I have a same problem. After the last Open Beta update, Smoke does not rejoin and fly around the Carrier. Although I take off first before Smoke.
However I realized there is a different point in Start up procedure compared with other players who played this campaign. I usually use normal alignment without Stored Heading, so turn the INS swich to "CV" and waiting for 8 minutes to take off. I supposed to don't use "STD HDG" on the Carrier deck, that is a misunderstanding. When I use STD HDG, waiting for 90 secounds to align and take off fast, Smoke rejoin correctly. Hence I suspect that Player stay on the Carrier deck too long from the mission start, "Follow" task may not fire.
One more thing, after the AAR with Smoke, There is no conversation about XO's story. When I checked the Comm2 and the display indicate "M" (manual) even I didn't touch Comm2 absolutely. This cause canceled to talk with smoke. so after the AAR I reset COMM2 to Channel1, I could hear the conversation with wingman. Sorry for broken english.
