[WAD] Whole group returns to base after 1 member with no ammo

[kholdstayr]

I was playing the "Peeling the Onion" tutorial mission and noticed that whenever 1 plane from a group ran out of ammo, that the whole group would turn around.

This happened both when 1 F/A-18 would run out of cluster bombs, for instance, or when one EA-6B would run out of HARMs.

I checked the doctrine, and the "weapon state RTB" is set to "Yes when last aircraft in a flight reaches weapon state". This doctrine seems to indicate that the whole group shouldn't try to turn around then. I checked that the group is RTBing due to "winchester".

Thanks for your help.

[Grazyn]

Switch to unit view and check if the other planes are actually RTBing or just completing their bombing run.

[kholdstayr]

I'm having trouble exactly duplicating what I saw before, but I would think you're right that one aircraft in the group was attacking, and the other one was RTBing.

I've attached a save file here where I can demonstrate one odd thing I noticed. In the save file there are two flights, flight 111 and flight 112. This save file was taken using build 1115.7 .

Flight 111 is a 2-unit group of F/A-18 units. I used the manual engage target option to command Flight 111 to attack the radar group to the south.

After I ordered the attack, the group is shown as "unassigned" and is just circling around. However, if you go to unit view, you can see that one of the two units peeled off his wingman to make the attack in the south. The unit that stayed behind circling around is listed as "winchester" because he is out of ammo.

I don't know if this is a "bug" exactly, but it makes using groups and group view very confusing.

[Grazyn]

The group status is "unassigned" because it's not assigned to a mission. Ftr #3 can't attack because it's out of bombs/HARMs, so it goes winchester. Ftr #4 goes to attack the radar and its status (in unit view) changes to "engaged offensive", but RTBs before reaching the target due to bingo fuel if you don't use HARMs, and at this point the group status changes to RTB as well. This is how it used to work in CMANO as well, it may be confusing but you can see the unit position in group view as well as a pink circle so you can tell if the entire group is RTBing or just one member.

[Dimitris]

So this is WAD ?

[gsalvar]

Hi
Plese check the weapon state. If it is "loadout settings", In many cases it is "RTB after one engagement with both BVR and WVR weapons".
This means that if both a/c participates in the engagement, the weapons state is achived in both a/c and both will make RTB.
And I think it is correct.

Change the weapons state from loadout to any combination of shotgun.

[guanotwozero]

I get the same result as @Grazyn. The Hornet RTB is because of Bingo state, and the Prowlers do nothing because they're unassigned.

However it's a little confusing because the GROUP view shows the Hornet flight as unassigned, while in UNIT view the southern Hornet (Strike Ftr #4) is going offensive until it Bingos. I would have thought that if any aircraft in a GROUP goes offensive, the GROUP view should display that status.

So that may not be WAD.