AI aircraft colliding with each other

[stuart277]

Hi All,

I have been attempting a mission with the new Halifax Mk1 bomber, attacking the Scharnhorst in a daylight raid at La Rochelle.

I have three groups of three aircraft and one group of five.

The mission always starts with aircraft colliding with each other.

Any ideas on avoiding this problem.

Cheers,

Stuart

[Sarg Willy]

Has the collision bubble been checked ?

[Rami]

Stuart,

When doing bomber missions, I'd make the following recommendations...

If possible, have the formations spread out in a diamond formation (one flight in front, one off to the left, one off to the right, and one trailing behind the lead) with the two bomber flights on the center at least 0.5 nautical miles apart, and the two "wing" flights at least the same distance from each other. If the bombers are going to have escorts, you should increase the distance of those two center line bomber formations to one nautical mile, and put the escorts between the two flights, have one lead by the same distance, or have one trail by an equal distance.

The extra distance for the escorts allow them to peel off from the formation to engage enemy fighters without taking out any heavies with them.

You can also do a diamond formation in a "V" configuration, with the center as a lead, and the remaining four trailing at a preset distance.

If you want to do "tight box" formations, you can set the bombers up almost on top of each other, sweeping one out to the left a short distance, with the second in the opposite direction, and stagger them by 750-1000 feet of altitude between flights.

In addition, try to stagger all bomber flights by some altitude. As a general rule, metric-height bombers (Germany, France, Japan, Italy, as an example) I stagger by a minimum of 125 meters between flights, and for American or British bomber formations, I stagger by a minimum of 500 feet.

Another pretty reliable way of providing distance for crash prevention is using the echelon formation; the lead plane will be at the "innermost" spot in the formation, so in an echelon left formation, they will fan out to the left from front to rear; and in an echelon right formation, it will be to the right from front to rear.

After a while, you can develop many variations on this; I've discovered a lot of ways through trail and error to keep those buggers from playing deadly bumper cars.

Here is a picture of a compact formation with good separation...

[Rami]

Stuart277,

These German bombers are also staggered by altitude after just completing a turn as you intercepted them. If they did this at the same altitude, it would have been messy.

Attached is a similar mission to Brest I never released; but you are free to use it as a template.

[stuart277]

Hi Rami,

Thanks for your idea's. I have implemented them.

I think my main problem is that the runways are too short.

My 'wingmen' are crashing on takeoff.

I will try to find airfields with longer runways or start the missions in the air.

Cheers,

Stuart

PS The Halifaxes get slaughtered over La Rochelle, I will have to do something about that.

[Rami]

Hi Rami,

Thanks for your ideas. I have implemented them.

I think my main problem is that the runways are too short.

My 'wingmen' are crashing on takeoff.

Stuart277,

Describe this, please. Are they tipping forward and going in arse over tea kettle? Or are they getting airborne and then falling like a leaf?

In my experience, the AI always get airborne well before you ever can.

If this takeoff problem continues to be the case, you may want to use Shessi's dedicated AI model for the other aircraft in the formation: http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforum...id=50&id=22747

Using this, you have one of two choices. You can...

1) Make your flight a single-plane flight and have the other wingmen be a separate AI flight already airborne, or...

2) Manually edit the mission so that your plane is a different aircraft model then the rest of the AI in your formation. You can also use this feature to get the AI to release over the target automatically. The only catch is once you do this you can't make any further edits, because if you save it again any hand-editing is lost.

If you'd like any guidance on the latter, just let me know. You can also find this in Cody Coyote's handbook.