v1.06 b624
Hi there.
On of the greatest features of CMANO is truly the mission editor, I often play around with it a bit to see if
current situations can be simulated.
Inspired by recent events, I experimented with a manhunt situation. Not yet knowing what could a scenario deliver exactly including such an occasion, I started to create a simple scenario.
I made up two sides, France and Terrorists, both hostile to each other.
The weather today was pretty greyish. METAR Paris CDG was LFPG 091000Z 23017KT 5000 -DZ FEW005 BKN008 11/10 Q1027 NOSIG, so I aimed to put a lower cloud cover above the scene and having helos performing their search duties quite low, like observed in all news footage. I chose weather type 4, offering clouds starting at 2000 ft.
France got a helo, a SA330 Puma, only sensor is Mk1 eyeball, no weapons (yet).
Terrorists got a single car, being a mobile target.
So I placed the car northeast of Paris and plotted an evasion path to the east.
The french Puma I wanted to search and then follow this car, to keep it tracked for possible later engagement by other units.
I put up a rectangular mission area and tasked the Puma to do a patrol mission to find that car, while that car moves through the designated patrol area.
After assigning an ASuW ground patrol to the Puma, it maintained at 12000 ft (clear of clouds) to the nearby mission area. After reaching the patrol zone, it reduced speed to loiter. While the speed reduction was realistic, the maintained altitude was not.
this was the situation (Godeye enabled), the attached savegame is from that moment:
1. I wouldn't have expected the AI to select an altitude that high, you wouldn't conduct a ASuW patrol from FL120 equipped with your eyes as the only sensor. This is a ferry altitude for transport helos but certainly not for visual surveillance, at least not overhead a non-maritime landscape.
2. The medium cloud segment between 2000 and 7000 ft is completely ignored. Apparently the AI doesn't take this into account. Not much to see from above this cloud layer but the helo conducts a patrol in a way it will be difficult to find anything on the ground. So I would have expected the AI to dive below the clouds to gain unobstructed view, since this is necessary to perform the tasked mission.
So to keep it more to the real world situation, I now interfered and issued a flight altitude manually via the F2 command. I set it to continue in 1000 ft.
Now eventually the Puma discovers an unidentified mobile contact. The Puma continues on its flight path.
3. It doesn't try to ID the contact. I now know there is something, but my patrol unit doesn't try to ID it before continuing the patrol. I would have expected the patrol mission to aim for surveillance data, delivering awareness of ID and then decide to attack it if it is hostile. The side postures are set hostile. My patrolling unit discovered something in a patrol area but refused to ID it. It could be (and in fact is) a hostile contact, but my unit simply proceeds.
4. A little later the helo climbs back into the cloud layer, no idea why. see the screenshot (I have a save of that situation too).
The Puma descents back soon but continues to go higher and back down to 2000 a number of occasions afterwards, although ground elevation in that area doesn't surpass a few hundred feet.
I interfere and issue the Puma the direct order to attack that contact. Since the helo isn't armed, it can't attack. So I expect it to ID and then follow it (exactly what I aim for from the beginning). I use F1 and aim at the yellow question marked contact.
5. Besides from having the contact appearing hostilish red now, nothing happens. The Puma continues its present patrol path. No attack order was received, there is not even a targeting vector.
So I interfere again and unassign the Puma from its present mission. This induces an instant climb, aiming for the clouds again. And although I never issued that, it is declared as being set manually.
Now I interfere again and repeat the F1 attack on that contact. This time it is accepted, judging from the target vector. It even remebers the manually issued flight altitude and starts to descend.
6. Unfortunately the present flight path, still from the AI mission plotting, is of higher importance. Although the mission was unassigned before, obviously this doesn't also abandon the mission's path planning, what I would have expected. I maybe could understand this if "ignore plotted course" was unset. I was very surprised noticing that
7. "ignore plotted course" was already set to yes. So it was even more odd that
8. although tasked to ignore plotted course, the helo proceeded on this course.
After reaching that last waypoint, or even if I delete that waypoint by F3+Escape, helo enters an orbit.
So after running into all these aforementioned oddities, I found no way to make that helo patrol an area to discover, ID and then track ground targets. While attempting this, the helo deviated from issued altitudes numerous times for no apparent reason. Attack orders where accepted by a targeting vector only. The unit itself refused to close in to the target. Maybe it refused because it was unarmed. But the question remains then, how to shadow a target with an unarmed unit.
Thanks for any help.