Matrix Games Forums

Playing Duelists (B486) a Soviet wolfpack is heading south in line abreast, with an Oscar on the extreme west, and a pair of Sierras in the center and east position. The Oscar detects a British sub to the WSW, and maneuvers quietly to avoid it, while the Sierras turn W to fire SS-N-16s at the imperialist lackey (from a safe distance, of course).



The first SS-N-16 misses, but it spooks the SSN up to flank speed, so the Oscar (realizing the SSN can't hear a thing) turns towards it and allocates a single torpedo shot using Ctl-F1 for a Bearing Only Launch. Before the launch can happen the second SS-N-16 kills the SSN. Celebrating, the wolfpack turns south once more. The time is approximately GMT 18:15.


The Oscar is unassigned and not engaged with any targets, is pessimistic, won't engage opportunity targets, and even has Hold Fire orders.

Twenty one minutes later, at approximately GMT 18:36, the Oscar suddenly fires a torpedo down the old bearing to the (now dead) SSN.


The torpedo seeker goes live almost immediately, confirming that this is almost certainly the Bearing Only Launch.

So it looks like a BOL launch can hang around in the queue and does not immediately get cancelled when its target dies, and it can fire off unpredictably at a later time. Unfortunately, I can't think of any good way to cancel it. The sub was already unassigned, disengaged, and with Hold Fire orders, and there is no way to unallocate an allocated weapon.

The behaviour is reproducible after a reload. I've attached a save. If you let it run, does the torp launch for you too?

A BOL launch is not related to a target but a point designated on the map.

In that case, how can we cancel a BOL shot that is no longer needed?

Go to attack menu and select Disengage (Drop all Targets).

You can tell something has been allocated by going into the BOL dialog again. You'll notice a (1 allocated) next the weapons record entry (or 2, 3, 4) etc.

Mike

Aha! I see the allocated weapon, but when it comes to disengaging all the options are greyed out, and you can't click on them.



I guess that "aimpoints" aren't actually considered "targets", which is why the disengage won't work? (And possibly why there is no green dashed targeting vector to be displayed?)

No I'm able to clear it. Hmm.

Are you leaving the BOL attack allocation dialog open while attempting to drop all targets? If so close it and then drop targets. Reopen and tell me if its still there.

Thanks!

Mike

I found where I was going wrong.

I had opened the save and was immediately selecting the unit and right clicking to get to the menus, while the game was still paused after the load. The two disengage items were greyed out.

However, if I let the game run for even 1 second the options then become active, and the targeting vector appears. The BOL shot can then be cancelled like you described, even if the game is paused again, and even if the BOL window is open.

Thanks for the pointers,

Andrew

Ok no problem. Glad it worked out[:)]