Air Ai

[MrJoeygoose]

is there any tips for the fighters performing cap. Do u have to micro every engagment? This is borderline unplayable for me. Am i doing something wrong?

[Enrico Pallazzo]

No, air to air AI is one of the most annoying aspects of this game so far. I tend to set my units to weapons free and HOPE they engage the targets I need them to. You'll often notice they will ignore enemies near by to try and get an AWACS/Recon plane outside of their range. That's when the micromanagement is needed. At least when I play.

[Gulfstorm75]

You're not doing anything wrong.

Air to Air needs a LOT of work 😒

[MrJoeygoose]

i have squadrons of 2-4 aircraft on weapons free. they all have several missiles but just seem to chase around the enemy or go after enemies across the map. then they get shot down not using altitude or range. is this similar game play yall are having as well?

[c_biscuit317]

I keep beating my head against a wall with AV-8A Harriers in the Hormuz (Tarawa) scenario. I detect the massive air attack with enough heads up to scramble my Harrier squadron, vector them into the mass of approaching air contacts, ID them as hostile, and then the Harriers either refuse to engage or take one shot each with their AIM-9s and break off without bothering to check if their missiles tracked. And the Iranian Phantoms just keep on coming in and don't respond to getting jumped, just go straight towards my convoy without a care in the world.

Three immediate improvements that could take the headaches away:
1. Aircraft don't immediately RTB for "winchester" until there is no ammo onboard (missiles and guns). Or, create a toggle that lets us choose the conditions for auto RTB (like a ground attack or anti-ship loadout).

2. An aircraft issued an attack order against an air target will continue to engage that target until the target is destroyed or the aircraft is issued a cease fire order. Its incredibly annoying for your CAP to vector towards an incoming air threat, shoot a missile at max range and return to its last waypoint only to have that one missile it shot miss.

3. Add some type of self-preservation where my pilots are aware of where the ground is when pursuing a target. I've watched multiple aircraft fly straight into cliffs when given an engagement order. I realize loss of situational awareness is a thing, but I feel like the game should model some type of self-preservation in my pilots so I don't have to micro them.

[joetrusty2020]

Great points!

[Enrico Pallazzo]

Originally posted by c_biscuit317:

I keep beating my head against a wall with AV-8A Harriers in the Hormuz (Tarawa) scenario. I detect the massive air attack with enough heads up to scramble my Harrier squadron, vector them into the mass of approaching air contacts, ID them as hostile, and then the Harriers either refuse to engage or take one shot each with their AIM-9s and break off without bothering to check if their missiles tracked. And the Iranian Phantoms just keep on coming in and don't respond to getting jumped, just go straight towards my convoy without a care in the world.

Three immediate improvements that could take the headaches away:
1. Aircraft don't immediately RTB for "winchester" until there is no ammo onboard (missiles and guns). Or, create a toggle that lets us choose the conditions for auto RTB (like a ground attack or anti-ship loadout).

2. An aircraft issued an attack order against an air target will continue to engage that target until the target is destroyed or the aircraft is issued a cease fire order. Its incredibly annoying for your CAP to vector towards an incoming air threat, shoot a missile at max range and return to its last waypoint only to have that one missile it shot miss.

3. Add some type of self-preservation where my pilots are aware of where the ground is when pursuing a target. I've watched multiple aircraft fly straight into cliffs when given an engagement order. I realize loss of situational awareness is a thing, but I feel like the game should model some type of self-preservation in my pilots so I don't have to micro them.

As much as I hate to do it I've been using F10 to destroy enemy planes that my units have been unable/unwilling to target so I don't end up needing to restart missions I've been working on for a lengthy time. Too many times AI planes run of to target some random unit or flat out ignore low level bombers. OR if they do target them they line up only to suddenly change their minds and do a 180.