When orbiting in formation, the AI go to idle power during turns

[BritTorrent]

[OPEN BETA, LATEST VERSION]

 

I've recently noticed an issue with the AI. When I have a pair of aircraft in an orbit, they throttle back to idle during the turns. This leads to problems with them staying airborne.

 

Have a look in the first attached track file (BugReport). I have a 2 ship of MiG-29's cruising at 500kts GS and at 29,000ft. After a few seconds (the track is sped up) they turn north onto the racetrack orbit. After a few more seconds they start the first turn of the orbit.

 

Notice how they throttle back to 60%RPM at the start of the turn. They enter the turn at around 310kts IAS and they leave the turn at about 210kts IAS.

 

Now, because I have this flight at 500kts GS, they manage to maintain enough airspeed to continue level flight. If you set the cruise to a more realistic speed, say 420-450kts, then they lose so much airspeed in the turn that they hit stall AoA and begin to descend.

 

Have a look at the second track file (BugReport2). In this one they're set to orbit at 450kts GS. They enter the turn at 280kts, and they lose so much airspeed they begin to descend at a really high AoA. It's pretty odd.

 

If I only set a single aircraft in the flight, they make the turn at the correct rpm setting and maintain speed throughout the turn. This only seems to apply to multi-ship flights.

 

I tested this with an F-5 and an F-15 as well, and experienced the same results. I've also attached the mission file I used for testing.

 

I don't think this issue has always been here. I've been able to set pairs to orbit before with no issues. For whatever reason they just seem to throttle all the way down during the turn.

Bug.miz

Bug-Report.trk

Bug-Report2.trk

[BritTorrent]

Any feedback from ED on this?

 

I may well just be doing something wrong, but I've tried multiple different approaches to stop this behavior and nothing I do works.

 

One thing I have noticed is that it doesn't effect all aircraft. The F-14, E2 and E-3 seem to work absolutely fine. It might be something specific to the MiG-29.

Edited June 18, 2018 by BritTorrent

[BritTorrent]

Any feedback from ED on this?

 

I'm willing to accept that I'm doing something wrong here, but I've spoken to several experienced mission builders and nobody can explain this behavior. I can only assume it's a bug with the AI.

[104th_Maverick]

Hello,

 

 

Thank for the heads up on this. I tested it and was able to reproduce the problem you described.

 

 

It actually has nothing to do with the 'Orbit' and more to do with the turn itself.

 

It looks like the AI struggles to deal with any turn around the 90 mark with this bug, even with 'orbit' command removed the same result happens.

 

 

I have submitted tracks of the issue to the developers in the testing version of the sim, thanks again!

[BritTorrent]

Thanks for the response Maverick, much appreciated.

 

I never thought to test this without the orbit command. I just assumed it was an issue with that task.

 

 

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