[FIXED DB v471] Aircraft too low to bomb

[JPFisher55]

I have encountered this problem in the past, but handled it by manually resetting the planes' altitude. In the attached save, Flight Havoc 64
is too low to drop its bombs. It is attempting to attach an airbase in the eastern Sinai desert. I tried resetting its altitude, but the group does
not promptly obey the manual orders.

[ComDev]

What version of the game are you using?

[JPFisher55]

I'm using 972.10 and I rebuilt the database before playing. I have noticed this on strike missions. I usually use patrol missions and set the station and attack altitude levels high enough for the planes to use their bombs.
However, you can't control altitude of aircraft on strike missions. So for this scenario, I have to use ground patrol missions for all planes with bombs.

[ComDev]

This sounded serious so ran it through the debugger.

The doctrine has been set to Strafing = Yes, which means that the AI prefers to the gun over iron bombs since it gets a slight range advantage vs bombs.

Once the gun ammo has been spent, it will climb to drop the bombs.

[JPFisher55]

Thanks Emsoy, I'll reset the doctrine. However, I do suggest a change to preferring bombs over guns.

[User2]

I agree with JPFisher55 that guns should have the lowest priority. Guns are low dps weapon. In a situation when the attacking a/c can be shot down by defence AAA at any moment, it's wise to launch high dps weapons first.

Anyway, here is scen file where some A/Cs of the strike mission do not drop bombs even after depleting all their guns' ammo. 972.10.

[Filitch]

I agree, guns should have priority lower than other armaments. In many descriptions of the combat use of assault aircraft, the procedure for the use of weapons is invariable - first rockets, then bombs and only then guns and unguided rocket shells.

[ComDev]

Fair, I've updated the database and reduced the effective strafing range for 30mm guns from 1.5nm to 1.0nm in DB v471. This will solve the problem [8D]