B-1B Lancer - Multiple issues

Good day all,

Just came over from P3D - very excited about where the product is and the road map.

I ran into an issue attempting to design my own scenarios in the Persian Gulf. Attached hereto are the relevant files (I think...) to the issue. I spent some time searching and reading the forum , but didn't find much close to what is being experienced.

In summary, when I set the bomber to attack targets on the island, the behavior doesn't seem to have a pattern I can decipher. The bomber seems to attack what it wants, at whatever altitude it wants after the first target. I've re-structured this in 25-30 different ways. Spent the weekend running and rerunning variations from what target to hit first, to weapon load out (guided vs unguided) to directions of attacks to distances from island.

In the attached files, the AI attacks the first target, but then goes on to:

1. Wildly dive towards the ocean surface.

2. drop bombs into the ocean.

3. circle around and around without attacking additional targets.

Its worth noting, the behaviors vary based on parameters - but no combination of configs has produced a successful 4 target strike package. All end up with the bomber flying in circles over the 2nd or 3rd target.

Thank you for your help - I very much look forward to contributing to the community,

** UPDATE ** If I change the AC to a B-52H (log attached) with AGM-86C (x8 ) and AGM-84A (x 8 ), the behavior is a little different. It strikes the first target, then repeatedly strikes the same random target until it has expended all of (and only) the AGM-86C store. Unlike the B1-b,it then flies off to the last way point.

B-1b all over the place attack.trk

b-1b all over.log

B1-B Bomb Testing.miz

b-52.log

Yeah that is quite strange overall. I'm not sure why it dives to low level, almost looks like the "evade threat" behavior which shouldn't be happening because there are no threats. Having slightly modified it so that it doesn't dive after that target I also observed the circling forever and dropping bombs off target. I looks like the AI wants to re-attack, but the B-1 gets stuck in a loop of wanting to attack the target, turning, but not being able to correctly line up to actually attack, so it just loops around. Changed it to dumb bombs and not specifying how much it should attack resulted in it just kept re-attacking until it ran out. Definitely a bug in here somewhere.

The reason it works well enough with the B-52 is the AGM-86 is a stand-off missile, so there is a minimum range needed to fire it. The AGM-84A is the Harpoon an anti-ship missile, thus it is not suited for engaging ground targets so the AI elected not to use it for that purpose.

With the bombing and attack map object tasks its generally a good idea to specify the number and type of weapons used. You can even get it to engage multiple targets like this on a single pass with JDAMs by assigning targets on the same waypoint and setting however many bombs you want them to drop. Though it is best to assign the targets from closest to furthest from the direction it will attack from.

Grimes,

Thank you for the response! I'm also rather relieved that my thinking wasn't so off. When I had this in the larger scenario - where their are AA threats (SA-10) - I thought that was it too.

So based on your feedback, I went and modified a few things and combined attacks in a single waypoint. (See trk file sin following post)

1. Altitude played a big part as well. I added 10k ft. and it worked as expected.

2. Dropped back down to 6500 - no joy. Water got bombed again

3. Added an unguided bomb run against the runway.

a. Did not follow waypoint altitudes.

b. Did change altitude when told to bomb at certain lvl.

So with some tweaking, can get it to do it's thing, but not ideal. Is the AI logic in the roadmap to be improved in these use cases?

The files say b-52, but it is the b1 being used

b-52-high-fast-2nd pass-2.trk

b-52-high-fast-2nd pass.trk

b-52-high-fast.trk

b-52-high.trk

b-52-low.trk

2x B1-b

So I went back and played around a little more (see attached files). I think I see the pattern now but hoping to get it confirmed and see if this is a known issue. It seems to be very random and can cause a scenario to get stuck if waiting for a trigger to occur.

Added a second B1-b (armed with 16x GBU-31.) and assigned it a single attack waypoint with 8 targets (in linear progression). It hits the first 2 and tries for the third on the first run, but seems to miss the third target. It then continues to circle around it. It does NOT seem to expend its store of weapons. The last entry for that AC is #22 in the log:

[22] = {

["initiatorMissionID"] = "2",

["t"] = 29480.16,

["target"] = "",

["targetMissionID"] = "",

["type"] = "hit",

["weapon"] = "GBU-31(V)3/B",

The target never registers as "hit" or "killed" (unlike the first 2 targets). So it seems to be "waiting" for the target to register as "killed" before it moves on to the next target. Not knowing the logic behind it, but it seems to get caught in a loop if the target does not report a status after being attacked.

** UPDATE - Files 2.2xxx ** - Ran the exact same mission with different results. It hits the first target, flies off, lines back up for targets #2 and #3 (Seemingly based on bomb drops) then drops a bomb near target #4 but is way off... then goes back to circling without attacking targets.

Thanks again,

-Noble

2 - B1-B Circles.trk

2 B1-b.log

B1-B Bomb Testing 2.miz

2.2 - B1-B Circles.trk

2.2 B1-b.log

There is a fix waiting to be merged that addresses AI usage of JDAMs on multiple targets in the same pass, so perhaps that might fix things. There has been an issue ever since the JDAM guidance got reworked where AI were limited in the number of different targets they could drop on in a single pass. Tried out the mission on a test build where that bug is fixed and it was able to engage every target no problem.

I should add that altitude helps immensely with the range of the JDAM. The higher up it is, the further back an AI will drop the JDAM, the longer range of the weapon, and the more time the AI has to line up and drop the bombs. As it stands I don't think AI drop at the same ranges as players can, but there is a noticeable difference between 10k, 20k, 30k, and 40k for example. If you have the F-18 it is pretty easy to test because it has a nice range indicator for the JDAM.

There are in general B-1 issues though that probably still need to be looked at that are most likely caused due to the AI wanting to do one thing but isn't quite accounting for the parameters of its flight model.

Thanks again! I appreciate it and look forward to the updates.