Manual control of speed/altitude?

[mikeCK]

Ok, so I organize a mission to attack an airbase. Two questions:
1. How do I get the strike group to take a specific route to the target (through mountains) as opposed for making a bee-line. I guess the only way is to uncheck "ignore route when attacking"? Will that make them follow the route points?

2. I want them to fly at low altitude to fake advantage of the terrain...how? When I try to set the altitude, It just instantly resets. If I check "manual", it immediately unchecks it. I can do it for single aircraft unassigned to a mission but that doesn't help

[mikmykWS]

Launch aircraft as groups. Plot using the altitude and speed you'd like with the path almost reaching target. Now create a strike mission assigning that group to the strike. So the airgroup will follow the plot and once completed will start the mission logic. Make sure that if you do anything manual to uncheck the manual override checkbox when the plot is complete to allow the aircraft to move into weapons launch parameters if you have one thats tight.

[mikeCK]

do I have to leave the mission as "inactive" until the last minute or can I jus set up the mission normally (active) and it will automatically follow the plot I set?

I ask because when I set up a mission, and THEN try to plot a course , they don't follow it... Just go right to the target. Is the key to plot and THEN create the mission?

[mikmykWS]

Launch the aircraft first so they are airborne.
Create the plots but leave enough airspace so they can get to a speed and alt if they need to.
Create the missions in the mission editor
When they get to the end of the plot make sure you uncheck the manual override.

[mikeCK]

Got it, thanks.

Btw, since I mentioned it, why would I want to create a mission and set it to NOT be "active"? Why not wait to create it when you need it?

[mikmykWS]

In the event editor there is an activate mission action so that you can trigger a mission to occur later.

In play mode you can use it to hold a mission until you're ready to launch.

In my first example you could of manually plotted that whole mission as well and used the manual weapons allocation dialog to drop the weapons. You just need to make sure that your aircraft is within launch parameters to drop the weapon.