Questions about the broken Bomber AI in current PWCG

[Semor76]

One of the last patches must have change the AI behavior in that way that every Bomber in PWCG now only flying circles in a specific area on the map. They didn´t drop bombs,only do endless circles untill all gets shot down, or got the "fly home command" This happens for He-111/Ju-88/Pe-2/A-20 and possible the JU-87.  This breaks every mission in PWCG so far and make it useless for me.

 

Can somebody confirm this, and @PatrickAWlson can you please have a deeper look into this issue.

 

sec. question, it is possible to increase the number of Bombers without getting those anoying slowdowns ingame? I fly with medium air density and the max. Bombers in a flight is 4. This is far away from realistic.

[Adger]

I flew a A20 mission last night on the Kuban map mate..1 dropped bombs (Flight leader)? out of the 4  But..all 4 RTB,d,one with a bit of damage.

 

Regards Adger

[Yogiflight]

1 hour ago, Semor76 said:

One of the last patches must have change the AI behavior in that way that every Bomber in PWCG now only flying circles in a specific area on the map. They didn´t drop bombs,only do endless circles untill all gets shot down, or got the "fly home command"

Yes, I can confirm this, it is exactly what I experience everytime, I intercept Pe2s, A20s, or IL2s. Maybe setting the waypoints to high priority would solve this issue.

1 hour ago, Semor76 said:

sec. question, it is possible to increase the number of Bombers without getting those anoying slowdowns ingame? I fly with medium air density and the max. Bombers in a flight is 4. This is far away from realistic.

I fly with medium air density, as well, but I increased in the Advanced Config the numbers of bombers to 4 minimum, plus additional 4, so maximum of 8 bombers. IIRC Patrick mentioned some time ago, this is the maximum, what is working.

[Semor76]

Thx for reply guys.  I was already experimenting with the advanced settings as well but never know the exact numbers what PWCG (or the IL-2 engine) can handle.

 

So, let´s see what Pat can do with this weird AI.

[PatrickAWlson]

6 hours ago, Semor76 said:

Thx for reply guys.  I was already experimenting with the advanced settings as well but never know the exact numbers what PWCG (or the IL-2 engine) can handle.

 

So, let´s see what Pat can do with this weird AI.

 

Maybe something.  Maybe not much.  Next time you see that happening can you post the mission and eng files in a zip?  Gambit offered to take a look at this problem and I would like to take him up on the offer.  

[Semor76]

4 hours ago, PatrickAWlson said:

 

Maybe something.  Maybe not much.  Next time you see that happening can you post the mission and eng files in a zip?  Gambit offered to take a look at this problem and I would like to take him up on the offer.  

yup. Roger that.

[Semor76]

Sorry for the very late reply.

 

@Gambit21

 

Here are the needed files for you. Fresh from another frustrating intercept mission with 8 Heinkels performing the impressive "defensive circle" over their target.

 

 

 

 

Downloads.rar

Edited August 29, 2018 by Semor76

[PatrickAWlson]

Did some tests.  The bombers will not drop if there is no enemy target in the target area.  

[Thad]

Germans can be frugal. 

[Semor76]

On 9/1/2018 at 3:46 AM, PatrickAWlson said:

Did some tests.  The bombers will not drop if there is no enemy target in the target area.  

This happens every time I meet enemy Bombers in a mission.

[Semor76]

Any news about this problem? Maybe a fix in the next update?

[PatrickAWlson]

37 minutes ago, Semor76 said:

Any news about this problem? Maybe a fix in the next update?

 

Probably not next update.  This needs some thought. 

 

I see two issues:

1. The bomber will not drop if there is no target.  I used to put a full target set down for the AI, however, that was causing way too many ground units to appear and killing performance.  the fix was fewer ground units, but now that means fewer targets for the AI.  Right now that appears to be reality.  Maybe I can add an advanced parameter to set the number of AI targets.  people with more powerful machines can increase the number if their system can take the load

 

2. Often only the lead will drop and the rest will not.  This is an Ai issue that I cannot (as far as I am aware) do anything about.  It happens in the game campaign and other missions as well as PWCG missions.  PWCG can only create missions.  it is not part of the great Battles code base and cannot change AI behavior.

[Semor76]

On 9/14/2018 at 6:06 PM, PatrickAWlson said:

 

Probably not next update.  This needs some thought. 

 

I see two issues:

1. The bomber will not drop if there is no target.  I used to put a full target set down for the AI, however, that was causing way too many ground units to appear and killing performance.  the fix was fewer ground units, but now that means fewer targets for the AI.  Right now that appears to be reality.  Maybe I can add an advanced parameter to set the number of AI targets.  people with more powerful machines can increase the number if their system can take the load

 

2. Often only the lead will drop and the rest will not.  This is an Ai issue that I cannot (as far as I am aware) do anything about.  It happens in the game campaign and other missions as well as PWCG missions.  PWCG can only create missions.  it is not part of the great Battles code base and cannot change AI behavior.

Thx for the answer.

 

1.Point makes me hope for fixing the problem, Point 2 is the opposite of it and raises my disappointment about the Dev. decission to put the AI improvements not on the top 5 on the roadmap.

 

I will wait for futher updates. For now it makes no sense to me to scrub every 2nd or 3rd mission.

 

Keep up your work. You did a great job with PWCG!

[Swing]

Same problem here...

[=RS=rulezcz]

I saw this bomber behavior today as well. Pe-2s and A-20s just circling until we destroyed few of them. Then they went somewhere.

 

Couldn't the bombers just be made to go somewhere in a straight line ? I don't care about them bombing anything but to see 15 heavy bombers sightseeing like this feels a bit strange ?

[PatrickAWlson]

1 hour ago, rulezcz said:

I saw this bomber behavior today as well. Pe-2s and A-20s just circling until we destroyed few of them. Then they went somewhere.

 

Couldn't the bombers just be made to go somewhere in a straight line ? I don't care about them bombing anything but to see 15 heavy bombers sightseeing like this feels a bit strange ?

 

Please zip up and post the mission and .eng files.  In general the bombers should be pointed in the right direction and moving towards a waypoint when they spawn.  Circling is indicative of spawning without an active WP.  

 

 

[=RS=rulezcz]

9 hours ago, PatrickAWlson said:

 

Please zip up and post the mission and .eng files.  In general the bombers should be pointed in the right direction and moving towards a waypoint when they spawn.  Circling is indicative of spawning without an active WP.  

 

 

Thank you for your answer. I am afraid the mission files are gone now.  I will zip them next time I see strange behaviour.

[=RS=rulezcz]

Ok, so this was the other way round, but the same bomber behavior.

 

Escort mission

He-111 just circling above randezvous point until all shot down. There was no bombing raid at all.

 

The Pe-2 and Sturmoviks seemed to go somewhere.

Missions.rar

[=RS=rulezcz]

I wonder whether this is also belongs here.

 

This is a complete Ju-52 paratrooper mission that went entirely wrong.

 

Escorts spawned over the target area. So we flew alone the whole way. The AI obviously doesn´t like circling because by the time our Ju-52s arrived, all the fighters collided and went down. Luckily no enemy fighters spawned but that didn't help much because our flight just made big turn over the target (in wrong direction which was interesting - there is a screenshot with a flight path - i was following the leader) and then returned home with no paradrop.

 

I thought I would post it because these multiple aircarft paradrop missions are just excellent and it would be perfect if they worked properly.

paratroopers wrong.rar

[dburne]

Pat here is one I just flew in my Spit Mk IX Bondeplatte campaign.

Escorting a flight of A-20's.

After meeting them at designated area, they just kept flying away from the designated flight path.

Kept following them for a bit but they just were continuing on far away from flight path designation so I just quit the mission.

Mission and eng files attached.

 

 

dburne BP 1944-11-16.zip

[jollyjack]

There seems to be some serious bugs to do with Ai bombing in v 4.002 ... probably the IL2 -mission editor.

But i am curious if your older 3.102 (?) times PWG missions run OK in game version 4.002.