ASW Plane Patrol (Slight Tweak Needed)

[DWReese]

I've noticed this occurrence in ASW, and I believe a small tweak is in order.

As you know, units move on designated paths. They continue on these paths until the path is finished, and then they either get a new path, or new orders.

I have an Orion looking for subs on a ASW Patrol Mission. Some previously dropped sonobouys detected a possible sub, and the Orion immediately moves toward the area. The Orion arrives in the area, but the sub isn't completely localized. The program then issues a new path for the Orion to take. The Orion begins moving away from the sub along the new path. About halfway along the path, the sonobouys determine that the sub is hostile, and its exact location is known. The Orion, however, continues on its previously assigned path, which is away from the sub. The Orion travels a total of 73 miles before turning back around to where it had originally been, the place where the sub was first detected. After that, as expected, the sub then went on the offensive where it responded to the sub was, and then sunk it.

In general, I don't see anything THAT wrong with what the Orion did, other than having a path set to travel 73 miles away. This distance was no doubt established because of the size of the patrol area.

My suggestion would be that the ASW planes INSIDE of the ASW Patrol area be given shorter paths. This way, when the sub is detected, the planes won't be that far away. Shorter paths would help.

Otherwise, good job.

[Patmanaut]

Hi:

That will be a great addition to the mission editor. In the meantime while the Dev team designs a solution, you can pick the ASW plane, select U/Unassign, then F1/Engage and click on the enemy sub. That will make your plane to turn back immediately and attack it without wasting precious avgas.

[DWReese]

Thanks for the tip, and you are correct, that does happen.

But, I was attempting to program this for the computer side, and having the Orion travel that far away from what is believed to be an enemy sub is probably not a good thing. Obviously, the size of the box (area) has something to do with it, and I could control the situation utilizing a smaller patrol area. But still, being that close, and traveling that far, is wrong and could probably just be tweaked a little....down the road, of course.

[LMychajluk]

That will make your plane to turn back immediately and attack it without wasting precious avgas.

If you have additional Orion's assigned to the mission and Ready, that will also initiate a launch of another flight, whether you want that or not.

I'm usually OK with this behavior when taking an asset that is on a mission and re-assigning it to a different task (i.e. - sending a CAP patrol to intercept bombers outside the patrol/prosecution area), but to 'unassign' an aircraft from a patrol mission to force it to prosecute a target within the patrol area (or prosecution area) ASAP isn't my ideal workaround. I may want the aircraft to prosecute the target and then continue the patrol without having the on-deck flight launching.

I just thought of this but haven't tested yet - Would 'ignore plotted course when attacking' change the behavior?