Where do all the AI go?

[rjw 47]

I've never really given any thought to this before until now and it leaves me scratching my head so I put it to the OFF techies for an answer!

 

Whenever I finish a mission and am over my base ready to land, all my AI squad veer off. They don't land at our base where they originally took off with me.

Where the hell do they go??   I tried following two of them and finally tired of the chase.

 

Is there an AI aerodrome somewhere in AI land which I am not privileged to find?

 

Is this an OFF or CFS trait or are my squad mates as Barmy as me?

 

Best Regards;

[Olham 164]

Follow them long enough, and you will reach  the turning point with them.

From there they fly back towards the field and (try to) land.

It depends on the landscape (trees, hills etc.), wether they make it or not.

But the airfield of Bertincourt (Jasta 2) made me witness several fine landings

of my AI comrades in their Halberstadts.

And when they make it, it is a very heartwarming experience!

Edited July 5, 2013 by Olham

[rjw 47]

Thanks Olham;

 

I did follow two of them in a straight line past the airfield but it seemed to take forever and I finally exited. I guess I have to be more patient and stay with them longer.

[AROTH 0]

I was also curious. So, one day, after landing my Nieuport 28, I decided to wait, however long it took, to see what would happen next. It took several minutes, but they finally started to come in one by one. I think only one of 4 actually landed safely - the other 3 did not stop and went directly into the trees at the end of the field.

[+Lothar of the Hill People 6]

A tip for OFFworld/OFFbase: If your squadmen crash on takeoff or landing, when you report it to your Adjutant, check both the "Crashed" and "Landed" boxes. This'll use more generous rolls for the crash and injury for these situations where pilots and observers can more easily bail and medical attention is right there. Well, unless your squad's Medic is an incompetent boob, in which case they'd have better luck crashing behind enemy lines haha!

[Olham 164]

They seem to fly at least two miles, before they turn.

If you don't want to follow them, you could sit in your crate at your field and switch onto the others' aircraft.

It's often hilarious to watch them all aim for the same line of trees, where you may see as many columns

of smoke in the end, as there were comrades.

  :flyer:   

[rjw 47]

They seem to fly at least two miles, before they turn.

If you don't want to follow them, you could sit in your crate at your field and switch onto the others' aircraft.

It's often hilarious to watch them all aim for the same line of trees, where you may see as many columns

of smoke in the end, as there were comrades.

  :flyer: 

 

Thanks Aroth and Olham for your input. I'm surprised at the crashing into trees scenario. I thought that this problem was resolved with HPW's empty weight mod.

 

Hey Lothar, that sounds like a nice feature you have added to accommodate poor landings and take-offs. Do you know if HPW's mods are preventing these crashes?

 

Best Regards to all.

[rjw 47]

Well, I guess all of you are correct. I waited on the airfield for my squad to come back in after they overshot the runway. They did return and made perfect landings but unfortunately ran on past the end of the runway some distance before coming to a complete stop and one of them ran into a tree. C'est la vie!!

 

Best regards;

[MudWasp48 3]

I once waited for my squad mates to land, 4 out of 5 crashed, and I never waited for them again.

[+Lothar of the Hill People 6]

Thanks Aroth and Olham for your input. I'm surprised at the crashing into trees scenario. I thought that this problem was resolved with HPW's empty weight mod.

 

Hey Lothar, that sounds like a nice feature you have added to accommodate poor landings and take-offs. Do you know if HPW's mods are preventing these crashes?

 

The latest version of HPW's EW mod included with OFFice does improve problems with crashing on takeoff, compared to prior versions, but not sure if the problem's resolved completely with all planes and all airfields. Crashing into the trees on takeoff is because the planes are modded to be realistically heavier but the crummy AI doesn't always handle them properly.

 

At the same time, heavier planes should stop faster on landing, perhaps reducing crashes into the treres at this end of the flight. Haven't done any comparative testing myself, though.

[rjw 47]

The latest version of HPW's EW mod included with OFFice does improve problems with crashing on takeoff, compared to prior versions, but not sure if the problem's resolved completely with all planes and all airfields. Crashing into the trees on takeoff is because the planes are modded to be realistically heavier but the crummy AI doesn't always handle them properly.

 

At the same time, heavier planes should stop faster on landing, perhaps reducing crashes into the treres at this end of the flight. Haven't done any comparative testing myself, though.

Hi Lothar;

 

So then...If we take off lightly fueled, and then refuel in the air before landing, everything should be hunky dory.....right!

[+Lothar of the Hill People 6]

Haha, something like that Robert!

[+Polovski 414]

The AI take off fine, tested at length along with 3000 other things to check across the board. I have the twitch still from testing.  If you mod them then sure things will go wrong in various places that we spent months testing

If a newer revised mod makes those things less of a problem than the previous mod then great, but best to be clear what is causing it.

 

The landing is handled totally by CFS3 AI code in BH&H (i.e Phase 3) and I guess cannot handle WW1 craft too well over treelined fields (CFS3 WW2 had no trees around airfields and I don't think it was amazing anyway).

 

 In WOFF this is completely and utterly different, better, amazing  :)

Edited July 7, 2013 by Polovski

[rjw 47]

The AI take off fine, tested at length along with 3000 other things to check across the board. I have the twitch still from testing.  If you mod them then sure things will go wrong in various places that we spent months testing

If a newer revised mod makes those things less of a problem than the previous mod then great, but best to be clear what is causing it.

 

The landing is handled totally by CFS3 AI code in BH&H (i.e Phase 3) and I guess cannot handle WW1 craft too well over treelined fields (CFS3 WW2 had no trees around airfields and I don't think it was amazing anyway).

 

 In WOFF this is completely and utterly different, better, amazing  :)

Hi Pol...nice to see your still visiting the threads. Thanks for your input on this matter. Actually I have no problem with take-offs, but it's difficult to stay close to the AI as they outrun me which I suspect is because their weight is less. It seems only to be the landings that the aircraft over run the field. I take it from your comment It seems it won't be a problem in WOFF.

 

Best Regards Pol;

Edited July 7, 2013 by rjw

[Olham 164]

 In WOFF this is completely and utterly different, better, amazing  :)

 

 He didn't say: "...will be..." - he said "...is..." - amazing!

[+Lothar of the Hill People 6]

Actually I have no problem with take-offs, but it's difficult to stay close to the AI as they outrun me which I suspect is because their weight is less.

 

It's the mods which correct for the weight of AI planes so you can keep up with them that cause them to have trouble taking off (the AI don't "know" they're heavier). Take-offs are not a problem with stock P3, hence Pol joking about mods breaking things.

[von Baur 54]

Olham:

"Is" for them..."will be" for us.

When? "Two weeks".
I'm beginning to think the devs measure time the same way Griffin does in "Men in Black 3".

 

Lothar:
Was he joking? Hard to tell. No smiley faces anywhere in his post (except after mentioning how much better WOFF is...or will be, or...never mind), so maybe not.

There are so many mods running around now that OFF is starting to look like RB3D, where there were a dozen or more different versions and each one had its supporters claiming that theirs' was the best. Probably a good thing that there's no real multiplayer capability, since there'd be more time spent sorting out mismatches than actually playing.

 

And to the point of the thread:

I've sat on the ground...as flight leader and after hitting all waypoints, and having had all pilots in my flight follow me all the way back to base...watching as the rest of my flight circled the airfield for quite some time (I think I waited twenty minutes one time before finally giving up) without having even one of them even try to land. That's been a while, though, as these days I simply land, come to a stop and exit. (real) Life is too short.

[von Baur 54]

p.s.

Every time I see this thread I can almost hear Peter, Paul and Mary. (anyone under 40, show this to your parents...they'll explain it to you)

 

 

Where have all the AI gone?

Long time pass-ing.

Where have all the AI gone?

Long time ago.

Where have all the AI gone?

Gone sight-seeing every one.

When will they ever land?

When will they e-ver land?

 

[MudWasp48 3]

Hehe...I remember that tune

 

Well, I landed my Pup and waited for the rest of my flight. I was flight leader. Took them approx 12 minutes to come back into "radar range" and I watched from my parked plane. They all crashed on approach into trees. No mods were in use for the mission.

[+Lothar of the Hill People 6]

Lothar:

Was he joking? Hard to tell. No smiley faces anywhere in his post (except after mentioning how much better WOFF is...or will be, or...never mind), so maybe not.

There are so many mods running around now that OFF is starting to look like RB3D, where there were a dozen or more different versions and each one had its supporters claiming that theirs' was the best. Probably a good thing that there's no real multiplayer capability, since there'd be more time spent sorting out mismatches than actually playing.

 

Well, a major goal of my OFFice project was to bring all the mods together, sorting out incompatibilities between them and enhancing their features (the versions included in OFFice are often greatly enhanced over the stand-alone versions). The downloads section of CA (when up) is a bit of a nightmare with multiple incompatible versions of everything scattered all about. With OFFice, everything just works, and you have your choice of mods where appropriate (which damage model, flight model, even musical score, for example), with all the documentation on the mods right there to help you choose, in a nice graphical interface, making it easy to try different things without worrying about breaking anything.

 

And it fixes a whole mess of bugs and other issues in BHaH/HitR that OBD's never gotten around to, while adding a vast array of other features, some unavailable in any other flight sim.

 

As for multiplayer capability, mods do introduce more mismatching issues, but having everything organized and controlled through my OFFramp mod manager and the underlying OFFice scripting engine, the mismatch problem can be solved once and for all. Support OFFworld, and let's see what we can do together as a community.

Edited July 8, 2013 by Lothar of the Hill People

[Darkalder 0]

As an unrepentant fan of OFF and an avid supporter of Lothar's OFFice and OFFbase projects I would urge everyone who loves these WWI sims to give their wholehearted support to his OFFworld project. It is coming along very nicely, (I an completely addicted...) and, with the support of the OFF community, will soon be bringing us a true multiplayer environment. Come on, folks, let's get this done!

[rjw 47]

just for the record, here is a sample of my mods and vids of what happens. It's not a big issue now as it is fixed in WOFF and we will have it soon!

 

mods:

 

excuse poor vid quality! I had some conversion issues!

 

 

vid of AI landing crash: http://youtu.be/vkbjrkR8h84

 

 

Best Regards all;

Edited July 8, 2013 by rjw