seachlights

[Sandinourcoffee6]

Do AI planes dodge searchlight beams,I have played a few night witches missions and the AI seem to linger in the searchlight beams making them easy prey for flak gunners,any night mission and your squad are likely to get wiped out.

 

maybe this is very complicated to change in the sim but without it it makes any night campaigns non playable

hence any time your flight fly past an enemy airfield on their way to their target at night,you are most likely to lose 2 of your wing

I know in any scripted missions any flights can be set to fly away from any known flak area strongholds.

in campaign mode I do not think this is the case

I know any important target would be heavily defended with lots of flak and searchlights,but I do think any flights would keep away from any enemy flak on the way to their target and the same on the way back,I hope if possible this could be improved,the game is amazing and the AI are 100 per cent better than before so it’s a shame if they get shot down by flak

[Noisemaker]

In my experience, no, the AI does very little to avoid the searchlights that they should clearly know are there (kind of hard to miss!), and do not perform evasive manoeuvrers once lit up.  My solution to this in my night bomber career is to always lead the flight carrying a forward machine gun.  Once I get caught in the lights, I note their position and go evasive until I can get out, and circle just outside of their range.  At this point the second plane of the flight should get their focus (the Po-2 always come in with 5km of separation), and I swing in to machine gun the spotlight while it's focused on my mate (Also giving my rear gunner the attack ground targets command, in case I miss).  I've found so far that most targets will have 2 to 3 spotlights around them and if you use your other flight members as bait, you can pretty quickly eliminate the spotlights (and sometimes the AAA if your tail gunner gets off some good shots), at a minimal cost to your AI wingmen(women) and low risk for yourself.  AI performance is definitely an area that needs working on for the Po-2 in particular. I'd love to fly missions as they were flown in WW2 with each member of the flight taking alternate routes and attacking the targets from different directions, instead of the slow parade to death we have now.

[Sandinourcoffee6]

I am sure it can be done,evasive action from searchlights,AI take evasive action if attacked from enemy aircraft so I sure they can do the same from enemy searchlights,it will save a lot of AI from doom

[Gambit21]

AI do not evade AA or searchlights.

[40plus]

I still haven't seen search lights or barrage balloons in this sim. Two things I know exist, but no joy so far....even in my po2 career where I thought lights would be more prevalent.

[LukeFF]

55 minutes ago, 40plus said:

I still haven't seen search lights or barrage balloons in this sim. Two things I know exist, but no joy so far....even in my po2 career where I thought lights would be more prevalent.

 

You will see searchlights in action all over the place in nighttime career mode missions. 

[Ram399]

Just a bit off topic but I got a VR headset recently and have been using it to play a night bomber campaign in the He-111, and the searchlights and frontline in general at night is easily one of the most immersive experiences I've had to date both in VR and just IL-2 in general.

Also while the AI He-111s don't make any attempt to avoid the searchlights, there isn't really anything they can do to avoid them on account of how slow and big they are- luckily they're usually at high enough an altitude that the flak threat is reduced somewhat.

If anyone hasn't tried a night campaign they definitely should though.
The Career I've been flying is II./KG 55 at Stalingrad, and it has a mix of day and night missions.

Some screenshots of a night raid over the Don:

Spoiler

 

Edited September 6, 2020 by Ram399