Matrix Games Forums

If my patrol unit strays out of the box, what criteria are used for my unit to break off and return to the box??

ORIGINAL: exsonic01

I'm also a noob, but I usually turn off both 'chase' check boxes, or only turn on check box for 'chase within missile range' only if it is extremely necessary.

Patrol AI commands planes to go to bogey and check if the target bogey is hostile or not. Then if it is hostile, it attacks. If you turn on those 'chase' check boxes for AAW patrol mission, planes will follow unknown bogeys in their radar, or within their weapon range, regardless of your reference zone or reference points.

Then, your AAW patrol planes will frequently explore through far far distance and some unfortunate ones will end up in the middle of enemy territory, while you were busy with other things. And then you will get mad by unexpected KIA message, and yells "what the hxxx are you doing there? Your patrol zone was over there, not over that line"

ORIGINAL: KnightHawk75
Yup what you describe is exactly the problem that setting up Prosecution Areas for the patrol mission solve, with them you don't get AAW flights ending up all over the map, try it out. I know back in the 114.x and before days there was a bug or two with them but they got addressed and since then they've worked well preventing exactly what you and I have described.

A setup that works well in most cases and cuts down on undesired behavior will have both a patrol area, and a larger prosecution area overlapping defined, with both options checked. This allows your patrols to float around in their assigned patrol area, and investigate\engage anything detected outside it in the larger prosecution area as well, BUT to disengage once they hit the larger box boundary and head back to patrol area or another contact still inside the larger area, while ignoring things outside said larger prosecution area. Takes an extra minute or two of time setting up more ref points, but it's well worth it when you want to put some limits\containment around a patrol while ALSO using the flexibility that option 1 and\or 2 provide.

 
  expected threat
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ORIGINAL: marksdoran

Crudely, something like this where the inner box is patrol area and outer one is prosecution area.

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ORIGINAL: KnightHawk75

ORIGINAL: marksdoran

Crudely, something like this where the inner box is patrol area and outer one is prosecution area.

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  expected threat
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Precisely.

ORIGINAL: thewood1
There are a couple sections in the manual that give a pretty good description and process. Just do a search on "prosecution". In fact, I think its in a few of the tutorials also.

ORIGINAL: exsonic01

ORIGINAL: thewood1
There are a couple sections in the manual that give a pretty good description and process. Just do a search on "prosecution". In fact, I think its in a few of the tutorials also.

Aha, I got it, thanks

ORIGINAL: thewood1
I would have thought that would be the first you would do.

ORIGINAL: thewood1

You don't have to read everything, but its a good idea to at least browse the manual. Adobe has a very good search function for PDFs, as do most PDF readers. A simple search would have answered your question.

My point is you are asking an awful lot of questions, which is cool. But checking the documentation on basic game functions before posting a question saves everyone some time.