Simply "Patrol Route" AWP

[rwbishUP]

Could we get a simple advanced waypoint action to, "Patrol Route"?

[Mike_Romeo]

10 hours ago, rwbishUP said:

Could we get a simple advanced waypoint action to, "Patrol Route"?

There are two ways to achieve that already:

1. Make a route and add at the last waypoint the "switch waypoint" command and make it so that it goes back to the first waypoint to do the whole route again.
2. Create two waypoints and add to the last waypoint the "Orbit" command. You can chose if the plane should flying circles or if it should fly a racetrack between the two waypoints.

[rwbishUP]

For ground objects. The switch waypoint function commands the group or unit to go to the selected wp, but then they stop and hold there. So you have to individually set a command at each wp to tell them to go to the next wp. You have to tell the unit or group every single movement to make. When you set a cmd at the final waypoint to return to wp 0, sometimes the unit will follow the cmd and go to 0, just to hold there. But, a lot of the time the unit will go crazy and do some of the weirdest sh*t I've ever seen, i.e. run or drive in circles endlessly, travel in a completely different direction, drive into map objects and get stuck, etc. Therefore, you have to use external scripting to get a simple "patrol route" function.

[sirrah]

11 hours ago, rwbishUP said:

For ground objects. The switch waypoint function commands the group or unit to go to the selected wp, but then they stop and hold there. So you have to individually set a command at each wp to tell them to go to the next wp. 

Exactly. Quite a cumbersome process if you have multiple waypoints.

I agree with the OP that some sort of "patrol" task/action would be a very welcome QOL improvement for the mission editor.

[draconus]

You'd have to define what patrol is - WPs or area, speeds, stops... which means exactly the same as you have to do now with WPs.

Just report the bug with switching waypoints and AI movement for it to work as it should.

[rwbishUP]

Yeah, the "go to wp" command is handy. But, that should be an extension of a simple command to "patrol assigned route or waypoints". It seems like it would be a very obviously needed function. I mean, if you want to have a patrol running around your FOB, FARP or airfields perimeter, it should be pretty intuitive inside the ME. For instance, place an armed humvee, assign it's route along the perimeter on & off road, shouldn't matter. Create advanced wp action either at wp 0 or final wp, choose command or task, "Patrol Route" or "Patrol Asgnd WPs". Without having to go to your scripting tool and write a script for every perimeter patrol in your .miz. And the speeds would be whatever you set in standard, already existing fields in ME, stops can already be done in ME also and that's great. But, just a basic command to repeat the waypoints that are assigned to the units. If we want a more advanced patrol, then we can use the more advanced commands and triggers that are already inside ME or then rely on external scripting.

[Kang]

The very fact that sometimes 'go to WPT' results in the unit stopping there, instead of resuming the path from that waypoint on, is problematic, because a) quite frankly, it is not what I'd expect and b) things like these are just not documented well. Just like a dozen things that just seem to have identical functions with different wording (but actually do different things), it seems there is a lot of 'old Lock On legacy' paired with 'lost in translation' happening, which is unfortunately very frustrating for new mission builders.

[rwbishUP]

I know it's not a vital feature. But, just something as little as having an active patrol adds some nice immersion. Especially when you're on an attack mission, looking at the tgt pod feed and see an enemy patrol unit driving or infantry patrolling the area. It kind of brings the scene to life.