October 12, 201015 yr Bearing only missile attack 1) I see the Hawkeye clearly over top of the carrier group, but I have no contact with any surface vessels with my Bear / Badger / Backfire group which is well out of range of defending air defenses. 2) Along comes my Backfires. I lob a half dozen ASuW missiles down a bearing toward the Hawkeye turning on the radar seeker heads almost immediately. Gives the defenders something they see immediately and cannot ignore. 3) Hawkeye ESM / Radar detects incoming missiles. Ship AAW defences require radar so they flip on their air and surface radars. 4) My Bear detects multiple surface radar signatures and the rest of my Backfire ASuW missles head toward the Carrier group with firm locks on their positions. Carnage ensues. Mu-hahahahaha... Harpoon 97 would let you fire along a bearing (designated by crosshairs and a point on the map) without an actual target being seen or even in range. Firing missiles blind ahead of you is a good way to get the defending fighters to waste their missiles so they cannot use them on your bombers too! Attack range should include weapon range as well I have an airplane with a range of 500 nm. It is loaded with missiles that have 50 nm attack range. If I try to launch on a target 525nm away, I get an error message saying "aircraft do not have range to reach target" even though it is possible to attack that target if you run the mission manually. Given that scenario I should be able to attack a target up to 550 nm away! Returning aircraft should default to the originating base when commanded to land If you have an aircraft you want to return home you use F6 to recall them. However, they will try to land at the closest airfield which may or may not be the one they came from. If you don't catch that, over time you lose aircraft to other bases where they sit unused until ferried or given new orders.
October 12, 201015 yr Bearing only missile attack Already present. Of course the missile must be "bearing only launch" (BOL) capable (typically terminal radar homing) in order to be used in this fashion. Attack range should include weapon range as well A nice idea in theory but perhaps difficult or cumbersome to put into practice. Right now the range of the aircraft in any particular loadout configuration is calculated by taking into account internal and external fuel, and the loadout as it compares to overall max payload. You would either have to manually add weapon range to the mix when determining loadouts, or come up with a way to have the GE calculate it. Either way it does not take into account other factors, such as maybe you do not want the weapon launched at maximum range, or that you cannot locate the target and must spend fuel (and weapon range) trying to find it, etc, etc. Returning aircraft should default to the originating base when commanded to land Already present.
October 12, 201015 yr If I'm not mistaken, I believe it is possible to work around the attack range limitation by launching the attack group with a patrol mission toward the target, and then ordering the group to attack when it has the targets within its weapons range. Not totally unrealistic in my experience as a Strike Controller on the Midway. Since everything is moving around all the time, circumstances are constantly changing anyway and orders need to be fine-tuned as the mission progresses. The difference is that the player must also act as the strike leader for the group in question, a function which seems to be handled automatically by the program in most cases. Buddha
October 12, 201015 yr If I'm not mistaken, I believe it is possible to work around the attack range limitation by launching the attack group with a patrol mission toward the target, and then ordering the group to attack when it has the targets within its weapons range. Not totally unrealistic in my experience as a Strike Controller on the Midway. Since everything is moving around all the time, circumstances are constantly changing anyway and orders need to be fine-tuned as the mission progresses. The difference is that the player must also act as the strike leader for the group in question, a function which seems to be handled automatically by the program in most cases. For the reasons you mention (and others), I rarely use the direct 'Attack' method and almost always the 'Patrol' method instead. My aircraft rarely take a direct path to the target.
October 12, 201015 yr Good point. I had forgotten about the ability to pick the direction of the attack as well. More realistic and useful for deception too. Buddha
October 13, 201015 yr If I'm not mistaken, I believe it is possible to work around the attack range limitation by launching the attack group with a patrol mission toward the target, and then ordering the group to attack when it has the targets within its weapons range. Not totally unrealistic in my experience as a Strike Controller on the Midway. Since everything is moving around all the time, circumstances are constantly changing anyway and orders need to be fine-tuned as the mission progresses. The difference is that the player must also act as the strike leader for the group in question, a function which seems to be handled automatically by the program in most cases. For the reasons you mention (and others), I rarely use the direct 'Attack' method and almost always the 'Patrol' method instead. My aircraft rarely take a direct path to the target. Also if the group heads of on a "patrol" rather than an "attack" mission then they will pop up in the "intercept window" (assuming they have some A2A weapons), handy if some stealthy fighters pop up within A2A weapon range. Don
October 15, 201015 yr Author Returning aircraft should default to the originating base when commanded to land Already present. Then there is a bug. Had a 4 plane group of Flankers take off from a carrier, flew 25 NM away, blew their missiles off and when I hit F6 to return an airbase 435 NM away was the default. Had to manually reselect the carrier for landing when I found them flying east. I am running the latest patched version of HCE available and have seen a few things broken that people said were fixed in earlier versions. Details on that once I get time to document properly. However, the carrier thing should be easy to reproduce. NACV battleset.
October 15, 201015 yr I am running the latest patched version of HCE available and have seen a few things broken that people said were fixed in earlier versions. Details on that once I get time to document properly. However, the carrier thing should be easy to reproduce. NACV battleset. What version are you running? The idea is 2009.042 available here at harpgamer in the Beta Testing/General/Current Files thread. That would be what most people around here would consider the latest release patch. That must be applied to 2008.044 or newer. If it is easy to reproduce, please do and create an Issue Report . Include the saved game at a point where I can follow your detailed instructions to reproduce the problem in 30 seconds or less . You do the hard part, I fix the problem.
Create an account or sign in to comment