PZ unmanned between flights

[Lubaru]

Is there a way to have assets that are assigned as part of a 1/3 rule patrol zone to take off and arrive at the PZ before or slightly before the current patrol flight starts leaving the PZ. Not having this option leaves the PZ temporarily unguarded when there is only one flight assigned to it. It would be nice to be able to have the relief flights go ahead and take off at a set level of relevant weapons, fuel state of the current flight on patrol, then once the relief flight is close the patrols zone the current flight will RTB.

[ComDev]

Savegame?

[Cik]

yeah, it'd be pretty nice. it's very noticeable with tankers on very "wide" scenarios. the on-duty tankers will run their tracks until bingo, and then the replacements take off ~2min after the on-duty bingo out and start their 600nm flight into the track. leaving the track unoccupied for ~45+ min gametime.

same thing with AAW/ASUW patrols over very wide areas. though i'm not sure exactly how i'd modify the behavior to fix the problem, without adding a bunch of new options

maybe "reinforcements take off at joker +20/shotgun?"

[ComDev]

Do you have savegames to test against?

[Cik]

i mean, i suppose i could provide some, but it's not a bug; just how the game works 100% of the time.

[ComDev]

Yes please. Stuff is looked into in exchange for savegames + descriptions. And beer, of course [8D]

[Lubaru]

I may have to send you some beer. I will try to give a better description though Since I am out of town and not able to access the game for a while but yes Cik is correct I am not saying this is a bug.

For example in any and every scenario where you have a side with ac PZ and 1/3 rule with the intent the PZ always be manned with ac. AC immediately leave a PZ and head home on receiving an RTB order from the player or the fuel, wep state logic, and this makes sense. But (not withstanding extreme situations) in real life the relief patrol ac would have already been put in the air by the air controller before the current patrolling ac would be ordered to RTB. This way though the current patrolling ac are ready to get home and refuel they have been ordered by the air controller to hang around while their relief get on the way. This way the gap of having 0 ac manning the pz is minimized or eliminated. It would be nice if there was some air controller logic that kind of took into account the travel time of the relief patrol before calling a patrol home, but that logic could also be overridden by the player with an "RTB IMMEDIATELY" order. Its not a huge deal as I can work around it by having several different pz missions in the same area so that the likelihood of all them needing to RTB at the same time is minimal, but would be nice.

[ComDev]

Thanks, have added a separate ticket for this. Have an idea on how this may be solved, but won't be included in v1.12 (too complex) [8D]

[Lubaru]

Cool. Thanks

[ComDev]

Bumping for savegame [8D]

Thanks!

[Lubaru]

ORIGINAL: emsoy

Bumping for savegame [8D]

Thanks!

Ooops. Sorry I didn't realize you were waiting for a savegame. I'll whip something up here pretty soon and post here.

Thanks

[ComDev]

Bumping this one.

Some good savegames to test against would be helpful. Press play and watch.

Thanks!

[Cik]

ORIGINAL: emsoy

Bumping this one.

Some good savegames to test against would be helpful. Press play and watch.

Thanks!

the game demonstrates the behavior 100% of the time, it's just usually not an issue. arco 3/4 in this scenario begin takeoff prep and launch ~2 minutes after 1 & 2 go bingo, but as flight time to the station area is ~4 hours at cruise, any fighters out there when the first flight bingo will be 100% dead by the time they arrive.

for fighters this is often not an issue, but for very long-range force projection missions (incl. several in the base scenario portfolio) it can potentially be a big issue as a huge dead zone opens in your tanker chains due to there not being an estimation routine somewhere in the game to handle taking off replacement flights earlier as the station gets further away.

tankers in particular will be hard to solve, because fuel demands often spike unpredictably, but a doctrine option to take off replacement patrollers or support craft at joker+10/20/30/50 might not be amiss.