Where do my mates go?

[TheSNAFU]

To be clear this is not really a PWCG question.
 

So with all the enjoyment the game with PWCG provides other than during ground attack missions, the one thing that is consistent is that I most frequently return to base alone. In AAR’s PWCG reports the surviving flight members returned from the missions but rarely do I see them return to our base and land in game. Most times they seem to disappear during combat. I know they’re still flying or sometimes landing because I see them via external view. 
 

Is there a trick to locating the others in my flight and returning to base together? Unless they are close by I won’t see them on the map. As much as I’ve played the game i’m a bit embarrassed to ask this but I don’t seem to see others talk about it leading me to think I may be missing something. Thanks in advance. 

 

[Utopioneer]

I've noticed that if AI pilots get separated from the flight, they won't necessarily follow the waypoints or attempt to group back up, and I've seen them circling in place until we go back to them. I've seen this most often with a human flight leader and AI flight members, where AI pilots fall behind or become engaged while the flight leader continues on. To counter this, I will try to make sure the AI pilots are present and following before moving on. Could that be what's happening? Not a PWCG issue but the game's AI logic.

[PatrickAWlson]

Two entirely different subjects.

 

@TheSNAFU Your squadron mates are linked to the leader via a formation command.  If the leader is you then you can tell them to rejoin.  If the AI is the leader then they are doing what the AI wants to do.  Fighter waypoints are low priority so the AI will try to track down and kill something if it can.  Otherwise it will fly waypoints.  Remember, if you are not the flight leader then YOU are the one bugging off  

 

@Utopioneer AI flights are entirely different.  The formation command does not work with spawned entities, therefore nothing that is spawned (i.e. almost freakin everything) can be put in formation.  Each spawned AI plane is effectively its own flight.  As a best effort to get around that the AI planes in the same flight have exactly the same waypoints, offset for formation but otherwise identical.  Because they spawn within seconds of each other and then fly waypoints that are configured exactly the same as their formation they give the appearance of flying in formation.  They really are not.  If they get out of formation they will never reform because they have not idea that they should.  They will continue to fight, perform their missions, and return to base to land.

 

 

[Guest deleted@111249]

I just flew a mission in the P-51 on BoBP, in which we scrambled as our airfield was under attack. The AI as usual hugs the deck at 200mph as the enemy wave comes in at around 5000. I manage to shoot down 4 only to look around and find my flight nowhere to be found and I have 7 more 190's 109's on my tail. Mind you I'm not far from our airfield or waypoints. I hear no audio about disengaging or heading for home or anything. I guess they may have all been shot down but that's unlikely. BTW, this seems like a completely unwinnable nightmare mission. I guess that can happen, but damn. I'm not sure if the hordes of German aircraft have to do with me setting the air density (or whatever that setting is called) to medium.

[TheSNAFU]

I should have specified that I am not the leader in these circumstances. My AI mates engage the enemy but at some point they just vanish. I have even tried to just fly with one of them and do what I can to avoid contact to see if I can stay in contact. Eventually I have to evade an attacker and before I know it, the flight if any are left are gone. I have then tried to find them by flying to the next waypoint but rarely find any of them again. I usually give up and RTB. To bad there isn't a radio call like many other sims to request their position so I can rejoin. It's not a terrible situation but it would be nice to most often locate my flight and fly the rest of the mission with them.  

[Guest deleted@111249]

Make sure your flight isn't being completely destroyed. I went back and replayed this mission and noticed, that yes indeed they were being picked off one by one so that I was the only one left and despite getting 2-4 kills I was then vastly outnumbered. I tried dragging them back to my base, but no AA there. I then dragged them halfway to Paris, but they still kept following me around the map. I guess the AI don't have fuel tanks? They were unrealistically relentless. Was comical, 7-8 Germans chasing one lone P-51.

[TheSNAFU]

Yep the relentless pursuits are a drag as no sane pilot would chase an enemy so deep into their territory even if they had the fuel to do so which they wouldn’t.. hoping Pats AA changes will help make the crazy AI pay for chasing is all over our side of the front.

 

 I have checked external view just to see if any of my mates are still flying and they often  are, at least a few of em. I look at the terrain around them to see if I recognize it to get a hint of where they are. Most often I can’t determine their location. Kinda sucks and I’m not seeing any solutions here so far. The problem is present in the career mode to so it is definitely not a pwcg issue.  In any case I appreciate  the feedback 

Edited May 13, 2020 by TheSNAFU

[Yogiflight]

1 hour ago, TheSNAFU said:

Yep the relentless pursuits are a drag as no sane pilot would chase an enemy so deep into their territory even if they had the fuel to do so which they wouldn’t.. hoping Pats AA changes will help make the crazy AI pay for chasing is all over our side of the front.

 

 I have checked external view just to see if any of my mates are still flying and they often  are, at least a few of em.

Most likely your squadmates are doing the same as the enemy AI, chasing an enemy back to his base. I often see in AARs squadmates, who had killed an enemy far in enemy territory near an airbase, or who had been killed by AA defense.

Also watch out for radio callouts of your squadmates, telling they are out of ammo and returning to base. This currently happens very often, as they shoot like mad, usually without hitting anything seriously. And you won't find them at your own base, but at the nearest base, in that case.

[Varibraun]

18 hours ago, TheSNAFU said:

My AI mates engage the enemy but at some point they just vanish.

 

7 hours ago, TheSNAFU said:

The problem is present in the career mode to so it is definitely not a pwcg issue.  In any case I appreciate  the feedback 

 

If it is any consolation, based on my reading through the years, I think it happened frequently IRL too.  I am currently reading "Flying Start" written by a Spitfire pilot and just came across this entry last night that made me think back on your post:

 

We came together with the Messerchmitts in a monstrous explosion of planes and developed immediately a dogfight of exceptional size and fury.  I never again saw so many fighters engaged so closely together as in the first moments of that encounter...[description of chaotic battle]...Then came the still unfamiliar miracle.  The sky was empty.  The tumult was over as abruptly as it had started.  I put the nose down and headed north for Duxford. 

 

I am also in the middle of an audiobook, "Race of Aces," following Bong, Johnson, McGuire and others in the P-38, and it recounts the same "empty sky phenomenon."  As with the description above, from those accounts it seemed normal that after expending fuel and ammo in a fight, if they didn't have a visual on friendlies, like you, they would RTB instead of attempting to locate and rejoin.

 

FYI - both of the above are good reads.  In fact, "Race of Aces" has now put me into the New Guinea expansion proponents with @Feathered_IV and @Bremspropeller if Japanese a/c can be figured out.