What are the aircraft loadouts?

[bodkin]

One problem I've encountered is when you select an attack type -light, medium, heavy- but the ordanance is not available so the aircraft flies around saying it's attacking without actually doing anything.

[General Jack Ripper]

One problem I've encountered is when you select an attack type -light, medium, heavy- but the ordanance is not available so the aircraft flies around saying it's attacking without actually doing anything.

I hadn't encountered that problem, I simply used 'Heavy' 'Area Target' for all of my CAS requests, and the aircraft used whatever weapons were appropriate for the target. Hellfires and mavericks on tanks, rockets on light vehicles and infantry, and gun runs on everything when they ran out of heavy stuff. I'm pretty sure your aircraft will use some type of ordinance when you ask it to attack, unless it's a point target on a specific unit, then they might not attack if they have no weapons capable of destroying the target you selected.

For example: Aircraft might not want to drop a bomb on a fast moving vehicle, they probably wouldn't be able to hit the target.

[Battlefront.com]

akd,

Sorry for the delay. Been knee deep in database programming. Now I remember why I stopped learning to program in C some 20 years ago. It's just... so not me

Yes, but can't you just tell us? While it would be nice to know during the mission in some pretty UI form, this information would be far more helpful when using the editor. I'm beginning to suspect the dog ate that list...

No, but the list looks about as if a dog ate it It's all in the code and not in form that can be easily read. I have my lists which I sent Charles, but I am sure they aren't accurate. Generally I don't update my design docs and initial data submissions after I hand them over, yet we almost always do revisions via email and/or the Beta Test area. Soooooo... if Charles were to give me the list he would first have to tell me how to read it so I could then tell you in plain English what's in there. Honestly, it's not the best use of our time right now. A better use of it is to address the issue in-game

Steve

[MikeyD]

Why the repeated scrubbed attack runs? What might have been going on "under the hood" to have caused the Harrier to actually not attack?

I swear this happened to me but I can't get anyone to believe me. Some time ago I was playing a game and one of my aircraft (most probably a helicopter) was coming round for an attack. Then I heard the "pom-pom-pom" of an autocannon and the aircraft never completed his attack. I checked the map and there was no autocannon armor on the map, mine or theirs! The Red infantry was high-end, either Repub Guards or Airborne. Does Red get off-map AAA defense in the same way we get off-map aircraft? Or am I just hallucinating?

[SD Smack]

I've had several incidences similar to this. The first one I placed an area attack command in an urban area. The area was a fairly large parking lot but was s till surrounded by buildings. The troops spotting for the mission were then chased from thier vantage point by small arms fire. About the same time the aircraft came on station and began making passes. I think it made 3 passes and did not release anyweapons at all. It did say "attacking" in the status box though. I then ran my spotters back up on top of the building and suprsingly the next pass the aircraft dropped ordinance. I used the area attack before to cover areas of dead space that I can't see. But for some reason it did not work this time.

The other time I had a simialr experince to MikeyD. I had 64s doing gun runs on the enemy. There was a large hill on one side of the map and everytime they approached from that side the rounds (rockets and 30mm) would impact of map. This is rather irritating.

I would like to see red forces getting MANPADS. While most hard anti-aircraft facilities would be destroyed in the initial attack mobile AAA and SAM systems would be much more difficult to track down. I find that when I play Red and my opponent gets air support I can pretty much kiss my armor good bye!

Steve

[Guest Guest]

deleted per user request

[Dietrich]

Some time ago I was playing a game and one of my aircraft (most probably a helicopter) was coming round for an attack. Then I heard the "pom-pom-pom" of an autocannon and the aircraft never completed his attack. I checked the map and there was no autocannon armor on the map, mine or theirs! The Red infantry was high-end, either Repub Guards or Airborne. Does Red get off-map AAA defense in the same way we get off-map aircraft? Or am I just hallucinating?

Might the "pom-pom-pom" have been the sound of a helo firing a rocket salvo, which salvo didn't land on-map because of obstructing terrain at the edge(s) of the map? I haven't been playing CMSF that long (got it last November), but I've never noticed anything like an air asset being 'scared off'. Perhaps simulated off-map AA defense is another of those hypothetical "under the hood" things(?)

I've had several incidences similar to this. The first one I placed an area attack command in an urban area. The area was a fairly large parking lot but was still surrounded by buildings. The troops spotting for the mission were then chased from thier vantage point by small arms fire. About the same time the aircraft came on station and began making passes. I think it made 3 passes and did not release anyweapons at all. It did say "attacking" in the status box though. I then ran my spotters back up on top of the building and suprsingly the next pass the aircraft dropped ordinance. I used the area attack before to cover areas of dead space that I can't see. But for some reason it did not work this time.

This makes sense to me. If the FO/JTAC team was chased from its vantage point and thus no longer had LOS to the target, I suppose they wouldn't give the air asset the green light. And if the air asset didn't get the green light from the FO/JTAC, I suppose it wouldn't actually attack.

It seems to me that an air asset interprets an area-attack call on an area in which the FO/JTAC has not spotted any enemy units as something like this: "If you identify any enemy units in this area, attack at will." But oftentimes the air asset, despite its state-of-the-art sensors and bird's-eye vantage point, doesn't spot any enemy units in said area, and so it doesn't attack.

I would like to see red forces getting MANPADS.

What is the typical effective range of thse MANPADs? The fact that Blue CAS comes from outside the map suggests that even the rotary-wing air assets maintain enough of a distance from the tactical battlefield that a MANPAD wouldn't necessarily be able to reach them.

Point targets should always drop.

Note my last post.

[JonS]

What is the typical effective range of thse MANPADs? The fact that Blue CAS comes from outside the map suggests that even the rotary-wing air assets maintain enough of a distance from the tactical battlefield that a MANPAD wouldn't necessarily be able to reach them.

Mistral VLLADs has a reported engagement envelope of 6km horizontally, and 3km vertically.

[SD Smack]

What is the typical effective range of thse MANPADs?

Well the SA-18 has a range of 17,000 feet. The SA-16 has a range of 16,000 feet, and the SA-14 has a range of 13,000 feet.

These systems really are more effective against lower flying aircraft (obviously), and thus helicopters and A-10s would be the most susceptible to this kind of threat.

Steve

[Battlefront.com]

Yes, as mentioned... if the aircraft fails to ID a designated target, then it won't attack. This is because we simulate LOS *and* spotting from aircraft independent of the spotter. The spotter, however, helps immensely in terms of spotting. Lose your spotter and you might lose the ability to hit the target. But then again, it's not a sure thing. If the target is out in the open and the aircraft has already acquired it, the spotter isn't important at that point. It's up until the aircraft gets a lock that's important.

Steve