Flight planning

[Xpendable]

I don't know if you guys knows this already or have already discussed it, but a few patches ago they added the ability for you to create / override your flight plan before you spawn in multiplayer. I think they introduced it at the same time they changed the spawn screen. One of the reasons they now show the map during the spawn selection is because of the flight plan capabilities. If you want to create or edit your flight plan, you first pick your spawn slot (either in the spawn menu or by clicking the spawn slot on the map). Do NOT double-click, as that will go ahead and and spawn your jet/heli. You must do your flight plan editing before you spawn. Then you click the flight plan button on the toolbar in the top left corner... looks like a couple of lines connected by dots, kind of like a star constellation. Then you should see a waypoint editor with the "Add" button shown. You can click around the map and it will add waypoints. You can move the waypoints by selecting the Edit button and then selecting a waypoint, then drag it around. When you're done with your flight plan, you can save it with a name, and you can select the checkbox so that it will remember this flight plan the next time you spawn into this server and select that particular spawn without you having to create it all over again. Note that if the mission has a predefined flight plan for that spawn, you will be replacing that mission-define flight plan with your flight plan - so be aware of that. Also, it lets you recall all of your flight plans that you previously saved for that slot. It's supposed to work across disconnects... so let's say you create a flight plan today and save it. When you come back next week, if the same mission is running, you'll be able to recall your flight plans for that slot. I do believe the flight plans are slot-specific, but haven't tested that.

I tested it out with the Harrier this morning and it worked! This will save me so much time trying to navigate to the different battle areas! While I can setup a flight plan on the Harrier using the Harrier MFD's and the UFC, it's kind of a pain. This is so much easier, and simulates what would have normally been loaded into the Harrier via a data cartridge anyway. The mission pilot would have laid out his flight plan on a computer back at the base, which would have then burned it a CD-Rom, then he would take that CD-ROM over to a special machine which would then load the CD and write out to a data catridge that would then be loaded into the plane.

[Bones]

This will also be helpful in our current mission where this is an issue where if spawns are added to a base, it takes the flight plan of the aircraft that was used as the template to spawn. This resulted in you starting at the new spawn but with waypoints from the old spawn so you flying to WP1 to get home is actually flying you to a SAM infested base. So now since you can change it on the fly, you don't have to worry about this anymore and I won't feel bad about giving up editing 30 million waypoints for a new spawn, hahaha.

v6,
boNes