drunken AI

[navin johnson]

so, i decided to take a bunch of passengers from bermuda to tallahassee regional in my shiny new connie. i get there, and i take the first spot, right there where you turn off. while sitting there, a black and green md-83 materializes coming straight out of the terminal's outside wall/windows. it crossed the parking area going through a 737, onto the grass where it did a clockwise circle in the grass. then it went right back to the yellow line on the asphalt, and taxied to a spot way out in the middle of the grass, and that was it. is this indicative of a problem, or just some weird thing fsx sometimes does? anyone else ever seen the ai planes do weird stuff?

[robert41]

I have seen some strange AI taxiing. With default and addon aircraft.
Sometimes they start circling around, through buildings, as if trying to find the taxi links. Finally getting on a taxiway and follow to the runway as normal. Or they make very large s turns while taxiing, into the grass then turn back across the taxiway into the grass on the other side and back again all the way to the runway. I have seen a couple of AI start to taxi then turn towards the runway and keep going across the airport into the country side and just keep on taxiing. I followed one once for several miles before I gave up.

[trucker17]

Did the FAA give that pilot a breathalyzer test......:biggrin-new:

[Bjoern]

Default airport or using an add-on layout?

I've found that "drunk" AI aircraft can also be caused by extreme values for the radius and bounding box dimensions of the aircraft in question.
But I've just checked the default MD-83 and its values are totally okay, so I guess it's an airport issue.

[Bushpounder]

I once had a scenery (I think it was a very early Vancouver scenery) that came with ship AI and aircraft AI. While approaching from SEATAC, I noticed this BIG circle in the sky. As I got closer, there was a cruise ship doing loops. It was topping the loop at over 5,000 feet. It was leaving a smoke trail (which is what one could see for miles) so it was easy to track. I found that part of the package and deleted it. It was the strangest AI I have encountered in all the years I have been simming.

Don

[robert41]

In my case, it has been at default airports. FSXA. Notably the default Maule and DC3. The Maule many times taxiing through buildings, and in going circles until "finding" the taxiway. The DC3 more taxiing into the grass when making a turn, otherwise following taxiways ok.

[Lane Street]

In my case, it has been at default airports. FSXA. Notably the default Maule and DC3. The Maule many times taxiing through buildings, and in going circles until "finding" the taxiway. The DC3 more taxiing into the grass when making a turn, otherwise following taxiways ok.

Taildraggers make bad AI in terms of taxiing.

There is a fix, if you are interested.

The fix is to move the tail wheel contact point closer to the mains, a lot closer.

You have to adjust the vertical component too, so that it will still look OK.

This reduces the turning circle and helps keep them from wandering all over the place in search of a taxi link.

cheers,
Lane

[robert41]

Thanks for the tip Lane.

[navin johnson]

this was a default airport, i don't have any florida scenery afaik. but i thought it was funny, so i thought i might see who else has seen stuff like that. thanks for the tip on how to fix :applause: