AI fighters attacking AI bombers | Forums

[lowfighter]

Remember the attack pattern in early FB? The fighters would climb some 1000 m on top of the bomber formation and than dive steeply attack and disengage (that's the safe way to attack also in RL). It seems to me this is not anymore working so nicely: the fighters would still dive but at a lesser angle, the result is they will stay too much in the sight of the gunners, so they will die easier. To give an example: I set 4 FW190A8 veterans with cannons attack 4 average B25 with altitude advantage of 1000m. Outcome was a disaster, I was flying no 4th in the flight and shot down 3 just because no 1-3 dived too early and were rather punched by the B25 gunners. The funny thing was that when I created that mission I considered the B25 annihilation an easy job and put some P51s arrive 3 minutes later


What's your impression? And are there some settings of altitude & speed which might help?

[FlatSpinMan]

I don't know for sure but people say that the B-25 is uberish. Could that be it? I guess that wouldn't address the problem of how AI attack them though.

[lowfighter]

Originally posted by FlatSpinMan:
I don't know for sure but people say that the B-25 is uberish. Could that be it? I guess that wouldn't address the problem of how AI attack them though.

It's related though: the B25 is tough I think; so it is deadly if the fighter is staying too much in it's tail. To me it seems they are staying within gunners range some 5-10 seconds, I think this is too much.

But what are your impressions?

[Aviar]

We can't change the AI logic, so we have to work with those things we CAN change.

Change one or two of the 190's to ACE and one or two of the bombers to ROOKIE. That should get better results.

Another option is to split the 4-plane flight of 190's into 2-plane flights. I think you'll get a better attack pattern that way.

Yet another option is to split the bomber flights into 2-plane or even individual flights. I do this all the time, although it is a lot more work for me.

This way, you can slightly increase the distance (both vertically and horizontally) between the bombers so their firepower is not so concentrated. It also looks less game-like when all the bombers are not perfectly lined up at the same altitude.

Aviar

[lowfighter]

These are some good suggestions, thanks Aviar!
Still, do you think the attack pattern has changed? You know this is all so hazy, we're many times groping in the dark because Oleg doesn't tell us his secrets(which is normal for a businessman )

[Aviar]

Yes, AI does react differently, depending on the type of flight they are in.

Take a 2-plane flight and two single-plane flights. (The two single-plane flights have very similar waypoints, so they look like a single flight.)

Now, the wingman on the 2-plane flight will do some very stupid things. Most of the time, they will follow blindly until the lead is actually attacked (shot at), at which point the wingman will try and help.

The wingman will even let an enemy plane go right past it on the way to attack the lead and not even react.

Now, look at the two single-plane flights you created to look like one 2-plane flight (a lead and a wingman). If an enemy plane tries getting close to the 'lead' plane, the 'wingman' will act independently and respond to the enemy plane without waiting until the 'lead' is shot.

Two 2-plane AI flights will (or can be made) to attack differently than one 4-plane flight. Not only because of their flight composition, but because now you have more attack options.

You can have them attacking from two different angles\altitudes. If you split up the bomber flight as I mentioned earlier, you have even more options.

You can have each fighter flight attack a different bomber group (set Target) or have them both attack one group and then move onto the next group.

There are more things than this you can try....always fun to experiment.

Aviar

[Saunders1953]

I use that alot in missions I build post-patch 4.01, Aviar. For low level bombers as well. Shift_E's Quick Mission Tuner is a great tool for quick flight duplications--you can set number of duplicates and height/distance/postion(front or behind) from the original flight really quickly. Thus the name, I suppose.

[lowfighter]

Thanks for the great tips Aviar!

[Browning50cal]

It might just be the B-25. This one shot down three fighters, before it covered 7 grid squares to find a place to ditch.



I overflew the site and saw three crewmembers running to safety. Also, the AI gunners are equipped with gyro-stabilized, scoped, servo boosted guns. So it doesn't really matter how you approach them.

I've had the best results by diving at high speeds across the rear quarter of the bomber and bursting my cannons as the bomber passes my nose. This results in the sides and upper wing area of the bomber being exposed to your fire, and the gunners having to track quickly to be able to lead you.

B50

Sakai_Campaign2.0 at airwarfare.com

[lowfighter]

I'll test with those monsters Pe8 and Flying fortress.