Can you help with Auto Air Defense?

[keet]

At one point the manual says for automated air defense press cntrl-shift-b then in the game menu it says cntrl-shift-a,

Which one is it?

Will sentry ( L ) work the same?

Also, what are autoforward routes and how do they work?

Thanks in advance!!!

[Adalbertus]

Never used automated air defense. But trying it is the fastest way to know I've heard in another thread of people who had problems with this feature.
If you simply hold (H) an air-air unit in a base, it will defend against all airborne attacks in a two square radius around that base, which might be the function you want to have. The same in other words: It will scramble even when 95% damaged, so take planes you want to repair to a safe base.

The only automation I use quite often is having a plane to patrol (P), thus effectively increasing the radius of visibility around a base. Knowing what will arrive one turn earlier is a huuuuge boon.

[Lefty Scaevola]

A significant percentage of a fighter on defense intercepting an attacking bomber result in the game crashing. I recomend hold intercepter back from the front, and counterattacking with them when the penetraors attack.

[John Paul Jones]

Autoforward routes sends all units of a certain class (land, sea or air) from one base to another. The exception are units with hold orders. This is especially useful because it applies to units that haven't yet been built.

To activate it right click on the base and select 'set delivery route'.

[Adalbertus]

A significant percentage of a fighter on defense intercepting an attacking bomber result in the game crashing.

I installed a British SMAX over an American SMAC and never noticed any crash due to intercepting. SMACX crashes are rare anyway compared to the nightmare I had with French CTP2.

This is especially useful because it applies to units that haven't yet been built.

Three questions out of interest:

- Does this mean that a newly built unit simply appears (the same turn or some turns later) at another base?
- If not, can it happen that a plane crashes when I try to move it too far or does it try to get refueled on its own?
- If also not, can I make a chain of Autoforwards, to bring a bunch of planes safely from one side of the continent to the other?

[John Paul Jones]

Originally posted by Adalbertus
Three questions out of interest:
- Does this mean that a newly built unit simply appears (the same turn or some turns later) at another base?
- If not, can it happen that a plane crashes when I try to move it too far or does it try to get refueled on its own?
- If also not, can I make a chain of Autoforwards, to bring a bunch of planes safely from one side of the continent to the other?

- If you have 'Don't center on automated units' option turned on - then probably yes, otherwise you get to see it make it's flight.

- It will only crash if the 'Air units return home when reach limit of fuel range' is turned off , otherwise it will return to the nearest base as usual and cancel it's flight to the delivery base.

-Yes , provided each auto-forward is equal or less than the fuel-range of the planes.
(the distance from base to base is shown in the delivery route dialog)

[johndmuller]

I was hoping that someone would attempt to describe the effect of setting an aircraft to "auto". I don't myself know what it does, but I have heard that it will do its thing largely independent of any need to refuel. Perhaps it acts like AI a/c - taking out enemy formers and crawlers and otherwise flying around to no useful purpose - in the case of fighters waiting for opportunities to crash the game and then springing into (in)action .

Aircraft on "Patrol" also seem to have some sort of exemption to the usual fuel rules. I've never tried to push it (like by setting up a patrol route without a base in it), but often when a patrol is cancelled when spotting an enemy, when I reinitiate the patrol from that location, it will often end up stopping outside the base (whereever it runs out of movement) and seems willing to continue that indefinitely.

[Blake]

I've seen some bizzare automated aircraft behaivour. Actually, only seen it once because I never automate anything and this was is a PBEM sucession game.

We were running FM and a couple of interceptors had been set to auto. Then one turn, for no apparent reason, they both flew out over the ocean to the extent of their range. There was nothing out there and they caused a couple of bases to go into riot. It was a case of both utterly stupid and just plain broken automation code. (Stupid, because they flew out of territory and caused drones, broken because there was nothing for them to do out there)

[GeneralTacticus]

I've tried auto-interception ONCe only, because what happened when I did was the interceptors flew out of their base to other bases, rahter than actually defending. I was very pissed about that .

[Darius]

A significant percentage of a fighter on defense intercepting an attacking bomber result in the game crashing.

I find that if I disable my antivirus program before playing a turn, it rarely crashes. Your mileage may vary.