Aircraft and Weapons
As many of you have propably noticed already, an aircraft's behaviour is strongly influenced by the weapon it carries. As there seems to be no other place to plug this in, the following article should serve as an overview of how aircraft behaviour is influenced by certain characteristics of the weapons they carry.
The first column says wether the AircraftType is a Fighter, the second column says wether its weapon has OmniFire, the third column what ROF its weapon has, the fourth column says what ROT the projectile has - these are the only factors influencing aircraft behaviour in RA2, AFAIK. In TS, OmniFire and Fighter tags do not exist. In YR, the behaviour is further affected by FlyBy and FlyBack. A special case is for aircraft using the spawned missile locomotor. The last column describes the resulting behaviour.
| AircraftType: Fighter | AircraftType: FlyBy | AircraftType: FlyBack | Weapon: OmniFire | Weapon: ROF | Projectile: Inviso | Projectile: ROT | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| no | N/A | N/A | no | 0 | no | 0 | 1 |
| no | N/A | N/A | yes | any | no | 1 | 2 |
| yes | N/A | N/A | yes | any | no | 1 | 2 |
| yes | N/A | N/A | no | any | no | 1 | 2 |
| yes | yes | 0 | 0 |
Outcome 1
The Generic Bomber pattern, seen in TS on the ORCA Bomber and unused in RA2. The aircraft will start firing as soon as the target gets within weapon range and the projectiles will drop down underneath the aircraft without actually hitting the intended target until the aircraft is actually above it. The weapon is hard-coded to be fired five times at its target per unit of Ammo it carries, unless the target is destroyed before, or it is ordered to abort its attack (by assigning it a new command) in which case it will also stop firing, but the ammunition will be reduced as if it fired the full five shots.
The aircraft will be locked on its flight path until it aborts its attack or depletes one unit of ammo. If its attack was not aborted, it will then fly back, repeating the firing process, until all of its ammo is depleted. The weapon's ROF will NOT be ignored; in case the aircraft moves further away from its target than the weapon's Range, the weapon will still fire (regardless of facing, even if the weapon is not omnifiring) and the projectile will drop to the ground underneath the aircraft. When given an attack command, the aircraft will NOT slow down if the target of the attack is within SlowdownDistance. After depleting its ammuntion, the aircraft will consider wether it is within SlowdownDistance of its destination (docking structure) and if it is, it will slow down.
- Because the projectiles of this setup do not home into their target, it is actually possible for an aircraft with this setup to never hit its intended target: if the rate of fire is sufficiently low or the weapon's range sufficiently high, it can happen that the aircraft will expend all five shots before it actually flies over its intended target.
Outcome 2
The Hornet/Banshee pattern, seen in TS on the Banshee and in RA2 on the Hornet (Aircraft Carrier plane). The weapon is fired in a strafing run pattern, starting to fire as soon as the target gets into the weapon's Range, and the projectiles will home into the target (note that ROT=1 influences the projectile's flight path in its own special way, which is not discussed here; refer to the ROT entry). The weapon is hard-coded to be fired five times at its target per unit of Ammo it carries, unless the target is destroyed before, or it is ordered to abort its attack (by assigning it a new command) in which case it will also stop firing, but the ammunition will be reduced as if it fired the full five shots.
The aircraft will be locked on its flight path until it aborts its attack or depletes one unit of ammo. If its attack was not aborted, it will then fly back, repeating the firing process, until all of its ammo is depleted. The weapon's ROF will NOT be ignored; in case the aircraft moves further away from its target than the weapon's Range, the weapon will still fire (regardless of facing, even if the weapon is not omnifiring) and the projectiles will fly into their targets regardless of the distance between aircraft and target. When given an attack command, the aircraft will NOT slow down if the target of the attack is within SlowdownDistance. After depleting its ammuntion, the aircraft will consider wether it is within SlowdownDistance of its destination (docking structure) and if it is, it will slow down.
Outcome 3
The Harpy/Orca Fighter pattern, seen on the Harpy and Orca Fighter in TS, but unused in RA2. The aircraft will stop in the air when in range of its target. It will then fire its weapon. If CurleyShuffle in the General section is set to 'yes', this type of aircraft will change its position after firing its weapon. If it is set to 'no', it will remain in one position (unless the target is moving out of range, in which case it will follow) while firing. It will keep firing until its ammo is depleted, where one unit of ammo equals one firing of the weapon. During an attack mission, this type of aircraft will consider if the target is within SlowdownDistance from its current position (Note: actually, it might consider wether it is in SlowdownDistance minus Weapon Range, but this is unverified). When the target gets into slowdown distance, the aircraft will slowdown (unlike the 'strafing pattern' aircraft, which never slowdown when on an attack mission, only on a move mission).
Outcome 4
The Harrier pattern. The Fighter tag is what makes the difference between Outcome 3 and this. The aircraft will approach its target and, unlike #3, will NOT hover/stop when in range, but rather fire its weapon, then continue on its flight path (strafing run). Contrary to what the Fighter article tells us, the weapon's ROF will NOT be ignored; it actually serves a unique purpose in this setup: it determines how long the aircraft will continue on its flight path after firing its weapon. As soon as the ROF allows for the next shot to be fired, the aircraft will turn around and commence its next strafing run. The aircraft will continue this pattern until it runs out of ammo and one use of its weapon equals a reduction of its ammo by one. The ammo will be reduced at the end of each strafing run, not at the time of firing the weapon. In other words, the weapon is fired only once per strafing run. The weapon's Burst will NOT be ignored, but all of the burst shot will be fired at the same time, making little to no difference to a single shot. As for SlowdownDistance, the aircraft will not consider slowdown while on an attack mission.