Situation 1: Abrams platoon in the center waste their ammo and attention to Mi-2 recon chopper, while there are T80Us charging in front of them.
Situation 2: Recon M1 tank also saw Mi-2 recon helicopter and engages. He was hidden in the woods, I'm not sure how he saw that Mi-2 and engages. Anyway, this engagement exposed his position.
Opponent is recon helicopter, not even a gunship. And T80Us are charging at me, but I cannot do anything about Abrams engaging helicopters instead of enemy tanks.
Last time in the forum, someone advice me to use target range. But situations like this screenshot greatly hinders the use of target range option just to limit the engage against helicopter because of following reason.
A. Under such hill + mountain + forest environment, one cannot predict when and where the opponent tank + helicopter appears. In above screenshot, enemy tanks appeared very near the Mi-2s and charging at us. I can't use target range when tanks and helicopters are placed close to each other.
B. Close distance. Mi-2s are appeared 1~1.5km in front of Abrams tanks, which is also optimal range for APFSDS rounds. It would be tactically not a sound decision to limit my tank's long range engagement ability just to prevent him engage against enemy helicopter.
Here are suggestions.
1) Add SOP option to set rules of engagement against air target.
2) If 1) is unavailable, give option to set separate range against air target only.
3) Make AIs distinguish recon and gunship helicopters and behave differently.
Removing air target prioritizing algorithm would be a good start. But eventually, I think players need control over this, because air target engagement is sometimes situational. We all know gunships are dangerous just like your old comment, but the decision of engagement against them requires several factors to consider. SOP or air target range should work.
I think a Hind with AT-6 Spirals is a far greater threat to NATO tanks than most of the Russian vehicles in game..
For me unless it can be done as an optional SOP then it should be left as is, I think changing it could lead to far more problems...
To be honest I have never come across a situation like the example above...
I think I've never had problems with this either. However, there seem to be at least a few players who are not happy with how the game works. At the moment we are not updating the SOP menu, and the additional micromanagement options could hurt the AI opponent. We're wrapping up an update package in the next few days, and this improvement can still be included in it.
Like I said, if the air targets don't always get the highest priority, then the target values are compared, among the other parameters. For example, a T-64B (264 points) is probably engaged instead of a Mi-24P (AT-6 Spiral, 247 points). A T-64A (169 points) is seen as the least attractive target of these three.
If I were tank commander, decision of engagement against air target or tanks would be based on following factors:
1) Geometry
2) Range
3) What tanks and what helicopters?
4) How many covers my tanks can use?
5) Are there any place to reverse and hide?
Places around Fulda map has tons of forests, hills, and mountains, reminds me of some Appalachian region around WV and PA. Unlike NGP map, it is relatively easier to encounter enemy armors and helicopters within relatively close distance, like within 2km, in Fulda map. I guess Finland map might be similar?
Under this circumstance, "Prioritize helicopters at all cost" is clearly and definitely not always the tactically sound decision. In above example, Abrams decided to engage Mi-2s, I think possibly because of terrain issue: enemy tanks and helicopters frequently in and out of LoS of Abrams, as tanks of both sides maneuver across the hills and towns. My tanks were engaging Mi-2s, and every time T80Us suddenly appeared in LoS of Abrams, they changed target from Mi-2s to T80Us. I think this is not a realistic representation of battlefield, neither a tactically sound decision. If Abrams recognized T80Us or enemy tanks in vicinity (1~1.5km like above example) and rushing to them, then they should watch the front and prepare for the battle against T80Us even though they are out of LoS temporarily.
If I have a control from above situation, I would ignore Mi-2 recon helicopters and engage against T80Us first, then engage Mi-2s later. I know Mi-2s are deadly enough to call DPICM or airstrikes to my tanks. But in above screenshot, T-80Us are inside 1500m and rushing to my formation pretty fast, and you can see some AI smoke coverage to support rushing T80Us. At this point imminent threat is of course T80Us, not Mi-2s.
If that helicpoter was Hind, then I would order one tank or one section to engage Hind to force them to evade and lose their SACLOS missile guidance, at the same time order other tanks to engage or harass rushing T80Us, at least force them to deploy smoke and stop rushing to me. Of course I will call smoke and AA or artillery support as well. That is why I also commented, it would be great if recon choppers and gunships are distinguished in "air target". And of course, ultimately, the most realistic & tactically sound option for players against air target is, inducing some control over air targets to players.
Speaking of helicopters, I think current helicopter - AA mechanics should be slightly adjusted. Some people also pointed out this previously. Currently, helicopters in AB seems like tanking too many AA shots. They don't evade neither move despite of so many AA shots, they retreat only when they took good amount of damage. All they do is just adjust altitude level. But in reality, as far as I know, helicopters evade at all cost if they are being shot at, even though the AA shot misses. Helicopters usually reacts to AA fire very sensitively. So, I think helicopter AI should have some room to maneuver around BPs as a representation of such evading/defending maneuver, and they should reacts to AA shot in more reactive fashion. You could make BP larger, allow helicopter AI to find their own safe position to engage the targets around player-defined TRPs for the corresponding BP.
This will increase survivality of helicopters, and bring more reality. Plus, this will make ground unit's suppress fire against air target more effectively.
