Cover Command Question

[Beebop]

Is it possible to have planes cover ships?  I would like some aerial cover for an invasion fleet.

 

What if the ships are individual objects, that is not a formation?  (quit using that a while back as it seems to help behavior).

 

Command Cover > Target Link to each ship or would just one ship be sufficient as they are tightly grouped? 

If that ship were sunk, (there will be ground artillery at the beachhead defending), would that break the Cover Command? 

Once beachhead defenses began shooting at incoming ships would the cover planes attack the ground artillery or would separate logic be needed for that?

Command Cover > Object Link to Plane formation Leader

 

TIA

[[DBS]Tx_Tip]

And you of course have set up this scenario on your self-created lapino logic testing map using recently gained knowledge of Force Complete, proximity, events and reports to adjust the covering aircraft targeting due to different circumstances right?

[Beebop]

I do hope you are being at least in some part tongue-in-cheek.  My expertise on using the ME tools is barely adequate to make a simple mission at this point.  I'm still struggling with ME 101 much less moving up to ME 102.  

Having an invasion fleet on Lapino?  You need traffic control signals, River Passage Permit MCU's and River Patrol Officer objects just to get two boats to run side by side on that tiny river.

 

OK, seriously, no, I haven't.  I have used the Cover Command to great success to have fighters cover bombers along with other logic so that they can break off and land when they arrive back home.

Simply put the questions is, can you have planes cover ships?  I don't expect that just using the Cover Command linked to both entity's is all you need.  But before I go trying to make silk purse out of a sows ear I want to know, it it doable?

As for "different circumstances", well the circumstances are simple, 9 Landboats* in the Kuban Strait travel to the opposite shore.  Enemy planes will try and sink them.  Onshore artillery will try to sink them as they approach the shore.  I just want some friendly planes to fly cover over them without using a lot of waypoints as unlike in 1946 there is no "patrol" function for one waypoint.

 

* Aside:  Re; Landboats...I'm using them because although the peniche's in the game fit the bill perfectly I can't get them to move.  If I replace them with any other ships those ships move so the logic works.  Speed is 15kph.  Sea state is 1.  On this same map, in deep water, under identical conditions, I have another use of these vessels and it works, using the same logic. 

Go figure.

 

You've been very helpful to me in the past Tip.  I rely on your acumen now.

[[DBS]Tx_Tip]

So... "the lapino map is too small to test my mission building plans"

Your OP was asking for a simple answers to an involved logic question covering several different parameters without even going the distance of testing yourself if the cover cmd works on other entities besides aircraft.

 

Seems to me that ME 101 would be to create a logic testing map that loads quickly within the ME and plays quickly for testing purposes. Testing the cover mcu on other things besides aircraft to see how the covering aircraft reacts made sense to me when I started out. And to answer your question, yes it is that easy. Have your ships activate or spawn in and then the cover aircraft do the same in close proximity to the ships, set a timer to 2s and target link the cover cmd the same was as you do for the bombers.

 

For the rest of your OP questions. I listed the MCUs with the exception of the Attack CMD needed to achieve what your after. Again set up your scenario on a smaller scale for greater control to get it working then use that on the larger full scale edition.

 

Good Luck with your mission design.

Tip

 

 

 

[Gambit21]

Yes aircraft will cover any linked entity.

 

 

[Beebop]

Thank you Gambit.  Putting logic together now and reading/re-reading the manual.

[Jaegermeister]

In my experience, if you activate the cover command with a waypoint or timer, object link it to the player or AI plane and target the ship, the AC will cover the ship or ships from air attack. They will set up a weaving pattern over moving ships or circle stationary ships. If you target the leader of a group, the AC will cover the group. I don’t believe it will target attacking ground objects, that would require an attack ground MCU to be activated, object linked to the AC. I have not tested that, feel free to do so.

[Beebop]

Thank you Jaegermeister for that input.  At this point I have got the ships being covered via Cover Command but am looking at maybe just making the follow at out and back route as for this scenario it's not tha long a a trip for the invasion fleet to go from embarkation point to landing beachhead. At 17 kph the planes are just about circling anyway and during testing while watching them the fleet is never out of sight as the wake is, as in real life, visible from quite a distance.   However, in the event they are not neutralized by friendly forces I think I will have the cover flight (110E-2's) attack the beach defenses as I let it run without friendly interference and the M1 howitzers were deadly accurate so no ships made landfall.

 

This is becoming quite the learning experience for me.  Not only in mission making but learning how the AI acts and reacts.  It's making for a real education.

Again I thank everyone for their assistance.