Two-seaters rear gunners rarely firing.

[Sky High 166]

I have found for quite a while now, that when attacking two-seaters, the rear gunners rarely fire back. I have adjusted some of the guns, removing the '_Gunner' add-on to some of the machine-guns, having read that these refer to weaker guns, but perhaps I've made it worse. Most of my rear gunners are set to fire at 650m, with a percentage chance of fire set at .8. The German gunners seem the poorest.I don't reember it always being this way, but the challenge seems to have gone out of attacking two-seaters. Has anyone any suggestions?

[+VonS 1,424]

A few possibilities to try (even though I have to admit that I never bothered tinkering too much with gunner accuracy - since I've been focusing on FM tweaks instead):

a) check the "Internal Guns" section of the relevant data ini file, for whatever two-seater aircraft you are modifying gunners, and look for something similar to the following (this is from the Rumpler C.I file, data for the gunner's weapon):

GunTypeName=7.92MM_PARABELLUM_MG14_Gunner -----> change "Gunner" to "HGunner" since some guns, in the relevant Guns folder under Saved Games/TW/FE2/Objects/ contain "HGunner" variant files - those, from what I've been able to find, contain slightly greater ammo/bullet weight (AmmoWt), also greater accuracy
GunnerID=2
MuzzlePosition=0.081,0.06,0.623
MaxAmmo=400
TracerLoading=5
BurstAmount=8 -----> possibly also double (x2) the burst amount, in this case 16 instead of 8
EjectShells=TRUE
MinExtentPosition=-0.10,-1.9,0.6
MaxExtentPosition= 0.10,-1.2,0.7

 

b) under the "AIData" section of the relevant data ini, tinker with the following entries:

 

GunnerFireChance=90 -----> increase this if necessary (value in percent)
GunnerFireTime=2.5 -----> increase this if necessary (try x2, value is in seconds)
GunnerAimOffset=0.0050 -----> for this one, see this thread (https://combatace.com/forums/topic/90596-gunneraimoffset-ai-parameter/); best values are between 0.07 and 0.09, apparently, for good deflection shots - have modified this in the tweaked FM package, wherever necessary, but doesn't hurt to double-check if still having trouble with gunner

 

c) under the "AIData" section, include perhaps the following two entries (for min/max quality of the AI, to avoid novice AI and gunner AI):

MinAIQuality=Veteran (or MinAIQuality=Regular)

MaxAIQuality=Ace

 

Von S 

Edited December 22, 2020 by VonS
Added info.

[Sky High 166]

Thank you. There's lots to work on there. I find that it's not so much the accuracy is the problem (my own wouldn't be great, either and these were very unsteady gun platforms), but some of the two-seaters rarely fire at all. Therefore, the AI settings might be the key.

 

Happy Christmas to you and to all on here!

[+Stephen1918 1,474]

Here's something else to experiment with - In FE, the gunner is one piece and attached to the gun, so his motion is restricted to keep his legs from poking through the side of the plane. It could be that enemy planes are simply not coming into his field of fire so he doesn't "see" them.

In the "Crew" section of the FM, for the [Gunner] you can try changing the Min/Max Pitch and Yaw settings to increase his range of motion, but you might get the gunner intersecting with the plane. 

You can also try increasing the PitchAngleRate and YawAngleRate to make him move faster. Maybe improving his reaction time will help.

Please let us know if any of this helps.

Merry Christmas to you too, and everyone at Combat Ace.

[+VonS 1,424]

Happy holidays to you Sky High and Stephen, and to all fellow FE2 (and SF2) fliers!

(Photo by Yannick Bammert, 2010, detail of 6-cylinder Anzani radial, 60 hp.)