Formation leader killed

[Hanu]

Hi, this could be something obvious, but I was wondering how do you guys mitigate the problem when leader of the formation gets killed?

 

As all the WP's and cover commands etc point to leader of the formation. When he bites the dust, the carefully built flight plan stops working. There seems not to be any built-in inheritance within formation.

 

Of course I could put the leader indestructible, but that sounds so bad idea. Also "OnPlaneDestroyed" event on leader that triggers Force Complete + RTB waypoint to all his subordinates is a better way, but not completely satisfactory either.

[Juri_JS]

The commands for a flight should still work, even when the leader is lost or has to return to base because of damage. I can't remember that this caused any real problems for me in the past.

[Hanu]

Hmm, thanks. I was doing a MP dogfight mission for DServer and it seemed to work the way I described... Usually I spawn planes (you cannot use formations there, only fake formations if you spawn those planes carefully) but now I decided to try with activated formation. They seemed to stay in circling the last WP when I managed to kill the leader with flak. On the second attempt they were moving already towards next WP but everyone ditched later on after killed leader. When the leader survived, all the rest got back home.

 

Got to test more then. I hope it's just a coincidence. Hopefully not again some DServer-limitation.

[Juri_JS]

My experience comes from SP mode. I can't say if it's the same in MP missions. I've seen the AI do some strange things in MP mode that don't happen in SP.

[Jaegermeister]

I usually link the targeting commands, waypoints check zones and force complete type commands to the leader and the player after they reach the enemy target zone or heavy AAA. It doesn't hurt anything, and if the leader gets killed, the waypoint commands are issued back up the flight order even if the player is not the leader. The player also then triggers the waypoints and land command if they decide to RTB before the flight leader.

 

Edited March 8, 2024 by Jaegermeister

[Hanu]

Thanks guys. I guess its again this MP/DServer thing... I think I'll go with the Force Complete + RTB workaround then.