Mission Editor Formations, Flights, and Offsets

[LTCClark]

AHIII uses X Y Z and Coordinates to Position Aircraft.

Z is the North South Line, Y is the Height and X is East and West

an example is this



With this being said, lets take a look at the Different ways to get an AI bird into the air.

First Add A Route To the Map, then Add the Waypoints to that route.

There are multiple ways to moving the waypoints, Either you can use your mouse, or you can manually enter the data using the Heading and Distance

Here you can enter in manually or use the mouse


This is what it will look like with heading of 180 and distance of 25M


Here is what your waypoints will look like


The Next We will add some segments.

It is important to note that You can calculate speeds and other information by using the calculate button for distances, and doing complex math.

Types of segments

Taxi - Used for Taxiing Aircraft onto the Runway, and Example is this file for the B25C racetrack
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5Y7nR_lE_KLYVZGdGN2NkJxN3M/view?usp=sharing

Takeoff - Used for Taking the Aircraft Off

Climb - Used for making the AI Climb at the Calculated speed for the option either military or standard settings, hit calculate and find out what your segment is, you can adjust your waypoint.
*Note, trying to get a B17 to climb to 30k with 100% Fuel is no easy task, so you must adjust your waypoints to match the distance required, or do it in segments.

Cruise - Mainly used for max cruise, or lowered speeds for many aircraft, you must use the auto speed for power using the calculate button and it will fill in the segment duration based on speed and land covered.

Patrol - This is used for speeding an aircraft up to speed and also used for engaging any aircraft which are in the area if you have can dogfight checked.
*Note for fighters - this will cause the AI to engage and attack
*Note for bombers - this will cause the AI to target and shoot at your plane when attacking a bomber formation

Attack - If you want the fighters to attack anything related to the enemy you can use this during the segment.
*Note, to assign a specific target to the AI, click Set Target and move the Plane to the target you wish to engage.

Drop Ord - When this is selected, it causes the AI to drop ordinance at a target specified, or you can fly the bombers and your bombers will drop ord.
*note to modify this as necessary with input from other players.

Crosswind and Downwind - I have not played with these however I would imagine that the AI will move into crosswind or downwind landing formation.

Descend - Causes the aircraft to descend to target altitude

Base - Makes a base approach for the landing setup

Land - When the AI is supposed to hit the ground with gear down

Runout - The period where the AI is to roll out on the runway.

Segment Altitudes and Calculations

Now With All that being said lets take a look at a way to add a segment before adding any flights to the route for an Air Spawn

At Waypoint 1 We Add a Patrol Segment or Cruise Segment



Note how the Speed is 200 and the Altitude is set to 15000

Next we do this for the segments we wish to have the AI Fly



Adding Flights

Now that we have our segments out of the way lets add a Flight to the pattern.



Name of Flight - Sets the Name
Checkboxes Display for Arena - if you want to set the name as the displayed icon for the Arena
                 Can Dogfight - if you want this aircraft to maneuver against enemy and engage



On the Above Photo we can see there are several formations to select from.  You can try these out but here are some basics

Rotte - 2 Planes *for 1 AI wingman and you
Vee - a Bomber formation like in the MA
Solo - One Aircraft Alone

Lets go over the Options here.

Offset from Segment - This is used to offset the flight from the segment using the X Y and Z method, using the Image above at the top of this as a reference
*Note - Offsets are made in Feet

Roll Delay - You can add multiple flights to one route and delay each flights intervals by seconds, so if you want 2 minutes between time on target for each flight set this to 120.

Spawn Formation - If you are using Taxi, or such other things then you will want to choose Line, if Air Spawn you can select Vee or Wall

Spawn Y - This is the Height off the map Above Sea Level at which this flight will spawn in at.  To Air Spawn you want to set this to the same alt as the segments

You can simply click Air Spawn in order to match this to the Altitude of the first segment.

If not you can use the Set Spawn to have it go to a different altitude.


Now we can use the Run Mission and you can view the flights in formation by selecting the flight and on the bottom left hit view selected.

You may also use the Mission found here to start playing with different things, it is a simple one with no flights selected.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5Y7nR_lE_KLOTRIdUNTNUJNT2s/view?usp=sharing

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Keyboard Controls and Commands Etc.
 While in View Selected - Use mousewheel to zoom in or out
                                  H key is for mouse look lock

While Viewing the Map.
 Dependent upon your atitude of view the following keys are used

Q to Scroll Map North
Z to Scroll Map South
A to Scroll Map West
D to Scroll Map East
W to Lower Altitude
S to Raise Altitude
Mousewheel - Used as Speed in which the map moves.