Air to Ground strafing logic

[Quark73]

I've made a small test case to learn the Air 2 Ground PoH calculation.

Three different A/C with ferry loadout, so that just gun is mounted.
WRA: Gun strafe is switched on and all salvos allocated to target via Shift + F1.

Expected Behavior:
A/C chooses a pre-attack level, lets say 3000 ft, and dives to the target while strafing to keep CEP as small as possible. After shooting it breaks away to gain distance from AAA.
PoH is calculated like for A2A Gun or AAA Guns in this example.

Observation:
All aircraft dive to minimum altitude (20 ft). This is to low to shoot the guns in many cases, so the A/C just shoot occasionally and crosses the target again and again where it is exposed to enemy fire without using it's own weaponry. If altitude is manually set to a higher level, e.g. 200 ft or 1000 ft, the A/C shoots every time.
Additionally the PoH calculation for the A/C is not shown in message dialogue. It just say hit or not. While the PoH calculation for the target is sown in Message log.

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IMHO it is okay make a simplified 2-D maneuver for strafing, so the aircraft maintains its flight level during attack. But it should take an altitude that allows usage of it's own weapons. At best as a trade off/ optimum between high own PoH/ least enemy PoH.

Procedure to replicate:
On first run just let it run and see how often the A/C is able to shoot.

Load again and set a certain flight level manually e.g. the 1000 ft preset. It shoot every time it crosses the target.

[Quark73]

still an issue

[blu3s]

Thanks for the report

Logged #0015505

[Quark73]

After watching PGatcombs latest video, I was remembered this post when he was trying to strafe the ground targets. The aircraft dove to minimum AGL altitude what rendered the gun ineffective because dramatical range reduction and boresight issues. To tackle this issue I suggest to implement a Air-to-Ground doctrine for unguided weapons and guns. I suggest following options:

Straight Run - Aircraft is flying straight level when releasing ordnance, as result is makes a nice line of craters in the ground or does conduct carpet bombings if planes fly in a swarm (default for dumb bombs) - basically what CMO is doing now.

Dive Attack - Aircraft navigates straight toward the target and finally dives to the target, instead of a straight line the target zone is more elliptic which raises the probability to hit a target in that area because of higher density of effectors (default for unguided missiles, but should work fine for dumb bombs and guns too)

Pop-up & Dive Attack - aircraft is navigating low level to point some miles (or half a minute) lateral of target then it climbs up to e.g. 5000 - 10000 ft AGL turns and dives into the target and fires at 3000 - 5000 ft and breaks away after salvo is released (I would use this as default for gun) example

Lofting/Tossing Attack - Aircraft releases ordnance while climbing this gives some additional range at the cost of accuracy (should work for unguided missiles and free fall bombs incl. nuclear)

[ optional] Over the Shoulder Launch - basically an extreme variant of lofting/tossing but IMHO rarely useful

[Blast33]

Hear hear!

But probably @ https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/view ... 1&t=341588 it has more effect.
RUNNING POLL - gameplay features [Feature Requests Go Here]

[thewood1]

1) Suggest putting this in the requests thread also.

2) What would the default be? I can imagine the AI having a very difficult time having to decide how this works best for different targets and terrains.

3) Would timeframe make a difference here?

4) Would mission type have to be taken into account?

[Quark73]

1) Suggest putting this in the requests thread also.

I can do this, but don't think this makes any difference and just makes it redundant.

2) What would the default be? I can imagine the AI having a very difficult time having to decide how this works best for different targets and terrains.

Easiest approach is make straight level run the default, but I would prefer to make it dependent on weapon type:
Straight level for free fall bombs
Dive attack for unguided missiles
Pop-up for gun, but I could live with dive attack too (as second best IMHO)

3) Would timeframe make a difference here?

I don't grasp the aim of that question, timeframe in simulation e.g. day or night time?

4) Would mission type have to be taken into account?

I didn't think about that yet, but could make sense to make a difference between Anti Surface Patrol and Strike Missions.

[thewood1]

"I can do this, but don't think this makes any difference and just makes it redundant."

I suspect the devs might disagree to some extent. Then why bother having a separate subforum for it? Why not scatter requests all around the forum?

[Quark73]

"I can do this, but don't think this makes any difference and just makes it redundant."

I suspect the devs might disagree to some extent. Then why bother having a separate subforum for it? Why not scatter requests all around the forum?

You are probably right, my intention was to give a proposal solution for this already logged issue.

[Quark73]

Well, the behavior changed with 1405. Instead of going down min altitude, the planes climb as fast as they can (I guess) what brings them out of any reasonable position for gun employment.

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