Can RED SAMs be made to target a specific RED Aircraft via trigger actions?

[TEMPEST.114]

My Red aircraft group doesn’t appear selectable in the ‘attack group’ command. 
Is there a way to do this?

[Exorcet]

Coalitions aren't designed to attack themselves. A trick to use: make a copy of your SAM that is set to blue side, make it invisible so AI won't attack it, have it activated when it's supposed to shoot your target aircraft and then have it disappear when no longer needed.

With scripting you might be able to force friendly fire, but I'm not exactly sure how it would work of if it would work at all.

[TEMPEST.114]

53 minutes ago, Exorcet said:

Coalitions aren't designed to attack themselves. A trick to use: make a copy of your SAM that is set to blue side, make it invisible so AI won't attack it, have it activated when it's supposed to shoot your target aircraft and then have it disappear when no longer needed.

With scripting you might be able to force friendly fire, but I'm not exactly sure how it would work of if it would work at all.

Hi

I’d thought of that but I couldn’t find a Blue SA-2 or Blur SA-8. And I need it to attack only one unit, not all red units. 
 

i.e a defecting aircraft. These artificial restrictions in the M.E. are frustrating. 

[dark_wood]

2 hours ago, Elphaba said:

i.e a defecting aircraft. These artificial restrictions in the M.E. are frustrating. 

What restrictions? You can set a Blue unit, choose from COUNTRY dropdown Combine Joint Task Forces Blue,  CATEGORY: air defence, place a SA-2 or whatever unit/radar/launcher you need, the go and attack it.

If you don't have in COUNTRY drop  Combine Joint Task Forces Blue,  go to "Changing coalitions" and add it.

Hope it helps

[TEMPEST.114]

Okay I was picking Argentina. There was nothing there. Nor for Czech Republic.

I've just made a blue SA-2 (from Poland) and I still can't get it to target a red aircraft group... 

Are you able to get this working? Is it something I'm missing or doing wrong?

[TEMPEST.114]

I just made an SA-2 blue, and an SA-2 Neutral.

 

Neither will allow me to target only the red air group that I want them to. 

[dark_wood]

First of all, i said pick Combine Joint Task Forces Blue, not Argentina, or other country.

Second, for a SAM battery to work, it needs all component units inside same group.

You can try first with a SHORAD unit (TOR, OSA, etc) - those can engage without any other radar, just place one TOR (SA-19) and make your plane fly in thier engagement range.

Third, big SAM units (SA-2, SA-3, BUK, KUB, etc) need some time to get target and shoot.

See attached mission as an example - just hit PLAY/Observer/F7 - enjoy the show

testSAM.miz

Edited September 27, 2022 by dark_wood

[TEMPEST.114]

I was using the templates to place an entire SA-2 battery.

I did also try the combined forces too. 

Thanks for making the mission - I'll take a look.

 

 

[dark_wood]

5 minutes ago, Elphaba said:

Thanks for making the mission - I'll take a look

With pleasure, just let it play, and after 40-45 seconds the SA-2 will target and shoot

[TEMPEST.114]

11 minutes ago, dark_wood said:

First of all, i said pick Combine Joint Task Forces Blue, not Argentina, or other country.

Second, for a SAM battery to work, it needs all component units inside same group.

You can try first with a SHORAD unit (TOR, OSA, etc) - those can engage without any other radar, just place one TOR (SA-19) and make your plane fly in thier engagement range.

Third, big SAM units (SA-2, SA-3, BUK, KUB, etc) need some time to get target and shoot.

See attached mission as an example - just hit PLAY/Observer/F7 - enjoy the show

 

Thanks, but I don't think you understood or I explained correctly.

I'm trying to make a mission where one of the RED OPFOR aircraft decides mid-flight to defect. At this point they should become a hostile threat to all RED AI SAMS and RED AI and RED Player aircraft.

I see we can't change coalition mid flight, and I didn't want the player who would fly the 'defecting' aircraft to be aware they were actually going to defect at mission start by jumping into the BLUE coalition SU-33 instead of what they'd expect which was the RED SU-33.

I wanted to make them aware during the mission via a unit only message. 

So at some point, something happens and they decide to run for the border, at this point the RED SAMS need to target just that using, but also all the RED aircraft AI & Player need to hunt it too.

That's what I'm trying to achieve.

[dark_wood]

Hmm, i see. maybe you can place two SAMs, one RED and one BLUE with late activation (same unit layout/template - SA-2 for example),

When the message is triggered, deactivate RED sam and activate BLUE one, this one will shoot the defector down.

Edited September 27, 2022 by dark_wood

[TEMPEST.114]

5 minutes ago, dark_wood said:

Hmm, i see. maybe you can place two SAMs, one RED and one BLUE with late activation (same unit layout/template - SA-2 for example),

When the message is triggered, deactivate RED sam and activate BLUE one, this one will shoot the defector down.

 

But then that would target all the red forces in the air and all red players, I need it to only target the defector. 

[Exorcet]

4 hours ago, Elphaba said:

Hi

I’d thought of that but I couldn’t find a Blue SA-2 or Blur SA-8.

Combined Joint Task Force [Color] has access to all units. The same is true for USAF Aggressors.

4 hours ago, Elphaba said:

And I need it to attack only one unit, not all red units.

This is why I suggested to have it appear and then disappear. You can also use Invisible to control its behavior. Setting a unit to invisible makes it immune to AI attack or detection. If you set red units to invisible when close to the blue SAM, they will not be fired on.

[TEMPEST.114]

1 minute ago, Exorcet said:

Combined Joint Task Force [Color] has access to all units. The same is true for USAF Aggressors.

This is why I suggested to have it appear and then disappear. You can also use Invisible to control its behavior. Setting a unit to invisible makes it immune to AI attack or detection. If you set red units to invisible when close to the blue SAM, they will not be fired on.

Ah! So invisible doesn’t mean it won’t appear on radar or won’t be visible to players eyes? Just whether it can be attacked?!

[Exorcet]

7 minutes ago, Elphaba said:

Ah! So invisible doesn’t mean it won’t appear on radar or won’t be visible to players eyes? Just whether it can be attacked?!

Right. Invisible means nothing for the player, only for AI units. If something is invisible, the AI will ignore it.

[TEMPEST.114]

Thanks to both of you…. I’m going to go away and try all this out! 

[dark_wood]

If you have Combined Arms module, you can ask a friend to be the SAM operator, and shoot the running plane, but i'm not sure if you can lock a friendly target with a SAM radar