WingManager

A probably badly spelt anime pretty-boy.  Um.. Baramunk-Sama is an example.  That didn't link.  Appropriate page would be WingWing? but that's mostly content free.  Aha - it WAS badly spelt.  Bishounen is the right WikiWord.  --Vitenka

It exists, sort of. It's called X-Com:Interceptor; and it's quite enjoyable, fun and diverting. If the space combat handled as well as WingCommander or TieFighter it would be superb. -StuartFraser

I skipped that XCom, on the advice that it was rubbish.  Looks like I made a bad call.  I was thinking of a pure stats game, no interactive combat at all, though.  --Vitenka

Hmm...well, I haven't played any other X-Coms, so I'm not comparing it against those. But I think it's reasonably playable; the resource management seems almost identical to the previous XComs; and the tactical decision making of how to deploy your somewhat limited fighter force (Interceptors are *expensive*, y'know?) is pretty diverting as well.

So far, so XCom4. Although it split the abilities into Flying ability, firing accuracy, and psionic ability instead of offence/defence.

Reasonable. If you're a carrier wing commander then there's an argument that you really ought to be flying (Commander Air Group on US Navy carriers is a pilot, which is about the only RealWorld approximation), but we'll handwave that for now. You probably ought to be given specific missions to run by the carrier captain (patrol area X, escort convoy A, interdict convoy B and then destroy capital ship C), and then plan them out, assigning fighters and pilots to missions (based on relative strengths/weaknesses, presumably). The random events sound cool, and I'll leave it to the people who play ParentingSims to discuss the human side of stuff, but I like the idea.  -RA

I was assuming 'fight this / protect that / patrol the other' would be given as random (or plotted?) events - while 'patrol' would otherwise be a way to keep your pilots on their toes and out of each others hair (with a risk of combat)

Orders from the carrier captain/admiral ought to be plotted. In general, the WingCommander would know or have a reasonable idea of what missions to expect coming up, so having them random wouldn't make much sense. Random (or with a given probability) behaviour would be enemy raids and your pilots misbehaving. -RA

You'd know (in general) what was coming up - but you'd not know which would be assigned to your squadron, surely?  (Willing to be convinced on this, not ever having actually held such a job)  And pilots misbehaving would be driven by the stats and your failure to keep your pilots working together nicely.  --Vitenka

I'd assumed you were commander of the entire air wing, rather than just a single squadron; it makes for more tactical decision making that way, since a squadron of identical fighters has (in general) rather limited capabilities and thus a very limited set of missions it would be asked to do. I'll admit to never having held such a job either; although but for my eyesight there's a reasonable chance that I would have joined the Royal Navy; so at one point it wasn't entirely out of the question. In the case of a squadron commander; well, you'd know what missions your squadron was good at. If (to use TieFighter examples) you commanded a squadron of TIE Bombers, odds are you wouldn't be given an interception mission. So, again, you'd have an idea of which roles your pilots would be filling. -RA

I figured that the pilots would probably be capable of flying anything, but would be better with certain ships. It makes the game better...

That was the plan. I figured the game ought to throw you enough variety of missions that specialising wouldn't be a serious option, though. -RA