AI wingmen RTB after attacking once
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My apologies if this has already been reported.
BMS 4.34.2 KTO totally vanilla
- Campaign: Rolling Fire
- First day, some time around 1700
- Attacking enemy ground forces at FLOT
- The mission is self-fragged, it’s AI
- The targets have been marked in waypoints of 89-99 range
- Flight is four ship
- Weapons are 4 packs of gbu-12 on each ship
- laser code is 1688 for all
- Commands given to ai: Fence In -> Attack Targets
- The target is locked up via LANTIRN pod, same result with SNIPER pod
- The ai attacks once, then RTBs
- The ai will rejoin when commanded, but after attacking again will attempt to rtb again
The problem is essentially this: if AI is issued an Attack Targets command with GBU-12, it does so once and then attempts to RTB without warning.
The issue has been experienced only with GBU-12.
The ACMI file can be found at (sorry for the large size): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qurpJwPWMhxfRUL5ZX7l-UpaOIZ-pECk/view?usp=sharing -
I can confirm this behaviour although I cannot say for certain it’s restricted to the GBU-12 only.
Sometimes the AI will drop their entire ordnance very nicely, sometimes I return from being “heads down” myself in the cockpit only to find my AI wingies are already halfway home despite having plenty of fuel and ordnance left. I’ve experienced this both in stock KTO and Balkans theaters.
Thanks for the detailed report!
All the best, Uwe
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I usually don’t use “Attack Targets” as AI often wastes ordonance on not wanted secondary targets but command “attack my target” followed by a request for Datalink to either wingman or element. As soon as they report ordonance drop I’ll order them rejoin and weapons hold and start repeating the target assingment
the one Things that annoys me more is that they drop twice the ordonance than what I have set on my SMS settings.
As far as I understand Attack Targets doesn’t account what the human lead has either locked up in any SOI, but what has been assigned as target on the steerpoint in the flightplan -
Attack targets works if you designate a target via radar or pod as this in itself counts as a waypoint.
I usually do the exact same thing as you described, the problem is : with laser guided bombs if you say weapons hold and rejoin, they will simply stop tracking. So you need to wait until they report “weapons on target” for example, then command hold and rejoin.I cannot say it’s restricted to gbu-12 as well, but I didn’t have the time to test more yet, will update if i do.
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The best woud be to pre-plan each DMPIs on mission planning for each a/c. If not defined, AIs will target the highest prio tgt values of objectives as it is now.
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My experience in a Rolling Thunder campaign is that AI will drop laser weapons 1 at a time and will not necessarily RTB. With cluster bombs though, they will drop all CBU’s in 1 pass. The RTB thing appears to happen randomly with me, despite load.
I suspect that weather plays a role in their attack though (which would make sense of course). In poor/fair conditions with a low msl base, I will choose Mavs and go for low level (below cloud base) attack on possible moving targets. If wingman is in formation with me (given the weapons safe cmd to stay with me) when I approach low and then I command him with an “Attack Targets” he will fire off 1 or 2. However if I give him a “weapons free” or “attack targets” and am not below the cloud cover, he will circle around target sites at approx. 16,000 ft and will not engage in any attack (which at that altitude makes sense). Just an FYI on my observations.
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Not sure whether this is important for this case, however I’m attacking various columns of enemies - some moving, some not, just all in one zone. For this reason preplanning for each a/c or making separate waypoints will not work. The weather is clear though.
It all functions well and they attack the groups i designate, perhaps too well since we all share one laser code but they hit separate enemies, although they pickle at the same time (another bug then).It would just be great if they didn’t run away after this.
Honestly, with this and many other situations, I feel like it would be ideal if all wingmen would automatically weapons hold / rejoin formation after attacking if given the command “attack my target”. And that they would automatically weapons hold / rejoin formation if told “attack targets”. after done attacking / expending munitions. But this is a sidenote.
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At the moment, the AI doesn’t use a laser code as a human does, its LGB sequence is only simulated. Thus this is not a bug, it’s a feature BMS doesn’t have.
EDIT: or also they wouldn’t guide through the clouds and fog.