T6Simtek

Actually, in my experience, the game lands the old patrols first, then launches the new ones. You can see it on the unit map, and sometimes also on the group map by watching the surface search radar range circles. Also, the game sometimes seems to maintain a patrol using only units from the squadron the initial patrol was drawn from. So if all four of your Hawkeye patrols came from the detachment on the same carrier, the game might be looking for available replacements from the same detachment, finding none ready since the detachment is usually only four aircraft, and aborting the patrols. Generally I've found it wise never to put more than 1/3 of a combat squadron or 1/2 of an AEW or EW squadron on patrol at any given time for this reason, though you can fudge that a bit for fixed wing ASW. I imagine a decent work-around would be to stagger the formation patrols by launching them a hour or so apart. For example, on startup, I place a Hawkeye out on picket duty in the ring to the right of the formation, an hour later, send another to the left side. Thanks for all your work on this though, I've never seen software support like this before, anywhere!!!

That would be my initial thought as well - something related to formation patrols using radar. I wondered about that too, but, the radar pickets I sent out were only 4 of the 8 Hawkeyes in my group. I would think that the game would put a new plane on station before removing the one that's already out there. The other Hawkeyes I kept as replacements and didn't use them.

I found a useful tanker trick that I haven't seen posted here I'd like to share. It comes in handy for real long range missions that takes a couple of refuels to make. Attach a couple of tankers to a F-15, send them out for the long range mission. Make sure your game time is running in real-time (1 second game-time equals 1 second game-time) for the next step. Select the group after takeoff and split 1 tanker from the group. When you are prompted to set a course for the new group, select yes then cancel the next menu item. Now go into the join menu and join this tanker to the other 2 aircraft. Later on, when you refuel, only one tanker will refuel your unit. If you didn't do this, both tankers would refuel the F-15 and leave. The F-15 gets the same amount of fuel from 1 as from 2 in the tests I ran. When I split the tankers, the range is increased, as it should be and your range is greatly increased. Hope this helps.

Done!! Thanks for you and your team members support.

I tried to post to the defect tracker but I can't upload the files. I get a "Upload failed. You are not permitted to upload this type of file" message. I'm trying to upload a couple of saved game files and they are under the 284MB limit, both files are 128KB in size. Any ideas?

I have a question and am not sure if is a defect or not. I'm playing the IOPG2003 scenario 10. After start-up, I use the Formation editor to set-up my air patrols for all my units. With the carriers, I usually set up my range circles so that the outer 2 rings are AEW, EW, ASW, and fighter patrol's. After my aircraft get to their formation zones, I'll set my air and surface radars to mixed. I then turn on only the ASW and Picket rings and keep the AAW and Main radars off. I have noticed that after several minutes of game time, the ASW and Pickets radars will turn themselves either off or to intermittent. I'd like to know if this is supposed to happen, or if there is something that I'm not understanding? I'd like to think that the radars would stay in whatever mode you set them. Any comments or enlightenment would be appreciated.

Yep, they way I use is to set up several patrols to the target area with enough tankers to get to the next fuel stop and then some (one never knows when the use of 'burners will be advisable). sometimes it's possible to have the first patrol return to base, refuel and then take off again to support the return flight. Not to cause headaches for TonyE or CV32 but I post here under the heading of gee whiz information. Back in the 50’s and 60’, in the good ‘ole days of SAC (Strategic Air Command for the non USAF types), the Air Force had a small amount (17) of KC-135B tankers. These tankers were capable of being refueled in-flight, like the bombers they would escort. They were expected to fly up to if not into Russian territory in the event of WW3 along with the bombers. Just a interesting fact for all you war-gamers. In reality, the KC-135 tankers have access to all the fuel they carry (except for the KC-135Q) and they can use all their fuel for themselves without refueling any other aircraft. I have never tested it and am not sure if the tankers would refuel themselves if you sent them on an extended mission in the game, hmmmm…..might need to try it. The way it should work, would be the tanker should reach a point where it would no longer be capable of refueling other aircraft. Oh yeah, the Q model was the tanker used with the SR-71. The fuel used in the SR’s (JP-7) was incompatible with the fuel used by other jets (JP-4 and now JP8) so a tanker could not use the same fuel as the SR-71.

Something else, this is for the Scenario Editor. How about a way to make custom airfields. I realize that there are a vast number of military installations out there, and if you are creating a new scenario, it would be nice to be able to make your own instead of moving a pre-made base around to fit the bill. For example; I am working on a realistic Persian Gulf war scenario, a couple of the Saudi bases that are missing are Taif AB and Tabuk AB. I currently have to take a base from like India, move it to the correct coordinates, and go from there. If I could build one instead, that would be great.

Try opening up a trouble ticket with Matrix Games at: http://www.matrixgames.com/helpdesk/ Hope this helps, I've been real happy with HCE since I downloaded back in 1997.

Another thing that would be nice, add a Sonar and radar indicator on the Reports menu so you can click on a unit or group and instantly see if your radar/sonar is active or not. I'd prefer that to the range circles, to many of them clutter up the screen.

After the aircraft weapons launch, I'd like to see a Return To Base button added to the pop-up window, that way you don't have to select the group and manually tell them to return. This would be really helpful if you have more than 1 group launching weapons at the same time.

Yeah, can't tell to much about them, however, there is a lot of information on various web sites (like FAS) out there. I do know that the aircrews were very happy when the AGM-88 HARM came out, I guess it's more fun to shoot the SAM's at a long range instead of using the shorter range AGM-45 SHRIKE.

I worked the Weasel sims in the Air Force back in the mid 80's. I had a lot of respect for anyone who did the job they did.