I'm sure their aircraft get farmed by anyone with even half decent fighters, since the fighter/bomber attribute also contributes to an aircrafts defense. You can't halve your aircrafts ability for some repair and restore (restore is easy to cap and delayed till repair cap with no actual repairers? gj ruining those aircraft, that is so ridiculous Im not even going to try simulate it to see the ability the fighters and bombers could actually achieve cos I know that to try hit 35m repair with 8 aircraft would need you to severely delay their pilot promotions). And as for other factors than crew ability, ability is the name of the topic.

Convenient though that elite fighters now make the best fighters, and elite bombers now make the best bombers, no?

If you ever had any intention of filling your pilots with experts and applying as many vets as can physically fit onto that pilot then yes, you have lost some potential. Quite a bit of potential lost? Not really, you can still have competetive pilots, but compared to CV players who HAVE maxed their pilots, just like 99% of other CVs, you wont stand much chance of overcoming them. It's hard to explain really, yes the loss of potential is a shame but you musnt think your pilots cannot perform anymore. Players who truly do min-max their pilots to reach their perfect, maximum potential are rare and of course, aircraft quality and level are both important factors to take into account. KM is a strong fighter nation, as for correcting any bad decisions, what can you do? Add more vets, add more experts... obvious choices available to anyone, or start again, which I don't really believe is necessary.

Throwing out the most extreme numbers so I can to indicate the difference;

Base 13 KM, boosted, 40% vets, rest experts, lvl 120. (Best possible KM pilot configuration)

Kept as fighters from 40 (260 vets, 390 experts) = 5,122,260 ability

Classed on time (218 vets, 327 experts) = 4,683,294 ability

UK Highest possible ability (Worst of the best) = 4,593,362 ability

So you can see, the loss of ability is alot (450k), but even your classed on time fighters when MAXED have more ability than the best possible UK fighter ability, aswell as having a better fighter aircraft.

sigh...

Scouts are measured in both their offense / defence ability by the stat "Aircraft"

Fighters are measured in both their offense / defence ability by the stat "Fighter"

Bombers are measured in both their offense / defence ability by the stat "Bomber"

Of course, always the true ability of that stat (meaning stat value multiplied by vets & experts)

Further, you need to take into account the stats of the plane used (that's why a bomber is good at bombing, but even with high offense/defence can normally not cut it against a fighter).

I came up with the following values for KM Bombers;

100 vets, classed as Bomber; 3,213,660

100 vets, classed as Ace Bomber; 3,263,232

100 vets, classed as Sqd Ldr Bomber; 3,237,204

Which, as Bong pointed out, is indeed correct. However, if you try to reach a pilots greatest potential...

40% vets, 60% experts, classed as Bomber; 4,837,404

40% vets, 60% experts, classed as Ace Bomber; 4,775,390

40% vets, 60% experts, classed as Sqd Ldr Bomber; 4,611,209

Those KM bombers cannot exceed those TA values. The maximum bomber ability any KM bomber could achieve is 5,043,324, which is a lvl 120 +14 (Hero sailor), boosted, 40% vets, 60% experts delayed basic Bomber.

HELP!!!! lol.

I have lvl 120 12/10 (12ft/10air) KM ft that I brought up from neuts, they are boosted, have single figure recruits and around 130-150 vets each. They are also classed on time every time.

I don't really see much difference in ability? I mean on the odd occasion I have trouble with a 120 IJN or KM CV but usually if I micro I overcome that. And I just assumed it was down to the overvetting most people do, plus using seaman. I have no seaman either btw.

Exactly how much effect does these differences in TA have?

Please don't flame me, my KM CV crew was only the second crew I levelled and it was a good few years ago.

Special Forces, Rookie Pilot, Recon Pilot and Ace Recon all add 5 men every level, so the level you choose to manage these classes wont matter. A recon pilot will have 650 men at 120 no matter how you class it.