Air wing can't use new plane because the new plane has the ability to conduct a new mission type??

[DoktorFar]

From testing and playing and looking at google search results I seem to have come to the very odd conclusion that existing airwings will absolutely refuse to receive new plane types as reinforcement if the new design has a in ANY way ANY deviance in the list of possible missions. Even when the new plane has ALL the missions available, but if just a single stupid mission type was added to the plane, like "naval strike" which is the case with the new plane Ju 88 A, where I added "Bomb Locks" module which allows naval airstrike compared to the old one, He111, that does not have this mission type because it had no "Bomb Lock" module. I installed the Bomb Locks because it gives significant extra ground attack when on Ground Support missions, which is what this air wing has been doing all along with the He111's. So why would they not be able to use the new plane just because that plane case also do naval strikes?

Is there no way around this other than disbanding the entire air wing and creating a new one?

Maybe a mod? I have not found one yet unfortunately...

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3303632266

[HappySack]

Planes with different air missions are considered different planes by the game, if you want them to be reinforced then keep the missions type the same, you can disband the old planes and covert them to a similar design to your new planes until you phase out all of the old planes.

[DoktorFar]

Originally posted by Golem XIV:

CAN'T do the missions your airwing have enabled

The new plane in question absolutely can do ALL the missions that the airwing have enabled. The new plane can also do "naval strike" which I am not using at all for these airwings (doing ground support in southern poland...). The issue is then that because the previous planes in the air wing cannot do "naval strike" so the game refuse to reinforce the air wing with the new plane, just because the new plane can do "naval strike" missions. It's not fine. The airwing could simply have this "naval strike" disabled; it shouldn't be blocked from receiving the new plane when it can do every mission the airwing can currently do.

Tbh the best solution would have been to SET the types missions in the designer from among the applicable ones. That would allow you to remove the "naval strike" mission when it is not going to be used. I didn't choose the "Bomb Lock" module to do naval strikes, I chose it to get more ground attack.

[DoktorFar]

Originally posted by HappySack:

Planes with different air missions are considered different planes by the game, if you want them to be reinforced then keep the missions type the same, you can disband the old planes and covert them to a similar design to your new planes until you phase out all of the old planes.

Yes they are new planes, I designed a new plane, Both are tactical bombers meant to conduct ground support missions. It just so happens that one of the added modules to the new plane design, that gives a good bonus to ground attack, also happens to unlock the "naval strike" mission.

Originally posted by HappySack:

disband the old planes and covert them to a similar design to your new planes until you phase out all of the old planes."

How do I "disband" the old planes? You mean I have to select the airwing in question and then click on the "Disband airwings" button? Won't that totally remove all the experience levels when I create a new airwing with the new planes?

[DoktorFar]

Originally posted by Golem XIV:

Then all other planes in this airwing can't do this specific new mission type, d'oh...
so either new mission type will be blocked and you'll pull all the hair from your arse then your matey's trying to figure out why it's greyed out

Sounds fine by me, I have no use for the Naval Strike mission for this plane or for this air wing. If the Naval Strike mission button is greyed out, of course Paradox would simply put the reason in text in the contextual mouse hover info panel for the Naval Strike button, right?

Even better: Alternate simple solution to simply let us remove unwanted mission in the aircraft designer. No need to make things complicated or pull out the grey hair with this, the solutions are straightforward and quite simple.

[DoktorFar]

Originally posted by Golem XIV:

The real problem here is why air forces don't use navy-like task forces w/ mixed missions allowed and auto splitting and whatnot.
Paradox in all their inverted wisdom blessed us with minimal (and maximal, lol) airwing size of 100 instead.
So we have to eat what they served. Flying bricks made of 100 completely same airplanes at a time is how it's intended to be played.

(♥♥♥♥, I'd kill for a navy-like airforces management...)

I agree with this 100% But with the current system they have chosen I do think that this particular proposal would probably require some more significant game mechanic changes and rebalancing. This is something they should probably have thought of before the settled on the current system, when they were making the game.

I still am in fervor of the easy solution that Paradox should be able to gives us pretty quickly, because it would be so easy to do in comparison: to just let us disable the missions we don't want in the aircraft designer. Just click on the mission to disable it and a big fat visible X is placed over it to indicate it won't be available for this design.

[HappySack]

Originally posted by DoktorFar:

How do I "disband" the old planes? You mean I have to select the airwing in question and then click on the "Disband airwings" button? Won't that totally remove all the experience levels when I create a new airwing with the new planes?

Yes you would lose all the experience they have by doing this, alternatively redesign your new planes and remove the bomb locks.

Maybe it's me but it seems a bit wasteful to use tactical bombers in a CAS role especially when you're packing them full of electronics.

[Biggs]

why dont you enable reinforce options to reinforce with either new/old/all versions of that aircraft. there is no problem. i reinforce my obsolete cas and fighters with new versions in the same wing easy, and i dont even change defeault reinforce settings

[DoktorFar]

Originally posted by HappySack:

Maybe it's me but it seems a bit wasteful to use tactical bombers in a CAS role especially when you're packing them full of electronics.

Currently in my game I use them for both close air support and tactical bombing. Two bomb bays and two Bomb Locks, they all give ground attack bonus. Can change their role to tactical bombing, close air support, logistics strikes as needed.

[DoktorFar]

Originally posted by HappySack:

Originally posted by DoktorFar:

How do I "disband" the old planes? You mean I have to select the airwing in question and then click on the "Disband airwings" button? Won't that totally remove all the experience levels when I create a new airwing with the new planes?

Yes you would lose all the experience they have by doing this, alternatively redesign your new planes and remove the bomb locks.

Maybe it's me but it seems a bit wasteful to use tactical bombers in a CAS role especially when you're packing them full of electronics.

Alright, I thankfully found a sort of solution in this case. I can replace the Bomb Locks with Small Bomb Bay which does not enable to Naval Strikes, and now they can reinforce the old air wing.