AI Wingman are too suicidal

[mytai01]

Wingman told to rejoin will commit suicide by running out of fuel when they should be going RT or divert.

[Rangi]

How suicidal should the wingmen be?

[mytai01]

How suicidal should the wingmen be?

 

Less suicidal. They shouldn't ignore their fuel state and do less critical things like rejoining the flight and consequently run out of fuel and crash. When they hit bingo fuel they should RTB even if you tell them to do something else. Of course, if they are being attacked they should do what they have to to defend. They shouldn't use afterburner when low on fuel unless they're in a fight. They just need to be smarter.

[Capn kamikaze]

I wish they'd do a much better job of holding formation from take off, at the moment they fall behind then have to use AB for long periods, wasting fuel trying to catch up, then they chase down slow movers at long range like the A-50 at full AB for long stretches, instead of being smart and realising that even at less than full mil an A-50 is not going to get away.

 

At the very least you should be able to ask them their fuel state via the radio menu, so you can be smart for them, or in the ME be able to set their afterburner usage to "restrict".

[feefifofum]

They will report bingo, it's your responsibility to send them home. For every instance where someone is complaining that the flight still follows orders rather than RTB'ing when bingo, someone else is complaining that the wingman isn't following orders and they don't care if they crash...

 

Afford them the same courtesy you would a human wingman and you'll find things go much better. See your wing isn't in formation? Don't fly at 450kts to your next steerpoint, slow down or orbit and allow them to rejoin.

 

Don't take off in full AB and proceed immediately to the next waypoint climbing out at 350kts, orbit the field until all of your flight is airborne and in formation so they don't have to run full AB for 10 minutes to catch up.

 

I agree their behavior is less than ideal in a lot of ways, but it is very possible to work around it if you just slow down a little and be patient.

Edited October 15, 2017 by feefifofum

[Capn kamikaze]

Bingo doesn't mean anything the way things are though, they'll still run out of fuel.

 

"See your wing isn't in formation? Don't fly at 450kts to your next steerpoint, slow down or orbit and allow them to rejoin."

 

If you start in formation then that is nonsense, there is no reason that your wingman should lag behind, he's flying the same aircraft as you, what seems to be happening is that you keep accelerating, they don't, yet they're still at full AB, the issue is very clear at high altitude, they struggle to climb to where you are, even though they have the exact same loadout, they don't keep up, even though they have the exact same type of aircraft, the issue is poor AI, try it, get in formation, then climb to 35000ft, and go to full afterburner, and watch what happens, they start falling behind, which ruins any chance at high speed/altitude team tactics, as you have to either go it alone and wait for them to catch up, or you have to slow down, losing speed, which is critical at the start of a BVR fight.

 

If I can do M1.8 in my F-15 at 35000ft towards the enemy to give my missiles as much KE as possible at launch, then so can my wingman, but he doesn't.

[Capn kamikaze]

"Don't fly at 450kts to your next steerpoint, slow down or orbit and allow them to rejoin."

 

And they'll still use afterburner to catch up while you do that, wasting more fuel.

[feefifofum]

I'm not arguing that the player PFM vs. AI SFM behave differently, I'm saying that-

 

1: people will complain about either option re: auto-RTB on bingo.

 

2: They will waste a lot less fuel if you wait than they will if you keep on flying fast away from them, which is what a lot of people do.

 

As far as high & fast goes, try stage 3 or 4 AB until you're in the final phase of your attack and need that last little bit of energy. I've had no issues climbing out to and staying at 35,000 with AI in stage 3, assuming I let them join up first and keep my own vertical speed under control. Formation zoom climbs, yeah, not going to work so well with the AI. The SFM also performs very differently at low speed than the PFM and this becomes especially noticeable if you find your own airspeed dipping below 250kts IAS or so when you're up there.

 

Again, I'm not saying that their behavior is ideal, just that you can work around it if you're a little considerate of their limitations.