Over eager LRCAP

[EUBanana]

This only seems to happen for the Japs.

If you have a Zero squadron ordered to escort sometimes your commander will take it into their head to set them to 100% LRCAP and have them fly cover on some TF nearby.

This can be very bad, because unescorted Betties are a one shot weapon... if your Zeroes take it upon themselves to cover some PCs on ASW duty instead of escort the Betties, it can be a major tactical problem. Plus it leaves them on 75+ fatigue more often than not, so not only do have a bunch of dead Betties, your Zeroes are out for a few days R&R as well.

[loricas]

it is in for the allied also. i think it know by the staff yet

[witpqs]

Yup, I see it as Allies. I thought it was OK even though annoying, but I can see how it can trash your own air strikes!

[Sheytan]

No, it effects allies as well. I noted this with my escort 70/cap 30/rest were going LR cap over single ship AKLs sneaking into singapore. The most annoying thing is it drive fatigue up dramatically and drove moral down too, so once reverted back to original setting, as per above, they were getting creamed by IJ escorts in dogfights, or simply fled.

ORIGINAL: EUBanana

This only seems to happen for the Japs.

If you have a Zero squadron ordered to escort sometimes your commander will take it into their head to set them to 100% LRCAP and have them fly cover on some TF nearby.

This can be very bad, because unescorted Betties are a one shot weapon... if your Zeroes take it upon themselves to cover some PCs on ASW duty instead of escort the Betties, it can be a major tactical problem. Plus it leaves them on 75+ fatigue more often than not, so not only do have a bunch of dead Betties, your Zeroes are out for a few days R&R as well.

[Kull]

ORIGINAL: EUBanana

If you have a Zero squadron ordered to escort sometimes your commander will take it into their head to set them to 100% LRCAP and have them fly cover on some TF nearby.

(Emphasis added)

This was driving me crazy, too. Fortunately it only seems to happen when you don't have a mission that actually requires your fighters to perform escort. If the intent is to use them primarily for CAP, you can circumvent the bug by giving them a 10% primary mission of something like Search (secondary of "Rest"), and then set the altitude and CAP percentage at the desired level for your CAP. This leads to a bit more fatigue than if the system were working properly, but it beats the hell out the problems arising from the arbitrary LRCAP.

[Kull]

ORIGINAL: Kull

This was driving me crazy, too. Fortunately it only seems to happen when you don't have a mission that actually requires your fighters to perform escort. If the intent is to use them primarily for CAP, you can circumvent the bug by giving them a 10% primary mission of something like Search (secondary of "Rest"), and then set the altitude and CAP percentage at the desired level for your CAP. This leads to a bit more fatigue than if the system were working properly, but it beats the hell out the problems arising from the arbitrary LRCAP.

Gah. The "fix" doesn't work either. It did for a while, but here's a unit with both the "Naval Search" mission (20%) AND the LRCAP mission (100%). If nothing else, perhaps the code should check for cases where the AI wants to do over 100% of anything and, you know, forbid it? Since that's like, impossible? [;)] Just try and select air missions that use over 120% of your planes. You can't.

[EUBanana]

This can actually be a game breaker, sure is in my Guadalcanal game with Erik where he was badly afflicted by it.  There are often TFs around Rabaul - convoys, ASW sweeps - and if your Betties are loosed without escort, it can be a scenario-ending catastrophe for the Japs.  When this happens day in, day out, because your Zeroes six attacks in a row insist on wearing themselves out covering some piddly ASW TF for days on end...  it's not good.

Interestingly I'm not sure the LRCAP even works, as in my game as the Japs I noticed  the Zeroes LRCAPPing some battleships despite orders to the contrary.  As it happens the BBs were attacked yet there were no Zeroes anyway.  Its lose-lose!

[michaelm75au]

The patch will address this.
In stock, an unallocated group on LR CAP groups can be automatically assigned to cover TFs in range.

In AE, since a group can be split over various "missions" using patrol levels, the code is taking un-assigned CAP groups and using them for LR TF cover.
The patch will address :
(a) only using groups with a LR CAP patrol level, and only that many planes
(b) and using them if TF is within the player's max range.

[Kull]

ORIGINAL: michaelm

The patch will address this.
In stock, an unallocated group on LR CAP groups can be automatically assigned to cover TFs in range.

In AE, since a group can be split over various "missions" using patrol levels, the code is taking un-assigned CAP groups and using them for LR TF cover.
The patch will address :
(a) only using groups with a LR CAP patrol level, and only that many planes
(b) and using them if TF is within the player's max range.

Thank Heavens! In many respects, this was a game-breaking bug, even if it had surprisingly little "pub".