Sometimes I like to patrol areas of sea with air units in case of sneaky invasion force. With more than one plane doing it, it can be a little tedious to do this manually every turn. I wonder if I have missed a command to automate this. If not, such command would be a good addition to BtS. With those trade routes it would be useful. "Recon this square until I tell you otherwise or it becomes impossible for some reason." Pretty simple, I think.

I second that proposal!

I think that Blake's Better AI had a feature which allowed aircraft to 'auto-recon', perhaps this is in the new expansion as Blake worked on it.

Yes, this was in BetterAI, but I think it was Iustus that added it, not Blake.

By using the Map button, you could set planes into a recon mode, so they'd sweep out a path over a dark area on each turn. Worked even for fighters on aircraft carriers. Really cool.

Except for one thing: The planes always were left with 0 movement. You have to turn off the recon and then only on the next turn be able to move the planes.

I think that Blake's Better AI had a feature which allowed aircraft to 'auto-recon', perhaps this is in the new expansion as Blake worked on it.

It did, but all the auto-recon did was patrol randomly. It would be nice to specify a certain direction in which an aircraft is assigned to auto-patrol.

This would definitely be handy, as I often recon to help prepare myself for a naval invasion. Not a problem leaving it with 0 turns, as I usually have a spare fighter -- or even better, a bomber! :)

It did, but all the auto-recon did was patrol randomly. It would be nice to specify a certain direction in which an aircraft is assigned to auto-patrol.

I don't know if it was random, but it did seem to change each turn.

But the fix was to just put more aircraft on recon duty. Each would sweep in a different direction. Really nice with fully loaded aircraft carriers, whose planes generally are doing nothing useful, especially in mid-ocean. Also really nice with Stealth Bombers, due to their long range.

I don't know if it was random, but it did seem to change each turn.

But the fix was to just put more aircraft on recon duty. Each would sweep in a different direction. Really nice with fully loaded aircraft carriers, whose planes generally are doing nothing useful, especially in mid-ocean. Also really nice with Stealth Bombers, due to their long range.

It was random.

I would prefer fewer aircraft going where I wanted them to, even for carrier-based aircraft.

i hate it when i have manualy to scout.
but the 0 movement issue is a big problem with the auto scout button.

What would be nice is if there were a "scout" type aircraft. One with no offensive capability and no intercept function. All it could do is fly and look around. Then build a few of these for each coastal/border city, put them on automatic and extend your view of the world. It sure is nice to see those naval and land stacks before they arrive...

I suppose the "0 movement issue" is because those planes on recon-duty did this at the start of the turn before the player can do anything?

Yes, I hate having to every turn re explore dark territory to make sure my fleet are not being threatened.

If you have 5-6 full carriers, this is time consuming. But also reveals a hell of a lot of map!

I suppose the "0 movement issue" is because those planes on recon-duty did this at the start of the turn before the player can do anything?

Yes, exactly. Turn off the recon and on the next turn those tiles are grayed. (You still know the map, but you don't know what units might be out there.)
The information doesn't carry from turn to turn, which requires that the planes fly at the beginning of the turn. Thus no movement.

Could use them both. Specific square auto-recon for coastal city and stationary carrier based planes watching the most likely invasion route, and random auto-recon for planes based on moving carriers and others with no better things to do.