[NO BUG]GROUP ATTACK not assigning one target per aircraft

[stormrider]

According to the manual:

 

GROUP ATTACK. When checked, the entire flight group will participate in the attack of the target. By default, each aircraft in a flight group is assigned one target.

When assigning multiple targets in the same steerpoint, all the AI planes of this flight will only attack one target per run: the first target, then the next target in the next run. Before, they would share the targets and would attack one target each, per run.

AI_Group_Attack_Bug.miz

Edited August 21, 2020 by BIGNEWY

[BIGNEWY]

Reported for checking

 

thanks

[BIGNEWY]

Hi

 

just checked with the team, the bombing task can not be used to have wingmen attack different targets at the same time.

 

thanks

[stormrider]

Hi

 

just checked with the team, the bombing task can not be used to have wingmen attack different targets at the same time.

 

thanks

 

 

It used to work before as described by the manual. If not, how is it done now to have each element of the flight to attack different targets?

Edited August 21, 2020 by stormridersp

[Grimes]

What group attack does is it just removes the restriction for attacking a given target. A really good example would be with an attack group task for anti-shipping. The AI are aware of the target and how much damage their missiles would do to it, so the group would expend exactly the amount of missiles requires to sink the target. If a missile is lost then whoever has more munitions would engage. Say it takes 3 missiles to sink the target ship and you had an aircraft armed with 4 missiles. If it was just a single aircraft in the group then 3 missiles would be launched. If you upped it to 4 aircraft in the group a total of 3 missiles would still be launched (might be 1 or 2 from different aircraft). However if you checked group attack then each aircraft would launch 3 missiles, thus 12 missiles would be enroute to the target.

 

For bombing tasks it just means that each member of the group will also drop however many bombs you specified on the target. With multiple tasks the key is when the AI decide the task is complete to move on to the next one.

 

 

So ways to accomplish a group bombing multiple targets, well there is basically 3 ways to do it.

 

1. Use JDAM/Fire and Forget weapons. Once AI launch the set number of fire and forget weapons at a target that task is "complete" and they will move on to the next. Since laser guided bombs are not fire and forget the task isn't complete until the bombs hit the target.

 

2. Fake it with 4 flights of one, set follow tasking, and then at a given point give each the order to engage their specific target and reform once done.

 

3. Fake it with the power of lua. Admittedly its been a while since I did this and I forget the specifics for how to get certain behavior, but the gist is with aircraft/helicopters you can control individual units. Iterate the units in the group, get the individual units controller, then assign each their own tasking. The part I'm hazy about is what the behavior was for getting the AI to rejoin and continue the groups route.

 

 

Say you had just 4 targets it'd be something like this where tasks is a table of each bombing task indexed numerically

 

local tasks = {[1] = {Bombing Task here}}
local gp = Group.getByName('whatever')
for i = 1, gp:getSize() do
  gp:getUnit(i):getController():pushTask(tasks[i])
end

[stormrider]

For 10 years I had the impression that the AI were bombing the assigned targets as per manual.

 

 

I don't really like faking things up or cheating the AI. Your script is a solution to overcome this limitation, thank you for sharing it, but still, IMO it doesn't make sense that it's not possible, by default, to have multiple targets assigned to a flight on a single bombing run. Even the manual agrees. It's these small things that make BMS shine.

 

 

By default, each aircraft in a flight group is assigned one target.

 

Just because of what's written on the manual, I honestly still don't know if this is for a wishlist or indeed a bug. As per manual, it's definitely not a [No Bug] tho.

[MBot]

Having individual aircraft in a group bomb individual targets simultaneously has never been possible with the default ME. The only solution is to assign an Attack Task to the wingmen individually via LUA (the leader can use the attack task from the ME). Once wingen have completed their task they will rejoing with the leader automatically. Be aware that when getting their own tasks, wingmen will revert to default settings (reaction to threat etc.) and not inherit the settings from the parent group, so respective settings need to be applied to all wingmen as necessary.

 

Having native support for simultaneous group attacks on individual target points is highly desirable for the future, but I would categorize this as wishlist item.

[Grimes]

By default, each aircraft in a flight group is assigned one target.

 

Just because of what's written on the manual, I honestly still don't know if this is for a wishlist or indeed a bug. As per manual, it's definitely not a [No Bug] tho.

 

That comment is literally copy and pasted for every single task that it exists for in the manual. For the task Attack Group it is very much a true statement as the AI will divvy the targets out among the flight members automatically. Checking group attack would allow each flight member to attack the same target at the same time.

 

The bombing task IS just a single target though. And the way tasks in "Perform Task" works is it does task 1 THEN task 2 THEN task 3, etc. Only once the conditions for the task is complete will the AI move to the next task in the queue. So that is why if you switch their weapons to JDAMs the bombing task is completed once the 2nd bomb is dropped per target and the AI move on to the next task. With laser guided bombs the AI has to guide it in, so once the 2nd bomb hits the task is complete.

[stormrider]

That comment is literally copy and pasted for every single task that it exists for in the manual.

 

 

Isn't that sad that even the manual is bugged?

[Grimes]

Isn't that sad that even the manual is bugged?

 

On this specific point I wouldn't say that. "Perform Task>Whatever" is a task queue where it does one after the other. As such bombing or attack map object tasks has only a single task active at a given time. Hence only a single target. By definition there are no other targets to assign the group automatically. Now if you change it to Attack Group and then have multiple units in that group, the behavior will be more in line with what you expect. But it still only applies to that specific group, if you had another "attack group" task then the AI will only start attacking the 2nd group once the 1st is completely destroyed.

[PMcG]

 

 

[code]

local tasks = {[1] = {Bombing Task here}}

local gp = Group.getByName('whatever')

for i = 1, gp:getSize() do

gp:getUnit(i):getController():pushTask(tasks)

end

[/code]

 

Hi Grimes,

Thank you for the above snippet. I've spent the last 2 months trying to figure out a way to assign a group's Ai wingmen seperate targets. I was told it wasn't possible. I have a question.

 

local tasks = {[1] = {Bombing Task here}} , would i insert target1 where it says "Bombing Task here" ? And target1 is the below?

 

target1 = UNIT:TaskBombing(Vec2, GroupAttack, WeaponExpend, AttackQty, Direction, Altitude, WeaponType, Divebomb)

 

And if I wanted the 2nd unit in the group to attack a separate target would it be?

 

Local tasks= {[1] = {target1} , [2] = {target2 }}

 

Thx

[Grimes]

It is certainly possible. I had to fiddle with it a bit since it appears some of the AI behavior had changed after I wrote the initial code. Plus I haven't done a ton of generating AI flight plans, tasking, and then sub-dividing the tasks ever since I was experimenting with this. The AI still do some weird things that warrant further investigating. But this might give you an idea of what is needed.

PAI_mult_JDAM_tasking_within_group.miz

[PMcG]

Hi Grimes,

Thank you. Is there a lua file embedded in the .miz file. I like the smiley face.:)

[Grimes]

It is in plain text. Just load it in the editor and copy the text out of the do script box.