Escort/Non-Hostile Intercept

[AngelAtTheTomb]

Hello,

 

First post here, just recently discovered this amazing sim.

 

I'm starting to build a few missions that I may eventually turn into a full-fledged campaign. The first major question I have is about getting two different aircraft groups to fly in formation or at least in proximity to each other. Is there some way to do this beyond just putting waypoints very close to each other and specifying the same TOTs? I have tried the Escort enroute task but that seems to only determine engagement criteria; it doesn't actually make the Escorting group follow or even go anywhere near any other group (as far as I can tell, there's not even a target for the Escort task, i.e. Start Enroute Task, Escort, Set Group to Escort).

 

What I am trying to do specifically is have a pair of MiG-29s intercept A-10s on a ferry flight as they near Russian airspace, but NOT engage them. Just get close and say hello. The hostilities open up later in the campaign.

 

To keep the MiGs from blowing away the A-10s I just put Russia on the blue side for this mission (there's a lot of civ traffic as well and I didn't want wingmen calling out Yak-40s as bogeys). I have so far set up a trigger zone that when the player A-10 flies through causes the MiG-29s to break away from their orbit and fly to a waypoint very near an A-10 waypoint, with the same TOT. It works if the player is EXACTLY on time, but more than 10 seconds off and the MiGs just seem weirdly far away. Also, if the player does not maintain the specified speed, the MiGs drift away instead of staying in close contact.

 

Any hints on how to accomplish this?

 

Thanks!

 

AngelAtTheTomb

[ralfidude]

What if you make then enemy but give them zero weapons and guns? Not sure how they will behave in that situation.

[Speed]

You could experiment around with the switch waypoint command. You could potentially set up some unit in zone triggers to and switch waypoint trigger actions. You thus might be able to get triggered-control over the MiGs speed by triggering different waypoints that overlap each other; but the different waypoints have different speeds.

 

It may be possible to set up some complex Lua logic to make the MiGs switch among waypoints on the edge of the map, and thus take them in the general direction of anything... really complex, and who knows if it would actually work.

 

The only other thing you could try is yea, zero weapons- see how the MiGs act in that situation.

 

Oh another thing, you might give them the CAP task, but set their ROE to hold fire or return fire? Try that out.

[nomdeplume]

Setting the ROE to 'hold fire' (or 'return fire') will do the trick - they won't engage anyone. Also you can delete the default tasking (so they have no tasks), or set their task as 'nothing', and they won't do anything since they haven't been told to.

 

You can also use the 'set invisible' command to prevent AI units from noting the presence of the enemies.

 

However I don't think you'll be able to do what you want, without a lot of messy scripting. And even then I doubt you could get it right, because a human player is never going to be flying at the exact altitude, airspeed and flightpath that you need them to be. The game simply doesn't have coordination between different groups.

 

You could perhaps have some AI A-10's flying around and have the MiGs intercept and escort them. If the player's told to fly in formation with those guys then there's a reasonable chance they'll be close enough to witness the goings on. It'll also help with the narrative aspect, because a player can easily 'break' the mission by performing evasive maneuvers or what-have-you; but an AI flight will just do what it's told and the player will have to helplessly watch (assuming they have no weapons).

 

Also - don't forget the 'set radar usage' option for AI flights - you can set it to 'never' while they're en route and then change it to 'continuous' to make sure they're picked up by the player's RWR at just the right time.

[Speed]

Setting the ROE to 'hold fire' (or 'return fire') will do the trick - they won't engage anyone. Also you can delete the default tasking (so they have no tasks), or set their task as 'nothing', and they won't do anything since they haven't been told to.

 

You can also use the 'set invisible' command to prevent AI units from noting the presence of the enemies.

 

However I don't think you'll be able to do what you want, without a lot of messy scripting. And even then I doubt you could get it right, because a human player is never going to be flying at the exact altitude, airspeed and flightpath that you need them to be. The game simply doesn't have coordination between different groups.

 

You could perhaps have some AI A-10's flying around and have the MiGs intercept and escort them. If the player's told to fly in formation with those guys then there's a reasonable chance they'll be close enough to witness the goings on. It'll also help with the narrative aspect, because a player can easily 'break' the mission by performing evasive maneuvers or what-have-you; but an AI flight will just do what it's told and the player will have to helplessly watch (assuming they have no weapons).

 

Also - don't forget the 'set radar usage' option for AI flights - you can set it to 'never' while they're en route and then change it to 'continuous' to make sure they're picked up by the player's RWR at just the right time.

 

Make sure you find a MiG that has a radar warning receiver spike that is not an "unknown". I know that MiG-29s show up as "U" on the RWR.

[AngelAtTheTomb]

Thanks guys, these are awesome suggestions, I will try some of them.