To create a "Patrol" style mission you first need to place a few Reference Points:
- Select "Define Area" under the "Missions + Ref. Points" menu and drag the mouse to form a rectangle-shaped area delimited by four Reference Points. Alternatively, you can use the "CTRL + right mouse button" shortcut and select "Define Area - Rectangle".
- When asked if you want to create a zone entity from the defined area click "No"
- When a Reference Point is selected it will be bright white, and when not selected it will be a white cross. You can set reference point visibility to be Normal, small, or not show at all in the "Map Settings" menu.
To create a Patrol style mission:
- Select the Reference Points that define the perimeter of the desired zone. You can select them individually or by holding down the left mouse button and drag-selecting them.
- When you have selected at least two Reference Points press "Ctrl + F11" or go to the "Missions + Ref. Points" menu and select "Add New Mission".
- Name your mission, select "Patrol" from the third menu, and "AAW Patrol" from the fourth menu.
Leave the Status as "Active" and click "OK".
In the Mission Editor window, select your mission name in the upper left. You can change the name in the box above this area.
- Select the "Mission Settings" tab.
- Moving to the top center of the screen, leave the "Try to keep units on-station" box to 0 and the "1/3 rule" checked.
- Uncheck "Investigate unknown contacts outside the patrol area" and "Investigate unknown contacts within weapons range", so your aircraft will remain inside the patrol area.
- Leave the "Active emissions..." box unchecked.
- If you want your aircraft to fly in a loop, rather than randomly around an area, change the "Movement style" to "Repeatable loop". This should be used if you are using two reference points.
- Moving to the right, in the Patrol Area box there should be four RPs with the same name as those of the desired area.
If they are not there go back to the map, select them and click the "Add points highlighted on map" button.
Click the "Validate Area" button. If you get a "WARNING! Area validation has failed" message, using the up or down arrows in the box change to order of the RPs until you have a square.
- Under the" Aircraft settings" tab, you can see the settings for the flight size. For this mission, you will not need to change that. Uncheck the "Enforce flight size" box. This means your aircraft will fly the mission even if there are not enough aircraft to meet the "Flight size" requirement.
- The other mission parameters can be changed at will.
Now select the "Units" tab along the top.
- In the "Available" box, click the arrow beside the 6x F-16I Falcon [Sufa] to expand the category to see the available units.
- Use "SHIFT + Left Mouse Button" to select Sufa #1 to Sufa #5. Select Sufa #1 then select Sufa #5 to select all the units in between. Alternatively, you can select multiple units one at a time by using "CTRL + Left Mouse Button".
- Press the down button to assign them to the mission.
You can now close the mission editor and run the game.
Note 1: The Mission Editor window is a bit complex, and you will need some time to know every option well.
Note 2: Deselecting Reference points can be done with "Ctrl + End". Be careful because "Ctrl + Delete" will delete them.
Note 3: Defining another area will de-select all reference points and only leave the new ones selected.