How you get AI Stuka to do steep diving bombing attack?

[walter55]

I am in the ME building missions, I am trying to get the Stuka to do steep diving attacks, so far the settings.

I am testing have shown mediocre dives at best, they will deliver on target, I just don't seem to get the steep dive.

Any ideas from the experts here?

What settings on way points and target zone work best? 

 Any help on this matter?  

 

Cheers

Walt  

Edited April 3, 2018 by walter55

[Habu]

For dive bombing, you have to use Command Attack, and not Command Attack area.

 

As you use the command attack you have to select the target for your planes.

 

Planes must have external payload.

[NETSCAPE]

On 4/3/2018 at 11:53 AM, Habu said:

For dive bombing, you have to use Command Attack, and not Command Attack area.

 

As you use the command attack you have to select the target for your planes.

 

Planes must have external payload.

 

I used area attack throughout Sirens of Death.

 

On 4/2/2018 at 10:23 PM, walter55 said:

I am in the ME building missions, I am trying to get the Stuka to do steep diving attacks, so far the settings.

I am testing have shown mediocre dives at best, they will deliver on target, I just don't seem to get the steep dive.

Any ideas from the experts here?

What settings on way points and target zone work best? 

 Any help on this matter?  

 

Cheers

Walt  

 

I forget the minimum dive bomb altitude the game requires. But in real life 4000m alt +/- 500m was common. If your stuka's are at low altitude the AI will do a slant attack which is a shallow dive. They did slant attacks at in real life as well. In game, slant attacks feel right from an altitude of around 1000m +/- 200m.

 

Make sure your attack mcu is at the same altitude as the flight or else they'll suddenly drop altitude once they hit the last waypoint triggering to the attack mcu. 

 

If enemy fighters are in the mix, set the attack priority to HIGH or else the stukas will start weaving and in turn not do their bombing attack. 

 

By default with any bomber or ground attack I put a gap of 5000m  in-between the last waypoint to the attack mcu. This gives the AI plenty of time to see a target and make slight adjustments. Also the distance and timing of the radio call "feels" just right to me.

 

As for the first RTB waypoint after your Stuka bro's drop their bombs, I'd suggest something low no more than 500m. This is what they did in real life. Climbing after the dive was a lesson they learned not to do earlier in the war :). Unfortunately  in game the Stuka's pull out of their dive bomb runs too early in my opinion. Time and time again I read Stuka stories where those guys were dropping their bombs and pulling out of the dive at absurdly low altitude!

 

And a special note about payloads and AI

- SC250 or SC500 with the 4 x SD70's results in the AI dropping ALL bombs in the first attack run

- 3 x SC250's results in the AI dropping INDIVIDUAL bombs in 3 separate attack runs

 

Stuka AI speeds were updated with BoK. Here are my basic test results (my campaign has not been updated to reflect these recent changes however):

 

 

The old Stuka AI had a max speed of only 270kph!!!

Here are 2 Staffel (24 x Stuka's) bombing the North Factory District in Stalingrad. Each attack area MCU is object linked to a group or Kette of 3 Stuka's flying in V formation and those separate V formations in game provide the illusion of a larger Staffel formation for dramatic effect.

 

---------------------------

 

Below is a screen shot from Mission 4 "Sirens of Death"

 

The blocks with blue outlines represents targets for the AI, they are fake blocks, linked (russian) entities. Durability (or "hitpoints") values of blocks also changed with BoK update, and Sirens of Death is not updated to reflect those value changes, just want to note that if you open up and look at my old Stuka missions!

 

I guess the point is, A: you can surely use and should use the area attack mcu rather than the normal attack mcu IMO. And B: notice how small the area of attack is set to, it's best to be precise when commanding the AI to avoid collision, weaving, and other non sense. Obviously you could have a battery of artillery, vehicles or whatever as targets.

 

The RTB logic for large stuka formation bombing is kinda tricky but feel free to look at my missions, or I could even post my default bingo bombs/RTB group logic. (it should be very similar to what others have created as well)

 

Edited May 6, 2018 by NETSCAPE

[Habu]

23 hours ago, NETSCAPE said:

I used area attack throughout Sirens of Death.

It's good to know, because the right way for dive bombing was to use the command attack because the the command attack area didn't work. So if the command attack area works now, it's cool. I have to test that.

 

What is the setting for the altitude you use for the command attack area ?

[NETSCAPE]

1 hour ago, Habu said:

It's good to know, because the right way for dive bombing was to use the command attack because the the command attack area didn't work. So if the command attack area works now, it's cool. I have to test that.

 

What is the setting for the altitude you use for the command attack area ?

 

I want to say the min altitude for a dive attack in game is 2500m. In Sirens of Death most of the Dive bomb missions take place at 3500-4000m. The area attack mcu should be at the same alt as the previous waypoint obviously.

[sonnykims]

I've just found the minimum altitude for a "roll over, steep dive" on the first target flyover for AI is 4000. When waypoints and stukas are set at 3,500, they will fly over the target, do a circut and gain altitude before returning and commence the dive and drop. But always releasing bomb at a high altitude.....But I can live with that.