligible to receive the Order of Lenin and the Hero of the Soviet Union title. With the odds the Soviet air forces were facing in 1941-42, scoring that many victories was a very big deal. The Order of the Red Star was typically awarded for a pilot's first 3 kills (again, by regulation), so scoring 2 kills in one sortie is a way of your commander saying "officially, the requirement is 3, but you did so well on that one mission we're going to award you the medal now." In other words, there was the official, written policy, and then there were the exceptions, which were quite common in the USSR.

 

On the other side, the Iron Cross was awarded very liberally by the Germans. It can be considered the rough equivalent of an Air Medal or Distinguished Flying Cross.

 

Thank you for the detailed explaination! It has been a while since I played through the career mode and maybe it just seemed odd I was getting all these awards so fast, but perhaps I just forgot that I had gotten them that early or perhaps flew more conservatively and not quite as aggressively. Good to know it is in fact working right.

[Eisenfaustus]

On 9/30/2021 at 4:00 AM, GoNuts4Donuts17 said:

despite racking up kills in what could be described as at an Erich Hartmann rate.

Fun fact: Hartmann didn’t score at a high rate - he became the ace of aces by surviving 1500 combat sorties and steadily adding a kill every 4 or 5 missions in average

A deadly high rate scorer - once the desert took liqueur and girls from him - was Marseille with up to 17 a day.