Help with airplane AI, it's driving me mad.

[karambiatos]

What ever i do, the airplane AI doesnt want to listen to their orders, they wont follow waypoints, or go at the speed set at the waypoint (sometimes the after burn at 500kmh).

If i start giving them orders to attack multiple units at 1 waypoint the AI just completely falls appart, and they wont listen to their RTB orders (when they run out of a specific missile for example) they just keep going forward into enemy territory until they die. Same goes with bombing orders, they just dont want to drop their bombs on anything specific, they just kind of do circles around the target.

 

So is there any way to get the AI to do what they are told, or is it just broken like that?

[Exorcet]

When ever you set AI in the ME, first thing to do after selecting their role is to go to Advanced Waypoint options and delete everything that is there by default. The default behavior is not very good, for example a default CAP task will have fighters trying to intercept something 350 miles away just because AWACS detected it.

 

When attacking multiple targets, it might be better to break AI groups into smaller groups. In other words, instead of a 4 plane group attacking 2 targets, make 2 2 plane groups attacking 1 target each.

 

If the AI isn't performing an attack as planned, there are three issues I can think of. One is they can't find the target. To fix this check the "visible" box in the advanced mission options attack task. The second is that the target is too well defended. If the AI thinks there are too many defenses around, they might not try attacking. Lastly, they don't have enough space. If you place the attack task too close to the target the AI can waste a huge amount of time flying in circles trying to line up the attack. Move the waypoint with the attack task farther from the target.

 

DCS AI is complex in some good and some bad ways. You'll need to do experimentation to get them to act properly. When making a mission, continually save and then run the mission to see if the AI behaves properly.

[winz]

Working with AI in DCS is a huge PITA. It is complicated to make them perform in a meaningful way. Few things I've learned while working with the A.I.:

 

1)Lower their guns to 0% if you want them to RTB after they run out of missile/weapons.

 

2)Generic tasks like SEAD, Fighter Sweep, CAP are useless most of the time, because the plane will just engange any target it detects, no matter the range. It will try to engage a enemy fighter on the other side of the map, trying to get there at full burner, eventually running out of fuel. Using enroute tasks like 'search and engage' with maximum range, and search and engage in zone yield much better result. Just keep in mind that the maximum range in "search and engange" is in relationship to the fly-path, not the position of the airplane. So the AI will start to engange unit on the other side of the map if it has any waypoint close to the unit.

 

3)Use ROE - Weapons hold/return fire and switch it to weapons free when appropriate (part of flight in zone, unit in moving zone...etc)

 

4)If you want the AI to attack an target that is able to defent itself, i.e. TORs or Ships, you better use 'Attack unit' command and check the 'group attack', so all units in the group will attack simultaneously.

 

5)Outside of 'Attack unit', never will two AI units present in a single group attack the same target, even if there is no other target present. So, if you have a 4xFigher flight engaging 2xFighter flight only two airplanes of the four ship flight will ever engage in active combat. If there are no other targets they will just fly around do nothing, if there are other targets, then the rest will have no problem chase the targets, even if they are 40miles away. It is therefor sometimes better to spilt a four ship flight into two two ship flights.

 

edit: Sniped is some points by Exorcet :)

Edited June 19, 2014 by winz

[karambiatos]

I am splitting em up, but they still do their own thing half the time, as for bombing they arent suppose to bomb a unit, but a spot on the map, so it shouldnt have to do anything with visibility of targets.

[ENO]

How close is the waypoint to their Map target?

[karambiatos]

How close is the waypoint to their Map target?

10 kilometers.

[Exorcet]

10 kilometers.

Probably a problem. Try triple that. The AI needs space to line up for an attack. If it doesn't get that space it will leave and come back after spacing itself or just leave and never come back.

[ENO]

^ Yeah...

 

I had a mission during the stress testing of 127 where I just wanted some bombers to come in and carpet bomb through some targets on the ground (still just bombing a point- with an added advantage of wrecking some stuff)... and it probably took me a day to dial it in so that roughly half would even drop. After that I just gave up and don't try to get AI aircraft to do anything special...

 

With that said, however... makes me wonder if you could just rack and stack a few assets with completely neutral orders- no action on threat, hold fire etc and leave them in place for clients to deploy on a request basis? Kind of like just leaving ground forces without waypoints. (The aircraft would need to be given an orbit order or something but that may be it.)

 

Not sure if this is a viable alternative but it's probably what I'd be looking at. Do they respond better when being given direction from a client or is it just as bad? I haven't messed with it...

[karambiatos]

when a client tells a AI plane what to do, you have wait for a good while to get it to do what you want it to, if it does it at all.

From what ive seen, when mission making, telling them to shoot multiple things from one waypoint works perfectly fine with missiles (and that joint munitions glide bomb thingy) but dumb bombs are horrible.

 

Anyway ive managed to get one group to actually drop its bombs, even though it's missing terribly.

 

Ive managed to get air-2-air planes to behave reasonably well, by messing with the chaff and reaction to threat options, but air 2 ground stuff is making me want to pull my hair out, i wish theyd stop trying to be smart, and just do what they are told.

[Daisai]

---- nvm

Edited December 12, 2014 by Daisai