Formation Leader

[SAS_Storebror]

Dear all,

 

I've got a couple questions concerning formations again.

I've been playing around with bomber formations performing level bombing tasks and my observations are somewhat irritating.

 

As far as I understood, the idea of having formations is that all path or formation related commands are given to the formation leader, and the other planes in the formation will follow what their leader does, as they are attached to him from a "target" link.

Now if that is true, what happens for instance when the leader gets killed?

The leader will go down, the plane will be destroyed and then?

Since all path related commands, like waypoints, attack commands, landing etc. are all issued to the leader of the formation only, and that leader is now absent, what will happen to the other planes in the flight? Will one of them automatically become the leader? If so, which? And how are the others attached to him (they don't have a "target" link to any other but the original leader)?

If not, how is a flight supposed to proceed when the leader gets killed?

 

Same thing, just slightly different in the initial event: Level bombing.

The logical way would be to issue commands for further waypoints once all planes have dropped their bombs, e.g. from a "Bingo Bombs" Even on the plane's advanced properties.

However, if for instance I set a "Bingo Bombs" Event on the leader plane in order to proceed to the next waypoint, logically this would mean the the leader would drop his bombs (and he's likely to do it first, before all other planes of the flight), and then since his commands automatically apply to all other planes of the flight, not only he would proceed to the next waypoint, but all others would immediately do so too - thereby stopping to drop their bombs.

 

How is this supposed to be handled and how is it supposed to happen for real?

 

Thanks in advance for your hints.

Cheers!

Mike

 

[TP_Silk]

If you have set it up with activated units rather than spawned units then if the leader is shot down/destroyed then the next aircraft in the formation assumes the role of leader and completes the actions assigned.

 

When level bombing the way I do it is to assign the 'Attack Area' command and set it to the height you wish to bomb from. Then you assign the length of time for that attack to something a few seconds over how long it will take to fly from the previous waypoint to the attack area (by a few seconds I mean enough for all the aircraft to reach that spot). Once that is done set a 5 second timer to activate the first homeward bound waypoint and the bombers will set off back home once the attack area command time is expired. It sounds a little long-winded, but it works a treat.

[SAS_Storebror]

Thanks Silk!

 

Alright, the method of handing over leadership to the next plane in flight sounds interesting, I'll watch that a couple more times to see how this works in the game 

The level bombing method is understood. Instead of letting the flight proceed to the next waypoint when bombs are gone, they'll proceed after a fixed set time. Not too intuitive and somewhat whacky, but so be it.

Now... my idea was to further use a set of Events on the planes in order to let them return to base when certain things happen.

For instance, when a plane is critically damaged, it should break off formation and return to base directly.

While this might (or might not) work for non-leader planes, I'm somehow asking myself how to do it with the leader.

Even more, when the leader get's critically damaged, he will likely not be able to proceed the mission/path/waypoints as planned - e.g. he might just spiral down - will the whole flight go down with him then? Or is there a way to avoid this?

Same thing for "bingo fuel" - in case of fuel leaks I'd like to give planes of the flight the ability to break off and run home, without killing the whole formation's task of course, but I'm uncertain how to achieve that.

 

Cheers!

Mike

[SAS_Storebror]

Oh, by the by...

I understand that in a formation, waypoint object links are only set to the formation leader.

How are object links from attack commands or landing points handled?

Are they set to the leader only as well, or to all planes of the flight?

 

Cheers!

Mike

[TP_Silk]

On activated objects any links for commands, landing points, etc are automatically passed to the other aircraft in the formation. Reports are not passed as they are specific to an object (at least that is my understanding) and so will need to be set for each object in the formation.

 

I have a group that was designed by someone much cleverer than me that has a 'morale' trigger in it so that if a formation of fighters, for instance, loses the lead or loses too many aircraft the remainder will turn back and exit the area. I think that should be available from the shared groups area somewhere.

[JimTM]

3 hours ago, SAS_Storebror said:

...

Now... my idea was to further use a set of Events on the planes in order to let them return to base when certain things happen.

For instance, when a plane is critically damaged, it should break off formation and return to base directly.

While this might (or might not) work for non-leader planes, I'm somehow asking myself how to do it with the leader.

Even more, when the leader get's critically damaged, he will likely not be able to proceed the mission/path/waypoints as planned - e.g. he might just spiral down - will the whole flight go down with him then? Or is there a way to avoid this?

Same thing for "bingo fuel" - in case of fuel leaks I'd like to give planes of the flight the ability to break off and run home, without killing the whole formation's task of course, but I'm uncertain how to achieve that.

...

 

See the "AI Return to Base Decision" option on pg. 210 of the editor manual. Re. the last bullet point in that section, I haven't tested the reactions of other formation members lately so I don't know if it's changed.

[SAS_Storebror]

Thanks JimTM, that was an interesting read again!

The last two points pretty much reflect what I saw so far.

Seems like disabling the "AI Return to Base Decision" option is the best choice, better let one plane die than messing up a whole formation.

The first note about airfields I didn't fully understand.

For instance, on a MP mission naturally there is an airfield object for the spawn point. If that one is set to "on parking" and AI decides to use this airfield as "stop after landing" position, a disaster will happen on next player spawn.

 

Cheers!

Mike

[JimTM]

5 minutes ago, SAS_Storebror said:

...

The first note about airfields I didn't fully understand.

For instance, on a MP mission naturally there is an airfield object for the spawn point. If that one is set to "on parking" and AI decides to use this airfield as "stop after landing" position, a disaster will happen on next player spawn.

...

 

Yes, there could be a disaster in MP if the spawn point is the nearest friendly airfield object to the AI plane that is returning to base. Note that this may happen with "On Parking" or "On Runway" airfield objects (which govern whether the engine is on or off, not where the object is located).