Bots, Mountains, and Altitude Readings.

[Zooropa_Fly]

Whilst on my new mountain top map, I've just noticed that the on-screen altitude reading gives actual alt. to the ground below. (So when flying over a mountain top the reading soars / plunges in time with the cliff).

My Alby's altimeter reads alt. to sea-level.

 

I've been having trouble controlling the bots over this mountainous terrain, and it seems to be that they are reading alt. to the ground below. Thus throwing them into chaos as they try and match the waypoint altitudes, as they fly over steep cliffs etc.

 

I'll test this further myself next time I take the server down, but has anyone any experience or knowlege of how this works / doesn't work ?

Be a bummer if there's no way around this, the scenery's great for a dogfight.

 

Cheers,

S!

Edited December 13, 2019 by Zooropa_Fly

[Cynic_Al]

On 12/13/2019 at 1:39 PM, Zooropa_Fly said:

I've been having trouble controlling the bots over this mountainous terrain, and it seems to be that they are reading alt. to the ground below. Thus throwing them into chaos as they try and match the waypoint altitudes, as they fly over steep cliffs etc.

 

 

One way would be to focus the relevant waypoint then select Tools/Set objects on ground. The waypoint's Y value will show the ground height at that point, to which you can add a suitable value.

[Zooropa_Fly]

Cheers bad boy,

I think I've done that, but will try one more time.

The waypoints have been set in 'ortho view' and all looks fine, except instead of circling at the waypoints' altitude, they still climb forever, unless they get into some action.

I have considered giving them 10% fuel so at least they'll not stay up for long.

Another compromise.

 

[unreasonable]

3 hours ago, Zooropa_Fly said:

Cheers bad boy,

I think I've done that, but will try one more time.

The waypoints have been set in 'ortho view' and all looks fine, except instead of circling at the waypoints' altitude, they still climb forever, unless they get into some action.

I have considered giving them 10% fuel so at least they'll not stay up for long.

Another compromise.

 

 

Circling and climbing forever is something I recall AI doing in RoF Career on occasion....  In your mission, why not give the AI flight a circuit of waypoints: make them far enough apart and with a big enough zone that the AI can reach them easily. They will fly from waypoint to waypoint forever without climbing. Set their priority to "low" and the AI should attack enemy that get within a certain range.

 

They also try to maintain a certain minimum AGL height for safety reasons. I think it is about 200m, should be easy enough to check.  

Edited December 21, 2019 by unreasonable

[Zooropa_Fly]

Thanks Unreasonable.

I set the waypoints to ground, then gave them 600M which should have been enough, but still the same.

I deleted the 2 seaters, that sorted them out, and the low fuel load is working a treat for the rest !

They're getting into fights most of the time, so I'll probably leave it, plenty of action as is.

edit : Although I was going to try a circuit of waypoints as you suggested. I'll report back if it works.

 

The next problem... I just noticed when you kill the machine gunners on the hillsides, the machine gun re-spawns but the gunner doesn't ! (and you don't get a kill award subsequently).

I'll configure that a different way and see if I can get it to work.

But you wonder if they tested this game enough..

 

Edited December 21, 2019 by Zooropa_Fly

[IckyATLAS]

On 12/13/2019 at 2:39 PM, Zooropa_Fly said:

Whilst on my new mountain top map, I've just noticed that the on-screen altitude reading gives actual alt. to the ground below. (So when flying over a mountain top the reading soars / plunges in time with the cliff).

My Alby's altimeter reads alt. to sea-level.

 

Always trust your flight instruments ? 

[Cynic_Al]

6 hours ago, IckyATLAS said:

 

Always trust your flight instruments ? 

 

Unless the pitot tube has frozen over.

[Cynic_Al]

13 hours ago, Zooropa_Fly said:

The waypoints have been set in 'ortho view' and all looks fine, except instead of circling at the waypoints' altitude, they still climb forever, unless they get into some action.

 

Are you sure the waypoints are being hit? To get confirmation, have each one trigger a subtitle.

 

Also you could set an interval to re-trigger one waypoint periodically; it's what I do with my AI fighters.

 

 

[Zooropa_Fly]

Dammit you've done it again !!

 

Thanks Cynic, stuck 2-way timers to the waypoints which seems to have done the trick.

Simple yet effective, S!