Assigning Routes to Patrol Areas?

[76mm]

It looks like my aircraft get confused if there is an obstacle between their base and their patrol sector--is there any way to assign them a route around the obstacle?

For example, in "Duelists" I'd like for my aircraft in the Kola peninsula to patrol NE of Iceland, but they can't fly over Norway in this scenario, and instead of flying up and around it, they just wander along the Norwegian border. How can I get them to fly over the hump while keeping them assigned to the mission?

[TeTeT]

Have you tried giving a manual route via f3? I'm new to the game, so there might be other ways as well...

[76mm]

Yes, I have, but the route doesn't seem to take because it already has a mission (patrol). I can take the aircraft off the mission, fly give them a route until they have a straight-line route back to the patrol sector, then re-assign them to the mission, but this defeats the whole purpose of having missions.

[Tomcat84]

Do this. Assign the aircraft to the patrol, pause the sim, hit F3 and plot a course. Once it gets there it'll revert to patrolling. Works on this side. If you do it while unpaused it sometimes gets a bit fidgety about insisting on plotting towards the patrol area.

Let me know if it works for you!

[76mm]

Thanks for the tip. While it works, it seems like a partial solution for at least two reasons:

1) I guess I will have to do this for every aircraft taking on for the patrol mission for the duration of the scenario, which will be very tedious...

2) And worse, presumably I'll have to do it for every aircraft returning from a patrol mission as well, or it will just mill around on the Norwegian border until it runs out of fuel.

Frankly it would probably be easier to just dispense with the missions altogether and manually plot the routes I'd like for them to patrol.

Or am I missing something?

[deepdive]

I got around this problem in H3 by making an invisible base at the North tip of Novaya Semlya, or at Franz Josefs land,
also at Svalbard if that island is not in use.

Bjørn

[DeltaIV]

I've wandered into this problem in my own scenarios. Yes, partial solution is to plot the course manually from what i remember. It's caused by the no-fly zones -- if they are between the the A/C's home base and their patrol area, they will get weird and just stick around the border of no-fly zone. I think that that this is up to devs. [&o]

I think that this problem relates only to patrols. If it's strike, it works well (they avoid the no-fly and fly to target).

[Marder]

I have a general question about route in missions.
Is it possible a mission to plan ahead (eg a ground attack) consisting of waypoints?
Or do I have to start the group first and then set the waypoints?
I find this rather cumbersome.

[Gunner98]

What also works in some situations is to create a Support mission ( I call mine 'Holding area'), Put the Holding Area free and clear of any Nav Zones - Assign air unit to that mission, then as the game progresses you can change mission assignments as you wish. It is still cumbersome but it helps sometimes.

[mikmykWS]

Hi guys,

An advanced strike planner is planned as an add later down the road. This will include aircraft and missile way pointing and a number of features normally found in flight simulations. You'll notice as time goes by and builds are posted that it will start to take shape and we are getting there.

Mike

[76mm]

Mike thanks for the update, but just to clarify, will the "strike planner" also cover patrols (or only "strikes")?

[Marder]

You could program a new mission type.
For example, "custom" where you can create waypoints.
So the user can decide whether it's an air raid, a patrol or whatsoever.

[mikmykWS]

ORIGINAL: 76mm

Mike thanks for the update, but just to clarify, will the "strike planner" also cover patrols (or only "strikes")?

Our hope is anywhere you wish to use it.