Dumb behaviour of fighter aircraft

[Ilovewar]

While playing the mission 'Beware of the Badger' of the Northern Inferno Campaign on the latest build of the game, I have noted the following disconcerting situation:
My fighter aircraft, consisting of F-104s armed only with a gun and four rear-aspect AIM-9 missiles, dart to intercept enemy attack fighters (SU-17). During the interception course, some of the F-104s end up directly in front, and in gun range, of some enemy fighters. However, my fighters DO NOT open fire with the gun (which is the only viable weapon in that moment and that they are authorized to use for air-to-air combat) but simply fly past the enemies to engage with missiles from the rear. On the contrary, the enemy fighters open fire with gun, and even manage to shoot down some of my aircraft, which acted very stupidly (by going in front of the enemy and not shooting when the opportunity arose).
It seems that the game logic dictates that a fighter should always use the primary weapons first, even though the situation suggests otherwise.
Is that correct? I don't think that in real life a fighter pilot would hesitate to use guns in combat, even if he has plenty of missiles, if the situation suggests so.

[DWReese]

I agree with your assessment, but two groups of fighters would never approach each other like old gunfighters in the street in front of the old saloon. If fighters were actually going to do battle, then the one who saw the other first would try to maneuver their plane to the best position to conduct their attack. Often, this would involve a change in altitude, and direction. These fights aren't usually "fair" fights.

Fighters primarily exist to either protect an area, or to cleanse an area for attack aircraft. Fighters don't just fly around looking for a fight.

In game terms, logic needed to be created for ALL planes. Trying to get an attacker to dive down, allow the enemy to fly by, and rise up behind them is pretty complex. So, you are left with logic that kind of attempts to put fighters into a flat 2-dimensional battle as opposed to one involving changes in altitude. Additionally, the AI logic generally looks to use the primary weapon (longest shooting) first. On the surface, that sounds like a good idea, unless you are encountering a situation like you are describing.

It isn't that the logic is dumb, as you say. The problem is that it just isn't that sophisticated. Could it be better? Yes. But this game isn't only about fighter-versus-fighter battles. There are games out there that specialize on just that aspect of war. This game is multi-faceted, and can't spend so much of its resources concentrating on specific nuances pertaining to front-end gun attacks versus rear-end missile attacks. Therefore, it's not going to be that realistic in THIS situation. That being said, for the most part it does a pretty decent job of representing most combat.

Doug

[Dimitris]

Ilovewar < Please post a save, just prior to the engagement. Thanks.

[overkill01]

I agree, more options for firecontroll would be pleasant.
For example what i've noticed before, if a plane is behind an enemy and it has sparrows and sidewinders equipped. Most of the time in that situation it will fire the sparrows, but I might want them to fire the sidewinders.

[Dimitris]

ORIGINAL: overkill01
I agree, more options for firecontroll would be pleasant.
For example what i've noticed before, if a plane is behind an enemy and it has sparrows and sidewinders equipped. Most of the time in that situation it will fire the sparrows, but I might want them to fire the sidewinders.

You know you can manually allocate weapons down to the last bullet, yes?

Also: If your plane is chasing a bandit tail-on then it's very likely that the target is withing the Sparrow's DLZ but not within the Sidewinder's.

Using the manual weapon allocation window you can see precisely why a weapon can or cannot be fired against a given target at a specific moment.

[Dimitris]

Ilovewar < Save ?

[overkill01]

ORIGINAL: Dimitris


You know you can manually allocate weapons down to the last bullet, yes?

Also: If your plane is chasing a bandit tail-on then it's very likely that the target is withing the Sparrow's DLZ but not within the Sidewinder's.

Using the manual weapon allocation window you can see precisely why a weapon can or cannot be fired against a given target at a specific moment.

I know, and I get you're point. I'm just saying sometimes it's an issue.
It would be helpfull to be able to set priority on wich weapon to use, when a certain situation occurs in wich multiple weapons can be used.
What's the point for setting up missions if you have to babysit every single unit.

Sorry if this is offtopic, but I guess it's related

[Ilovewar]

Here it is.