Air Transport Operations doesn't calculate the time correctly

[DIVM]

Hi,

this one (I guess it is a bug) it's quite big since it makes it very hard to use the Air Transportation plans. Below:
I was going through the Advanced Tutorial for the new Air Transport and found out that is pretty much impossible to know the exact Landing Time:

-The helicopters calculate the time on their own (moving to pick up, 10 mins embarking, moving to LZ, dropping off time).
-Each unit calculates the time individually (moving to pick up, 10 mins embarking, calculate in their own the ride time, and dropping off time).
-The time gets recalculated a few times during the ride. Seems there is one time given when the first unit finishes embarking and the more accurate one once all units of that Helicopter finish embarking. Afterwards time varies +/-1 mins.

1st_turn_standard.jpeg (901.24 KiB) Viewed 228 times

Left top and middle should be in the same heli, and the same would go with right top and middle (in this case the disembark time happens to be the same bc the embarking time for the second unit seems to be shorter; you can see each one rides out at different times).



Once embarked, all times aligned:

embarked.jpeg (951.24 KiB) Viewed 228 times

I tried manually delaying the arrival time of one of the Helicopters to match the arrival time of the last unit to arrive to that same Hex that needs to be picked up by this Helicopter. I thought that would give me a better approximation of the final arrival, but it was off by 20mins:

manual_delay.jpeg (882.87 KiB) Viewed 228 times

Below we can see how the arrival time updates once they are all embarked (ATTENTION: if you check in the middle of the process the time will be wrong, as it is calculating based on one single unit embarked and ready to go):

embarked_02.jpeg (868.77 KiB) Viewed 228 times

Not sure what's going on... I can't seem to be able to attach more than 4 images. I wanted to add that at no point during the mission my "cargo" changes from "serial cargo" to "current cargo" either.

[DIVM]

OK, it seems that in the reply it lets me add more pics:

"Half embarked" vs "fully embarked", even though the time is the same (maybe I had to click in the orders to let them update):

embarked_half.jpeg (864.77 KiB) Viewed 224 times

embarked_02.jpeg (868.77 KiB) Viewed 224 times

Cargo not updating as "Current Cargo":

cargo.jpeg (784.75 KiB) Viewed 224 times

I think if we can't really know (or have a pretty close approximation of +/-4 mins) the arrival time of a Helicopter to the LZ (or at least fixed times of embarking/disembarking); it's very hard to use. I feel like the plans of the first turn are 40 to 50% of the battle outcome (at least for me, I plan movements for the first 90 to 120mins in the first turn), and having such an important element unknown would really be a no-go for me on its use.

[WildCatNL]

Two comments
- there is a known problem where the estimated times for movement can be off by as much as the orders preparation delay. We'll fix it in the next (not Beta 1) update.
- if you are looking for synchronization, use the Air Transport Planner with multiple air transports in a single serial, as it will keep the air transport movement synchronized. In case you want your air transports to unload in different hexes, instead of the same, generate the Air Transport Plan, and subsequently change the air transport's unload waypoints; that will preserve synchronization.

[DIVM]

- there is a known problem where the estimated times for movement can be off by as much as the orders preparation delay. We'll fix it in the next (not Beta 1) update.

Yes, I believe this is what might be happening. It's pretty wild since different units will arrive at different times to the pick up hex, and the embarking time isn't entirely clear (seems to be 10 mins, but some units look like they are doing it faster). In any, I can't find any way to guess the time (in my "manual" timing I would expect adding 10 mins for the second unit embarking would give me a good aproximation, but it took an extra 20mins instead).

- if you are looking for synchronization, use the Air Transport Planner with multiple air transports in a single serial, as it will keep the air transport movement synchronized. In case you want your air transports to unload in different hexes, instead of the same, generate the Air Transport Plan, and subsequently change the air transport's unload waypoints; that will preserve synchronization.

I used the Air Transport Planner in the first example with all units. My complaint was that it doesn't synchronize times among them till all units all embarked, making it impossible to know the arrival time and also making this Air Transport mechanic hard to synchronize with other units' manual orders and timings.