It is not necessarily easy to make complete sentences when you are locked in a cockpit and enemies are shooting at you. For this, the pilots have developed certain shortcuts, a language all their own. Like smugglers or soldiers (including commandos and vanguards, fighter pilots normally belong to the army too), they have their own code. And since Galactic Starfighter takes us into their world, here are some basics to understand their world.
I am using as the source for this article the cycle of novels of the X-wings, by Michael Stackpole. I removed the references that were too dated to keep only the essentials. The rest will have to be completed by us, the players, as we play Galactic Starfighter.
First of all, a clarification. The fighter pilots belong to the Hunting Army Corps, a sub-division of the Fleet forces. This means that they share a hierarchy but their uniforms have a number of variations in order to differentiate them from the cruiser personnel. They also have no connection with the army that we follow along the history of the soldier, as evidenced by the codex entry "ranks of the army of the republic" on Ord Mantell. The major of the Chaos Squad or even General Garza can therefore not give orders to the pilots of a squadron except in special circumstances that a Fleet officer must validate. And vice versa.
A pilot is considered new until he has shot down five enemies. If he succeeds in doing so in a single fight, he then becomes an ace, a well-respected situation of prestige. But unless his reputation is highly developed, he loses everything when transferred to another squadron. So plan the screenshots of your post-fight scoreboards to prove your talent.
Hunting combat units are generally squadrons of twelve pilots. A very practical number because it allows you to divide into six formations of two, four formations of three or three formations of four. As required. In each case, there is a leader and team members, called wingers. The formation of four, called flying, counts the three main officers of the squadron as a tip. Duo partners often see their bonds strengthened in civilian life, after all they have to rely on each other so much. The numbering of the pilots, for a faster identification, is generally done according to the adopted formation. That said, the squadrons present in Galactic Starfighter are most often formed for the occasion and therefore lack all this consistency.
Hunters' names are often made up of a name and a serial number. Too long to say it all. We must therefore find a short and precise nickname to designate the enemy ships. it can be an element of the shape, a distortion of their name, even a characteristic noise of their engine. We'll have to figure out what to call the different models of the two enemy fleets. With one exception: lightning. This term is already used to designate an advanced model, a prototype not yet deployed in series.
But apart from this one ... Do you have any ideas?
