correct as is Aircraft commanded by the player lose target altitude and speed upon transitioning to a player-created waypoint.

[meltingSnowdrift]

Procedure to reproduce

1. Run the attached mission file. Join the game as a blue tactical commander.
2. Wait until the aircraft have passed waypoint 1 and are in straight and level flight on their way to waypoint 2.
3. Using Combined Arms, give the aircraft group two new waypoints. For testing purposes, these waypoints should be far enough from the group's current position and from each other to easily see the effects of altitude control.
   (This step will cause the aircraft to descend. Check that this occurs.)
4. Using the sliders in Combined Arms, assign an altitude well clear of the terrain and a speed appropriate for flight at that altitude.
5. Wait until the aircraft pass the first waypoint you added and are on their way to the second waypoint you added.
   (At this point, the aircraft will descend again.)

Expected behaviour

In situations like step 5, in which an aircraft group is following a speed and altitude specified by the player using sliders, passing a waypoint placed by the player and moving on to another waypoint placed by the player should not cause that speed and altitude to be abandoned or changed.

In situations like step 3, in which an aircraft group following a route created in the mission editor is reassigned a route using Combined Arms, the group should not proceed toward zero altitude and speed.

Actual behaviour

See the attached track file.

After step 3, the aircraft group proceeds toward zero altitude and speed to the extent it is able. Specifically, it descends and begins closely following the terrain as well as losing speed. Consistently with this, the speed and altitude sliders are at zero.

After step 5, the same thing occurs as after step 3.

Opinions

There is no single correct answer regarding what altitude and speed to set when transitioning from a mission editor route to a player-defined route. I have two ideas about how to handle this.

The easiest way would be to set the group's target speed and altitude (and the corresponding sliders) to the current speed and altitude of the group's leader as though the player assigned these values using the sliders. This easily ensures that no dramatic and uncommanded changes in altitude and speed occur in response to a player assigning a route.

A more ambitious response to this issue would be to allow the player to assign an altitude and speed to the waypoints of a player-created route before assigning that route to an aircraft group. This would make the occurrence of this issue fundamentally impossible.

Though the subject of this post can be interpreted as two issues, I choose to report it as one issue because I believe that what happens at step 3 and what happens at step 5 are fundamentally the same phenomenon: altitude and speed are reset when transitioning to a player-assigned waypoint.

problem D21.trk 22D21 problem demonstrator.miz

[[ED]Ben]

As we discussed in discord - If the speed and altitude sliders are set prior to setting the waypoint, then that speed and alt will be followed for the whole route.

As for the sliders defaulting to 0, i agree it would be a nice if they were syncronised with the speed and altitude set in ME that the AI are currently flying, so will take a look at that. 

[meltingSnowdrift]

Thank you for your explanation of the actual behaviour and your views. I feel less frustrated and lost now.

As you did above, I also restate here the main ideas of what I had to say on Discord. Much of the content below is copied directly from my words there; none of it is intended to express new meanings.

I propose to make it so that the aircraft obeys the sliders all the time and the sliders never move by themselves. This mainly addresses the kind of thing that happens at step 5. Regarding the kind of thing that happens at step 3, I agree with your ideas.

For simplicity, I abandon the "more ambitious response" idea in my original post above.

Here is a question I would like to be considered when deciding whether or how to change the behaviour of aircraft groups commanded by the player using Combined Arms. In what situation, if any, would a player be glad that passing a waypoint resets an aircraft group's altitude to what the sliders said when the route was created? I admittedly find it hard to imagine such a situation. I find it easy, meanwhile, to imagine situations in which such an altitude reset, even when it is happens to not be a reset to 0, could confuse and frustrate the player. This is because the latter type of situation has been my daily experience with the game.

As always, I mean this respectfully. This question is not meant as a rhetorical question: I am genuinely open to answers to it.

Thank you again for your patience in general.