why won't tomcats FORM UP?

[leftydad]

I’m a newbie, using the first (air) tutorial. I’ve set a reference point for a “form up” mission (as described in the “walk through” post) northwest of NAS Fallon (training location), launching the Tomcats. But instead of flying NW to the form up reference point, no matter what I do the Tomcats all race off to the southeast, towards all the targets.

What am I doing wrong? Why won’t they fly to the “form up” reference point until I can switch them to a patrol mission closer to the target area? Is the enemy radar attracting them? If so, how can I get the Tomcats to ignore that until I’m ready to switch them to a patrol mission?

[jomni]

What type of mission is Form Up?

[leftydad]

Support

[Casinn]

Guessing you are launching them with an AAW patrol mission and they are seeing a target and going for it. Try selecting a few and Launch as Group without a mission and they should let you send them wherever.

edit: nm, just tested this with a support mission and a reference point out of way, they did indeed beeline to the targets.

[jomni]

Well some reported a bug that they like to attack no matter what command you give. They are naturally trigger happy I guess. It is a self preservation behav ior. Kill or be killed.

[leftydad]

It's described in the AAR section, AIR TUTORIAL FOR BEGINNERS. Creating a FORM UP mission (a supply mission).

[Casinn]

Just tried taking them off with radar off and support mish and they still beelined. Manually launching them as a group they loitered around base fine, then you can right click assign them to mission when ready.

I'd recommend launching as a group manually most of the time anyhow, I've seen groups not auto launch correctly at times when one aircraft returns to parking spot and then group won't complete. Easy to assign them to whatever mission you want them on once airborne. They will report when they launch and are ready for orders.

[CptHowdy]

yeah this has a thread of its own in the tech support. a good workaround casinn but they really should do what I assign them to do. when the planes launch in the air tutorial they are facing north, radar isn't even pointing to the southeast yet they still turn and make a beeline toward the bogeys.

[Casinn]

well I'd assume they were picking it up the enemy radar on RWR even if their radar was pointing in another direction, but 100% agree they shouldn't beeline for enemies without an AAW mission unless being fired on. Should go to the requested Support mission wp.

[BKLANDIN]

May have to do with "inherit from parent" under ROE. Looking at "Emcon Settings" on the "Doctrine & ROE for missions" tab in the mission editor when creating the AAW, "inherit from parent" is checked. When you press the "Start\Resume" button the enemy base is immediately identified on the map. It may be a that there is a link to this "sensor" detection by the base that gets passed on to the F-14s and causes them to go after targets detected by home base? That would be my guess.
I will unckeck that box and see what happens the next time I play that tutorial.

[BKLANDIN]

I just tried it and their RWRs detect bogeys on launch. Now checking to see if they will breach the mission area. I have never goten identical behaviour when I have replayed this tutorial, but that is to be expected. Looking closely at my ROE.

[BKLANDIN]

CAP performed as advertised based on their ROE. Won air superiority using just 6 Tomcats. The SEAD will be easier now.
I hope that I understood your question about the unit just basicaly doing things out of turn, or that the CAP was not operating correctly?

[BKLANDIN]

Here is the other screenshot, it will only allow one per message.

[CptHowdy]

ORIGINAL: BKLANDIN

CAP performed as advertised based on their ROE. Won air superiority using just 6 Tomcats. The SEAD will be easier now.
I hope that I understood your question about the unit just basicaly doing things out of turn, or that the CAP was not operating correctly?

oh they will perform if your CAP is set for the bombing range. 6 tomcats will take out the bogeys. set up a CAP to the north of the base and launch. your planes will still fly southeast even though you have told them not to investigate targets outside the patrol area and don't fire on non-hostiles. thankfully the scenario creator didn't have some random bogeys coming in from that direction [;)]