Adding a/c already in flight to TOT mission planning doesn't work

[chartscharts]

Have a flight of a/c already in flight, launched as a group, and just given a location to fly to with F3 and they've been circling there.

Create a TOT land attack mission, add the two ships and the flight of a/c.

The ships execute the TOT attack properly.

But the a/c do NOT get flight plans created (even when I push the create/update flight plans button. When selected, the a/c show on the right side that they are assigned to the mission. But instead of flying toward the target (on the right TOT or not), or even just staying at the spot they were directed to with F3 before getting assigned to the mission, they turn and fly north until Bingo?

Scenario attached is after the TOT mission has been created, the units assigned, and the create/update flight plans button has been pushed.

[thewood1]

Just did a couple tests on a clean scenario. No issues adding inflight ac to a ToT mission. But...if there are already ships in the mission, it behaves as you describe. There is something wrong with the mission ToT logic if you mix ships and aircraft. From what I can see.

[chartscharts]

Thanks! Do the already-in-flight a/c get a flight plan that works? When I try that, the aircraft get added to the mission ok (with no ships as you say) and get a flight plan, with them being at an ingress waypoint #4, but they just fly the rest of the waypoints and fire, ignoring the TOT or the times specified for the waypoints in the plan. They don't loiter or anything, they just fly the waypoints as if they were on time for the TOT but they're not.

If I edit the flight plan, and add a new waypoint to create a hold pattern from where they are currently, that seems to work. They enter the holding pattern as expected, but when the hold time expires, they no longer proceed to the target but just orbit at the last hold end waypoint.

Is that happening for you?

[thewood1]

I have tested as far as I want right now. The sim is in a semi-broken state around flight plans and has been for almost four months now with no end in sight. I don't bother testing anything with flight plans right now because they can't be trusted.

[blu3s]

Thanks for the report,


Logged 16086

[chartscharts]

In the meantime, as the devs work to fix this, here's what I'm doing as a work around that seems to work ok.

1) Build separate missions for naval units and air units (my previous post the same day noted the problem when trying to add a/c to a TOT mission with ships already in it). Call one sea strike and the other air strike, for example. Give both the same TOT.

NOTE: As noted earlier, the sea strike TOT works fine. It's the air strike TOT when aircraft already in flight are added to a TOT mission that doesn't work. Currently what happens is they're given a flight plan with waypoints with times that make the TOT work, and they're in the middle of the flight plan. Mine start at waypoint 4. The problem is that the a/c don't loiter to get the waypoint times to work to make the TOT work. They just fly the way points immediately, ignoring the times for the waypoints, which results in the a/c striking the target way before the designated TOT.

2) So, my work around is to create an airstrike mission with the same TOT of the sea strike, assign the in-flight a/c to it. It creates the flight plan with a TOT that works.
3) Note what waypoint the a/c are currently at in the new flight plan AND note the time in the flight plan for that waypoint (#4 in my case). You'll notice that time is sometime in the future.
4) Then UNASSIGN the in-flight a/c from the mission. You'll also need to F3 them a new waypoint or the old waypoints from the mission will still be in their heads. When you F3 a new way point for them, it clears the flight plan. Make the F3/new waypoint in their current location. You'll see why in a bit.
5) Advance the time. When you arrive at the time that you noted in step #3 for the in-flight a/c, pause and reassign the a/c to the air strike mission. An identical flight plan to what was generated in step #2 gets created again for the a/c, except that THIS TIME, the aircraft are at waypoint #4 at the correct time for the TOT to work. Un-pause and enjoy.

Doing this lets me take advantage of the TOT calculators so I don't have to do math about a/c cruise speeds and their weapon speeds and ranges from the weapon launch point, etc.....It saves me a ton of math while still allowing me to sync a naval strike with an air strike starting with a/c already in the air.

Fair winds....