[FIXED] Strike Tutorial 3 - Aircraft not dropping bombs

[Somnus]

I'm setting up the missions in the mission editor exactly as suggested in the side briefing for this mission. The strike packages are mostly either 2 ship or 1 ship, so I'm changing to that in the mission editor to avoid the "This mission will not launch" message.

All the aircraft are launching, but they're simply flying to the IP and the release waypoints (which are in the same spot, a little before the airport, rather than IP being before, and the release being on the target), turning around, and heading home. Most never drop their bombs.

Any idea what I might be doing wrong? What do you need to help me troubleshoot this?

[mavfin]

Well, I'm simply not going to be playing for a while. Too inconsistent. Works perfect one time, the next time it's dropping iron bombs from 36000 feet controlled by a mission, *if* it drops bombs at all. Seems like off-axis attacks don't work at all...

AAW ships are also very inconsistent. One time, they defend themselves fine, the next time they just watch as the missiles come in...

If I still have CMANO for now. Just hope they track down the issues with missions and AAW ships.

[DWReese]

All the aircraft are launching, but they're simply flying to the IP and the release waypoints (which are in the same spot, a little before the airport, rather than IP being before, and the release being on the target), turning around, and heading home. Most never drop their bombs.

That's exactly what has happened to me. After arriving at the target, they either remain at 36,000 and circle around, or they RTB. The aircraft logic keeps the plane at 36,000 feet and it refuses to let the plane drop down to at least 35,000 feet which is the cutoff for dropping bombs. (They should be down around 2000 feet, not 36,000 feet.)

[DWReese]

AAW ships are also very inconsistent. One time, they defend themselves fine, the next time they just watch as the missiles come in...

This "unit not defending itself" issue is not just limited to AAW planes. Ground SAM units are doing the exact same thing. And, if you use the Editor and switch sides, then you can see that the Weapon is GREEN and is capable of firing, it merely chooses not to do so.

At this point, as you said, there is no consistency. Originally, I thought that it was a database issue, but I have experimented with scenarios that have recently been updated, and they do the exact same thing.

[Dimitris]

Thanks! Logged, and we'll give priority to this as it seems to affect a lot of stuff.

[Dimitris]

Can you please give this test build a try: https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.a ... 91&mpage=1

[ultradave]

... deleted, wrong tutorial.

[Somnus]

The test build didn't work, unfortunately.

I need to make a correction this, this is Strike Tutorial 3, not 4.



You can see here, the flight path created in the mission manager, according to the side briefing text, puts Blue Strike #1's IP and release waypoints (5 and 6) at the same place, outside of the target.

I can manually tell them to attack the target just fine.

[msinnot1]

Using the Test build attached to this thread, I've experienced some strange and inconsistent results. I ran two separate tests of Tutorial Strike 3 - Complex Strike and had the same experiences both times. What I saw was that a strike mission against the one runway composed of a 2 ship flight armed with anti-runway bombs worked perfectly both times. Medium damage to the runway once and heavy damage on the second run through. However, similar setup strike missions against the tarmacs, ammo pallets, or hangers, using cluster bombs, incendiaries or dumb bombs exhibited the problems described in this thread. In both runs, these strikes would turn around and RTB at the IP point. It looks like these missions would not generate a Release point correctly so the planes would hit IP and return home...

[Somnus]

Much better wording it than I did! Yes, the first strike against the runway would work, but none of the others would.

[ultradave]

Ran this with the new executable. Seems to work ok. Started with the runway attack. Then incindiaries against the Avgas (using just a SHIFT-F1 attack), then set up a mission with 2 x 2 flights of cluster bombs against parking area and control tower. Flights took off, split up into two off axis attacks, IP before the target, dropped their ordnance as expected. The flight paths look much more like what would be expected, not the example above. Sorry I can't do a picture - screen shots and parallels desktop aren't cooperating, but the save is from just before the 3rd strike with cluster bombs.

From my previous post, Tutorial 4 works. However, flying NOE, ignore plotted course was set to NO by default, so that there is some manipulation to be done to get the Harriers to attack the targets. They will stay NOE even after an attack order, unless you uncheck terrain following and uncheck manual override. This isn't mentioned in the tutorial instructions. BUT, it appears to me that the aircraft behaved as they were told to do by the parameters set, and did in fact attack once I "fixed" the parameters.

Hope that helps.

Attached is the 3rd strike mission save (cluster bombs).

[Somnus]

Did you set up the flight paths though, or just create missions in the mission editor like the side briefing instructs?

If I manually order them to attack, like using a SHIFT-F1 attack, it does work. But if just using the mission editor to set it up, that's where issues occur. The same thing happened when I moved on to Strike Tutorial 4

[ultradave]

I used the Mission Editor for the strike that is about to happen in the save, and the attack goes through successfully. For the previous one (which is before this save), I just used SHIFT-F1. That worked also.


In #4, I did not use the Mission Editor because of the low level flying. I manually attacked using SHIFT-F1, with one plane at each 2 targets, 1 bomb allocated per target. Approaching at NOE level, no attack happened. Tried to change altitude up to 15K or so, and nothing happened. Then I realized that Ignore Plotted Course was set to NO. When I restarted from a save, set Ignore to YES, manually allocated, both aircraft climbed and attacked their appropriate targets. I think it's just the scenario that needs some tweaking to parameters, or more instructions on how to handle the aircraft as they approach the target. I did NOT use the Mission Editor for this one, figuring that the SAMs would make short work of the Harriers before they could get to the target. So like I said above, it appears they are behaving as the scenario parameters demand.

[mavfin]

Yeah, I ran the old Basic Air Operations, 1983 from CMANO in CMO with the new build. MUCH better. Still a few glitches, but, strike missions and SAMs/AAW ship auto-engage is a lot better.
Still some small issues, of course, but not the game-breaking stuff there was before this build.

[JOhnnyr]

ORIGINAL: mavfin

Yeah, I ran the old Basic Air Operations, 1983 from CMANO in CMO with the new build. MUCH better. Still a few glitches, but, strike missions and SAMs/AAW ship auto-engage is a lot better.
Still some small issues, of course, but not the game-breaking stuff there was before this build.

Can you elaborate on the other issues you are seeing?

[Dimitris]

All, please have a look here: fb.asp?m=4720590

[Dimitris]

Is this still an issue with the current public version?

[SteveMcClaire]

I've been investigating this as an open issue but can't reproduce the problem with the flight plan updating so that aircraft don't drop bombs. If anyone is still seeing this in the current build please let me know. Thanks!

[thewood1]

I remember this being fixed in one of the updates at one point.

[ultradave]

Agreed. I think this was fixed a while back. I haven't noticed anything similar recently.