AIR FO ISSUE

[Erwin]

First posted this over at Scenarios/Mods.  But, it doesn't look like many are playing this game anymore, so hope someone over here can help:

Am in first mission of "Mountains of Allah" campaign.  I have one of my Air Controller FO's fly a drone over a target and as soon as intel comes back the same FO orders an airstrike scheduled on the same target.  The drone gets there in a couple of minutes but the airstrike will take about 12 minutes to arrive.

The FO is then killed.  His radio operator is ok. 

This gives rise to a strange situation:

1) The drone now cannot be assigned to any other FO.  Ok, so maybe his gear is lost and the drone is lost.  But, no...  The drone is fine and continues to report back recon info which can be used by other FO's for targeting.  Question: If the controls and intel gear are fine then why can't the drone be ordered elsewhere?

2) What happens to the scheduled airstrike?  One can't cancel it.  I assumed that after the FO had been dead for about 5-6 turns that the air support would get automatically cancelled.  But, no...  The air strike turned up about 5-6 turns after the FO was KIA - presumably as scheduled.  (It just so happened that my troops had just overran the base and then got slaughtered by the friendly air attack - but that's irrelevant here.)

Something not right here.  Is this a bug, or...?

[Kinophile]

I've had FOs call in a full battery strike, heavy, long, only to get themselves snookerred, where upon I have to watch the battery empty it's entire ballsack over an empty target area (ie 3 mins in the target is obliterated , but the guns keep firing).

This is an awkward situation,  where the death of the FO does not release the unit it is directing. I can understand that for the Battery,  lack of FO communication while firing is not indicative of Stop Firing.

But other FOs/HQs should be able to intervene and take control,  no? 

 

[Erwin]

I thought that this had been cured with a patch.  I can kinda appreciate that maybe artillery will keep firing as ordered if no one countermands the order.  However, one would think that air strikes require constant contact with a ground controller.  So, if that connection ceases, wouldn't the pilot automatically abort?

Also, in the case where there is a drone and the FO is killed one of two things should happen: 1) the drone crashes, or 2) it automatically returns to base, and therefore becomes usable by another FO.

[Kinophile]

These are very sensible conclusions .