[bigchunk1]

I don't really understand why this happens or how I can fix it.

I want to deploy a wing from the docking bay of a destroyer, which I managed to do, all 3 fighters in the wing enter the mission one directly on top of the other. They fly along the Orion class "runway" and when they reach the end they pop apart into 3 separate fighters and follow whatever orders they are given. The only reason why it's a problem is because the destroyer deploying the wing is under beam fire and I need to order them to escape the deck as soon as possible so the whole wing does not get vaporized by green plasma. Also, 3 fighters leaving the docking bay stuck together looks kinda silly.

I don't understand what can be done to fix this other than assigning each fighter to a separate wing and launching them separately, but I see in the Fs2 campaign mission "Feint! Parry! Respite!" the  NTD Repulse launches wings of Lokies in groups which are not stuck together. So I assume it has to be possible and I am just doing something incorrectly.

I tried tweaking with the parameter "distance" embedded in the wings manager under deployment que but I honestly don't know what this does. I tried values 0, 20 and 100 but they don't seem to change anything. Also, I selected "Restrict arrival paths" and only selected bay#1.   

Additionally, I'm not sure if the deployed fighter wings are bound to the GTD Orion's "runway" for 5 or so seconds before they can receive orders. Anyone know?

[Rodo]

Additionally, I'm not sure if the deployed fighter wings are bound to the GTD Orion's "runway" for 5 or so seconds before they can receive orders. Anyone know?

I think they follow a path, so yes, they need to clear it before being "departed" from the destroyer, but I think they can receive orders, they just don't start doing them until they clear the path.

I've only seen problems with fighters crashing each others when the fighters are either too big or the wing is too crowded, not sure how can you bypass this inconvenience.

I tried tweaking with the parameter "distance" embedded in the wings manager under deployment que but I honestly don't know what this does. I tried values 0, 20 and 100 but they don't seem to change anything. Also, I selected "Restrict arrival paths" and only selected bay#1.   

the distance option is to indicate how far away of the target the wing will jump in, if you are making the wing jump from the destroyer this value will do nothing IIRC.

[General Battuta]

Guardian or render invulnerable the fighters so they aren't killed by beam fire until a certain timespan after their launch.

Forcing arrival paths should let you space them out, too. Try splitting them up amongst different paths?

[bigchunk1]

Battuta:

Making them invulnerable for a time is a good suggestion to try. It might look a little goofy, but I don't think the player will notice with everything else that's going on. Thanks for the advice.

I don't know how to separate their deployment unless I made them into separate wings.

Rodo:

That makes sense what you are saying, I am using a wing of only 3 ships, but they are Medusa class bombers and are quite large. Maybe the Lokis don't have a problem because they are small.
I think you are right. The bombers do take orders right at deployment like you say. I can see the word "waypoints" over the bombers profile when I target it right out of the docking bay, but they stay on the runway for a period of time and don't follow the waypoint.

[karajorma]

In FRED's view menu turn on the Docking Bay Paths or whatever it's called and you can see the actual paths on the Orion. That should help you judge what the problem is.

[headdie]

I think the issue with the stacked fighters is that that they are set as a wing, im at work so i cant test this, but i dont think you can set for the individual fighters in the wing to use different arrival paths leaving the fighter bay.

If that is the case then unless they are in a wing that shows on the players hud and/or use waves / are a reinforcing wave, would the easyest solve be to use manual numbering or hidden characters in naming the fighter to simulate a wing

[Sushi]

Strange, I've got a mission where nearly every fighter arrives from a docking bay, and fighters in a wing together arrive appropriately spread out. I only get problems if I launch different wings/ships at the same time... then they stack.

[bigchunk1]

I found the problem, I made the mistake of restricting arrival paths to one and only one port thinking that meant only one hanger. Now I understand what you all were trying to say. You can assign one wing to deploy from multiple ports. FRED2 seems to be smart enough to distribute each fighter in the wing to a separate port unless you restrict arrival paths. It looks better, but it's not completely fixed.

The Orion has 4 docking ports all located in that hanger on the right. However, the 4 consist of 2 pairs of ports which are VERY close together. When the fighters spawn out of  each of these  2 groups of ports they appear stuck together. It might still work with smaller fighters such as Lokis, but anything larger will encounter the issue.

If you are having a hard time visualising what I am trying to say, go into FRED2 make a new mission and place an Orion class destroyer down. Go to the "view" tool tip and select "Show Model Dock Points". You will see 4 paths. But 2 of them are on one side of the hanger close together and 2 are on the other side of the hanger close together. (thanks karajorma for the tip)

One way to get out of it is to have a wing of 2 fighters and restrict the arrival paths so that each fighter spawns on a separate side of the destroyer's hanger. A wing of 3 or more LARGE fighters will encounter the error.

I guess the short answer is that you cannot deploy a wing of more than 2 bombers out of Orions unless you want to see them stuck together for 5 or so seconds on the runway. They do pop apart when they leave the runway though. I feel  better about the issue now that I know what's going on. Thanks all

Sushi you said you don't have this issue with your mission. I was curious what kind of fighters you are using, and from what class of destroyer are you deploying them?