hello pooners,

 

yesterday, in a chat about AI (un)management of iin flight refueling operations with Tony on IRC, the idea of using a special underwing tank to be inserted in the plane's loadouts to simulate that the planes refueled during the missions came on the table.

 

the beauty of that workaround (if one can see any beauty in a workaround), is to allow the scen designer to manage the usage of that workaround by simply including, or not, the needed underwing tank.

 

on the other side, any scen that would have used tankers would require his specific tank because the distance to cover would also be specific.

 

another con is that it doesn't physically simulate the tanker, it can not be threatened.

 

and a third ( and it would probably seen as major by somes) is that it require an intervention by the DB author.

 

 

my humble opinion is that it can add some flexibility for scen designers (even if at least one will probably say that he lived very well without it) and is less restrictive than intermediate air bases.

 

now please share your own

 

cheers,

 

Jan

That implementation is certainly possible. The PlayersDB uses a somewhat similar technique for Backfire bombers to simulate long-ranged attacks with fewer AS-4 missiles. I don't believe that it is either wise or economical to try and implement such modeling on a general basis.

 

1) The number of times it might actually be used is likely small. Adding this loadout(s) to all planes is just increasing the DB size exponentially without much return. If such a loadout is needed, it is probably more efficient to add it on a case-by-case basis.

 

2) Planes can re-fuel multiple times. The upper limit is virtually infinite. Do we add 1, 2, 3... of these 'work-around' tanks to simulate multiple re-fueling operations?

 

3) Freek Schepers did another work-around in his Antilles scenario to simulate a Trans-Atlantic ferry mission by inserting planes directly into the scenario.

 

http://www.gamesquad.com/forums/downloads....file&id=720

 

This technique requires one-time DB editor intervention, but shouldn't need ongoing maintenance unless you happen to be using the ANW ScenEditor.

Hello Herman,

 

thanks for your interest,

 

1) The number of times it might actually be used is likely small. Adding this loadout(s) to all planes is just increasing the DB size exponentially without much return. If such a loadout is needed, it is probably more efficient to add it on a case-by-case basis.

 

2) Planes can re-fuel multiple times. The upper limit is virtually infinite. Do we add 1, 2, 3... of these 'work-around' tanks to simulate multiple re-fueling operations?

 

exact, both because each situation would require it's own solution, a case-by-case action is the only wise.

 

 

3) Freek Schepers did another work-around in his Antilles scenario to simulate a Trans-Atlantic ferry mission by inserting planes directly into the scenario.

 

http://www.gamesquad.com/forums/downloads....file&id=720

 

This technique requires one-time DB editor intervention, but shouldn't need ongoing maintenance unless you happen to be using the ANW ScenEditor.

 

 

yes there are other solution but the fake loadout method add some flexibility by allowing the scen designer to physically have the planes ferrying.

 

 

cheers,

 

Jan