Endless Patrols - Land, Sea & Air

[Hunter_5E]

Using the "standard" method that most people teach, I found I was having problems with patrols often getting stuck when they passed through WP0. They just seem to stop at WP0 after one tour of the route.

Standard method example:

After a bit of experimenting I found that by adding a small "lead-in" from outside the route and telling them to go to WP1 from the last waypoint - set up as shown below, it works like a charm every time. Land and sea vehicles might still get stuck on stuff mid route if in a built up area or weird corners to negotiate (river banks for speedboats) but they won't randomly stop at route end. As long as they make it to WP4 they will go to WP1 and carry on forever. I've tested this with pretty long routes - 15 waypoints - and it works fine.

I've also used this to make a reaper drone fly the exact pattern I want instead of going off to orbit who knows where and getting shot down. Very handy. Another tip - if you set the pattern quite tight for the reaper drone and it seems to do weird things, it's probably going too fast so can't comfortably manoeuvre to it's waypoints. Slow it down to about 150-200 km/hr and it should be ok. Default speed is quite high I think. Also make sure altitude is set the same for all waypoints, including starting point at WP0.

So far I've tested this with tanks, BMP's, armed speedboats and the reaper drone - land, sea and air - all work reliably for me and never get stuck at route end or fly off into the blue yonder. If they all work then I'm guessing this method will work with pretty much anything.

My method example:-

Hope this helps.

NOTE:- I've shown quite a short lead-in so I could get a good screenshot of everything. I'd suggest using a slightly longer lead in, especially for larger or faster vehicles. The one in the screenshot works fine for land vehicles but is probably too short for the likes of a reaper or say a carrier . If it doesn't work, make the lead-in a little longer until it does. Should work.

Edited July 31, 2024 by Hunter_5E
Adding information

[Hunter_5E]

Reaper 1.5km diameter endless circular orbit setup.

After posting the above, I went to experiment some more to see how small an orbit I could set up. Short answer = 1.5km diameter. Shouldn't need anything smaller than that?

I also realised that you use a different action for the last waypoint compared to land and sea vehicles. You use TYPE - "Perform Command" and ACTION - "Switch Waypoint" to WP1

Here is how I set up that orbit. Height 3500m Baro, Speed 222km/hr.

Waypoint 3 is stepped out a bit from the "square" due to the reaper anticipating the turn a fair bit before the waypoint. Waypoint 4 is set about halfway between right and left legs and slightly in from the square as it's a flyover point - has to fly over it before it gets the command to switch waypoint. Anyway this flightpath produces a near circular endless orbit with a 1.5km diameter. If you decrease the speed the circle will be squared off a bit, if you increase speed the reaper will eventually get too far off course and strange things happen.

A handy trick to see what your drone is doing is to run the mission in editor, hop into a flyable aircraft that you've placed in somewhere nearby, open the F10 map, find the drone and click on it to get info from it. You will then see it's route and waypoints and be able to see how it anticipates and makes each waypoint. Also verify that it does indeed orbit endlessly. See screenshot below.

You only see this if you're in a vehicle yourself - if you just put a drone in and go F10 map and click on it, you won't see its flight path on the map.

I've attached the mission file below (Caucasus map) - hop in and watch what it does. I placed a Kiowa in there - change for other aircraft if you want or need to.

Note:- This is set up in zero wind conditions - in windy conditions it might behave differently and need a bit of tweaking to compensate.

Note 2:- I forgot to set the reaper "TASK" to "AFAC" - you need that set to use it as JTAC.

Endless Patrol Reaper Demo.miz

Edited July 31, 2024 by Hunter_5E
Adding information

[Hunter_5E]

Reaper 1.5km diameter endless circular orbit - in hot zone

I've managed to get my small orbit working in a hot zone by telling the reaper to go invisible and not react to enemy threats.

"Invisible" = enemy won't target it, Don't React = won't try to evade by speeding up, changing altitude and wrecking the orbit I set up. Works great to this point.

Well in range of a pair of SA-15's - no problem

I'm trying to cross the last hurdle of making it a functional JTAC that will lase targets for me in the Kiowa - failing miserably despite hours of searching for solutions. Ideally I'd like to have the drone prioritise or only target missile launchers so you could take out any long range threats in a zone from good cover before moving in closer to mop up. Failing that, I'd be happy if it would just hand me any target and lase it for me.

If I use "Perform En-route Task - Engage Group" the orbit works fine, drone isn't targeted and doesn't try to evade, but... I can't get JTAC to communicate with me despite having easy comms forced on. JTAC appears in the comms menu and does my check in speech but radio silence follows, no response.

If I use "Perform Task - Assign Group" this breaks the invisible and don't evade commands, the orbit is broken and drone gets shot down. Tried the commands in different orders, made no difference. Been round and round in circles and down the YouTube rabbit hole but still drawing a blank. Can't find the magic formula.

I need to ask for some help at this point - does anyone know how to set the drone up as a functional "Hot Zone" JTAC for the Kiowa without breaking the orbit I've set up for it?

Calling on the wise and kindly out there - could someone please have a look at my mission file below and see if you can get it working for me? Is it even possible? I know the Reaper has quite a few shortcomings. Many thanks in advance for any assistance.

Mission file below has what I think are appropriate JTAC settings. Endless patrol orbit is fine but can't get a response from JTAC.

Endless Patrol Reaper Hot Zone.miz