Mission 11 - AWACS never takes off?

[redterror]

In mission 11, where you have to hunt down the predator drone, for some reason the AWACS never seems to take off. I tried it twice thinking maybe I missed something, but neither time did the AWACS ever leave the ground.

 

I checked the mission editor but I'm out of my element here. It seemed odd to me that the awacs only had a single waypoint - takeoff from ramp start, and no further waypoints, but I don't know much about mission design.

 

Fortunately I took a hint as to the altitude for the drone and flew the mission without AWACS, but I am pretty sure something is wrong. Did I miss something? Is this a bug?

[Zarma]

Same here. How did you lock the predator ? Radar or EOS ?

 

Edit : got it on radar with luck

Edited February 15, 2015 by Zarma

[bolek]

Same here, looks like a bug. Fortunately, you don't really need the AWACS.

[scotth6]

Hey. AWACS isn't taking off for me either. I just figured there was no AWACS and no wingman to make it more of a challenge. And it is. I have only flown it once, but so far it was a fail with no sight of anything anywhere.

Cheers,

[v81]

So just shy of 5 years and this issue still exists.

Lovely.

 

 

Instructions for others that have trouble with this...

 

 

Aim for WP1 immediately after takeoff, but rather than following the recommended 3000m altitude sit between 2100 and 2300m.

The drone spawns over WP2 pretty much immediately.

It can be seen within a minute of takeoff or less, i needed to get close to get a lock.

 

It has a very small dot for a radar return, blink and you might miss it.

If you head too far south a pair of F-5E's will spawn, not much fun going 1v2 with them, they seem to be able to be very accurate with an AIM 9 at good range.

 

Edited December 13, 2019 by v81

[Dzen]

For this mission AWACS is not necessarily. But if you want I added to it start from runway so AWACS will be takeoff with player.

[v81]

I was able to complete the mission, but the real issue is that the briefing says that AWACS will be there, and it's not.

It's a case of the end user being told X, but having Y happen instead.

 

 

You have to picture this from the perspective of a person that did not create the mission, whom are playing it for the first time and taking the information in the briefing to be mostly accurate.

 

 

 

The evidence from at least 2 forum threads and multiple users (and even more viewers who had to search for this but have not left a message) here suggests that something is not right.

 

 

 

So what you really need to do is decide if the mission in it's current state is working as intended or not, and adjust accordingly.

 

 

The bigger concern i have and this is especially frustrating in the tutorials is that no one seems to be doing quality control, or if they are they have then they are aware that the briefing says one thing but a different thing happens and they don't care.

 

 

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This, at least as best i recall was my thoughts during the mission the first 6 or so attempts.

When i took off i headed to the WP as required waiting to hear a BRA call from AWACS.

When i heard noting i tried to call AWACS but it was not in the radio menu.

The RWR was showing that it was scanning, F10 map revealed it was still on the ground.

Switched on my radar and looked inland expecting the drone to be coming from there, pretty keen to find it before it crosses the point that fails the mission. Scanned left, center right, up and down... No joy.

Wondered further along the coast and a pair of F-5E's spawned, i though this was supposed to be a surprise.

Always seemed to get one of them but the other would get me.

Rinse and repeat.

Overall i tried about 10 times before searching it, the last 4-6 times i tried different things.

 

 

The spoiler is that after looking at the TacView it seems the drone is orbiting Sukhumi at 2200M the whole time, right from mission start.

Thing is i wasn't always looking at Sukhumi, as per the briefing if it was over Sukhumi then the mission was lost. Thus naturally i was thinking it was elsewhere because the mission was still OK.

 

The other issue is the difference in altitude vs the players altitude from the set route.

 

 

Ultimately with no AWACS and taking the briefing to be accurate i was orbiting Sukhumi at 3300M scanning all around.

Ironicaly it surns out i was orbiting directly above the drone the whole time looking for something coming to Sukhumi, when it was already then underneath me the whole time.

The issue now is that with it immediately below me my radar never picked it up.

 

 

 

 

In finishing...

 

 

 

So i hope that clears up how it is perceived from an end user.

 

 

If the briefing is to say AWACS will assist with targeting then maybe AWACS should already be airborne at the beginning of the mission.

If the mission is to say the drone needs to be downed before reaching Sukhumi then the drone should not START at Sukhumi.

 

 

If the drone needs to start at Sukhumi then the briefing needs to be adjusted to say something like 'It is overhead Sukhumi now, destroy it before it can gather any useful intelligence.