Take-off in pairs and taxi to take-off

[sniperton]

This is not a proper feature request, just some musings about taxi to take-off and take-off in pairs. I attached a test file for reference.

 

Take-off in pairs

Here we have something like this:

[RAF_No004SQN00_Way]

  TAKEOFF_002 93610.55 18274.09 0 0 &0  <-- x₀;y₀

  TRIGGERS 0 0 20 0

  NORMFLY 91965.38 18294.09 100.00 250.00 &0  <-- x₁;y₁

  â€¦

 

This can be used (with minimal adjustments) in the airfields file.

 

Nevertheless, in contrast to ‘normal’ take-offs, x₀;y₀ can’t be used for all flights, as they would collide when spawning at the same location. That is, x_n;y_n as spawn points should be calculated for each flight (n) separately.

 

the take-off path vector alpha = arctan(y₁-y₀ / x₁-x₀), so that

x_n = x₀ + (cos alpha * D); y_n = y₀ + (sin alpha * D), where

D = [safe spawn distance between flights ~ 40 m] * n [zero-based number of actual flight]  

 

The 20 m offset between pairs and the 40 m between individual flights is safe enough even for twin-engine bombers, but it would be a no-go for heavies. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem possible to use ‘normal’ take off (in a single row) and paired take-off together in a mixed way. I think restricting take-off in pairs to airstrips could be a fair workaround.

 

Taxi to take-off

I placed four spawn areas which can accommodate one full squad or four full flights. Bigger airfields could have two or three times more. Placing them correctly is a little bit tricky, as the first taxi waypoint has to be to the left of the area to prevent planes from making tight turns and colliding with objects. Anyway, the 16 bombers get airborne within 6 mins (with ‘normal’ take-off it would take 4:30 for the given plane type, so that it's just a 33% increase). Consequently, 6 minutes seems to be an absolute safe delay time to spawn another 4 flights.  What is needed is to have multiple sections in the airfield file, e.g. [Herdla_Airstrip_0], [Herdla_Airstrip_1], etc, etc. There is one serious backdrop: flights and planes get mixed as they take off, their sequence is not ABCD EFGH as with normal take-off; when airborne, flights have to regroup first. I think taxi to take-off could only be used in conjunction with ‘all planes circle’ or ‘attack rendezvous’.

 

The reference file:

 

[MAIN]
  MAP Norway/load.ini
  TIME 12.0
  CloudType 0
  CloudHeight 1000.0
  player RAF_No004SQN00
  army 1
  playerNum 3
[SEASON]
  Year 1940
  Month 6
  Day 15
[WEATHER]
  WindDirection 0.0
  WindSpeed 0.0
  Gust 0
  Turbulence 0
[Wing]
  RAF_No004SQN00
  RAF_No001SQN01
  RAF_No003SQN00
  RAF_No003SQN01
  RAF_No003SQN02
  RAF_No003SQN03
[RAF_No004SQN00]
  Planes 4
  Skill 1
  Class air.LAGG_3SERIES29
  Fuel 100
  weapons default
[RAF_No004SQN00_Way]
  TAKEOFF_002 93610.55 18274.09 0 0 &0
  TRIGGERS 0 0 20 0
  NORMFLY 91965.38 18294.09 100.00 250.00 &0
[RAF_No001SQN01]
  Planes 4
  Skill 1
  Class air.LAGG_3SERIES29
  Fuel 100
  weapons default
[RAF_No001SQN01_Way]
  TAKEOFF_002 93573.50 18274.13 0 0 &0
  TRIGGERS 0 0 20 0
  NORMFLY 91936.66 18294.70 100.00 250.00 &0
[RAF_No003SQN00]
  Planes 4
  Skill 1
  Class air.PE_2SERIES84
  Fuel 100
  weapons default
[RAF_No003SQN00_Way]
  TAKEOFF_004 92493.44 17817.04 0 0 &0
  TRIGGERS 0 0 20 0
  TAKEOFF_004 92454.30 17796.23 0 0 &0
  TRIGGERS 0 0 20 0
  TAKEOFF_004 92458.33 17788.83 0 0 &0
  TRIGGERS 0 0 20 0
  TAKEOFF_004 92463.65 17777.53 0 0 &0
  TRIGGERS 0 0 20 0
  TAKEOFF_004 92480.28 17750.59 0 0 &0
  TRIGGERS 0 0 20 0
  TAKEOFF_004 92483.61 17739.62 0 0 &0
  TRIGGERS 0 0 20 0
  TAKEOFF_004 92494.91 17734.63 0 0 &0
  TRIGGERS 0 0 20 0
  TAKEOFF_004 92507.55 17729.31 0 0 &0
  TRIGGERS 0 0 20 0
  TAKEOFF_004 92523.18 17726.32 0 0 &0
  TRIGGERS 0 0 20 0
  TAKEOFF_004 92536.81 17722.33 0 0 &0
  TRIGGERS 0 0 20 0
  TAKEOFF_004 92553.11 17721.33 0 0 &0
  TRIGGERS 0 0 20 0
  TAKEOFF_004 92561.42 17732.97 0 0 &0
  TRIGGERS 0 0 20 0
  TAKEOFF_004 92564.75 17746.27 0 0 &0
  TRIGGERS 0 0 20 0
  NORMFLY 92984.01 19288.46 250.00 250.00 &0
[RAF_No003SQN01]
  Planes 4
  Skill 1
  Class air.PE_2SERIES84
  Fuel 100
  weapons default
[RAF_No003SQN01_Way]
  TAKEOFF_004 92507.24 17955.28 0 0 &0
  TRIGGERS 0 0 20 0
  TAKEOFF_004 92471.67 17961.43 0 0 &0
  TRIGGERS 0 0 20 0
  TAKEOFF_004 92456.61 17929.08 0 0 &0
  TRIGGERS 0 0 20 0
  TAKEOFF_004 92433.09 17832.99 0 0 &0
  TRIGGERS 0 0 20 0
  TAKEOFF_004 92480.28 17750.59 0 0 &0
  TRIGGERS 0 0 20 0
  TAKEOFF_004 92483.61 17739.62 0 0 &0
  TRIGGERS 0 0 20 0
  TAKEOFF_004 92494.91 17734.63 0 0 &0
  TRIGGERS 0 0 20 0
  TAKEOFF_004 92507.55 17729.31 0 0 &0
  TRIGGERS 0 0 20 0
  TAKEOFF_004 92523.18 17726.32 0 0 &0
  TRIGGERS 0 0 20 0
  TAKEOFF_004 92536.81 17722.33 0 0 &0
  TRIGGERS 0 0 20 0
  TAKEOFF_004 92553.11 17721.33 0 0 &0
  TRIGGERS 0 0 20 0
  TAKEOFF_004 92561.42 17732.97 0 0 &0
  TRIGGERS 0 0 20 0
  TAKEOFF_004 92564.75 17746.27 0 0 &0
  TRIGGERS 0 0 20 0
  NORMFLY 92984.01 19288.46 250.00 250.00 &0
[RAF_No003SQN02]
  Planes 4
  Skill 1
  Class air.PE_2SERIES84
  Fuel 100
  weapons default
[RAF_No003SQN02_Way]
  TAKEOFF_004 92337.02 18105.27 0 0 &0
  TRIGGERS 0 0 20 0
  TAKEOFF_004 92321.03 18128.51 0 0 &0
  TRIGGERS 0 0 20 0
  TAKEOFF_004 92291.69 18111.82 0 0 &0
  TRIGGERS 0 0 20 0
  TAKEOFF_004 92285.12 18089.57 0 0 &0
  TRIGGERS 0 0 20 0
  TAKEOFF_004 92305.35 18047.09 0 0 &0
  TRIGGERS 0 0 20 0
  TAKEOFF_004 92412.56 17866.54 0 0 &0
  TRIGGERS 0 0 20 0
  TAKEOFF_004 92434.31 17853.90 0 0 &0
  TRIGGERS 0 0 20 0
  TAKEOFF_004 92433.80 17829.62 0 0 &0
  TRIGGERS 0 0 20 0
  TAKEOFF_004 92471.23 17764.39 0 0 &0
  TRIGGERS 0 0 20 0
  TAKEOFF_004 92496.01 17731.51 0 0 &0
  TRIGGERS 0 0 20 0
  TAKEOFF_004 92524.84 17719.88 0 0 &0
  TRIGGERS 0 0 20 0
  TAKEOFF_004 92555.68 17728.98 0 0 &0
  TRIGGERS 0 0 20 0
  TAKEOFF_004 92566.30 17745.67 0 0 &0
  TRIGGERS 0 0 20 0
  NORMFLY 92995.83 19325.41 250.00 0.00 &0
[RAF_No003SQN03]
  Planes 4
  Skill 1
  Class air.PE_2SERIES84
  Fuel 100
  weapons default
[RAF_No003SQN03_Way]
  TAKEOFF_004 92492.28 17662.76 0 0 &0
  TRIGGERS 0 0 20 0
  TAKEOFF_004 92541.26 17663.03 0 0 &0
  TRIGGERS 0 0 20 0
  TAKEOFF_004 92552.39 17683.26 0 0 &0
  TRIGGERS 0 0 20 0
  TAKEOFF_004 92565.54 17742.94 0 0 &0
  TRIGGERS 0 0 20 0
  NORMFLY 93005.84 19392.61 250.00 0.00 &0
[NStationary]
[Buildings]
[StaticCamera]
  92542 17447 100 0
[Bridge]
[House]

[Lowengrin]

Thanks for the musings.  I'll give it some thought.

[sniperton]

So far as I can judge, take off in pairs would not affect flight path calculations or any other part of the code. Planes get airborne a little bit faster, that's all. There would be two more benefits as well. If it can be implemented, take off in line (side by side) could also be implemented, which would come in handy on WWI type airfields where the runway is not a strip, but a wide (and short) field instead. (The Slovakia map has plenty of them, but scattered you find them on a couple of other maps, including modded BoF and BoB maps.) The second benefit would be, as demonstrated in my test file, that any runway section could be used, not just those with the take-off sign. The East-West runway on Herdla airfield is a case in point: those fighters could not take off from it the 'normal' way.

Anyway, take your time, and thanks for considering.