Problem with A / 1st Flight's Orders

[Bullethead]

The editor screwed this post up so I'm starting it from scratch in the next post.

 

 

Edited September 18, 2009 by Bullethead

[Bullethead]

Lately I've been rather annoyed with A Flight's behavior, leaving me in the lurch all the time. Is anybody else seeing this?

 

It used to be that if you went to the briefing room and saw both flights listed, then A Flight had the same mission as you. If you flew without warping, you could formate on them the whole way. If you warped, A Flight would always appear above and ahead of you when you returned to normal time. And if you warped after a fight that had scattered everybody, A Flight would be back in its usual place when you stopped warping again.

 

This is no longer the case. Despite both flights being listed in the briefing for the same mission, A Flight no longer does this mission. I can't recall seeing them stick to the plan for the past couple of weeks. Here's what's happening to me now. Again, this is when both flights are shown in the mission briefing.

 

If I fly without warping, A Flight leaves the airfield right on the briefed path to the briefed objective and I can follow them. However, somewhere along the line, usually well before reaching the pre-objective waypoint, A Flight suddenly decides to do something else. They turn sharply off course and dive way low. If an enemy ground target happens to be where they come down, they attack it. Otherwise, they just patrol back and forth at very low altitude, well off to the side of the flightpath. Once A Flight goes off course, warping will NOT bring them back--they are obviously no longer on the same mission as me. Furthermore, if I warp from the field, A Flight is never to be seen when I stop warping, except perhaps many miles to the flank and very low.

 

In the original Superpatch, A Flight had an identical problem if you tried the new "Start in the Air" option. When you spawned, A Flight would be within spitting distance above you, but they'd instantly turn sharply and dive way down below you, where they'd do their own thing, just as described above. This air start problem got fixed in one of the minipatches almost immediately (bravo ), but now it seems to me that this problem is now affecting ground-launch sorties.

 

Anyway, as of right now, and for me at least, the ONLY way to be in company with A Flight, AND do the briefed mission, is if I use the "Start in the Air" option.

 

Now, it could be that A Flight really had a different mission from me all along. But if that's the case, why are they still shown in the briefing room as being on my mission? Wouldn't it be better if they weren't in my briefing? Also, if A Flight really does have another mission, why is it so strange? Patrolling at very low altitude near the front is rather silly from a tactical perspective and not something you'd expect from all the experienced aces in A Flight.

 

Anyway, that's what I'm seeing. Is this a general thing these days or do I just need to reinstall the game?

[Ryan H]

Thats interesting. I'm willing to bet you're seeing the same thing I described in my "help me not suck" thread. I'm not sure about starting in the air, I always start from ground. I think it would be nice if flight 1 was flying the same mission as flight 2.

[Dej]

That IS interesting. My observation to Ryan H is his thread is probably incorrect, then. I haven't been working many capaigns since the post-superpatch updates and was going from memory. I shall give it a try tonight and see if I see the same thing.

[carrick58]

By Jove, My A flight always go swaning off. Cheeky Blithers wot?

 

 

[Guest British_eh]

Hi there:

 

I agree BULLETHEAD. I wanted to go with Flight 1 as the 3 wingmen aren't enough against 6 enemy air craft, but they don't want to play? I haven't been using warp to see what would happen/

 

Dev's?

 

Cheers,

 

British_eh

[Olham]

Bullethead, you must have hit something there.

Since the minipatches came in rapidly, I think I never had a flight with A-flight together,

even when we both where on the board for that mission.

I was wondering recently, when I would have a flight together again, but always, on half

way, they disappeared.

[Duce Lewis]

Yep, same here

A Flight usually bugs out the last waypoint before the target, diving away

When HA appear I'm usually more worried about what A Flight will do than the HA

[RAF_Louvert]

I've noticed the same thing since the latest patches as well, but for me it has been a non-issue as I've never relied on the other flights in my campaigns. In the past I've found them to be more of a detriment when they come streaking in, vulching kills, and scattering the EA to the four corners of the Earth. I prefer working with my flight and attacking the EA from the top down, pushing them towards the ground, and keeping them better in check. Just my personal style I suppose.

 

Cheers!

 

Lou

[Hasse Wind]

I'm experiencing similar behaviour. In my current campaign, the aces of A flight always abandon my small flight of usually three Halberstadts. While I can bring my scattered flight quickly back together by using warp, the A guys are nowhere to be found. They don't seem to be doing the same mission in the end.

[+Polovski]

We did a fix in v 1.32c the Ace should have the same target. Maybe it's broken again.

 

What version do you have ?

[Hasse Wind]

Well, I'm using 1.32f, which should be the latest patch.

[+Polovski]

It's broken, WM has fixed and we are testing. No idea when/if it will be available in a patch, but there you go..

[Hasse Wind]

Once again your support is brilliant. Thanks!

[Olham]

Good news, Pol!

 

Lou, if you are in a non-elite unit, A-Flight is good to have with you (have only German side exp.);

often they would be a bit ahead, and get attacked first. I find it easier then to come in right on the

fighting and be better prepared. Also not noticed so much.

But elite squads often kill everything around you. Still though, I have shot down two Nupe 11 in front

of MvR - the big ace had no kills that flight. (Perhaps he left them for me?)

[Bullethead]

It's broken, WM has fixed and we are testing. No idea when/if it will be available in a patch, but there you go..

 

Thanks for the pronto support.

 

If it helps any in the process, I should add that I only noticed this behavior when I started flying in 1918 extensively the last few weeks. In 1918, A Flight always seems to do its own thing. However, I went back last night and tried another 1917 campaign, and A Flight went to the target as expected. This is in 1.32f.

 

It seems to me that 1918 is a bit screwy. When you're creating a pilot and trying to decide which squadron and time to do, scrolling the time back and forth, you'll see that the front line moves differently for different squadrons. For most squadrons, the 2nd major German bulge in 1918, for the 2nd Battle of the Marne, never happens at all, but it does for a few of them. Same thing with the Entente counteroffensive in the 2nd 1/2 of 1918--most squadrons never see that, but a few of the Germans squadrons do.

 

Anyway, I've had a lot more problems with the game in 1918 in general than at any other time. Not just A Flight doing its own thing, but crashes and such. I've been attributing this to perhaps overloading my machine with all the planes in the air, but perhaps part of the problem lies with confusion between squadrons as to where the front is on a given day?

[Duce Lewis]

It's broken, WM has fixed and we are testing. No idea when/if it will be available in a patch, but there you go..

Cool Beans Pol,

Thanks for the quick fix!

 

Do you have the B Flight warping too low and far behind on your things to do list?

Just had an escort mission where I couldn't catch up to the bombers until they'd reached the target

Had to cut off a waypoint to do it too

I'm becoming an expert at getting bounced ...wingies have a lot to learn though

[+Polovski]

No idea Bullethead we won't be looking at frontlines in general unless there's something specific. Switching dates fast could possibly confuse things.

 

Duce no there's no plans to look at warping. The flights do not fly exactly the same paths anyway.

[Duce Lewis]

Duce no there's no plans to look at warping. The flights do not fly exactly the same paths anyway.

99% of the time A Flight is so much higher they only appear as bogies

Spend the whole mission just climbing and chasing after them

Since our speeds are equal, they either engage while we're out of range or fly on, leaving us to get bounced

IMO this is 1 reason it's so hard to coordinate missions with A Flight (for warpers)

 

Bombers are so far ahead and above they don't even appear on the TAC

Only way to follow them is to put the targeting arrow on them at take-off

Only way to catch up is to cut off waypoints and hope to reach them before HA

Impossible to set up any protection sceme

 

I know you guys are busy and you're work is marvelous

But any chance this can be tweaked?

 

Cheers,

[Creaghorn]

wether or not something with flight 1 is broken, but i still believe some weeks ago flight 1 left me in the heat of fire because it was led by coward hermann (meier) goering. period!

[+Polovski]

Strange bombers are usually below me.. maybe you need to check you set a higher mission Altitude in Workshop.

Use air start and warp less maybe?

 

Problem is we never ever finish p3 at this rate - we really need to stop and get on with addons and P4.

 

Also try different craft maybe performance or something too.

[77Scout]

The bomber escort problem seems to result because the bombers head to the target fairly early in the mission (after about one lap of the field), while your flight burns up time doing the standard two laps around the field. By the time your flight leader heads off on the actual mission the bombers are miles ahead and you never catch up.

 

On bomber escort missions I leave my flight to their 'lapsof the field' and hook up with the bombers right away. I am usually the only fighter escort they have, and we leave my flight far behind never to be seen again.

 

Solution might be to have flights only circle the field once rather than twice?

 

BTW, Escort works perfectly when you fly in the two-seater flight; the escort stays with you all the way. Wonder why it doesn't work so well when you are with the escorting flight.

[RAF_Louvert]

.

 

77Scout, try changing your "Time", "Space", and "Motion" settings from Newtonian to Einsteinian.

 

 

(hee, hee, hee, I crack myself up. See, this is why it's never wise to send donkeys to college.)

 

.

[Duce Lewis]

Strange bombers are usually below me.. maybe you need to check you set a higher mission Altitude in Workshop.

Use air start and warp less maybe?

 

Problem is we never ever finish p3 at this rate - we really need to stop and get on with addons and P4.

 

Also try different craft maybe performance or something too.

I've had the same problem whether at high or medium altitude

Problem seems to be on B Flight (Player) alone

A Flight and Bombers seem to be at HA height, sometimes higher or lower

B Flight is always way low and astern

 

Bombers don't follow flight path shown in Mission Briefing

Often a rendevous point is depicted at some point away from the base

But they're always overhead at take-off and head off on the mission quickly

Scout's solution might indicate the climb out and circling may be the issue

I'll try Shift+W to to skip past this next escort mission

 

Pol, I can understand the need to close out P3

I'll start a Poll Thread to see how many are experiencing this