[FIXED] [1328.2] Flight Leader Won't Engage Hostiles

[rosolano079]

All,

I'm on the Steam beta, 1328.2. In both this version and the most recent Steam stable build (1307.18), I've observed that the leader of a group of aircraft won't offensively engage hostiles, while the rest of the group will engage as expected. I understand this issue has been reported previously here and here and is marked as "fixed". I understand issues may be marked "fixed" in a build that isn't yet released; if so, great, disregard this post.

In the attached scenarios, note that if no player orders are given, the entire group will close and engage as expected. When the contacts are manually marked as hostile, or when Engage Auto is forced, the above behavior is observed. The group leader remains On Plotted Course, while the remainder of the group will accelerate and engage. I've also observed this in complex multi-domain scenarios when patrol zones and prosecution zones are in use, and aircraft groups are assigned to patrol missions. In that case, the group leader will remain on plotted course, while the remainder of the group will engage hostiles in the mission or prosecution zone.

Why I think this disrupts gameplay and deserves a look: In a large scenario with multiple AAW patrol zones, and numerous aircraft assigned to them (in flights of 2 by default), groups will break up and only half the air compliment will end up engaged. Because I think this is dependent on Engage Auto and/or manual marking as hostile, it does not seem to affect the AI. As a player, I am forced to micro-manage all my aircraft engagements, or end up in a situation where the entire AI air patrol is engaging one half of all my patrolling groups. I'm not positive about it being tied to Engage Auto, however, because in a large scenario I'm also observing this behavior when not issuing any orders. I do frequently mark contacts as hostile, but I have yet to do extensive diagnostic testing on that yet, so I apologize.

[thewood1]

There's been a spate of auto-engage issues reported in the newest builds (1328.2 and 1307.18). My guess is they are related.

[rosolano079]

There's been a spate of auto-engage issues reported in the newest builds (1328.2 and 1307.18). My guess is they are related.

Anecdotally, I definitely remember this issue occurring prior to 1307.18, but I didn't try to diagnose it on previous builds. The threads I linked above sort of petered out and there may have been other issues going on, but I was observing the same symptoms the OPs were describing. I believe those threads were in regard to builds going back three or four updates.

I think it may be related to manually marking a bogey as hostile, not just Engage Auto orders. I say that because I was playing a variation of Operation Allied Force where my platforms were immediately classifying an emitter type, but not immediately assigning it to a side. I would detect an unknown bogey, see that there is only one possible platform candidate based on the emissions, and I would mark it as hostile. Left to its own devices, my side would leave it as unknown until the side was ID'd by some other sensor. Again, I don't know the mechanics well enough to sort out the exact process. The lag between IDing an emitter and assigning it to a side strikes me as a recent change in behavior though.

[Deserere]

Hi, rosolano079
thanks for reporting the issue, as per my answer here, https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/view ... 2&t=396618
it was recently addressed and the fix will be part of the next update release.
Let me know if any issue persists.

thanks