Bug Report: All strikers fail to launch

[hermanhum]

All strikers fail to launch

All aircraft assigned to a strike mission fail to launch.

1. Run test scen in ANW SE 3.7.1 from the French Target side with Show All activated
2. At 02:15 of game time, 32 aircraft have been assigned to launch strike from Denmark. However, only 24 actually launch.

It is uncertain why the AI fails to launch all strike assets, but one hypothesis is that the AI has decided that 24 aircraft are sufficient to destroy the targets and will not launch extraneous assets. This is improper behaviour. The designer may anticipate heavy losses during ingress and thereby want additional assets assigned to the mission.

Sample file for the PlayersDb v6.4.9 at StrategyZoneOnline

[FreekS]

I very much support this. I noticed major issues with this in several of my scens.
I realise that the behaviour of the AI not attacking with more force than 'needed' is a feature of 3.7.
As a designer I've never felt I needed that; I have ample tools as designer to influence how many assets the AI can use on a mission. I'd really like this 'feature' to GO AWAY.

As an example in the scen in which Herman and I noticed this behaviour (Special ops Play); we had designed a set of missions that would make Danish F16's take off from Danish airbases and land on Dutch ones. As you know a Ferry mission cannot be built between two friendly sides. So we have made a strike mission on a third side (France) that would make 32 planes take off in groups of 4. After take-off we had an invisible aircraft first destroy the launching base then the target. With the only Danish airbase destroyed and the mission accomplished by the destruction of the target by the invisible plane, the Danish F16s then immediately landed on Dutch bases.

Converting this scenario from 3.6 to ANW has been a nightmare. Here's what I needed to do:
1. discover that visual sighting of ground units by other ground units now happens at a reduced range (this prevented a critical mission from launching) and thus changing the observer unit
2. Discover that only half of my F16s launched (on a mission late in the game) and put in additional targets and additional missions to make all 32 take off
3. Discover that the destruction of a link-side-unit that prevented the 32 F16s from taking off (to attack the French unless the Player had killed a specific unit by ensuring para's reached the danish base) caused the creation of a datalink between ENEMY sides in 3.7.1 but not in 3.7.0

A lot has been written on issues ANW-players encounter but if anyone wonders why there are relatively few scens guaranteed to work with ANW this is the reason.

Sorry needed to offload my steam. Several scens using ANW strengths wil be published shortly by Herman and me.

Freek