Matrix Games Forums

How come every time I alt-x out of a combat I lose the aircraft? Do I really have to fly it all the way back to base every time I want to jump in to watch the action in the air?

Please tell me I'm doing something wrong, or there is a setting somewhereI can change in order to toggle off the loss of the airframes.

Jim

Well, first off, congratulations for surviving long enough to Alt-X out of a perfectly good airframe...I never get the Alt-X option until I've crashed.

tbh, I don't know your answer...I've never done it mid flight in a good aircraft, so I wasn't aware you could lose the airframe....but if I was to hazard a guess, I'd think the game would work in that Alt-X would take you back to the Strategy map and you wouldn't lose the aircraft.

If you are, are you sure it's not down to combat?

I'm sure. I was returning from a recon flight in the last of 3 bombers sent (other 2 were shot down). After the pursuing planes broke off and flew away, I decided to alt-x out of the plane so as not to sit in the gunner’s position for 30 boring minutes.

When I did, the recon flight was no longer on the strat map and all 3 planes were reported lost. So I jumped into a Stuka on a flight of 12 on route to hit some shipping. I alt-x'd out and sure enough 1 Stuka was reported lost.

So it appears if you jump into a plane, you need to land it or you’ll lose it. And the way those 109’s bounce when you try and land em, it looks like I’ll always lose a plane.

I also noticed you cannot cut off the engine if your joystick uses a throttle, so you have to land at 50% power and break to stop I guess. I haven’t had a successful landing yet so I don’t know for sure.

Jim

Maybe it the use specifically of Alt-X...like I said, I've never done it before...always get shot down...well all but a couple of times, but I found it a nice challenge to find my way back to base and land

As for the throttle...I am able to cut my throttle to idle...I know that isn't much help for your situtaion...just letting you know it's not "broke" in game terms

You definitely shouldn't lose the aircraft just because you alt-x out of flight mode. You don't have to land. Of course there maybe situations where aircraft are lost in battles after you've alt-x'd out.. but, especially in your recon example, that doesn't seem overly likely unless the range from the fighters at which you used alt-x was considered by the campaign engine to still be within dogfight range, and so once back in the campaign map in auto calc'd that the bomber was shot down?

Hopefully someone from Shockwave can shed some light on this.

are you getting the Alt-X message on the screen ?

I'm flying single pilot campaign and always returning to base ... then dialog appears Continue/Finish ... I used Alt-X only when crashed or shot down and then my aircraft is counted like loss ...[/align]On the other side, when playing commander campaign, I used Alt-X always and never seen counted my aircraft like loss ...[/align]

I notice in the campaign, that hitting padlock, if nothing is locked, the Alt-X message comes up, I sort of thought, that the feels you are out of combat and can quit

I think maybe if you are still in range of the enemy, and you Alt-X, the game sees you as being damaged/downed

more how I see it, then how I know it

Yeah I've confirmed it, you do not lose the plane if you’re out of combat, so now I wait until the dots for the enemy plane are gone and I alt-x out and get to keep the plane. Use shift-tab and click home to speed up the wait for enemy planes to fly away.

Jim

Hi Jim,

As you said the game expect you to complete you mission. You can use the Accel (tab key or M key or shift+tab) feature to speed things up but you can not accel if you are in danager.

BTW, the key description document (over 100 keys) is avaible at Shockwave General Forum on a sticky thread.