Making Mistels take off | Forums

[Skarphol]

Hi!

I'm sure this has been described before, but:
How do I get an AI Fw-190 to take off on the back of a Ju-88?
They are supposed to stand at the airfield, and then start and climb away. Just like all other planes do. My combo allways turnes out with the Ju-88 laying on it's belly with all propellorblades broken, and the Fw-190 on top with it's engine running. Going nowhere. What am I doing wrong?

And is there any problems with using the Mistel in a coop?

Skarphol

[-HH- Beebop]

From the 2.0 readme:-

Using the Mistel

We have conflicting reports and pilot accounts regarding the weapons on the FW-190 part of the Mistel. It appears that there were versions with a regular armed FW-190 which could detach and fight, and versions where all armament on the FW-190 was removed. We are only modeling the armed FW-190 version.

The Mistel aircraft in FB is a very peculiar bird which presented our team with some unique challenges. The modified Ju-88 strapped to the flyable FW-190 is really a one of a kind object in the game. On one hand it's a droppable weapon. On another hand it's a player's aircraft since your input goes to its control surfaces. Finally it's an AI plane that has a simple "stay on course" AI routine. And the most unique thing is that it has to exist in all three states within one mission. The IL-2:FB engine was never designed to accommodate such very special objects, therefore we had to make some concessions to make this work.

First of all, our AI routine would need a complete overwrite to allow for complete realistic Mistel operations. Unfortunately we could not afford to spend another year building and testing the Mistel, so our AI Mistels cannot take-off, land or attack targets. The most an AI Mistel can do is follow a set of waypoints in the air, basically serving as a large target for other flights.

Another important limitation is that Mistels cannot be flown in online dogfight games; however they can be flown in co-op missions.

Player-controlled Mistels however do work like other FB planes. You can start on the ground and take-off in them, land with or without the attached Ju-88 bomb, and detach the Ju-88 bomb in the air and launch it at targets. You must launch the Mistel at least from 1 km away from the target; historically they were launched from even farther away. Just lower your engine power to about 33% of throttle, hold your target in the crosshairs for a few seconds and press the Attach/Detach Aircraft button to separate from the Ju-88. It will follow on your current course, while you should try to get away from the target area. The Mistel's blast is pretty big, and it will damage or destroy objects on the ground and in the air in a very large radius.

Creating a mission with a Mistel is easy: just create two waypoints for the Ju-88 (Mistel), then place waypoints for the FW-190A-8 (Mistel). With the FW-190 selected, go to the Waypoint tab of the Object window, click the Set button and click on the Mistel. This will link the two in the beginning of the mission.
NOTE: You can set the first waypoint of the pair to be Take-Off, but AI flown Mistels will not be able to take-off.
<span class="ev_code_RED">(Empahsis mine)</span>

Additional notes:

- When releasing the Mistel from low altitudes and at a shallow angle, it may hit the ground without exploding. Its detonator was located in the tip of its long nose, so if the Mistel hits the ground with its fuselage without an impact on the nose it will not detonate.
- combat/take off/landing flaps will only work on the Fw-190 and not extend on the Ju-88.
- when the Mistel hits the ground you may sometimes hear the "I’m hit, I am going down" radio call.

Hope this helps.

[Skarphol]

Thanks!

I've pretty much done it right, but I was not aware that the AI model couldn't take off or release the Ju-88. Guess I have to rethink the mission then...

Skarphol

[Treabhar]

This info was great, thanks. Because I was trying to make a mission where Mistels attacked a ground target! LOL

[-HH- Beebop]

You're welcome Treabhar.

Welcome to the forums.