Carpet bombing

[Bahger]

I want to get a flight of bombers to lay down a line of bombs from altitude in order to kill a stationary column of 8 tanks in a treeline in one pass. I cannot determine which combination of (i) platform (B-1s, B-52s, or F-15Es), (ii) tasks ("Pinpoint" or "Bomber"), (iii) orders ("Bombing", "Attack Map Object") and (iv) loadout might accomplish this. Is it even possible?

 

Failing this, is there any way to get a ship (such as an aircraft carrier or frigate) to bombard the tanks from a long distance?

 

Advice much appreciated.

[Grimes]

Well

i. Whichever carries the bombs you want.

ii. Use Ground attack

iii. Use bombing

iv. Dumb iron or clusters

 

Line the waypoints up so that the aircraft in question is already lined up with the target. And hope the aircraft stays on the path as they drop their payload.

Set the quantity of bombs to expend. A quarter or 4 will probably work fine depending on how spread out the tanks are and the type of bombs, and the bomber being used.

 

It was possible to use ships to bombard tanks and other targets in BS. I can't remember if it functions the same in A10.

[Grimes]

On a related note: In a span of 6 minutes a CG-60 Normandy fired off 48 Tomahawks. The Normandy's cannons fired off 184 shells whilst a Georgian Molynia class corvette fired 185 shells. As you can image it was quite a sight to behold as the pair successfully engaged a group of 11 T-80 tanks.

 

 

and by "successfully engage" I mean they destroyed 6.

ಠ_ಠ

[Speed]

Check out the "squadron ATO mission" I created:

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=71311

 

When ordered to via a multiplayer chat message, a B-52 drops like 57 Mk-82s on a Russian army base in a single pass. Assuming it still works in 1.1.0.8, that is. The B-52 bombing pass was prescripted in the mission editor, and you can find it under that B-52's "Triggered Actions" tab. (I used chatIOlibv1 to make the chat message set a flag, so there is a trigger in the trigger list that is Once->Flag is True->AI TASK(B-52 bombing run))

Edited June 9, 2011 by Speed

[Bahger]

Thanks guys. I have only managed so far to get a bomber to bomb a point rather than lay down bombs along a line or in an area. Not sure if this is possible.

 

And, oddly, I saw no weapon targeting orders under waypoint/Advanced for battleships. Might this have been because the ship was stationary and had no active WPs apart from the one it sits at?

 

Sorry about the very basic questions but this is the first time I've toyed with either bombers/bombing and ships.

[Speed]

Thanks guys. I have only managed so far to get a bomber to bomb a point rather than lay down bombs along a line or in an area. Not sure if this is possible.

 

And, oddly, I saw no weapon targeting orders under waypoint/Advanced for battleships. Might this have been because the ship was stationary and had no active WPs apart from the one it sits at?

 

Sorry about the very basic questions but this is the first time I've toyed with either bombers/bombing and ships.

 

Oh yea. Last I checked, the "fire at point" task-type for ships had been removed. It worked just fine in Black Shark- ships would fire TLAMs at the point you gave them. But in A-10, this capability has been removed. Thanks for that. You still might get them to fire at point if you used a script, though. I could try to make one if you want?

 

As far as getting bombers to carpet bomb a point, it's rather simple, at least it WAS, check the mission I linked, the bomber drops all 57-odd Mk-82s in a single pass, in a line.

[Bahger]

That's very kind of you if it's not too much trouble, I'd like to see how you'd script it. Would the script show the ships firing or would it just create explosions at the impact points?

[Grimes]

Just put the ships in range and they will go bananas to try to destroy anything in range. Be advised they will shoot anything and everything.

[WildFire]

lol that sounds like the navy I know....

[Speed]

That's very kind of you if it's not too much trouble, I'd like to see how you'd script it. Would the script show the ships firing or would it just create explosions at the impact points?

 

Well, I needed to do the experiment anyway. Unfortunately, giving a ship a fire at point task through lua results in a CTD. So it wasn't that there was a ME oversight that removed our ability to give ships a fire at point task. They removed the fire at point task for ships because the AI engine no longer supports it. :( This is what the code WOULD be if it worked:

 

if true then 
local shipname = 'ship'
local targetunitname = 'target'
--Do not modify anything below this line
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
local targetunit = Unit.getByName(targetunitname)
local targetpoint = targetunit:getPosition().p
local task1 = { id = "FireAtPoint", params = { y = targetpoint.z, x = targetpoint.x, zoneRadius = 50} }
local shipcontroller = Unit.getByName(shipname):getController()
shipcontroller:setTask(task1)

end

 

THEN AGAIN, maybe if I treat them like a fire at point task for aircraft, they would work. There's no telling.

 

On kind of a related note, I'm working on scripts after I get all the crap I need to get wrapped up, wrapped up, that will allow you to give, via a multiplayer chat message, the exact coordinates of where you want that B-52 to lay down his carpet of bombs, or where you want a JDAM from an F-15E to impact, or what area you want your SEAD cover to attack SAMs in. Should be a lot of fun.

Edited June 9, 2011 by Speed

[Bahger]

Speed, would you mind taking a quick look at this test .miz? It baffles me utterly that an entire load of Mk-84s, dropped from a B-1 on two tank paltoons in a treeline, succeeds in hitting only one vehicle. If my waypoint placement, target placement or bombing point is wrong, perhaps you could let me know? It would save me a lot of vexing trial-and-error. Thank you!

On the Beach.miz

[Speed]

Speed, would you mind taking a quick look at this test .miz? It baffles me utterly that an entire load of Mk-84s, dropped from a B-1 on two tank paltoons in a treeline, succeeds in hitting only one vehicle. If my waypoint placement, target placement or bombing point is wrong, perhaps you could let me know? It would save me a lot of vexing trial-and-error. Thank you!

 

I'll take a look at this tonight or tomorrow. Keep in mind that there is a bug with B-52s and Mk-84s at the moment, that may apply to B-1s as well. When I tried that mission I linked with Mk-84s instead of Mk-82s, the Mk-84s hit like a whole kilometer off target, while the Mk-82s were spot-on. There really are too many bugs to report them all to ED, and this is one of those... besides, it would probably pretty danged far down their priority list. Anyway. I donno if that is your problem or not.

 

Also keep in mind that the damage effects of dumb, iron bombs against tanks are perhaps a little under modeled. Certainly, you have to hit pretty close to a tank to kill it, even with a Mk-84.

 

But you got the bombs to all drop at once now, and now your problem is that they don't kill enough? So you've gotten carpet bombing working?

[Bahger]

Thanks, Speed. I think Mk-84s are the only available loadout for the B-1 apart from JSOWs.

 

I'm sure you're right and that it's just another unfortunate glitch. I suppose it makes sense that the further away you get from the core A-10 modelling and gameplay, the less attention is paid to detail and the more numerous the errors, not that I'm excusing it. As a battlefield simulator, especially in MP, what with arty now broken and -- as far as I can determine -- non-hosts unable to hear AI radio comms -- the sim leaves an enormous amount to be desired.

 

Yes, I think you'll find from the .miz I posted that, after some experimentation with waypoints -- if they are too close to target, the B-1 will turn away and re-approach -- I have got carpet bombing to work...after a fashion. However, not only are the Mk-84s woefully inaccurate but the mayhem they cause -- at least, when dropped on a treeline, or somewhere near it -- is very underwhelming. I got one smoke column from one busted tank when I was expecting a small apocalypse after the Bone dropped its full load in one pass. Sigh.

[Ripcord]

lol that sounds like the navy I know....

 

hey, careful there, mate.

[Druid_]

Workaround - place a trigger around the targets, when the B-1 enters it, set a flag & time how long until bombs impact ground. Use that time in a TIME SINCE FLAG option and ACTIVATE explode unit ... total number you want destroyed. Not ideal, but at least you know theres at least x units destroyed.

[Bahger]

Great workaround, Druid, thanks. As so often, I have shifted the concept of the mission a little to accomodate ME/AI shortcomings.

[VFA41_Lion]

Sure hope the next patch fixes the lack of carpet bombing. :(

[rwcwilson]

Little bit late but may be useful for anybody new to this thread/looking for an answer.

 

I created this tutorial on how to get AI aircraft to complete a carpet bombing run, hope it helps: