ME Bug? one aircraft per group

[arteedecco]

Why is it that for certain aircraft, like C-130, Tu-22, and many others when I create a mission and add a new aircraft group and set multiple aircraft per group... when I fly the mission only one of the aircraft is present?

 

I've tried this with many different aircraft, many different times. Certain aircraft like Mig-23, F-5, etc all work just fine and can have the usual of 1 - 4 aircraft per group.

 

Thanks!

 

[EDIT]

Here are related threads, wonder if there are updates on this coming?

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?p=1620952

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=98809

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=83811

[/EDIT]

Edited February 6, 2013 by arteedecco

[Grimes]

Not a bug, its by design. Large aircraft are meant to operate as a separate flight. Mostly due in pert to how they typically operate is different from smaller aircraft. As a result you have to use multiple flights and use the follow action to have them fly formation.

[arteedecco]

Thanks @Grimes.

 

I guess the problem I have is how time consuming it is to have to re-create complex flights when you want to add more aircraft. You have to go through and edit group names, pilot names, add advanced actions, change altitudes and airspeeds, select loadouts, select paint schemes.

 

Am I missing something or is there a much quicker way to effectively duplicate an existing aircraft group including all of its advanced actions etc? I do know about copy/paste, but then you end up with the identical aircraft... better than re-creating everything from scratch, but it would be very nice to be able to group aircraft groups into the same flight.

 

I mean, in RL you see flights of C-17s dropping hordes of gear or troops... I gather this is more of an AI game logic issue.

 

Thanks for any help you can provide. I'd also love to see them allow you to effectively re-set a group and respawn it so when it dies.. it starts over.

 

Cheers!

[Grimes]

Copy and Paste might be identical, but you can change the tail number and callsign easily enough. Its quicker than creating a new group from scratch.

 

 

Also as I said, the follow action is used to create formations and the group that is following doesn't really need a flight plan*.

 

*Unless the group its following gets destroyed.

[arteedecco]

Ah, thanks for the info.. makes sense. What if the lead group has only 2 waypoints and at waypoint 2 ("DP"), there is an action to set waypoint 1 ("SP"). Will the lead aircraft just keep cycling between waypoint 1 and 2 with the second aircraft following the whole time?

 

Or will the lead aircraft hit waypoint 2, go back to waypoint 1, go to waypoint 2 and then RTB with the second aircraft following the whole time?

 

Thanks!

 

BTW, I tried out the follow command and it worked great... flight of 4 Tu-22M3 ! Thanks!

[Grimes]

The AI literally try to keep formation with whatever they are following. If the escort task is used they will keep formation but will break to engage whatever might threaten the aircraft they are escorting within a certain distance.

[xcom]

I believe this is a bug, if Bombers, Cargo planes etc... can't be in a group of planes it should not be possible in the mission editor.

[arteedecco]

^^

 

Yeah, I agree... this should be fixed in the ME; very confusing.

[arteedecco]

And for that matter... there should not be the limitation of max 4 aircraft in a group.

 

These artificial limitations are confusing and frustrating. My wish for the future is a major overhaul of the ME and addressing some of these inane limitations to give more flexibility to mission designers and to make it easier. Wish they'd make a web-based ME.

 

As it is, I do enjoy making missions in the ME, so kudos to the team for understanding that the key to a solid community is edit-ability and customization... missions, mods, skins.... that's where a game goes from one-off to legacy.

 

Cheers!