Matrix Games Forums

Hi everyone,

I've been following this game before it came out and actually purchased in and kept it up to date throughout the years, since it has always interested me. Now that 1.09 has been released, I've updated and purchased the license for Northern Inferno and have finally started playing in earnest. I'm really excited about this.

First, I gotta say thanks to the dev team for the great work and the continued support. It seems pretty comprehensive and I looking forward to many long hours of game time in the future.

Now to my question:

I've completed the 1st three tutorials that came with the original came and have just started playing the first of Uncle Mark's tutorials.

In this tutorial, you command the Exeter group and have some helo’s at your disposal. There is a patrol area that has been pre-designated as an ASW search zone. What I did was assigned a helo to the ASW mission. In the beginning everything went fine, the helo was doing its search routine.

However, later on in the scenario you are given command of a 688 fast attack sub (the Dallas I think) and it detects a Goblin shortly afterwards. When this happens my helo goes rushing over to engage the contact.

Now I don’t want him to do that, I would like him to continue searching in his mission area and leave that Goblin to the Dallas. I’ve tried the Drop Target command as well as Disengage (Drop All). He simply drops the target then re-engages.

How do I stop him from doing this? He’s way too far and has to RTB due to Bingo fuel anyway.

Am I doing something wrong?

Thanks
elcid

Hello, as far as i know you'd have to change hes engagement routine to Tight in the side doctrine window for the unit. That will make him not attack a unit thats yellow which i assume that Goblin is even though i haven't played that tutorial myself. Only if the goblin gets positivly accessed as hostile will the heli then go and engage.

And if the goblin is outside the mission area, go to the mission editor and uncheck "Investigate targets outside of patrol area"

thanks for the response, Skjold. I will do this, I knew I must have missed something.

I might have just done this mission, but either way I think I ran into a similar problem.

What I did was select the sub, press 'N' to mark it as neutral, and press 'R' to rename it so I could find it easily in the future.

My helicopter then carried on about its business - but I did have to remember to re-designate the sub as 'hostile' when weapons went hot.

ORIGINAL: Skjold

And if the goblin is outside the mission area, go to the mission editor and uncheck "Investigate targets outside of patrol area"

This is very important. In this scenario, the helo will chase contacts too far away unless you uncheck the "Investigate targets outside of patrol area" checkbox. In my experience (which is admittedly limited), this is one of the most important boxes to check or uncheck (depending upon your desired behavior) when editing a mission.

**Post deleted - Alecc below said it far better than I!**

Agree with the importance of being aware of the "Investigate Targets Outside Patrol Area" box, but don't be afraid of it. In scenarios with P-3s or other ASW fixed-wing A/C, letting those guys wander out to check a contact can be pretty quick and not a big fuel hit. It helps to have helos and fixed-wings on separate missions to help set those ROEs.

Also, you can set a "Prosecution Area" just like you would a patrol area. This helps if you have a hostile contact just outside your patrol area but your ROE prohibits leaving the box. If a prosecution area is defined, units on that patrol area will go into the prosecution area, but no farther.

And when using a prosecution area, you DO need to check the Investigate contacts outside patrol area box, or it won't work.

Related to prosecution/patrol areas - do units attack hostiles that are outside of their patrol area, without leaving it?

I had problems in one game where I thought my units were patrolling, but not attacking hostiles who were just outside the patrol box, shooting in. It could have just been me being a newb though, it was one of the tutorial missions so I might have been getting the ROE wrong!

They will only engage units outside of their patrol area if you tick the appropriate box (and the target is in the prosecution area, if you have one).
I would still expect a unit to return fire though.