                             Concept : Flightpath

 All commands which fly airplanes require that you specify a  flightpath.   In
its simplest form, a flightpath is simply a string of standard empire movement
directions (g, y, u, j, n, and b) terminated by an `h'.

To make specification less  tedious,  time  consuming,  and  prone  to  error,
flightpath  legs can also be autorouted by specifying waypoint and/or destina-
tion sector coordinates.

The flightpath string can consist of one or more  normal  empire  path  direc-
tions,  waypoint sector coordinates, route display (?) and delete (d) options,
nops  (;),  autorouter   terrain   restriction   specifiers   ([sectortypes]),
backtrack-to-home orders (.), and altitude changes (^<digit>).

                             Concept : Flightpath

       <directions>   standard movement directions

       <x>,<y>        autoroute to waypoint

       ^<alt>         change altitude to <alt>

       h              END OF FLIGHT

       [<secttypes>]  set autoroute terrain restrictions

       .              fly back to starting point (backtrack)

       ?              show flightpath string so far

       *              strafe, or drop bomb/payload

       @<routename>   fly named route

                             Concept : Flightpath

       d<count>       delete last <count> chars from flightpath

       ;              no-op (can be used along with blanks to
                      separate commands)

SPECIFYING THE FLIGHTPATH

You can specify some or all of the path on the command line, and you  will  be
continually  prompted  to add to the path until you eventually specify an `h'.
The prompt shows you current path length, location, and altitude.  Any or  all
of these can be concatenated together to form routing orders.  For example:

                             Concept : Flightpath

      [##:##] Command: fly 170 . -97,-15         No escorts...

   <0: -97,-15 @ 1> yg^4          <-- move 'yg', then climb to alt 4

   <2: -100,-16 @ 4> -95,-15      <-- autoroute to -95,-15 -100,-16  to  -95,-
   15: jjn

   <5: -95,-15 @ 4> g^3gnjj       <-- move 'g', climb to 3, move 'gnjj'

   <10: -94,-14 @ 3> ?            <-- show accumulated path, current  Path  so
   far:  yg4jjng3gnjj         location and altitude, and Currently at: -94,-14
   autoroute terrain rules ([] Current alt:   3                     means  all
   terrain is valid) Terrain:      []

   <10: -94,-14 @ 3> d2           <-- delete last two moves ('jj')

   <8: -98,-14 @ 3> -95,-11;uu    <-- autoroute to -95,-11, move 'uu'  -98,-14
   to -95,-11: nnn

                             Concept : Flightpath

   <13:  -93,-13  @  3>  .             <--  return  home  the  way   we   came
   (bbyyyyjjyggjn)                    (altitude changes are ignored)

   <26: -97,-15 @ 3> [.]99,-9     <-- autoroute over water to 99,-9  Autorout-
   ing restricted to [.] terrain.  -97,-15 to 99,-9: bbbbnb

   <32: 99,-9 @ 3> h              <-- END OF FLIGHT

   Ending sector is 99,-9 range to final destination is 32

The entire above example could be concatenated into  one  command  (albeit  an
extreme  example)  which  could then be supplied either on the command line as
part of the fly command, or to the fly command's prompt.

   <0: 2,-32> yg;^4;-95,-15; g^3gnjj; ? d2;-95,-11;uu.;[.]99,-9h

You can easily see that, although semicolon delimiters are required only  when

                             Concept : Flightpath

concatenation would otherwise run together strings of  digits,  their  liberal
use can greatly help make the flightpath more easily understandable.

ALTITUDE CHANGES

Flightpaths can include altitude changes, noted by a `^' followed  immediately
by  a  single  digit  new altitude.  Each step in altitude represents approxi-
mately 10,000 feet, 3000 meters, 2 miles, or whatever analogy seems  appropri-
ate  to you.  (Aircraft altitudes are roughly on the same scale as shuttle and
satellite altitudes, which generally to fly in the vicinity of altitude  100.)
Increases  in  altitude (climbs) consume time and mobility (but, surprisingly,
not petrol).  Each step up in altitude is equivalent  to  moving  one  sector.
Decreases in altitude (descents) are free.

When the aircraft group at the assembly point at the start of a  flight,  they
are  always at altitude 1.  If you neglect to include altitude changes in your
flight path, the planes will remain at altitude 1  for  the  duration  of  the
flight.  The important things to remember are that each aircraft has a maximum
altitude ceiling (which helps determine which aircraft are able to  take  part
in  intercept  flights),  that  flak  becomes  substantially  weaker at higher

                             Concept : Flightpath

altitudes, and that bombing and reconnaisance precision decreases  with  alti-
tude.

Be aware that altitude often affects the outcome of the  flight.   Some  exam-
ples:  strafing  can  be accomplished only at altitude 1; although bombers are
less susceptible to flak at high altitudes, their aim becomes poorer; low tech
interceptors can't reach high altitude bombers.

IMPORTANT NOTE

Unlike some version of Empire, flight paths here always specify  the  COMPLETE
FLIGHT  of  the  aircraft from takeoff to landing. Any points enroute at which
you want to paradrop, bomb, strafe, etc. must be specified WITHIN THE  FLIGHT-
PATH  by  using  an asterisk `*'.  You can often put multiple asterisks in the
flightpath, causing the remaining bomb load (or whatever) to be evenly divided
among the remaining asterisk-marked drop zones.

See also: fly, bomb, recon, strafe, sweep, paradrop, drop, plane-types

