Disappearing AI flight members?

[vonOben 55]

Hi

 

A strange thing happened during my last flight.

 

I was the flight leader for 4 AI’s and on our way back to our home base the goals completed message came up when we were close to the airbase. The AI’s started to dive but since I had observed smoke puffs from friendly AA I wanted to investigate that first, so I ordered rejoin and flew in the direction of the AA.

I couldn’t see where my flight members had gone so I checked the TAC on maximum range but no friendly dots showed up. This was only a very short time after they started diving, so they couldn’t have gone out of the TAC area in such short time.

 

Any ideas what might have happened here?

 

Cheers

 

vonOben

[Bletchley 8]

They probably crashed - the AI isn't very good at landing.

 

Bletchley

[Olham 164]

When you pass the last waypoint and get the message "all goals completed", the wingmen drive away for two miles, from where they then start their landing approach.

But I think you knew this already.

To what distance was your TAC set? If it was set on two miles, and their dive lead them deeper down than two miles away from you, you wouldn't see them.

Or could it be, that you accidently hit "T" and switched to another target type, like "vehicles" ? Then you wouldn't see them.

Edited September 15, 2010 by Olham

[vonOben 55]

Hi guys

 

If they crashed it must have gone fast! It was a matter of a few minutes from I saw them diving to they was gone from the TAC. :wink2:

 

No I didn’t know that and I haven’t seen any of the AI land yet, but that’s because I don’t want to wait for them long enough. Perhaps I shall follow them and see what they are up to sometime.

As I wrote above did I checked the TAC on maximum distance and the enemy AC did show up fine so it was set to show aircraft.

Doesn’t the AI obey rejoin commands after the goals completed message?

 

Cheers

 

vonOben

[Olham 164]

Doesn’t the AI obey rejoin commands after the goals completed message?

 

No. They will now proceed to their 2-miles away turning point, turn round and approach the field.

If your airfield has no trees near the edge where you come in, then you should take the time and fly with them at least once.

I have made landings with Halberstadts, which went perfectly fine!

 

But it can also happen, that they crash into trees, or into each other on the runway. If it works well, it is a heartwarming sight!

[sandbagger 1]

I believe this is a hang over from CFS3 - landings can end up with AI crashing at or near the home airfield. I believe this anomaly is being worked on.

[Hellshade 110]

Were you flying over Bermuda, by chance?

 

Hellshade

[OlPaint01 0]

Hey vonOben

 

I just finished a long escort mission with RFC 28 out of Droglandt in early Autumn 1917, I think. And out of curiousity, after I landed back at my home drome, I sat on the runway just looking around in fully-zoomed mode to take in the sights, instead of hitting the ESC key to exit out of the mission. Sure enough, my wingmen, who had flown on past the last waypoint instead of landing with me, finally touched down, one after the other. Much to my shagrin, each of the AI pilots failed to pull up short but ploughed into the aircraft stopped in front of him. They all crashed and burned, chain reaction style, right before my very eyes, with billows of thick black smoke rising from the pyre. What a Hoot!!!

 

I hope WM and the Devs give the AI pilots in P4 a little more intellegence. We also need an 'Return to Base' command which the flight leader can invoke to knock off the mission and take the flight back out of harms way. This would eliminate the need to manually advance Next Waypoint command multiple times.

 

OlPaint01

Edited September 18, 2010 by OlPaint01

[Olham 164]

They often crash, but sometimes they get a fine landing done - I've seen it. With Halberstadt, and also with Eindeckers.

Edited September 18, 2010 by Olham

[vonOben 55]

Doesn’t the AI obey rejoin commands after the goals completed message?

 

No. They will now proceed to their 2-miles away turning point, turn round and approach the field.

If your airfield has no trees near the edge where you come in, then you should take the time and fly with them at least once.

I have made landings with Halberstadts, which went perfectly fine!

 

But it can also happen, that they crash into trees, or into each other on the runway. If it works well, it is a heartwarming sight!

 

Hi

 

I tested that yesterday in a campaign mission where we were flying Albatros DV’s.

 

After that I got the goals completed message I followed the AI flight members who flow away and turned and headed back to our airfield.

They flew over the airfield quite low but didn’t seem to slow down and did a tight 180 turn and flew back to the turning point and flow over the airfield again.

This time one of the AI’s flew too low when he made the 180 degree turn and his wingtip touched the ground and he crashed.

Next time another AI made the same mistake.

After a successful mission without losses it was quite discouraging to see them crash when they tried to land, so I ended the mission.

 

Cheers

 

vonOben

[Olham 164]

It all depends on the airfield, and on the wind direction. With my Jasta 21 boys at Bantheville, I had one beautiful landing!

I had been sitting in my crate and checked around in outside views, when they came back; I noticed white specs on the

TAC and waited for them. And they performed a nice landing; one was even taxying round at the end of the runway.

Next day, we came in together; I wanted to see it once more. But this time we came in from the other direction, and there

are trees after the runway. And they crashed into them, one after the other.

Whenever you ever fly from a very open field, particularly with no terrain slopes or trees at both ends of the runway, then

you should give it another try. When they manage to do it right, it is a heartwarming sight!

[Wayfarer 5]

I have waited a few times now for my wingmen after I land, speeding up time until I see them approach. A number of times, one has waved off at the last minute and gone round again (these are BE2s in 1915). They have crashed a number of times though, and I have wondered if it was possible they would crash into me whilst I was waiting, although I don't think I ever land straight enough to be in their way!

I agree with vonOben that it is does seem a pity at the end of a mission with no losses, but I have found that when squadron losses are announced, as the time/date changes, my wingmen don't seem to be dying or being injured in these pile ups. I don't know whether anyone else has checked this.

Edited October 19, 2010 by Wayfarer

[Olham 164]

No, they don't die in their landing accidents. Also, they don't die in most of their combats, when they get shot down.

OFF Manager keeps an eye on them, and only sorts one out occasionally, like real life.

[carrick58 23]

Doesn’t the AI obey rejoin commands after the goals completed message?

 

No. They will now proceed to their 2-miles away turning point, turn round and approach the field.

If your airfield has no trees near the edge where you come in, then you should take the time and fly with them at least once.

I have made landings with Halberstadts, which went perfectly fine!

 

But it can also happen, that they crash into trees, or into each other on the runway. If it works well, it is a heartwarming sight!

 

mmmmmmmmmmmmm Full flight or Sqn Landings ? OMG learn new things in OFF all the time. Olham really knows his stuff Thanks.

[Olham 164]

Today I saw a landing attempt of my wingmen (Jasta 10, Leffincourt, April 1917).

They came in for the landing very nice. The last bit before the field has a terrain slope downwards,

and they passed that very well. But the sudden drop of the terrain must have led to them being too high.

Mid-field, they still were too high; so they turned and started another "landing ceremonial" with all that

flying away for 2 miles, and then the approach. I decided to sit and watch, got me coffee and cakes,

and there they came again. The whole thing went the same way as the first. Because the terrain was

higher until short before the runway, they didn't go low enough to make it. It could have gone on forever.

[Winston DoRight 3]

vonOben, it looks like you're ready to graduate up to multiplayer where we always comeback and land. (unless you've met your demise on the mission) The AI has many weaknesses and human players make for more interesting and satisfying flights.

 

In multiplayer all kills must be confirmed by another human player to count. Care to join us?

 

[vonOben 55]

Hi Winston

 

Thanks for the invitation! :yes:

How is multiplayer in OFF?

 

One problem is that I don’t have an Internet connection on my gaming rig ATM.

 

Cheers

 

vonOben

[Winston DoRight 3]

Hi Winston

 

Thanks for the invitation! :yes:

How is multiplayer in OFF?

 

One problem is that I don’t have an Internet connection on my gaming rig ATM.

 

Cheers

 

vonOben

Multiplayer problems are now at a minimum. We've now fixed all the aircraft that were broken in MP. Sometimes lag is seen as a jittery foe in your sights, but often the reason for that is the host (or the player) has forgotten to temporarily switch off his virus protection for the session. For years I also did not have my gaming computer hooked to the internet, but then I bought an inexpensive CAT5 cable of sufficient length to reach it. Now I can hook up either computer and then reboot the modem and I'm online with either one.