A/C still circling waypoints

[turciosjo]

I've read posts from late 2024 saying the devs were aware of this issue and that it was being worked on for the next updates. Did that ever happen? I've tried on Version 1.07.1527 and on the steam beta Version 1.08 Build 1638 and I still have land strike missions circling the (Hold Start) waypoint for no reason. I recreated the issue using a simple mission on one of the tutorials (I'm trying to work my way through them after owning the game for quite a while). Strike Tutorial 3 - Complex Strike; I have created a single mission to attack the runway with 2 A/C, flight size of 1, no specified ToT, Take-Off Time, or any other changes.

If this is still being worked on, that's fine, I can wait, but since I saw posts saying this was supposed to be fixed in the previous updates I thought I should ask. I'm willing to manually control all my land strikes until this wonderful game gets updated, but if there's no plan to fix this issue then it's kind of a deal breaker; I'm not willing to manually control all land strikes *forever*.

Any info would be appreciated.

[Raptorx7_slith]

I'm unable to reproduce this; are you sure you're waiting long enough for them to continue on to their next waypoint? They do usually circle a bit to form-up.

[turciosjo]

They do eventually go on to their next waypoint, but they circle like 3-4 times beforehand, even though they’re all in the air, at the correct altitude, and are in flights of 1 so shouldn’t be waiting to form up with each other. Is that normal behaviour?

They’re wasting a ton of fuel for no reason, whereas if I control them manually I can fly them straight to the target without wasting all that fuel.

Edit: I’m not talking about small circles either. But circles where they go many nautical miles out of their way to circle around the waypoint for no apparent reason, even though they’re set to fly by themselves without a wingman. They waste over 1/5th of their fuel before proceeding to the next waypoint.

[turciosjo]

I'm unable to reproduce this; are you sure you're waiting long enough for them to continue on to their next waypoint? They do usually circle a bit to form-up.

I got some screenshots of the issue. Even with a single plane assigned to the mission, who's already at the right altitude before they get to the waypoint, it still circles (Hold Start) twice before continuing, for absolutely no reason other than to waste fuel. There are no other planes involved, so its not waiting to form up, its already at the right altitude, so it can't be that, and there's no set ToT or Take Off Time. What am I missing here?

Edit: Just realized they're doing it on (Hold End) as well, even when the mission only has a single aircraft assigned. So that's about 2-3 large circles around each of the two waypoints, for no reason at all. Just wasting time and fuel :,(

[turciosjo]

I figured out how to fix it, but I don't understand why it's happening. If I change Hold (Start) to a simple Turning Point (Ingress) and delete Hold(End) entirely, then the planes work as intended and there's no circling.

My question now is, why are those waypoints being generated in the first place? Will I have to manually delete them from all my land strikes?

It definitely seems like a bug, to have the Hold(Start) and Hold(End) waypoints generated for no reason other than to confuse the planes into circling, yet that's what the automatic flight plan generation does.

[Raptorx7_slith]

This is WAD, the hold waypoints are there to allow aircraft to form-up, we can look into adding exceptions for certain cases like single aircraft but this is a necessary to make sure strike missions are carried out properly. For now you will have to edit the initial hold waypoints as you described to skip it

[turciosjo]

This is WAD, the hold waypoints are there to allow aircraft to form-up, we can look into adding exceptions for certain cases like single aircraft but this is a necessary to make sure strike missions are carried out properly. For now you will have to edit the initial hold waypoints as you described to skip it

Okay, thank you. I'll just edit the waypoints manually then. Yeah some sort of exception would be nice, cause while I understand why it'd be necessary for when large groups are performing a strike, it seems a bit silly to waste that fuel when its either one aircraft or a couple aircraft that are already formed up right next to each other. Especially because they circle not only the Hold(start) but also the Hold(end), and circling both in any scenario seems unnecessary.