Player Rules

S3 Litany - 1 a/c type per life and no teleporting. There are some series specific exceptions but pilots that follow this simple saying will not break any rules. This has been changed in Sept 2017 with 3 lives for pilots. They must ask for a reset from the CM for any controller accidents and are responsible for tracking their lives during a frame.

Penalty Planes - specific a/c will be assigned to any pilot that breaks the hard and fast rules. Do not;

  • Fly after an aircraft loss without switching a/c types.
  • Land a field and switch to another field to take off from there without correcting it immediately.
  • Gun from flak positions, GVs or ships.

Pilot Sorties - Pilots must fly the a/c they are assigned from the series aircraft table. They may switch between the three types but once they loose an aircraft type they have to switch to another available one. Once all are used up they are done for the night. There is no 'teleporting' between fields unless allowed for by series specific rules(ie driving a truck or flying a C47). Correcting a teleporting error during play will stop you from being awarded a penalty plane.

Gunner Sorties - only pilots who fly multi-crew aircraft may gun for each other during a frame. All results as a gunner stand(ie kills and KIAs). Those pilots assigned to fighters cannot gun at any time during play. Dead fighter pilots can provide GCI or fly as an observer.

Flak/GVs/Ships - no player at any time may gun from flak, GVs or ships. In some series only assigned players may drive ships and they must be approved by the Frame CO beforehand or during play.

Bales/Ditches/Deaths - Every player flys an aircraft type until they die, bale, ditch or DWD in that aircraft. They have 3 aircraft types they may fly during a frame. Once all three are used up they are done for the night. They must land and be in the tower before the frame ends(T+180). If you continue to fight after the call to RTB when clear, expect to see darkness or something equally difficult as T+180 approaches.

Discos/DWD - Discos may replane at will from the last base they took off from, if in doubt ask the CM for a decision. Discos with damage(DWD) are awarded as a kill in the buffer and are considered to have baled and are done for the night. It is up to you to check with your squad to make sure you were not a confirmed kill, it is not the CMs responsibility. If you were and were reset you will be awarded a penalty plane.

Frame End - at T+160 all surface attacks must end and anything after this time will not be counted. Pilots will be advised to RTB when clear. It is up to each pilot to make sure they are clear. The frame ends at T+180, you must be in tower or near final approach. Because dark is not so dark anymore you will find the wind may pick up or you start to loose pieces of your plane to failures. There is some leeway for longer missions etc but this will be indicated in the planning stages of a frame.

Ditching - in the S3 once you have to ditch exit your plane quickly, do not try and linger to avoid the kill to a deserving player on the otherside. A player that does this will have the ditched location reported to nearby enemy planes.

Resets - a limited number of resets will be allowed in the first half of the frame to account for computer problems, sticky triggers and botched takeoffs. All deaths are final and will stand in the log. Weird things do at times happen and editing the logs can prove to be a major PITA. Lady Lucks can be used to remove a unfortunate death, once every 3 series.

Gatecrashers - Uninvited pilots may slip past the recruiting screen still get in and try and cause havoc. Kills of, or deaths by a gatecrasher are considered valid and will not be adjusted by the S3 Staff.

Arena Bugs - Some arena targets and AI routines may have bugs and their destruction may or may not occur to well-placed attacks. Regardless, all targets must be destroyed in the log to be counted for points or objectives. Some known bugs like torpedo attacks will be reviewed for frame scoring but the log and individual scores will not be adjusted.

Player Scoring - Points are awarded based upon the targets each player is credited with destroying during a frame. All minus points are compared with plus points to arrive at a final point total for each pilot. Survival modifiers are cumulative so that if a pilot bales and is captured he/she loses 1.50 pts (1.00 + 0.50). This is in the process of being updated and changed as the parser is improved and WB3 develops.

  • Kill of other class a/c(includes AI bombers) - 1.0 pt
  • Kill of bomber class a/c - 2.0 pt
  • Assist awarded in kill of e/a - 0.25 pt
  • Destroy ground target - 0.1 to 0.5 or even higher depending on the type of event.
  • Destroy GV or AI flak - 0.25 to 0.5 depending on the type of event.
  • Destroy AI ship - 1.0 to 2.0 pt
  • Pilot killed - minus 2.00 pt (a/c lost - includes warped/badbail - updated logs from OTB).
  • Pilot captured - minus 0.50 pt (a/c lost).
  • Pilot bales - minus 1.00 pt (a/c lost, kill awarded - includes DWD - changed from 0.5 in OTB)
  • Pilot ditches - minus 0.50 pt (a/c lost, no kill - changed from 0.25 in OTB).
  • DWD - minus 0.25(ac lost, kill awarded).

Squadron Rules

Responsibilities - Before the series starts each WB squad must update their list of player callsigns(full 6 digit form) and an estimate of the number of pilots they expect for each frame. There is a rotating list of Frame COs drawn from the active squads indicated before a series begins. It is up to each squad to provide a player or players to CO their side for one frame during the series they are designated.

A/C Assignments - Each squad is assigned a/c based upon the pilot numbers, play-balance and the need to share turns flying Axis and strike a/c. Numbers fluctuate and it is up to each squad CO to make sure that assigned a/c types are flown each frame. Once a squad is assigned a step value before a series it keeps that value for the entire series unless the number of pilots changes drastically. This is to ease the paperwork of planning for everyone involved.

Penalties - A basic penalty for breaking series specific rules will be a change to an offending squad's a/c type(s). Squads must make sure their pilots assigned penalty planes fly them in a timely manner. If the offending pilot is not available for some reason the squad must cover his error by assigning someone else to fly it.