Game Version: 1.08 – Build 1638 (Public Beta)
Database Version: DB3K v511
Subject
One aircraft in an air-intercept flight remains stuck at very low altitude
Description
When an Air Intercept mission launches a 2-ship flight, one of the two aircraft consistently stays below ~1 000 ft AGL and will not climb—even when commanded manually. The companion aircraft, by contrast, climbs to roughly 36,000 ft, which appears to be a hard-coded “optimal altitude” tied to the loadout rather than anything set in the mission editor.
Because of this extreme height split, the low-level fighter often cannot fire AAMs (no line-of-sight) until it is itself engaged, at which point it may suddenly climb. With flights of three or four aircraft, the same pattern occurs: exactly one aircraft remains low without an evident reason.
Frequency
Always (100 % reproducible in the attached test scenarios)
Steps to Reproduce
- Load Intercept Test 1.scen.
- Launch the OPFOR Air Intercept mission (2-ship by default).
- Observe that one aircraft climbs to cruise altitude while the other remains <1 000 ft and ignores manual climb commands.
- (Optional) Increase the flight size to 3–4 aircraft in the editor and repeat—the pattern persists, with exactly one aircraft staying low.
Attached Files
• Intercept Test 1.scen – stripped-down scenario that isolates the issue
• Air Battle Near Tobruk WIP.scen – WIP scenario where the problem was first noticed (Libyan intercept of an F-14A flight)
Additional Notes
- The mission editor offers no dedicated altitude settings for intercept missions, so there's nothing to set there.
- Manual climb orders issued to the low-level aircraft are ignored until it is directly fired upon.
- Issue occurs with both 2-ship and larger flights, always affecting exactly one aircraft.
