(08-17-2015, 07:54 PM)"Prowler Wrote: Back on topic, the whole kid pilot thing is fine if there's some kind of A.I. helping or some excuse as to how a kid actually manages to properly fly.
Kid piloting is also a good way to explain why you suck at PvP.
"Back on topic", my ass. It's by far not about the capability to fly, but the required maturity and responsibility to fly. Of course it's easy to miss the train of though if you bury it below tons of retarded images.
Maturity and responsibility can vary depending on the culture that governs the concept here and there.
You can say that a house Navy wouldn't accept any recruit under 18, but you can also say that the Farmers allow for a pipsqueak to pilot one of their ships from a certain lower age.
Blood Dragons might accept pilots not by a specific age, but by the standard of completing a "coming of age" ritual, or something like the Corsairs with their test of courage (and life) on the Malvada cloud.
Once the standard for that specific case is known, one can deduce how it could take a leap from governing a small fighter to commanding something bigger.
But alas, not everything is set in stone, so you will always get the young general at the cruiser, and the old, almost retired fighter pilot who doesn't seem to grasp the difference between left and right turn.