Can't seem to stay in formation when on campaign missions

[jamieandnici 0]

Hi all. Just a quick question for anyone out there who can help. I've been playing OFF for a number of weeks now mainly in campaign role. I hardly like to cheat and instead of pressing a key to get me to the next waypoint I try to stay in formation with the rest of my buddies. However, this has always been easier said than done. The AI planes always seem to climb away from me with shear ease as if they have some kind of permanent 'emergancy power' applied to them and its getting frustrating as I often end up losing them even on full power myself. Can anyone help with my frustration? Thanks in advance. J. :)

[Check Six 2]

Hi all. Just a quick question for anyone out there who can help. I've been playing OFF for a number of weeks now mainly in campaign role. I hardly like to cheat and instead of pressing a key to get me to the next waypoint I try to stay in formation with the rest of my buddies. However, this has always been easier said than done. The AI planes always seem to climb away from me with shear ease as if they have some kind of permanent 'emergancy power' applied to them and its getting frustrating as I often end up losing them even on full power myself. Can anyone help with my frustration? Thanks in advance. J. :)

 

I'm hardly what you'd call experienced at OFF either, having just received the sim a few months ago, but I'm completely hooked now. We all have the same problem. AI aircraft are unaffected by many things you are heavily taxed for. If you do go into warp mode (it's not really cheating in my opinion), and you enter into it with more than 60% throttle, when you emerge either at a waypoint turn or enemy aircraft in the vicinity, you'll find you'll overshoot your flight leader. If you back right off, and climb a bit to allow him to regain the lead, you'll then need to apply 100% throttle to catch up with him.

 

There are a few solutions...as uncleal suggested, you can elect to lead the mission. Sometimes, you are ordered to lead the mission. Then it becomes no problem at all, they will slow down to your speed and stick with you.

 

The other thing you can do is to warp for a few seconds. Hit "X" to enter warp, you'll see that you are on your flight leader's right wing, and keeping up with him. You don't have to wait for a mission event such as waypoint or nearby enemy to exit warp, you can hit "Ctrl+X" and you will exit warp and be in perfect position. Mind you, it won't be long before they all start pulling away. You simply re-enter warp, for however long you feel comfortable with. Don't think of it as cheating. Sometimes, you have a long patrol behind your own lines, and it's boring, no action at all. Sometimes you are preparing to go to work or wherever, and fancy taking out a few hun before you leave, and couldn't really be bothered with the pre-amble, or the lead-up to combat, you just want to fight (although this is why Quick Combat is in the Sim).

 

You can also accelerate and decelerate time. This won't help your problem, but it can speed up the boring bits. (Accelerate time = Ctrl+Shift+E, Decelerate time = Ctrl+Shift+R). You will still fall behind your flight leader using this, just letting you know it was an option if you didn't already know.

 

Also, when you are a little bit behind, you can look on your TAC (if you have it activated [shift+T]) and see the number at the top of your TAC. It tells you how far to your next waypoint or to the target. If it is a small distance, call up your Map ("M") and see where your next turn is to be. If you are a bit behind, and your flight is expected to make a right hand turn, back towards you, you will be easily able to anticipate this, and catch up to your buddies again.

 

One more method is to make sure thst you're flying level. Sometimes you're unaware that you're in a slight climb, and this of course, slows you down. To catch up, you can put your nose down a little, pick up a bit of speed till you're much closer to the flight, but of course, you're losing altitude (only a hundred feet or so, but still, you want to be alongside your buddies, not underneath them). Pull your nose up to regain the altitude that your flight is holding. You will lose speed, and fall behind a bit again. Try the same thing. Drop the nose a LITTLE, pick up speed, almost catch up, regain altitude. Repeat until you've caught up to them, or in the meantime if a waypoint turn allows you to catch up.

 

No magic fix I'm afraid, but using one or all of those methods will help you.

[+Polovski 458]

Also they often slow right down 1/3 or 1/2 way through a waypoint leg, so you can catch them. Some other well known sims had it much worse for many years. Drove me nuts :) AI programming is very difficult, but mostly it's pretty darn good in BH&H.

[jamieandnici 0]

Thanks for all your help guys. I'll take into account whats been said. Tally ho, chocks away and happy hunting!!! Regards. J.