How to make an entire flight of planes attack a ship?

[DeciNinja]

If I tell the leader to attack, only he attacks and the rest just follow him.
If I tell every plane individually to attack, sometimes they do, other times they seem to forget their orders and loiter waiting to get shot.
Weapons free I have set to not engage surface targets because I don't want my ships shooting AShMs before I'm ready.

How can I make my planes reliably attack as a group?

EDIT:

Originally posted by Dirtweasle:

If you have as an example a flight of Intruders with Harpoons all you have to do is select the lead element and chose salvo 4 and all the aircraft rapid fire 4 missiles.

Here it is. Just plain right clicking the target sends just the flight leader, giving an order to attack with (a salvo of?) a specific weapon invites the rest of the flight to join.

[The Muero]

My planes do opposite

[supersound99ss]

Yea I know in earlier builds they did exactly that. Latest build I have the entire flight firing AAMs at an enemy plane (haven't tried against ship/land target on latest). Are you sure you on latest build?

[DeciNinja]

I'm on 0.1.0.7.15267, which is the latest as far as I know.

[_RAM_]

When you give order to leader it cancels all its wingmans orders.
Sometimes atack order to leader translates to wingmans.
My method is:
1. give order to leader
2. unpause then pause
3. check wingmans state
4.1. if wingmans in engage then unpause
4.2. if wingmans loiter then by using hotkey "next" swaping wingmans one by one and give them orders.

[Rontagosh]

Originally posted by _RAM_:

When you give order to leader it cancels all its wingmans orders.
Sometimes atack order to leader translates to wingmans.
My method is:
1. give order to leader
2. unpause then pause
3. check wingmans state
4.1. if wingmans in engage then unpause
4.2. if wingmans loiter then by using hotkey "next" swaping wingmans one by one and give them orders.

hey! someone who also uses pause! Cheers.

Everyone, you do have that option, to pause, slow, and slo-motion is fun anyway (albeit the slo motion graphics need updating, they stutter)

[supersound99ss]

Ah, if it is intermittent like RAM is implying, that's probably why I haven't seen it. I've been staying away from heavy aircraft scenarios because the AI just is too frustrating at this point.

[plasm@n]

My method: set the aircrafts in tight line astern formation. The wingmen will follow the leader and will (most of the time…) automatically attack their target (if set in weapons free mode). Works (almost) perfectly for low altitude bomb run/strafing.

[Stix_09]

Originally posted by DeciNinja:

If I tell the leader to attack, only he attacks and the rest just follow him.
If I tell every plane individually to attack, sometimes they do, other times they seem to forget their orders and loiter waiting to get shot.
Weapons free I have set to not engage surface targets because I don't want my ships shooting AShMs before I'm ready.

How can I make my planes reliably attack as a group?

Manual shooting how it works (tested)

See my guide HERE

[Dirtweasle]

If you have as an example a flight of Intruders with Harpoons all you have to do is select the lead element and chose salvo 4 and all the aircraft rapid fire 4 missiles.

[DeciNinja]

Originally posted by Dirtweasle:

If you have as an example a flight of Intruders with Harpoons all you have to do is select the lead element and chose salvo 4 and all the aircraft rapid fire 4 missiles.

There it is. Just plain right clicking the target sends just the flight leader, giving an order to attack with (a salvo of?) a specific weapon invites the rest of the flight to join.

[Stix_09]

If you want better control of targeting see my guide above or your results are going to be very inconsistent if u don't understand the games current system of formation use of weapons.

[_RAM_]

Originally posted by supersound99ss:

Ah, if it is intermittent like RAM is implying, that's probably why I haven't seen it. I've been staying away from heavy aircraft scenarios because the AI just is too frustrating at this point.

You did it right buddy.
See carrier scenarios - skip it and go ahead.

[Stix_09]

You can get better control of weapon systems using hot keys and control modifiers like control , shift and Alt keys. Its very easy to do and fairly robust if u do it correctly. Once u know how u can multi target the whole formation with accurate numbers of per target across multiple targets using a formation very easy.

But u also need to know the weapons and systems on the plane to do it consistently based on weapon type and weapon channel numbers available.

For example the F-14 can track 6 independent targets. The Aim-54a also has the ability to re target weapons. So unless u know planes systems and weapons capabilities your going to get frustrated doing this. You also need to know how the control system works for manual targeting if u want consistency.

Most passive (SARH) weapons can only track 1 target and have 2 channels (2 missiles) because of limits of the FCR of the plane but active seeker weapons (IR guidance and active radar weapons) do not have such limitations.
IR guided weapons also have aspect limitations on the target(REAR or ALL ASPECT)

So if u don't understand plane system capabilities and limits of the weapon themselves they will either not work or miss the targets, and your going to say game is broken when its not.
example FCR on F15

[AN/APG-63]
#Users: usaf_f-15c
Kind=Radar
Type=DirectedSearch // Classes can be "DirectedSearch", "Search", "Targeting"
HasDataLink=False // true means the sensor data will be used for the entire task force via data link, false local use only
Role=Air // Role can be "Surface", "Air", "AirAndSurface"
Mode=Illuminate // Can be "Illuminate", "RadioCommand"
TargetChannels=1 // if applicable number of targets it can track simultaneously
WeaponChannels=2 // if applicable number of weapons (missiles) it can guide simultaneously
ViewArcs=-60,60|-60,60 // pair of values left to | is horisontal left-right angles of vision, second pair is down-up vertical angles
LookDownMultiplier=0.87 // multiplier that applies to max radar range when target is projected on terrain/sea background, default is 1.0
MinRange=0.4 // min range in km
MaxRange=175 // max range in km
MinAltitude=9 // min altitude in meters, relevant for air, unused for surface
MaxAltitude=30480 // max altitude in meters, relevant for air, unused for surface
RangeResolution=30.0 // defines the minimum range where two targets behind can be recognized as two; in meters
BeamWidth=1.1 // defines the beam width in degrees for BearingResolution >= 2*Dist*sin(BeamWidth/2)
Gain=53.0 // gain in dB on the sensor
Frequency=X-Band // frequency band

Originally posted by Stix_09:

Originally posted by DeciNinja:

If I tell the leader to attack, only he attacks and the rest just follow him.
If I tell every plane individually to attack, sometimes they do, other times they seem to forget their orders and loiter waiting to get shot.
Weapons free I have set to not engage surface targets because I don't want my ships shooting AShMs before I'm ready.

How can I make my planes reliably attack as a group?

Manual shooting how it works (tested)

See my guide HERE

[DeciNinja]

Originally posted by Stix_09:

snip

Yes, I know. You don't need to repost your entire guide here.

[Thewood]

Originally posted by DeciNinja:

Originally posted by Stix_09:

snip

Yes, I know. You don't need to repost your entire guide here.

Sure seems like he did.