Helicopters Return to Base to Refuel After Traveling 90% The Distance to New Destination

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    • Helicopters Return to Base to Refuel After Traveling 90% The Distance to New Destination

      Yesterday I had a stack of attack helicopters patrolling in South Africa when my ally was attacked in Turkey. I re-routed my helicopters to Turkey to help my ally defend and counter attack. The helicopters immediately started moving to an intermediate air field in Egypt as a first hop to get to Turkey. When the helicopters were nearly at the intermediate airport, they suddenly turned around "returning to base to refuel". In case you are wondering, no, the air base was not destroyed.

      I lost around 10 hours of time with the helicopters going mostly there, all the way back, and then there again.

      This seems like a new bug coming from the recent changes to refueling aircraft. I assume my helicopters used some fuel while patrolling over South Africa. Then, when I re-routed them to Turkey, the game just checked the distance from the airport the helicopters were based out of to the intermediate airport in Egypt. Since that distance is in range for the helicopters, they went right away toward the Egypt airport. However, the fuel was not checked and the game sent them home when they were out of fuel 90% the way there.

      This is no good for 2 reasons:
      1. If my helicopters don't have the fuel to reach a destination, they should return to base to refuel before setting out... not 90% of the way there
      2. If it's a ferry move, they can refuel at the destination... it's silly to go the longer distance back to the starting airport

      Please fix! :)

      The post was edited 1 time, last by Rainmaker2112 ().

    • I encountered this before, mostly in FP map (ferrying planes and convoys across the Atlantic Ocean) using the Azores. However when I built an aircraft carrier I positioned it a between my launching point (Charleston) and the Azores. When the planes tried to return, I ordered them to land at the carrier to refuel, and they did.

      Maybe this could come in handy while solving your bug.

    • Aircraft carriers have a whole set of problems all of their own and don't directly address this one. However, I see they are working on another units capable of carrying aircraft and are reworking the code so I am hopeful about the future of carriers.

      Regarding my post though... Fundamentally, my planes should not try to go somewhere they don't have enough fuel to go to... they should return to base and then go if I give them a destination beyond reach of their remaining fuel.

    • Rainmaker2112 wrote:

      Aircraft carriers have a whole set of problems all of their own and don't directly address this one. However, I see they are working on another units capable of carrying aircraft and are reworking the code so I am hopeful about the future of carriers.

      Regarding my post though... Fundamentally, my planes should not try to go somewhere they don't have enough fuel to go to... they should return to base and then go if I give them a destination beyond reach of their remaining fuel.
      The assumption is that the planes Do have enough fuel to return to their base when they turn around.

      What is messed up is that that if they have enough fuel to return to their base, they also have enough fuel to reach the one-way destination they were travelling toward in your scenario (and in Snapper's).

      Also in this game, the air units' behavior is governed not by how much fuel they have, but instead by how much time they have been in the air. Time is used to approximate fuel consumption.

      For now, at least, we players have to understand that time (and not fuel) governs how our air units behave, and issue orders that are consistent with how the game works.

    • KFGauss wrote:

      Rainmaker2112 wrote:

      Aircraft carriers have a whole set of problems all of their own and don't directly address this one. However, I see they are working on another units capable of carrying aircraft and are reworking the code so I am hopeful about the future of carriers.

      Regarding my post though... Fundamentally, my planes should not try to go somewhere they don't have enough fuel to go to... they should return to base and then go if I give them a destination beyond reach of their remaining fuel.
      The assumption is that the planes Do have enough fuel to return to their base when they turn around.
      What is messed up is that that if they have enough fuel to return to their base, they also have enough fuel to reach the one-way destination they were travelling toward in your scenario (and in Snapper's).

      Also in this game, the air units' behavior is governed not by how much fuel they have, but instead by how much time they have been in the air. Time is used to approximate fuel consumption.

      For now, at least, we players have to understand that time (and not fuel) governs how our air units behave, and issue orders that are consistent with how the game works.
      Yep. These things happen, that’s how games work.

    • KFGauss wrote:

      Rainmaker2112 wrote:

      Aircraft carriers have a whole set of problems all of their own and don't directly address this one. However, I see they are working on another units capable of carrying aircraft and are reworking the code so I am hopeful about the future of carriers.

      Regarding my post though... Fundamentally, my planes should not try to go somewhere they don't have enough fuel to go to... they should return to base and then go if I give them a destination beyond reach of their remaining fuel.
      The assumption is that the planes Do have enough fuel to return to their base when they turn around.
      What is messed up is that that if they have enough fuel to return to their base, they also have enough fuel to reach the one-way destination they were travelling toward in your scenario (and in Snapper's).

      Also in this game, the air units' behavior is governed not by how much fuel they have, but instead by how much time they have been in the air. Time is used to approximate fuel consumption.

      For now, at least, we players have to understand that time (and not fuel) governs how our air units behave, and issue orders that are consistent with how the game works.

      Time approximating fuel is fine.

      Let's say my helicopters can be in the air for 8 hours at a time. I patrolled them for 3 hours so I have 5 hours of flight time left. If I give them an order to ferry to an airfield that is 6 hours away (the game already estimates this and shows you these numbers), the game should connect the dots that my helicopters don't have enough air time left to get there and have them return to base to refuel first before sending them to the destination of my ferry order.

      Yes, this is a game and this isn't the top priority bug. However, this is a game bug since it's nonsensical behavior. As a player I can't see how much air time my helicopters have left so I had no way of knowing they would not make it to the destination and the game knows perfectly well if it simply compared these two numbers.

      Do you see what I mean now?

    • I believe that I understood you perfectly the first time, and what I wrote applies exactly to the situation you just described.

      I wrote ". . . we players have to . . . issue orders that are consistent with how the game works."

      What may be causing our crossed wires is that I dunno if that remaining flight time is visible in the mobile app somewhere.

      In the browser you (the player) can see how much flight time is left (by hovering over the unit??? I forget exactly how it's shown).

      I was writing from the perspective of a (mostly) browser player.

    • Ok - I see the returning to base timer now. It shows up when patrolling and when moving to a position for a patrol. It doesn't show up when ferrying.

      I have learned something and I recognize it's possible for a player to check if a ferry destination is beyond their aircraft range by patrolling and comparing the returning to base time against the destination time manually.

      I am running a few more tests (2 questions in my mind) and then I will respond with more information and commentary.

    • Rainmaker2112 wrote:

      Ok - I see the returning to base timer now. It shows up when patrolling and when moving to a position for a patrol. It doesn't show up when ferrying.

      I have learned something and I recognize it's possible for a player to check if a ferry destination is beyond their aircraft range by patrolling and comparing the returning to base time against the destination time manually.

      I am running a few more tests (2 questions in my mind) and then I will respond with more information and commentary
      I didn't realize that the timer didn't appear when Ferrying - That inconsistency should go into Dorado's bug list.

    • Ok - I confirmed the game let's you give both give both ferry and patrol commands to places your aircrafts do not have enough fuel to reach.

      In my opinion, I would call this a bug. It sure seems like straight-forward code to implement - a check to compare the two numbers (remaining fuel time and ETA) and send the aircraft to refuel first if the destination ETA is greater. Players having to keep track of and check for these quirks seems silly.

      If you disagree about calling this a "bug", I'm happy to agree to disagree.

    • Rainmaker2112 wrote:

      . . .
      If you disagree about calling this a "bug", I'm happy to agree to disagree.
      If you're asking me - I would be delighted for the game to include more sophisticated handling this sort of thing. That why I wrote, "For now, at least, we players have to . . .".

      I look forward to a time after "now" when the game might be more sophisticated.

      Write that report/request. :thumbsup: