- Chg:2352 GE Bombers close on target after launching weapons

The attacking aircraft were being told to return to base

but the attack order was not removed so most often they

would end up trying to attack again even if they didn't

have valid weapons.

 

Is this behaviour going to cause any problems when the a/c have more than one type of weapon?

 

i.e. a plane with both ARMs and bombs/AShMs?

 

Will the release of one type cause the a/c to return to base? Conversely, will the non-release of one type (i.e. ARMs) cause the plane to continue even though it should probably RTB once the AShMs are fired?

Nope, I've made the behavior about the same as it was in early 2005, if the planes have LR missiles and bombs, they will still close to their death. What I changed in 2008.001 was to make the planes discard their attack orders when they wanted to RTB, in the release version they would revert to attacking even though they had been given an RTB order.

I had a situation like you described while doing some bug testing. Red AI aircraft with a mix of weapons RTB after the Blue base was destroyed, with the unused weapoms aboard.

With just one weapon type aboard, AI seems to fire everything it has at a target, so there's no RTB issue there.

I still don't understand how a flight of (for example) backfires would be able to attack at all once they expend their missiles?

I still don't understand how a flight of (for example) backfires would be able to attack at all once they expend their missiles?

 

They won't. What I understand we're aiming for in the AI behavior is that they will continue to close only if they have weapons remaining. For example, a Backfire may be carrying a mixed armament of long and short range missiles. It will (hopefully) shoot the long range missiles and then close the distance to shoot the short range missiles, and then RTB.

Sorry, I meant previously, when they closed in with no weapons.

 

Good work that this is fixed.

 

Will make certain scenarios much tougher.

They won't. What I understand we're aiming for in the AI behavior is that they will continue to close only if they have weapons remaining. For example, a Backfire may be carrying a mixed armament of long and short range missiles. It will (hopefully) shoot the long range missiles and then close the distance to shoot the short range missiles, and then RTB.

 

Another situation is that of the Su-24 Fencer. In many of the old loadouts, it carried both ARMs for defense suppression and AShMs for the strike. The ARMs were only meant for suppression of any active radar while the AShMs were the primary weapons.

 

The problem arises when the primary AShMs are fired and the ARMs remain. The computer continues to close to try and expend them even if the target isn't radiating. They will hang over the target until they are shot down or the weapons find an eligible target.

 

I am playing some scenarios with Backfire going after bases and finding that when the Weapons Allocation window appears, not all of the weapons are allocated to the base if there are large numbers of bombers. Hopefully, this remains the case after the patch. That way, a bomber could actually close and try to take out the HVUs with the remaining instead of wasting all their weapons on the escort screen. To have them all fire off at the first instant an eligible target appears does not seem to be any good, either.

I still don't understand how a flight of (for example) backfires would be able to attack at all once they expend their missiles?

 

 

Backfires have a tail gun. I've bagged a few P-3s with it, over the years ... :-)