AI CAS Refuses to Engage Targets

[Daemoc]

I cannot for the life of me get attack aircraft to engage ground targets using CAS for some reason. The only thing I can do is change them to "ground attack" and tell them to bomb a specific point rather than engage enemy units.

I even tried to designate a search and engage targets in area selecting all ground unit types and made sure enemies were inside the zone. The aircraft just fly over and go home.

Any ideas what I could be doing wrong?

[spike2071]

There are a lot of reasons why the AI isn't attacking. Do they have the correct task? Sensors to see the enemy? Correct munitions to attack? TPOD for laser munitions? ROE set to Weapons Free? There's usually some little thing that isn't set, and the AI goes bonkers because of it.

Sometimes that AI just has to fly away for 10, 20, or 30 miles to set up a proper attack run.

The one thing I've seen often is that the AI is running away from potential threats. If the enemy has SAMS, AAA, or enemy fighters, the AI can and will run away if they don't have stand off munitions. You can change their behavior in the Reaction to Threat drop down under the Set Option setting.

[Daemoc]

Thanks, I finally got it. I think they just could not find them. I kept dropping their waypoint altitude until they started taking fire from the ground targets.

They do the extreme distance attack runs, but they do attack now.

[spike2071]

Originally posted by Daemoc:

Thanks, I finally got it. I think they just could not find them. I kept dropping their waypoint altitude until they started taking fire from the ground targets.

They do the extreme distance attack runs, but they do attack now.

Glad you got it sorted. If you need the AI to attack a specific group for the purposes of the mission (e.g. - a SEAD flight to destroy AA radars before the player bombs some tanks), you can order the AI to Attack Group. With that order, the AI will automatically know where the enemy is no matter how far away and will attack it.

It's not very dynamic and may not be realistic, but damnit, sometimes I just want the AI to attack! :)

[Daemoc]

Originally posted by spike2071:

It's not very dynamic and may not be realistic, but damnit, sometimes I just want the AI to attack! :)

Ha! I hear ya. The AI does some strange things sometimes thats for sure.

I will try that attack unit option. I have been using attack specific location up until now which works great for static objects. Not so much for simulated ground battles.

I have ran this simulated battle a thousand times now, but I am slowly getting the hang of the AI and it's limitations. I can't wait for the multi-thread update though. I have been adding a ton of fluff units to make the battle feel more alive, but I have had to make some concessions and swapped in a bunch of statics.