Is there a way to activate an AI fighter and have it immediately acquire and attack a player in MP?

[No601_Swallow]

Hi all. I've built an obstacle race for my squadron (low level thrills and spills through the wreckage of Stalingrad, with those big green circles [AND ARROWS!   ]. It mostly works fine, but one of my "obstacles" doesn't really work.

 

This is what I want to achieve: In one section of the course, I want an AI plane to attack (or attempt to attack or at least look scary) each player-controlled aeroplane for thirty seconds-ish and then give up. 

 

This is the problem: players are going very fast - I've pushed a Lagg round the course at about 500 kmh, and by the time the AI has made up its mind to attack, the players have generally gone through that section of the course. 

 

This is what I've tried: a checkzone to activate the AI aeroplane and start it flying towards a first waypoint, and then a further checkzone to give it the Attack Area command. I've tried other varients, such as enabling the AI from the start of the mission and having it loiter at the course, thus cutting out the activation checkzone.

 

But no matter how big or small I make the Attack Area circumference, and no matter what distance or altitude I try the AI, it still takes some time to decide to attack and circle round to start its attack run, by which time it's too late.

 

Is there any way to speed all this up, remembering that this is MP, so you can't get the AI to target a particular "SP-player" plane like you would normally do.

 

Otherwise, I'll just have to resort to a sort of lame head-on simulation using simple waypoints?

 

And by the way, is the old "don't use Spawning for AI aircraft in MP" rule still valid? My ideal choice would be to spawn aircraft in rather than activate them.

 

Anyway, any advice would be welcome. Cheers! .

[coconut]

AIs don't attack players in MP: See my bug report  and Han's comment on it. The good news is that it will get fixed eventually, but for now the player has to attack the AI for the AI to fight back. A head-on pass should do it, with some luck. Set the AI to fly straight at the player, using low-prio waypoints. The AI will see the player flying towards it and hopefully interpret it as an attack, and will defend itself.

 

 

 

And by the way, is the old "don't use Spawning for AI aircraft in MP" rule still valid?

 

I didn't know about this rule. I've been braking it with success for quite some time  

[No601_Swallow]

Thanks for the reply Coconut. Fake head-on via waypoints it is!

[TP_Jacko]

Is this really true! 

 

That is a real blow for the future of coop missions

[No601_Swallow]

Funnily enough, Jacko, I don't think it affects us too much. AI will fight back if they're attacked, so so long as we engage with them, they'll do that 109-merciless-shredding-machine thing just fine. (It was a bit of a problem in our last mission, because the 109s over the bridges never attacked us in our IL-2s, but hopefully there was enough else going on that people didn't notice).

 

And hopefully, it'll be rectified in the next Ju-88-tastic update. It had better be.

[MF-Belgarufo]

AI seem to be functioning in MP again (minus the head-on or shooting at them)

 

Under the cover command AI will intercept you as soon as you THINK about approaching their charges.  Using a combat area MCU they are also engaging without provocation.  

 

All my missions are fun and engaging again!!

 

Bad thing is I got rusty hunting those brain dead AI for months. Now I have to watch 'em again

 

 

Good thing is, they feel a lot more like human pilots again.  The AI is actually pretty darned decent, when they are working

Edited April 12, 2016 by MF-Belgarufo

[coconut]

AI seem to be functioning in MP again (minus the head-on or shooting at them) Under the cover command AI will intercept you as soon as you THINK about approaching their charges. Using a combat area MCU they are also engaging without provocation. All my missions are fun and engaging again!!

 

Great news! I tested it this evening and the results agree with your observations. I've updated my bug report http://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/12258-autopilot-and-ai/?p=330548

 

Playing with icons, I also noticed that enemy planes within range of friendly spotters appeared as red regardless of distance. I wonder if that means that spotters can help AI patrols be even more aggressive, and go for enemies that are far away. Right now it seems I have to come with 4km of enemy AIs to have them react.

 

On the other hand, Brano and I ran into an enemy patrol when we flew together a ferw days ago, it flew past us, 3km or so away, and ignored us. We were in P40s, it was in a MC202. Maybe the plane type, or number of enemies plays a role? During my test today I noticed that AIs that had a severe altitude handicap did not attempt to engage.

Edited April 12, 2016 by coconut

[No601_Swallow]

I'm still not getting much luck with the "attack area" [attack air targets] command in MP. As far as I can tell, AI will just circle the MCU location until engaged, at which point they'll go defensive. I think.

Edited April 13, 2016 by No601_Swallow

[coconut]

New test in a more realistic setting, no icons. The AI did not attack me.

On the other mission I used for the test, the AI seemed more aggressive. Maybe nothing is changed, and I'm just imagining things.

[Ala13_Kokakolo]

I have been testing the mission one mission today and they have attacked me. Remember if you set the waypoint to high priority they ignore any other task.

[No601_Swallow]

I have been testing the mission one mission today and they have attacked me. Remember if you set the waypoint to high priority they ignore any other task.

 

They will respond if they sense you attacking or maneuvering to attack. But if you make no move towards them, they'll ignore you. As far as I can tell, the priority of the waypoint or attack area command doesn't seem to make a difference.

 

Maybe try your test again, but this time with autolevel on. In fact, it's instructive to engage the autolevel and then observe the whole thing on the map/briefing screen (with icons on, of course).

Edited April 15, 2016 by No601_Swallow

[coconut]

I'm desperately trying to provoke my AIs. I have found out that AIs escorting other AIs are deliciously aggressive, I've had them attack me as far as 4km out. Still not ideal, but better then "hey, I'm flying in formation with you, attack me maybe?" that used to be the rule.

 

More seriously, those are my findings:

• Approach an F4 on attack area duty within 1.5 km and it will turn defensive
• Approach an i16 on attack area duty within 300m and it will turn defensive
• Approach an i16 escorted by another i16 within 4km and it will turn aggressive

More experiments needed, but it seems that the cover MCU is the way to go. If we could get a fake invisible indestructible "plane" that we can position in 3d, we could implement patrols that are a bit more effective. All we would have to do make the fighter cover that "egg" and it would do the job. Coupled with a few check zone MCUs, one could make a handful of fighters cover a rather large area.

 

EDIT 1: Here is something that kind-of does the job: dogfight.zip

EDIT 2: Just tested that in a complex mission, and it worked well. I used a pair of i16 to cover a ground objective. I approached flying an 109e7, started chasing the leader, got destroyed by the escort that I had not seen. I have posted groups in this thread: http://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/14803-groups-sharing-corner/?p=350218

Edited April 16, 2016 by coconut

[No601_Swallow]

Great great work, Coconut! Here comes the mission maker's mantra: "Testing continues..."

 

I do have to say, though, rather than finding ingenious workarounds, it would be great if the devs could find the switch that stops AI from attacking human aircraft in MP, when in exactly the same mission, they will be merciless to the human in SP (by "exactly the same" I mean replacing the "fakefield" spawning location with an aircraft set to "player" but leaving all other details, including AI flights, unchanged).