With IRAI installed, they should. Nonethelesse, like in reality (or even ore), they are not perfect, and for using them each aicraft must be set carefully an tested. IIRC, the nastiest bug with them was they goings backwards once dropped. I don't remember what is the trick that fixes that, but in SH5 and SHIV there should be multiple threads and posts on this topic
Seems to me there were clues in Rubini's SH3 thread...
@ propbeanie,
thank you for your long answer mate. Please find my replies below
In one of your first replies on this thread, you had written that the detection of a submarine "qualifies" for the spawning of up to seven "response aircraft" at any given moment.
It seems to, yes I suppose this is the max size of an "ASW response group", though its aircraft won't arrive all contemporarily, but in small groups of 1 or 2 aircraft every few minutes.
This is correct From your last reply I also get that, after a longer interval, the game will spawn other "responde groups", even though probably we won't be anymore there for telling it.
Correct. Response based upon AirStrike.cfg settings for the "timing" between the 'dice roll', or random number. If you stay in the location, you will see a 2nd wave, and if you are seen, a third wave later, etc.
Is my interpretation of your reports correct?
yes
If yes, does the game spawn only one of such a "response groups" at any given time
planes will spawn from the same group, until it runs out of planes apparently. I have not tested long enough beyond to see if other bases respond, or more that one group can be spawned if multiple airbases are within player's range?
That is difficult to tell for certain, other than all of the planes seem to come in to "play" from the same generally direction. I would say only one AirBase responds, seemingly the closest. One way to tell for certain is to build a scenario and have two AirBases in a "quiet" area of the world, maybe just a few km difference in distance from the "target" area, and both with different AirGroups, roughly 90-130° separation at the location of your "target", and see what happens with the response when the "target" is detected.
Does the number of aircraft assigned to each base (beyond the maximum number of seven aircraft composing each ASW group) affect this scheme and, if yes, how?
It does seem to affect the response. If there are only 2 airplanes total for an AirBase, that is all that is sent. AirBases with more airplanes do seem to have a maximum number they will send out at any given "response", based on the AirStrike.cfg counter. One aspect of this "response" is that it is much easier, as a submarine, to "see" something attacking you, than it is to monitor the airplanes attacking something else that might be beyond the horizon.
Within each group, do faster aircraft arrive first, or the order of arrival is totally random?
It seems to be the roll of the dice influences the aircraft sent, as well as their spacing. Their flight speed does affect when they arrive, of course, such that it might be you would see all of the planes at about the same time, if the slower planes are spawned first, and the fastest planes last, or it might be that you would see them spaced out over a period of time, if the fastest came first, and then the slowest. They do seem to "fly by" the area, and then "return to base" along similar flight paths, though if another airplane finds something to attack, it does seem to generate a "report", and most of the planes when returning will then also attack. Several runs of a given scenario would all result in different airplanes, different flight paths, different attacks, etc., so that makes "testing" somewhat more difficult.
With the working method I have in mind, we wouldn't have "generic" airbases. Each airbase modelled in game would correspond to a real RAF station, and its air groups will elvolve reflecting its WWII usage by various RAF squadrons. Only squadrons relevant to the game will be considered:
- defensive fighter squadrons located near the coasts of the British Empire, equipped with "bomb-less", "short-ranged" aircraft so that they will only act as coastal defenses against harbor raids, attacking any close-enough enemy with their guns/cannons;
- maritime surveillance/reconnaissance squadrons whose aircraft should be equipped with flares and sea marker bombs rather than explosive bombs.
- ASW squadrons, whose aircraft will be initially equipped with ordinary bombs, gradually replaced by depth bombs and (where they apply) torpedoes and rockets as the war progresses and more specialized weapons become available.
- Anti-shipping squadrons, whose aircraft will be equipped with bombs, torpedoes and rockets.
- Convoy-defense squadrons, whose airccraft will be equipped with a variety of different armaments, depending on base location and on the most likely menace that they would have faced.
Possible gaps between one "operative" air group and the next one, will be filled with "filler air groups". See
post #44 in this thread on what I mean for "filler group". Should one of the operative air groups cause any problem (as per your example), I will reduce the number of its aircraft to ridiculous amount, or I will replace it with a filler group.
Sounds like a plan!
Well it all depends on how the game will use those aircraft, but I see your point anyway.
Whatever is the most appropriate number of aircraft per squadron, I want to keep this number as constant as possible. If at some point, in reality, an airbase hosted two squadrons equipped with the same aircraft, in game I want that base to have roughly twice the number of aircraft it would have had if only one squadron was using it. Likewise, if historically a squadron had one or more detachments, in game it should contribute to each of its bases a lesser number of aircraft than it would if all its aircraft where "assigned" to one base.