I've made a few subtle tweaks, mainly to night ops, and minor fixes and I will be testing through the weekend. If nothing comes up between now and then I will be submitted to Matrix for publishing Monday morning.

I want to thank AKL for sending me back to the drawing board more than once to root ...

Thanks for the input as always. Our defending styles and expectations are likely different and I would like to hear what others think about this version, both attacking and defending.

Here is my style when intercepting:
I find that whenever I can get patrols into position a few 1000' above the ...

If you see incomplete messages or mouseovers that leave the aircraft name out, these are being addressed (I thought I caught all of the culprits, but there were more.)

This is a manifestation of fixing one of the primary issues that I found with the code this last go around. It's difficult to ...

I just played 1.06.83 for a bit and seeing this: a full group of Me410's chasing a single escort across the sea. This does not happen anymore with the current patch.

While I appreciate your input I have to disagree. I fixed so many legacy issues this time that I'm amazed it worked at all before.

To me, this patch looked like the Interceptors were being almost too aggressive against the incoming bomber stream and the attacks on the stragglers seemed about right ...

I just released a patch on this thread: https://forums.matrixgames.com/viewtopic.php?t=416740 that addresses several issues, including shuttle missions. You can load a current save with the patch and hopefully it fixes what you are talking about.

One helpful feature I added for shuttles shows a ...

Release Candidate 4 fixes (God willing) all reported issues with the game, including a few that I found myself. Compatible with current saved games. Download from the link below, unzip, and overwrite your current btr.exe file.

Interception, shuttle missions, drop tanks, wanderlusts, all have been ...

With tax season behind me, I'm back full time on to fixing these annoying glitches and getting the last patch out. I've made good progress, and apologize for the delay and leaving you all with a broken game.

AI Intercept bug: trying to find out why the zerstörers love to break off the attack to ...

I'm not sure how this interception issue manifested itself yet, but I agree it's still there. It's tax crunch time (my new post-retirement gig: 40+ tax returns for my wife's clients) so I will need some time to get this all addressed.

I worked out the bugs with the shuttles a few patches ago, but acknowledging here that they are bugged again. I'll get this fixed.

You don't need a fresh install.

Typhoons are very fast aircraft (I was surprised when I checked their stats) and difficult to intercept properly along the coast. Sound like the LW did the best they could going after the low hanging fruit here. Moving on.

What I'm looking for is improvement in ...

Ok mate. I'll keep testing this new one. I was only going to try the others for about 10 turns each to determine where the intercept bug first appeared; seems to be after 1.06.83 HFX2, as it started in the next iteration. Stay tuned for the next round of testing ... (I must admit if it drives me ...

Please instead test the new attached RC2 version at the beginning of this thread. It fixes the fuel issue (bugged when I fixed the rocket issue) and straightens out why some of the interceptors were making nonsensical target choices.

Your testing is invaluable. We are trying to release a final ...

Could it be that the ability to now see what the flight is actually targeting is skewing perception here? I'm not saying things don't still need fixing, I just need to know what I might have done (and when) to possibly break things that were better before.

fair enough, I noticed some of this when testing again this morning. I found some things that should help and attached the new "release candidate" to the first post.

I appreciate your testing this.

@AKL: go ahead and continue with your current game. After the action phase ends you can make the swap and you should be OK.

@johntxic: I am able to change AC type for the Typhoon, unless they have loaded rockets. You will need to unload the rockets first.

Who needs patience when you are on the spectrum? At least that my wife's take on me. I'll be 65 in a few months and this type of stuff keeps my synapsis firing.

Anyway as promised, Hotfix 4 should address the above issues. Defender needs to watch the play closely with highlighting on and re-assign ...

@jeffrok: The hotfix only replaces the btr.exe so I can't answer what may be happening.
@AKL: I'll look into this asap, thanks. I'm currently working on some odd behavior with the RAF in ED, but I' close to fixing that. I'm familiar with the freeze-ray effect on some units and that needs to go away ...

As promised. Download and extract the attachment and overwrite your current btr.exe

Tries to address all issues reported to date.

Please test and report back in this thread.

OK its looking good and I finally worked through all these issues I think. It's been "fix one thing and break another" for the past few weeks but I'll keep testing and hopefully have a new HFX3 out before the weekend.

Thanks for your patience.