[March_Hare009]

I'm feeling really dense at the moment. I thought I used to know how to set a flight of fighters to escort a flight of bombers, but I can't seem to get it to work at the moment. I've tried every possible thing I could think of to get the fighters to circle above the bombers, but nothing seems to work. I've looked on the AAA site, in the game manual, and on the web for a decent and quick explanation, but to no avail. Can someone here please enlighten me to what I am doing wrong? Many Thanks!

March Hare

[boogabooga]

Assign ALL waypoints for the fighters. Then, for each fighter waypoint, assign one of the bomber waypoints as the objective (green line and bull's eye).

[March_Hare009]

Exactly! That's how I thought you did it too. But for some reason it doesn't seem to be working. has anyone else had this problem?

[8FS_Bulau]

Try adding more waypoints along the escort route for both. The fighters will quit escorting at the next to last waypoint.

[zappatime]

I've done the correct thing in FMB and its worked, I've repeated the method on another set of bombers with another set of fighters and its flatly refused to work, the fighters just fly around on the spot as it were. I re-did it loads of times, varying the relevant positoons and waypoints to no avail so i would like to know tthe answer to this too, unless its a flakey bit of the FMB code that sometimes works and sometimes doesn't, even within the same mission build. :-?

[Kopfdorfer]

Greetings March Hare,

I thought I'd throw in my 10 cents worth here, in the possibility that you are not too familiar with the FMB (Full Mission Builder). I do not mean to be patronising, and if you feel that the following is so, I will ask you to forgive me and ignore this post.

Clearly you know how to get planes flying.
Lets assume a simple scenario :
one flight of 3 RAF Blenheim Bombers, one pair of escorting Hurricanes, 3 intercepting MC200s, and a distracting FW200. We want the Hurris to escort the Blennheims to their target and home, and not go swanning off after the FW200.
I will assume you have selected all necessary waypoints. In order to get the Hurricanes to escort the Blenheims and not chase the Condor(FW200), you need to become familiar with the "Target" Object type in the "Object" Menu.
Select the "View" header, and select the "Object" heading.
Scroll down in the "Object" menu until you see the "Target" object type, quite near the bottom.
Select the "Target" object type.
In the window under the "Target" object type, it probably reads "Destroy", which is the default Target Type. Next to the Destroy option is an arrow, select this arrow and scroll down again until you see "Escort" as a target type (I wish these were listed as "Mission Types" instead, but alas...).
Select "Escort" as your desired target type.
On the "Escort" window, there are 2 headings, Type (which you are in) and Target.
Move the cursor in your mission map next to one of the early waypoints for the Blenheim flight, and hit the insert key. An Icon should have appeared on your map under the cursor, and attached itself with an umbilical to the Blenheim flight waypoint nearest it. Be sure to insert the "Escort" target type icon to one of the first few waypoints in the mission.
In missions with multiple aircraft to be escorted, you must select the "Escort" target type for each bomber flight you want to be escorted, and unfortunately no way currently exists in the FMB (as far as I know) to assign specific fighters as escorts to specific flights of other aircraft - not a very elegant mechanism in my opinion. You also need to pay careful attention that your cursor is nearer the flight you wish to be escorted than any others, or you may find your escorts covering the wrong friendlies.
If your umbilical has connected to the correct flight's waypoint, you are in business.
Now select the "Target" heading. You will see a new page, which will list the id letter or number of the flight you have selected - a good failsafe to ensuring you haven't selected the wrong flight.
Under this are a few windows:
1) Time out - if you set a time in this window, your bombers will not require an escort until the mission time indicated has elapsed.
2) This is a vital window, the target priority window. Here you select from options of Primary, Secondary, and Hidden. If you absolutely must have those Blenheims covered, and the Hurris have no other mission for this sortie, select "Primary". If the Hurris had another mission of Primary importance, say recon of Lampedusa, and the Escort task was not your first priority for them, "Secondary" could be selected, but they would divert at their first chance to Lampedusa.
"Hidden" speaks for itself, it is a target that is available and known to the mission builder, but not to the participating pilots.
3) Destruction Level - as a %age : set the number in this window according to what the required survival %age of the escorted flight is for the mission to be successful. (For a "Destroy" target type, the %age represents the amount of enemy equipment that must be destroyed for the mission to be successful.
4) Applies for Red/Blue . Determines which side is eligible for Victory points given a successful mission.

As a hint, I never select the player pilot position until the very last step while building a mission, as having a pilot selected limits the mission builder's ability to provide targets to both sides - another design error as the side eligible is always selected for any target type anyway.

That should get those Blenheims covered to target and back.

Hope this wasn't too long winded and that it actually helped someone and offended none.

Kopfdorfer

[Uzin]

Excellent work, Kopfdorfer!

[zappatime]

Yes, that's an answer and a half, thanks 8)