Reformation Fun

[HeavyCavalrySgt]

I had a fun escort mission shepherding a big herd of 111s.

On the way home there were a few stragglers who were hanging back a little due to battle damage and others who seemed to be staying in formation with them.  The lead element though? He didn't want to slow down, and he didn't want to just leave the cripples behind either.

 

He came up with a novel solution.  When he got ahead a few Klicks, he'd honk his bomber around in a 60 degree bank and - with his wingmen - go ripping back through the middle of the stragglers' formation. To making forming up more exciting, he would start a 60 degree bank back to the course home as the stragglers are scrambling to try to turn to follow him. That resulted in another head-on pass, then the stragglers collected themselves and regrouped as the lead element pulled away again.

This reformation procedure was demonstrated all the way home from the target.

[unreasonable]

That is very odd: I have escorted quite a few bomber formations on long trips (it's a mindfulness exercise  ) and never seen anything like that, although not since 3.008.  It is almost as though the bomber leader was imitating the AI escort's race track course.

 

It is a miracle that they did not all collide. They usually manage at least one collision when they make a dramatic course change over your home field at the mission start.

 

I think 3.008 mentioned some improvements in the Ai's formation keeping behaviour. Perhaps this is an unanticipated consequence of those changes? Or perhaps his throttle was damaged and he could not slow down?

[Juri_JS]

I think it was update 3.007 that introduced this problem. The AI groups now have huge problems to reform their formation and sometimes they will not continue to the next waypoint because of this.

[unreasonable]

It might be better if the mission generator could then somehow create say 3 formations of 3 planes, running on parallel tracks, rather than one formation of nine.

 

I know that will create new complications of it's own, but it might work and would look better than the huge Vs of many planes.  If you could make a leader plane follow a line to a waypoint offset to left or right by a set distance, you could have multiple small formations using a single set of waypoints.

 

Still I will not try to argue with the experts about the ME: mission design in career is still a WIP. There is yet hope.

[HeavyCavalrySgt]

I was impressed that they didn't have a head-on, but on the other hand I have not seen mishaps when they first pick up their escorts either.