Commander Mode Questions.

[JG4_Moltke71]

Is it possible to add an radio order return/landing next base instead RTB only?

The red careers have long distance missions, especially with the MiG 15. I have high losses when planes obviously running out of fuel while I manage RTB with a minimum of fuel.

 

 

[JG4_Moltke71]

Another question about the availability of radio beacons in the career. It seems they spawn randomly. A beacon is always there when an airfield is active (can see on the map when the airfield is equipped with AAA). But also have sometimes beacons when there is no AAA present. For example K-20 Sinmak has no beacon in 2/3 of the missions but it’s the perfect waypoint to the frontline for the reds.

By the way, how about the possibility to schedule a flight with landing on a different airfield then the Homebase when the target would be out of range? (Doolttle Raid as an extreme example 😉)

[AndreiTomescu]

42 minutes ago, JG4_Moltke71 said:

how about the possibility to schedule a flight with landing on a different airfield then the Homebase when the target would be out of range? (Doolttle Raid as an extreme example 😉)

the option for the commander to set his own flight path BEFORE going into mission would be a great addition. And maybe easyer to implement, since the AI planes would have this preset upon take off, not having to get new instructions in flight.

Please, tell me, how playable is the Mig career? Any very often ground crashes, collisions, failed landings ?

[Jegirs]

I have a MiG-15 career that started on April 2, 1951, and I’m currently somewhere around mid-autumn 1951. In all of my 10 or so B-29 interception missions, I haven’t encountered a single mid-air collision. The only exception, perhaps, is that if I start climbing too aggressively right after takeoff, almost all of my wingmen start flying some weird circles somewhere near the airfield.

I also have a pilot in my regiment who has 98 (!!!) kills to his name, and on missions where I don’t participate, my pilots have sometimes shot down more than 30 enemy aircraft. How the hell did they even have enough ammunition for that?

Because when I go out on an interception mission, usually only 1–2 B-29s are listed as shot down besides my own kills. Yet after the battle, while we’re flying back, I can see 4 bombers flying away from us, even though there were 12 of them initially. I personally get a maximum of 3 kills per mission.

As for landing accidents: I’ve never encountered one myself. But to be fair, the pilots who land before me are mostly the ones who left the battle earlier. I always land first, taxi off the runway, shut down the engine, and end the mission.

[Dash,Polder]

Yeah, that's one thing about the simulation community and game makers, they fail to grasp an air force or any military force is one unified and uniform organic organization no matter where you are on this planet, every airfield is open to support and recovery all the time.  No squadron would never launch a mission were it not so, you always have at least two alternate destination already preplanned before you ever leave the ground.  Why our maps have dead and inactive airfields not usable is beyond bizarre from my point of view, as a matter of game resources I can see it, but why would it be programmed as your counted as ditched and not recognized as a recovery when you landed at a legit map field just because someone didn't script it.  As a minimum they should all be actively recognized for such a basic and fundamental task as emergency landings.  This is pure gaming design, not an attempt at simulation.

Edited September 3 by Dash,Polder

[JG4_Moltke71]

3 hours ago, AndreiTomescu said:

the option for the commander to set his own flight path BEFORE going into mission would be a great addition. And maybe easyer to implement, since the AI planes would have this preset upon take off, not having to get new instructions in flight.

Please, tell me, how playable is the Mig career? Any very often ground crashes, collisions, failed landings ?

At some point early in the Career Mode's Early Access phase, I actually flew a ground-attack mission in the MiG—I think it was an assault on an artillery position. I was carrying bombs and didn't have enough fuel to make it back to base.
I simply landed at a nearby airfield, and the AI followed suit. If I recall correctly, I had issued the RTB command, though I’m not entirely certain about that anymore.
Later, a patch was released that explicitly stated the RTB command causes the AI to return specifically to the home base.
That’s why I think an additional "Return to nearest airbase" command would make sense. The aircraft remained in my inventory after landing there.
Incidentally, damaged aircraft generally land at the nearest airfield, though I’m not entirely sure if they stay there for repairs in the workshop—provided the damage isn't too severe 🤔
Regarding the MiG career: It’s actually quite fun, though the long approach from Antung makes every flight a challenge; you always have to keep an eye on the clock—flying to and from the target area at economical power settings, with only limited time for combat power in the zone itself. But that’s exactly what I enjoy about it. And hey, the MiG has that cool onboard clock for tracking total flight time, plus an extra stopwatch for split times 😀😀
However, for quite some time now, I’ve only been getting patrol or bomber interception missions; I’m curious to see if more variety will be added soon via a patch or if it’s just a matter of the campaign timeline.
As for collisions: I had one just yesterday while taking off for a mission. I was flying quite leisurely, yet two planes rammed each other out of the sky for no apparent reason. That sort of thing happens with other aircraft, too (I experienced something similar with the Il-10 recently). There was also a fatal accident during takeoff in the previous mission, though I don’t have a recording of it and don’t know exactly what happened. One pilot was dead and the damaged aircraft was still sitting there when I returned from the mission over an hour later 😅.
In general: collisions—between escort fighters, etc., or of any kind—cause more losses than enemy action, and this holds true across all career paths. Incidentally, this happens very often in *Great Battles* too and has been discussed in the forums frequently enough.

Bottom line: I enjoy the MiG career, but I might put it on hold until the announced patch at the end of September. Lately, I’ve had too many missions where every aircraft except mine was lost, even though I could still hear the landing over the radio (at whatever airfield they ended up landing on 😅).

[Viking1]

9 hours ago, AndreiTomescu said:

the option for the commander to set his own flight path BEFORE going into mission would be a great addition

It just makes sense and suddenly the mission map has planning function .the commander should be allowed to set the route depending on terrain, air defenses  etc. Actually thus might help with the AI also. If we csn set an IP then from there our flight can engage with target in a preset manner.

[Torec19]

What nonsense. In career mode, if you run out of fuel and don't get a resupply, the squadron commander gets skipped. It's absurd—I hope you remove it, because it's just so ridiculous.

[Viking1]

I just flew my first CAP in the F-80 in my new career. I'm about 5% along so only maybe 15 missions. It was quite interesting. I flew the mission twice to watch the different ways the AI would react.

First run. Flew just as the AI gave it to me. Was tasked to fly a six ship group so armed only with 50 cal. Reached the target zone and began the patrol. Heard myself give the order to watch for targets. I ASSUME air targets since that was the mission to protect our forces on the ground from air attack. Then I engaged when the IL-10s showed up. Im pretty sure a couple of my guys attempted to engage the MiGs but definitely some were engaging the attack planes with me and I'm not certain about the rest.

Second run. This time I made a TRK file. Not long after I heard myself (AI) give the order to watch for targets one of my guys called out incoming bogies. Looked like 8 IL-10 and 3-4 MiG 15. I then ordered the 2-ship section to engage Fighters and I ordered my flight to engage Attack Aircraft. The way it then unfolded was pretty neat. I watched my guys get some good hits on IL-10s and I watched the 2-ship engage the MiGs who seemed happy to engage around 10,000 feet. I made a TRK file so I could watch this unfold, then made a video to show what was going on. Mission result at least 5 IL-10s dead and one MiG wounded. All my guys made it home with one pilot wounded. In real life that would be a party back at base and the AI did better than I expected.

 

 

Edited September 7 by Viking1

[KoN]

Question on this, when you pick mission and fly it and destroy targets return land the next day the same mission is still there, Why.

Isn't this a rolling campaign I read somewhere that this is. So if I destroy target surly should not be in same spot as last time. 

Seems the same missions over and over. ?? Shouldn't the front line move. ? 

Please tell me its a bug. ??? 

[LukeFF]

9 hours ago, KoN said:

Question on this, when you pick mission and fly it and destroy targets return land the next day the same mission is still there, Why.

Isn't this a rolling campaign I read somewhere that this is. So if I destroy target surly should not be in same spot as last time. 

That's not yet been implemented.

[AndreiTomescu]

First of all, the "next day" is always some days past. Second to be said, it's not persistently the same target, but it might sometimes, or it can be similar: there are only a defined number of mission types. Third in a row, just to take it slow, the frontline moves according to historical happenings. See that you may take part in different battles, briefly described and more detailed in the newspaper.

[Nacht]

@Viking1 :

I suggest you jettison your auxiliary fuel tanks before engaging in aerial combat and order your teammates to do the same. It works for me. 🙂 

[KoN]

21 hours ago, AndreiTomescu said:

First of all, the "next day" is always some days past. Second to be said, it's not persistently the same target, but it might sometimes, or it can be similar: there are only a defined number of mission types. Third in a row, just to take it slow, the frontline moves according to historical happenings. See that you may take part in different battles, briefly described and more detailed in the newspaper.

They are the same targets. Same location. Red smoke and all.

I think I have attacked the same target three times now as its close to my airfield. 

[AndreiTomescu]

Hmmm.....what career specific?

I haven't noticed this , but i'm doing only one Mustang(16%) and one f-84(8%) careers, and besides some crazy ai behaviour, it was all plausible.

Maybe ask Snipermanx about this, he is commander of the commander mode ...... 🙂 

[Voxman]

Can someone explain what the purple numbers next to the skills, courage, discipline mean? Also when promoting using reward points some of these numbers turn green.  What does that mean?

[AndreiTomescu]

Purple: potential on upgrade that skill upon promotion.

Green, well, i dunno. Failed to take into account the colour change.

[hawax270]

Hi, how do you rank up your pilots?

And if you're interested in more advanced ammunition management, I've created an external app for the game that's fairly easy to use.

 

Edited September 20 by hawax270

[AndreiTomescu]

3 hours ago, hawax270 said:

Hi, how do you rank up your pilots?

give them medals. thus a random skill will be upgraded. maybe experience (like sending them into missions) might contribute ? but if it does, i haven't noticed and it all internal.

so, give them medals

[Nacht]

I don't know if this happens to anyone else, I haven't seen any warning.

If I choose "intercept bombers" it only allows me a flight group of 1 single aircraft. I have 3 whole flight groups available and I use it in other mission types, as well as plenty of fuel, ammo, and spare parts.

7º / 428º FBS USAF.  F80.

As you can see in the screenshot, if I put any number greater than 1 it tells me that the group is too big and it doesn't allow me.

 

Edited yesterday at 06:41 PM by Nacht

[Xtremist]

It is a night intercept mission, for one fighter only to avoid collision in the dark.

[Nacht]

Thanks Xtremist, then its normal... I'll give it a try.🙂

[AndreiTomescu]

On 10/11/2026 at 9:52 PM, Xtremist said:

It is a night intercept mission, for one fighter only to avoid collision in the dark

Also, during specific date, the squadron can make a max of 3 missions. If the first that you choose is a night one, the rest of 2 available will be mandatory also night ones. Aka, 1 ship ones.