Matrix Games Forums

I was running the little scenario FROGFOOT and testing responses of my units as I usually do and came across something strange. I set Patrol area over the Muj ground units, some of which had Stingers and USSR shoulder launch SAMs. I set the minimum altitude in the patrol area at 36000 ft. I assigned a drone to the Patrol area and watched it. As ground units were discovered, the drone would descend to as little as 1000 ft AGL to investigate unknown units is the Patrol area. (I set no investigating outside the assigned area.) The results were predictable when orders are disobeyed. The drone was shot down by the missiles.

With all the discussion about strike planning, it seems basic to me that first and foremost units obey direct orders and not descend below the hard deck and into lethal threat regimes. Am I missing something - some other way to prevent an asset from violating orders?

If I can, I will try and post a copy of the scenario but I have had zero luck doing that. The upload feature seems to work, but the file is nowhere to be found. In any event, it only takes a few seconds to set up such a scenario. I'll try once again to post an attachment today.

Support missions are probably better suited for drones. You have options like one time only and can even specify altitudes etc. We did design these options for recce in mind. Check it out.

ASuW patrol missions tend to look for targets (thus the dip in altitude for targets etc) and follow a MPA logic mostly because players use them this way. We went through a huge thing early on where players were wanting the aircraft to lose altitude and ID. So we did it.

Thanks!

Mike

Aha...that makes sense. Amazing what a little sleep does for you. I re-ran the little test this morning and set all the altitudes to the hard deck altitude (transit, station, and attack - all AGL) and the drone never went below it. I did notice that the drone changed to "engaged offensive" when any enemy units are visible. Had I seen that last night, before it was shot down, I would have understood better what was happening. I was also micro-managing helos so I missed the drone circling over the bad guys like they were flypaper!

I hadn't tried a support mission with this particular scenario. I'll go back and try creating a search pattern and look at that. At first I thought an absolute hard deck setting might be good, but then that would need to comprehend terrain as well. Besides, for attack settings the Patrol/Prosecution altitude "attack" setting seems to work. Sorry to raise a non-issue. My mistake.

I'm sure you're aware but you can set altitudes to terrain following to make life easier. I would add a couple of thousand feet to be safe with sudden changes in topography though, particularly in somewhere like Afghanistan.

I guess I should have place that in the scenario thread, but I have just come across this one and it got me stunned - drones used by the LCOSF in the Soviet - Afghan War? What kind of wild exploit is that supposed to be? Besides I have had a look at that scenario as a long-time self-appointed student of the conflict and must have surely overlooked that ... drone ... Isn't it set in 1986?

burrroughs...Don't panic. I was using the scenario as a test bed. That's easier than setting up a whole new scenario to test some functions and responses. I chose FROGFOOT because it is a good representation of land war in mountainous terrain and already had units in place with Stinger missiles. I wasn't interested in the outcome of the scenario per se. Besides. If we can model a scenario based on the movie "The Final Countdown", surely I can test things for myself in a similar fashion?

Apache85...Yes I was quite aware of the altitude settings, but assumed a platform with no offensive armament would not go all the way down to ground level (whatever that happens to be) to investigate a contact. As long as there are no contacts, the vehicle will remain at the assigned altitude. Once a contact appears, however, the unit changes status to "engaged offensive" and descends - unless you set the attack altitude to the hard deck. I assumed that setting the hard deck altitude in the patrol, or station, area kept the asset at or above that setting. And yes absolutely check the AGL boxes.

Thanks peter, I don't use ASuW patrols all that often so learnt something new about the Attack Alt here too [:)]

Problem resolved?

Yes. If I could ever get a scenario to attach, everything would be a lot more clear.

You've got to hit post reply and not fast reply. You'll have to zip the file (right click on the file) as the forums only accept .zip.

Not our forum so we don't have much control.

Thanks!

Mike

Mike...Thanks. I was on the Post Reply screen. The Fast Reply doesn't have the "click here to upload" button. I used 7-Zip and zipped into a .zip archive. When I clicked upload, it said it uploaded, but nothing appeared in the window. No problem though. I'll make some time and figure out what I'm doing wrong.

....Got it. No problem from here on.