Air Combat Formations

[Chollirem]

3 fighters?

Ya lets get into how you and the aliens could have 10 craft or more in a fked up dog fight

x = Craft

-> = Direction of travel

Trail Formation (normal with helicopters)

xxxx----->

Very simple formation one follows the other

1. Tactical formation for speed and low visibility

2. Trail element will break off into multiple independent groups during air combat

3. Tends to cause staggered missile lock and impact (meaning one guy locks fires, then a second or two later, the second fighters locks and fires, then a second later the third)

V formation used with (3,5,7 etc craft)

Can be used to cover a wide area or have waves (every V is a wave) of fighters

x

.x------>

x

1. Offensive Formation that covers a wide area

2. can Immediately bring all weapons to bear on target

3. Good for responding to threads from in-front

Diamond Formation

..x

x...x----->

..x

1. Escort formation

2. Good for responding to threats from in-front, the left, and the right

Staggered trail left

xx

.xx --->

Staggered Trail Right

.xx---->

xx

Both options above are used by both fighters and choppers IRL

this brings two craft to bear on target followed by the trail element again staggering weapon lock and impact a few seconds as the lead element fires and breaks off then the trail element fires and breaks off, from this point the dog fight is left with your two air teams dealing with the new situation you created.

Heavy Left

x

...x

.......x----->

.....x

heavy right

.....x

.......x---->

...x

x

Another Offensive formation that is a modification of the V

Good for bringing offensive fire to targets in front of you, the trailing element again will get staggered missile lock

Echelon Left

x

...x

......x

.........x----->

Echelon Right

.........x----->

......x

...x

x

Adaptive Offensive Formation, easy to bring staggered lock/fire on targets to the front, left, or right

NOTE

If we can bring air to ground weapons on jets/choppers then when you have them do gun runs or missile runs on targets ID's with smoke (later in game with laser) the formation you pick will define how fire power is brought to bear on the marked targets (in short they will shoot down at the area in that pattern)

SECOND NOTE

if we can bring a troop transport, 3 fighters for air escort, and 3 little birds (air to ground attack helicopters) to a mission this opens up new game play

UFO Fighters can come down to assist their buddies on the ground meaning at the start of one of you turns you may go straight into air combat to resolve this new threat, your little birds will scatter (and if you win take 5 turns to return)

and if you lose or have no air cover, the aliens fighters can shoot at your people on the ground doing gun runs same as you would do to them.

This makes it so you need air support on every mission to prevent the aliens from wiping you out with air to ground fire power

(Craft should never be seen as they are too high up, simple spawn the rounds fired at the highest level (4-6 i believe) in game coming down at a sharp angle onto target area)

Input welcome as always : )

[Tacobandit]

3 fighters?

Ya lets get into how you and the aliens could have 10 craft or more in a fked up dog fight

x = Craft

-> = Direction of travel

Trail Formation (normal with helicopters)

xxxx----->

Very simple formation one follows the other

1. Tactical formation for speed and low visibility

2. Trail element will break off into multiple independent groups during air combat

3. Tends to cause staggered missile lock and impact (meaning one guy locks fires, then a second or two later, the second fighters locks and fires, then a second later the third)

V formation used with (3,5,7 etc craft)

Can be used to cover a wide area or have waves (every V is a wave) of fighters

x

.x------>

x

1. Offensive Formation that covers a wide area

2. can Immediately bring all weapons to bear on target

3. Good for responding to threads from in-front

Diamond Formation

..x

x...x----->

..x

1. Escort formation

2. Good for responding to threats from in-front, the left, and the right

Staggered trail left

xx

.xx --->

Staggered Trail Right

.xx---->

xx

Both options above are used by both fighters and choppers IRL

this brings two craft to bear on target followed by the trail element again staggering weapon lock and impact a few seconds as the lead element fires and breaks off then the trail element fires and breaks off, from this point the dog fight is left with your two air teams dealing with the new situation you created.

Heavy Left

x

...x

.......x----->

.....x

heavy right

.....x

.......x---->

...x

x

Another Offensive formation that is a modification of the V

Good for bringing offensive fire to targets in front of you, the trailing element again will get staggered missile lock

Echelon Left

x

...x

......x

.........x----->

Echelon Right

.........x----->

......x

...x

x

Adaptive Offensive Formation, easy to bring staggered lock/fire on targets to the front, left, or right

NOTE

If we can bring air to ground weapons on jets/choppers then when you have them do gun runs or missile runs on targets ID's with smoke (later in game with laser) the formation you pick will define how fire power is brought to bear on the marked targets (in short they will shoot down at the area in that pattern)

SECOND NOTE

if we can bring a troop transport, 3 fighters for air escort, and 3 little birds (air to ground attack helicopters) to a mission this opens up new game play

UFO Fighters can come down to assist their buddies on the ground meaning at the start of one of you turns you may go straight into air combat to resolve this new threat, your little birds will scatter (and if you win take 5 turns to return)

and if you lose or have no air cover, the aliens fighters can shoot at your people on the ground doing gun runs same as you would do to them.

This makes it so you need air support on every mission to prevent the aliens from wiping you out with air to ground fire power

(Craft should never be seen as they are too high up, simple spawn the rounds fired at the highest level (4-6 i believe) in game coming down at a sharp angle onto target area)

Input welcome as always : )

sounds boring. How about Blimps with laser cannons?

[Chollirem]

taco edit your post to just your response please, no one else has commented and your just wasting space.

Also be more specific, what sounds boring?

10 on 10 alien vs human dog fights?

Air craft gun/missile runs at your (and the aliens) command for Ground combat

or

Flight formations you can have pre picked for your preferred attack style and plan for air combat and also directly relate to their use in ground combat.

[thothkins]

Sgt Chollirem: Darn aliens! They've found our base. They came straight for us! How could they know?

Sgt thothkins: At a guess, it could be the Xenonaut-Blimps Tacobandit has hovering right above us.

Sgt Chollirem: What?!

Sgt thothkins: The blimps do have laser cannons, so I'm sure it will be fine >scribbles last will and testament<

>thump, thump, thump<

Sgt Chollirem: They're at the pressure door. Remember short controlled bursts...

Sgt thothkins: ...or the thumping is because they're wearing clown shoes.

I think there's a concern that regular extended interceptions will really get in the way of the main focus of the game, which is the battlescape.

However, recalling the swarms in UFO:ET, they certainly had a role to play and could be used every now and again here too. In fact, with 3000 of them just sitting up there, it makes some sense to have a few swarms every now and again, as the ships get converted for our atmosphere.

Having said that, I think i read that the game would have a hard time coping with that kind of combat. That's with the UFOs that are in place, let alone adding in new builds such as attack helicopters and the like.

[Max_Caine]

Formations don't work so well in a game where aircraft and UFOs alike have HP, and the bigger UFOs have way more HP than human aircraft. Consider Homeworld or Homeworld 2. Combat formations for fightercraft only work because enemy fightercraft have so little HP, and even then fightercraft usually have to make two passes at an enemy combat group. Verses capital ships, the most effective formation for fightercraft is everyone piling in. In Xenonauts, Heavy fighters turn up quickly and they can take more than enough punishment that clever formations don't mean very much, and it's not very long after that capital ships in Xenonauts start appearing.

[Tacobandit]

taco edit your post to just your response please, no one else has commented and your just wasting space.

Also be more specific, what sounds boring?

10 on 10 alien vs human dog fights?

Air craft gun/missile runs at your (and the aliens) command for Ground combat

or

Flight formations you can have pre picked for your preferred attack style and plan for air combat and also directly relate to their use in ground combat.

I was referring to the air combat. By the way the game plays so far, the air combat is much more advanced than the ground combat.

[Chollirem]

hmmm tho/max, you got some good points there

but if i could set it up to shoot at some targets and never give them the chance to shoot back Id take it

Even with HP they need to be repaired and all : /

guess that will be left to the mod community