[1676] Patrols Ignore time on station

[Knightpawn]

This save is created from a game i recently finished

In the attached file observe that the patrol missions below do not comply with their assigned ToS and take off immediately
Sweep - AAW
Sead 1 - SEAD
Sead 2 - SEAD

ToT.zip

(1.47 MiB) Downloaded 10 times

[thewood1]

My guess is related to this one.

https://forums.matrixgames.com/viewtopic.php?t=411413

[Knightpawn]

My guess is related to this one.

https://forums.matrixgames.com/viewtopic.php?t=411413

Who knows...

[Knightpawn]

Has this been fixed in the new version? There seems to be no reference in the list of fixes.

[Knightpawn]

Has this been fixed in the new version? There seems to be no reference in the list of fixes.

Just tested it. Not fixed for now.

[thewood1]

in 1706, I just ran it and instead of using ToS, I used Take off Time. It worked as expected. No aircraft in those three missions took off until the Take off time. I'll check ToS later. I have always struggled with ToS.

edit...my struggles with ToS are usually not estimating range and fuel properly.

edit 2: JUst had Sweep take off at for ToS at zulu 22:40. It appears to be working.

[Knightpawn]

I run it about an hour ago and the sead patrols in my case took off almost immediately. Based on this I consider the issue still unresolved.

As a side note, I like time on Target and Time on Station a lot. I enjoy orchestrating operations.

[thewood1]

Went back and checked my exact process. I cleared the ToS and put in TOTime. All worked. If I left it as ToS and never opened the mission before start, they all took off right away. ToS seems a little wonky, especially at that long of a range because of time and fuel needed to get on station. The fighter sweep does not have time or fule to get on station. The SEAD missions barely have enough.

[Knightpawn]

Went back and checked my exact process. I cleared the ToS and put in TOTime. All worked. If I left it as ToS and never opened the mission before start, they all took off right away. ToS seems a little wonky, especially at that long of a range because of time and fuel needed to get on station. The fighter sweep does not have time or fule to get on station. The SEAD missions barely have enough.

That is very interesting. Will try to replicate

[Knightpawn]

Indeed

"Take off time" seems to work as designed
"Time on Station" is still broken (which is pity because it removes the pleasure of more elaborate planning)

[thewood1]

You can still do time on station fairly easily using take off time or mission activation time by simply timing it out. I have never really used time on station extensively. And got the same basic result in planning it out. I used ToS mostly with jamming to mask an attack approach.

[thewood1]

So it looks like its something specific to your save. This small modded baseline test shows ToS works when configured.

[Knightpawn]

So it looks like its something specific to your save. This small modded baseline test shows ToS works when configured.

A most interesting observation: In your file (where the TOS feature does indeed work) the aircrafts create a flight plan with WPs etc. In my file which is basically a save from the Pacific Fury 3, they don't. It is just a straight line to the mission area! How do we explain that?

[thewood1]

I suspect this is a save file issue, not a straight ToS issue. One the first things I do when someone posts a save is try a clean build to see if I see the same issue. Majority of the time, its a difference between a save at a specific instance and a clean build.

[thewood1]

I took one more look and realized, as you mentioned, that no flight plan was present for the SEAD patrols. I did note that the Sweep one had one and it worked as expected. So I hit the flight plan button on the SEAD mission and everything worked as expected. Again, I suspect either its a save file issue or the flight plan generation got interrupted somewhere along the line.

Again, it brings up something I have on my mental planning checklist. I always take a quick look at flight plans before hitting start. I don't tend to micromanage once I hit start, but prior to that, I leave little to chance or AI decision-making in planning.

[Knightpawn]

My friend, your last post was a revelation! I had not realized until today, that there was a "create flight plan" button for patrol missions! I thought it was only for strikes.

Consider this ticket closed please.

[thewood1]

Holy Cow!