2 Aircraft mission bugs?

[Wilhammer]

1. P-38s fly out of Lae to provide LRCAP over invasion TF at Medang. With Invasion force is a CVE TF, (the 2 you get first), with Wildcats on board providing CAP.

Problem, P-38s are reported as intercepted by the Allied Wildcats.

2 squadrons, full strength, excellent condition.

The AI sends wave after wave of Betty's, Nell's, and all that oppose them is about 30 Wildcats and 2-6 P-38s. After several rounds of this, the P-38 participation jumps up to 20 or more.

(BTW, these unescorted Japanese Bombers are getting devastated, and every time the AI gets a chance, they fly more fodder in. The Wildcats are raking in impresive kill records, and the P-38s too.)


2. Bombers out of Lae, B-17s flying at 5,000 feet, most of the B-17s in the game at this point. They keep bombing, and bombing, turn after turn, and though fatigue does go up (but not too fast), the experience of the bombers sore into the high 80s, and morale never falls below the low 90s, high 80s. Better yet, NO operational losses. The bombers are as in a good condition when they started flying a week ago as they are today.

To cap it off, I assigned gads of P-39s on low level (100ft) ground attacks with them from Lae, and they seem to suffer the same 'fate' as well.

I have al the saves, The one saved before the turn ran, the autosave, and the save of the turn just after play. Which do I send and to who?

I am playing the latest version of the game (2.20) and the game started under 2.20.

Oh, it is the scenario that goes from Aug 42 until Dec 31, 1943, and I am in my third week of January 1943.

[pasternakski]

Yep, that "friendly fire" bug (#1 in your discussion) is a real pain in the @$$. Have you had your strike aircraft attack your own ships? I have seen this more than once and have developed a minor workaround.

The problem seems to arise when you have CAP over your ships at a base where there are enemy forces (when you are conducting an amphibious invasion, for example) and you assign remote air groups to attack in that hex. Next thing you know, your fighters are fighting each other, and you are sticking torpedos and bombs into your own boats.

What I have found necessary is to forget about the remote airstrikes and leave the job up to my carriers on the scene (or vice-versa). An alternative is to keep your carriers a hex or two away and cover your transports and ground units with LRCAP, but I prefer to stick my carriers into the same hex, because the air cover works better and you kill two (or more) birds with one stone by covering your carriers and your transport groups (and surface combat TFs that you may have sent along for the ride) with a single CAP. Besides, I have seen remote airstrikes clash with my LRCAP fighters, as well.

This really needs to be fixed, I think. I don't have any saved games, unfortunately, because I have been working around this problem for a long time. If I see it again, I will keep the save, and I encourage anyone who experiences this to do the same and send it to Matrix for examination.

Thanks for pointing this out, Wil, I had almost forgotten about it.

[Grotius]

I've had the "friendly fire" bug too. I sent a savegame or two to Matrix, but I think they said they had trouble reproducing the bug on their own machines, which means it may be a hard one to fix. I hadn't thought of Pasternaski's workaround, so I'll try that. Matrix, have you had any luck with this one? When you get it, it never goes away.

Wilhammer, I can't comment on your "uber" B-17 crews, except to say that Allied level bombers in general seem a bit overpowered to me, and this maybe be one more instance of that. Then again, I like to play the IJN, so I may be biased.

[Grotius]

One more thing. In the past, Ross Moorhouse has invited people to send him savegames at

rossm@matrixgames.com

but right now I think Ross said he's preoccupied with some non-work stuff, so I don't know who the right person is. You could try Ross, see what happens. He's very helpful.

[Wilhammer]

Several versions ago, I did experience the bug in its worst manifestation, the Naval Airstrike on friendlies. That time, itwas near Fischafen, and the damge was considerable to my fleet.

Of course, you have to really pay attention to notice these bugs, as you don't get combat animation screens or other combat reports, just the attacking message, and damage is noticed in the next turn.

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While I am at it, in the same game, I placed at Karewina an AV and a PBY. Meanwhile, I have taken the Solomons fight all they way to New Georiga and Vella Lavella (invaded and bases built) and Dubadura/Salamanaca onto Lae and Buna, and the AI was fixated on good sized air attacks on the bases at Karawina, just the AV, some supplies, and a PBY squadron. Day after day, Vlas and 30 or so Zeroes wopuld attack it, and once in awhile, some Kates would join in. They were NOT coming from carriers. They were from Rabaul. This has been going on for a couple of months or more. I put a stop to it by ambushing the next attack with a bunch of LRCAP. Or so I thought; after recovery of a couple of days, they came back.

[Wilhammer]

Follow up..

Lae USAAF air groups, set on Naval Attack, launched attack against US Invasion force at Madang.

Result, 4 badly damaged transports, and lots of friendly planes shot up.