Refuel problems (RTB)

[Kobu]

Hi

Here I give three examples of fighters who turn around to refuel while in RTB despite having enough fuel to reach the base and more strange things with refueling.

The first example is flight 2878 of 4 F-18s with harm, they have 15 minutes until bingo and they are in RTB, if you follow them just as they are going to reach base 3 they turn around to refuel.

The second example is flight 2773 returning to base.
He is in BINGO but instead of refueling on the way to base at ALA 31 he continually turns around looking for GROUP 45 much further from his route despite having in the doctrine that he chooses the tankers along his return route.

The third example is flight 2254, which despite having a tanker at 40nm prefers to go 130nm to look for another one.
There is no active mission that tells you which tanker you have to use and in the doctrine you are assigned to use the closest one.

I think that these cases summarize very well the problems that we are encountering with aerial refueling and that currently make it very confusing and frustrating.

Regards

[MauriceB]

I've struggled with AAR (and the micromanagement required) and spent about 20 hours over the last week specifically with AAR. Here are my comments, for what they're worth:

Example 1) The group is set to 30% refuel threshold (which is as low as you can set it) and when they hit 30% they go refuel, even though the RTB Base is in fuel range. I've had to micromanage this behaviour by setting the group to Refueling: Not Allowed right after they get the RTB status. Not an elegant solution but otherwise the planes oscillate back and forth between air base and tanker till there is no gas left for anyone.
This refueling threshold is a problem on the outbound leg to the target as well, I have to set Refueling: Not Allowed [and RTB: No] on the outbound leg sometimes so the strike mission does not turn around and go refuel [or RTB] when it's almost to the target.
(Also: I think this is a known problem but it appears all the scenarios delivered with the game are locked at 60% refuel threshold and unable to be changed)

Example 2) I've never seen "Pick tankers between us and objective..." or "Give priority to tankers between us and objective..." work. I've created a simple scenario to test these and they have no impact as far as i could tell.

Example 3) Ok, I have not seen this one, but I've only been testing 1 AAR support mission, not multiples. The flight did initially head for the tanker only 40nm east, but after a bit it decided to turn and fly to Grupo 45 (135nm SW). All i can say is if the flight was in a mission (which it currently isn't) you could assign the mission an AAR support mission to refuel at. Works well for limited refueling stations but you have a lot in that scenario.

[thewood1]

The devs have stated a couple times they are working on AAR and potential simplification.

[Kobu]

I've struggled with AAR (and the micromanagement required) and spent about 20 hours over the last week specifically with AAR. Here are my comments, for what they're worth:

Example 1) The group is set to 30% refuel threshold (which is as low as you can set it) and when they hit 30% they go refuel, even though the RTB Base is in fuel range. I've had to micromanage this behaviour by setting the group to Refueling: Not Allowed right after they get the RTB status. Not an elegant solution but otherwise the planes oscillate back and forth between air base and tanker till there is no gas left for anyone.
This refueling threshold is a problem on the outbound leg to the target as well, I have to set Refueling: Not Allowed [and RTB: No] on the outbound leg sometimes so the strike mission does not turn around and go refuel [or RTB] when it's almost to the target.
(Also: I think this is a known problem but it appears all the scenarios delivered with the game are locked at 60% refuel threshold and unable to be changed)

Example 2) I've never seen "Pick tankers between us and objective..." or "Give priority to tankers between us and objective..." work. I've created a simple scenario to test these and they have no impact as far as i could tell.

Example 3) Ok, I have not seen this one, but I've only been testing 1 AAR support mission, not multiples. The flight did initially head for the tanker only 40nm east, but after a bit it decided to turn and fly to Grupo 45 (135nm SW). All i can say is if the flight was in a mission (which it currently isn't) you could assign the mission an AAR support mission to refuel at. Works well for limited refueling stations but you have a lot in that scenario.

Thanks for taking the time to look at this but I'm aware of possible workarounds.
The reason for the post is only to highlight the most frequent bugs that exist with refueling with "real" examples so that developers have examples and are aware of all the bugs that exist and can solve them as quickly as possible.


Regards

[Kobu]

The devs have stated a couple times they are working on AAR and potential simplification.

I know.

As we all know in this forum, you post whenever you want, but just because you can doesn't always mean you should, as in this case or in many others.

Regards

[thewood1]

What? I posted that because, you know, there are people that aren't as familiar with every nuance of the forum and it might have put it in some context. Sorry if it offends you.

[Kobu]

What? I posted that because, you know, there are people that aren't as familiar with every nuance of the forum and it might have put it in some context. Sorry if it offends you.

I misunderstood you then, I'm sorry.

[thewood1]

I don't believe that.

[Kobu]

I don't believe that.

Yeah, me neither.

[Kobu]

Another, fourth example.

Tanker "Ala 31 #1" heading to refuel from the tanker "Ala 31 #2" despite the fact that the latter has in doctrine not to refuel any aircraft.

[blu3s]

Hi

Here I give three examples of fighters who turn around to refuel while in RTB despite having enough fuel to reach the base and more strange things with refueling.

The first example is flight 2878 of 4 F-18s with harm, they have 15 minutes until bingo and they are in RTB, if you follow them just as they are going to reach base 3 they turn around to refuel.

The second example is flight 2773 returning to base.
He is in BINGO but instead of refueling on the way to base at ALA 31 he continually turns around looking for GROUP 45 much further from his route despite having in the doctrine that he chooses the tankers along his return route.

The third example is flight 2254, which despite having a tanker at 40nm prefers to go 130nm to look for another one.
There is no active mission that tells you which tanker you have to use and in the doctrine you are assigned to use the closest one.

I think that these cases summarize very well the problems that we are encountering with aerial refueling and that currently make it very confusing and frustrating.

Regards

Thanks for the detailed report,

Yes, unfortunately there are some issues with AR, mainly related with doctrine a mission settings and with flightplans.

Logged 0016418

[blu3s]

All three issues should be fixed for the next release

Thank you