Aircraft Don't Follow Flightplans Entered in Strike Planner

[rmeckman]

Can we get a detailed rundown of the unresolved issues you consider fundamental/critical? We can try to prioritize them for instrumentation and inclusion into automated testing so that they are caught more reliably.

We are not deaf to the increasing feedback on QC issues, but we need the community's help in triaging the pile. Not every potential issue is of equal priority or relevance.

This quote is from the discussion at

https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/view ... 1&t=403243

regarding unresolved issues in Build 1328.18. Although the issue of strike aircraft endlessly circling waypoint 3 is very debilitating, it cropped up pretty recently. Even before that, I found myself drifting away from the Strike Planner that came out in the Tiny release mainly because aircraft frequently fail to follow the flight plans that I spend a lot of time developing, even with zero enemy interference. I've instead relied more on work-arounds using Engage Targets -Auto, Engage Targets -Manual, and ASuW patrol missions.

I have been playing the Caribbean Fury 1 scenario recently, and so far none of my attacks developed in the Strike Planner have been reliable enough to use. As one example, I sent two aircraft out of Key West on a quick hit-and-run strike on a Cuban FFG in the Florida Straight. In the save FFGstrike a (included in attached zip file), the two aircraft are just about to pass ingress waypoint 5, where they are supposed to climb to the 200 ft minimum launch altitude for the Maverick missiles. The lead aircraft does so, but the other aircraft remains at 100 ft while passing both waypoint 5 and the IP, meaning it is too low to fire the missiles. The end result is only one aircraft fires at the FFG. Then both aircraft ignore the first egress waypoint (number 8) altogether and instead go directly for waypoint 9.

FFG strike a.png (43.87 KiB) Viewed 464 times

The second save FFGstrike b contains exactly the same strike except the hold time at waypoint 3 was adjusted by 1 minute in the Strike Planner. For whatever reason, that change was enough to alter the strike aircraft behavior. Both aircraft now climb to 200 ft at the IP. But the second aircraft still fails to fire its missiles even though it meets the minimum for the Mavericks. Both aircraft again ignore waypoint 8. If I avoid the Strike Planner and set up a manual attack using Engage Targets, I can at least get 4 missiles reliably on the target.

FFG strike b.png (51.83 KiB) Viewed 464 times

The issues in these examples is pretty typical of what I have encountered using the Strike Planner going back over a year to this post. That post was marked fixed, but in Build 1328.18 the strike mentioned in the post is again broken. This is just my own view, but I think some priority should be given to ensuring that all aircraft in strike formations actually follow what is set up in the Flightplan Editor. Especially given that missions/packages have become a more prominent part of the game.

[blu3s]

Hi, can you please provide a save before the ACs take off? Also it would be helpful to have just the ACs the target and the Airbase

Thank you

[rmeckman]

Hi, can you please provide a save before the ACs take off? Also it would be helpful to have just the ACs the target and the Airbase

The easiest way to remove all other units in the scenario also required me to redo the strike, so the ship strike in the attached save is similar but not identical to those in the OP. It still shows the same issues: the non-lead aircraft fails to follow the altitudes set in the flight plan at waypoints 6 (ingress) and 10 (egress), only one aircraft fires at the ship, and both aircraft ignore egress waypoint 9.

Thanks for looking into this.

[blu3s]

Thank you,

the problem with aircrafts in the air is that the FP is already generated so the behavior will be always wrong then, we can't know if the problem is fixed with a new build.


Logged 0015877

[Blast33]

Maybe this helps?

Flight Jason08 keeps circling above the home base but do not keep up with the timings and waypoints of the flightplan. Flight Jason08 had to be at the station start instead of circling above homebase.
Sometimes only the wingman does the flightplan and the leader stays at home. If I give the leader a new course (F3) this does not alter his flightpath. Only when I delete the current waypoint it will start its flightplan.
Same for Mission Airgun89 and many more missons.

These Aircraft took off but I kept a save at the start of the scenario.

Jason08 circling above homebase.jpg (208.58 KiB) Viewed 243 times

Flightplan Jason08.jpg (101.75 KiB) Viewed 243 times

Flightplan Airgun89.jpg (71.69 KiB) Viewed 243 times

First Night Over Kosovo v007 Start time.zip

[rmeckman]

Maybe this helps?

Flight Jason08 keeps circling above the home base but do not keep up with the timings and waypoints of the flightplan.

This is similar what many have observed with formations circling hold waypoint 3 during strike missions, but your case is an AAW patrol mission. Since the flightplan editor mainly focuses on strike missions, I'm not sure how much development effort has gone into supporting flight plans for patrol missions. In the case of AAW patrol packages, my main issue has been that there does not appear to be an easy way to start/end the patrol at specified times. The takeoff time of a patrol package does not work like the activation time of a patrol mission. I've been able to get around this using the Operations Planner, but that involves more complexity.

[thewood1]

Patrol missions have typically worked well with Flight Plans, attention to detail is done. I used them a lot to get the AI to do specific things without lua. But at least since 1328.18, Flight Plans have been a struggle for almost any mission.