[pistitom]

Hi, I'm in the middle of creating a grand-scale mission of Pearl Harbor and I have some questions :

1 my computer can't cope with the smoke coming from all the ships ( during the attack the AAA smoke causes the same problem )...I minimized the effects in the conf. ini, but that didn't solve this....is there anything else I could change ?

2 no matter what I do with the waypoints the squadrons don't fly in close formation ( 70 % fly beyond visual range ) , any advice ?



3 what's the secret of getting the AI planes to land in an ' orderly fashion ' ? I mean I put in quite a few planes and chaos is a very soft word for describing what's going on there...I guess I should add extra wp-s ?

thanks a lot in advance for any ideas :-)

(ps. I guess I'll upload it here ( when finished ) in case it's possible and somebody would like to try it )

[pistitom]

more questions.... didn't realize until now that the static camera key ( ctrl F2 ) is not working...did I miss something ? I changed the mission to complete AI, set up some cameras in Pearl Harbor, but can't switch there...

[BillSwagger]

......and chaos is a very soft word for describing what's going on there...I guess I should add extra wp-s ?

lol

Well put. You have to make them land in a orderly fashion, so yes...add more way points or even disperse them so they land at other bases/carriers.

Getting AI to fly in close formation can usually only be done with similar aircraft, but remember to use the way points AND the speed you want them to fly at.
You can also set the way point, (that green circle thingy) so that each plane will follow a lead plane, but its important to keep the slowest planes in front so they don't fall behind and it will also keep the faster planes close and tight.

[JG14_Jagr]

Disable gunners most of the ships flak and leave them dormant. Select certain ships to provide flak but lower the flak levels. Set delays in the activation time for those ships.

[fabianfred]

For my versions of this mission I did this...

I have all AI flights airstart...except my own flight which takes-off from Akagi and is joined by the other flights as it reaches the coast. (mine is a part of the second wave and i watch the first attacks whilst my plane is on autopilot.)

All ships are silent until several minutes after the attack begins.... and then only a few ships are able to open fire at reduced rates.... more by the time of the second wave attack.

Only about 20% of the returning planes land on their carriers...... the rest crash into the sea.....especially from the first wave attack....before the second wave attack starts...to get them out of the mission and lessen the strain on the computing.

There is a new more realistic Hawaii map WIP....

[pistitom]

cool, thx for the ideas, getting the AI airborne before mission start seems an fps-friendly one....BillSwagger, I'm not sure I got Your answer right...I set the same time for the first 5 wp-s but no result....I thought the planes would alter their speed in order to get to point A, B,C ...etc at the time set...I guess the takeoff procedure is to blame, so...thanks guys for the ideas, appreciate it :cheers: :cheers: :cheers:

[BillSwagger]

Maybe this is obvious, and other people do this too, but i usually make individual planes rather than using the 4 possible planes per way point. I can make formations of 8 or 12, or even a huge V formation of 20 planes.

It just depends on the effect you are going for, but if you make them individually, it is more work lining up each flight path and way point.

The speed you set at each way point is the speed they will travel until they reach the next way point. In other words, they travel at the set speed after they reach that way point. By setting them individually, they also land a little better, but you have to set the way points so they circle the airport while each one lands separately.
You could lay down some extra airstrips around the airport too.

I like to make a large starting formation, and then have them split into different flights. The effect is kinda cool, but the main benefit for me doing it that way is so they act more independently in a dogfight. They seem to be much more aggressive in this way.

[VonBarb.]

Problem with this method is AI planes won't be able to use their wingmen... I only use it for very low flying torpedo bombers to avoid the tail end planes crashing into the sea when they go into line astern attack formation.

My trick for forcing the AI to form up is to make 'high speed legs' on the way to target. I set the lead group at a medium/low speed while I set the trailing groups at their maximum, so they can catch up more quickly. Takes a bit of trial and error to get it right, but it works quite well.

Remember the FMB doesn't take take off time into account when calculating waypoints time. If you place two formations of the same type flying at the same speed towards the same waypoint at an altitude of 3000m, one starting in the air and the other starting on the ground, the one starting on the ground will reach the waypoint roughly 2 minutes after the one starting in the air. Obviously the higher the waypoint, the longer it'll take for the ground starting flight to climb and reach the waypoint.

For landing waypoints, be sure to assign nav waypoints between the target and the landing base/carrier, or your AI will fly in landing formation all the way back. Your landing waypoint shouldn't be placed more than just a couple of miles away from your last 'normal flight' waypoint.

Cheers

Nico

[BillSwagger]

I prefer this method because AI don't usually use their wing men to any benefit. For example, I've been in a chase where the enemy AI wing man will line up next to the plane i'm chasing.

My other experience has been that my wing men really don't do anything other than trail behind me when there are other bandits to engage, sometimes even while a bandit is shooting at me.

maybe there is a command for this, I'm not sure.

I've tried the AI MOD but it doesn't address the issues with the wing men, it just makes the AI less predictable.

What i do know is that when placed individually they are much more aggressive in their attacks, which makes it a bit more challenging. Thats not the only method I use in mission building.

The method you use will probably depend on the effect you are going for. When building a mission, its almost like a small production where the player also see's a good show. So using a variety of methods will probably give the best results for making it both a challenging mission as well as an immersive show.

This AI talk makes me wonder how difficult it would be to increase the amount of planes that could be included in an element.
4 seems to be the standard, but the option to have up to 12 planes would be cool.

Bill

[pistitom]

I see now what You meant...Never used 'individual' planes, only squadrons until now...however, planning routes and wapoints for 80-90 planes individually...... :lol: :lol: :lol: I'm not that patient.... :oops:
As for the gunners, I set a sleep time varying between 4-10 min ( I fly with the first wave and don't want to have problems :lol: ) but I'm still working on this....the fps drop is caused by the exhaust smokes and explosions, so I guess I'll just have to live with it....

More important : Is there any way to remove the radio texts ??? I mean I don't see a thing when 30 planes engage in ground attacks...didn't find anything, I do hope there 's a file somewhere.....thx again for the ideas

[pistitom]

I'm an idiot :lol: :lol: :lol: ....nosubtitles=1 ....sorry :oops: :oops: :oops:

[fabianfred]

I use the QMT utility a lot....... it is easy to set-up a single flight... then when everything is working OK to clone it into many flights....then just go and rearrange the attack points...