Finding pilots in "rescue" missions...search radius?

[jonny_bass26]

Hi all,


Playing SH4 (1.5 with RFB, RSRDC) and, after completing a "troop insertion" mission, was then assigned a pilot resuce mission just off Timor (within about a mile of the shore). So I mosied on over, parked myself on the exact spot of the "lifebuoy" icon and...nothing. Not a sausage. Used external camera to look around a bit, still nothing. My question is, roughly how big is the area I need to search? Put another way: how far might I be finding pilots from the on-map icon? And do your lookouts see them (and alert you) when you're close enough, or is it all manual searching?


Thanks in advance :-)

[propbeanie]

lurker_hlb3 did things differently than Stock - or most other modders did for that matter. Your mission is in "SpecOps_guerrilla_NegrosPI_2" in the PatrolObjectives folder. The MapZone is defined in that file as being 5km radius, 10km diameter. The pilots to be "rescued" are in the main Campaign folder, "USDownPilots.mis" file, with 4 groups set to generate 1943-10-01, and "disappear" 1943-11-15. There are 3 British in the first, 3 Australian in the 2nd, 3 Dutch in the 3rd, and 1 more British in the 4th, a grand total of 10 pilots in the water, even though the instructions do say "Australian, Filippino & Portuguese". If you get there before the "spawn date", or after the "exit date", you'll not see them. Also, since the pilots are generated in an RGG (Random Generated Group), you have to be over 30km approximately from the spawn location (the 5km radius MapZone) for the groups to generate. In other words, if you got there too soon, and and you are within the spawning distance (approx. 30km), the groups will not generate. One other thing that lurker did is set the pilots "speed" to 0.5 knots, and gave them a "route" with waypoints to stay within that 5km radius MapZone, so they should be rather close together, but only between October 1st, 1943 and November 15th, 1943...

[jonny_bass26]

Great, thanks very much for the help :-) one other thing - I've read elsewhere that downed pilots generate smoke to aid finding them, do you know if that still applies?

[Aktungbby]

Originally Posted by jonny_bass26

Hi all,


, was then assigned a pilot resuce mission just off Timor (within about a mile of the shore). So I mosied on over, parked myself on the exact spot of the "lifebuoy" icon and...nothing. Not a sausage. Used external camera to look around a bit, still nothing. My question is, roughly how big is the area I need to search? Put another way: how far might I be finding pilots from the on-map icon? And do your lookouts see them (and alert you) when you're close enough, or is it all manual searching?


Thanks in advance :-) one other thing - I've read elsewhere that downed pilots generate smoke to aid finding them, do you know if that still applies?

WELL IF IT LOOKS LIKE THIS GUY IN THE RAFT....ABANDON THE MISSION AND DIVE QUICK
https://whowhatwhy.org/2014/09/02/an-enduring-mystery-about-bush-41s-wwii-escape-from-death/
IN THIS PARTICULAR CASE THERE WAS NO SMOKE; TOO DANGEROUS WITH ENEMY AIRCRAFT OVERHEAD...THE PILOT, LATER THE PRESIDENT GEORGE BUSH I,'HOOKED ONE ARM AROUND THE PERISCOPE' AND WAS DRAGGED TO A SAFER LOCATION.

[propbeanie]

Ahhh, Herr Aktungbby! Alas, this is a game, and yes, they do indeed smoke, rather profusely, I might add, and it is a rather bright pink. Sometimes the downed pilots are right in the "flare" light, other times, they are several yards or further away...