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Alfred -> RE: CAP vs Escort Results (6/5/2019 2:57:53 PM)
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ORIGINAL: HansBolter
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ORIGINAL: Alfred
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ORIGINAL: Lowpe
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ORIGINAL: Lokasenna
There is a message in the combat report: "vectored onto bombers"
I wonder if this has anything to do with radar, it seems to me it is used when the CAP is set to a range greater than 0 and the fighters are airborne but not in the target hex, hence they are vectored back to the target hex?
Not quite the correct reasoning.[:)]
There are two main reasons why the fighters being vectored message appears.
1. Radar provides sufficient early warning to "bring" airborne CAP fighters into position to meet the incoming raid..
2. The code determines that because there is more than sufficient CAP fighters to deal with the enemy escorting fighters, the surplus to requirement CAP fighters are sent directly to meet the enemy bombers.
Alfred
How does this interface with the manner in which combat is executed?
In combat there is a round of interaction between interceptors and escorts that occurs before the interaction of interceptors with bombers.
This first round occurs regardless of whether, or not, there are any escorts with the bombers. If there are no escorts the round occurs with no combat happening between the interceptors and bombers. It is essentially an empty round, followed by the round wherein the interceptors get to make passes at the bombers.
If the engine is determining that there are sufficient interceptors to handle the escorts and vectoring arriving fighters toward the bombers, this interaction with the bombers still doesn't occur until the second round. Does this mean that fighters over and above what is needed to handle the escorts are being held back from combat in the first round?
Generally correct but technically I would describe it a bit differently.
At the macro level CAP breaks up an enemy raid into two separate components; fighter v fighter and fighter v bomber. The fighter v fighter component is always first and the fighter v bomber component is always second. This order can be easily seen when watching the combat animation. The Combat Report conflates the two separate components into a single report.
When the player looks at the Combat Report, the aggregated number of CAP fighters is always provided.. That aggregated number often is not the actual number of CAP fighters who participated in the fighter v fighter component, let alone were present ab initio for that component. It often includes CAP which did not even participate in the fighter v bomber component. From the combat algorithm POV what is very important is the respective fighter strengths disclosed in the Combat Report. The decision as to whether there are surplus to requirement CAP fighters is made taking into account these aggregated numbers.
Accordingly when an enemy raid appears without any escorting enemy fighters, the first component is skipped entirely. If there were escorting enemy fighters the first component is resolved first, without the participation of any CAP fighters who were directly vectored onto the enemy bombers. These vectored fighters are fresh, not having endured fatigue nor expended "ammo/fuel" from fighting the first component.
Alfred
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