I am the flight leader, but the sim issues orders for me. Frustrating.

[spreckair]

I fly single player career most of the time and there is one feature that really drives me crazy.  The situation is when I am the flight leader during an interception mission and the flight is approaching the target area.  When the enemy appears and is within a certain distance, the simulation automatically has my character call out the threat and issue orders to attack, even if I, the player playing the flight leader, do not want the flight to attack at that point in time.  Then my AI flight rushes headlong into the attack seemingly without any thought to tactics and gets slaughtered.

 

Is there any way to turn off this automatic communication and allow me, the flight leader/player, to issue the attack order when I am ready for my flight to attack?

[Jake]

I'm not sure if that helps you.
I have always told my companions to follow me and only later given the order to attack. You can do that via the command menu.
As far as I know, you can't deactivate it automatically.

[Jaegermeister]

9 hours ago, spreckair said:

Is there any way to turn off this automatic communication and allow me, the flight leader/player, to issue the attack order when I am ready for my flight to attack?

 

The radio command you are referring to here is a programmed command that corresponds to the Attack Area MCU being activated. “Free to search for air targets...” If you have icons visible, you will see the red arrow waypoint instead of the yellow waypoint. Usually number 3 and 4 will circle away and pretend there is no threat, and number 2 will oddly enough follow them and not you. I usually hope the enemy flight goes after them while I climb for altitude and try to circle around and kill a few EAC to even the odds a little. If not, I turn into the attack and try to get above the hostiles.

 

If there was not an attack area activated in the mission template, and you did not order the flight to attack because you were not the flight leader, they would defend themselves if the waypoint priorities were set appropriately. That’s a lot of nots and ifs.

 

If you did order your flight to attack because there was no attack area MCU activated for your flight, you would have your wish. At that point refer to the last 3 sentences of the first paragraph above.

 

So yes, it is possible but it depends on the mission design. There is no way to know if you will be the flight leader or not and most missions are designed to accommodate the 75% to 87.5% chance that you are not.

[Russkly]

15 hours ago, spreckair said:

I fly single player career most of the time and there is one feature that really drives me crazy.  The situation is when I am the flight leader during an interception mission and the flight is approaching the target area.  When the enemy appears and is within a certain distance, the simulation automatically has my character call out the threat and issue orders to attack, even if I, the player playing the flight leader, do not want the flight to attack at that point in time.  Then my AI flight rushes headlong into the attack seemingly without any thought to tactics and gets slaughtered.

 

Is there any way to turn off this automatic communication and allow me, the flight leader/player, to issue the attack order when I am ready for my flight to attack?

 

I use the "Return to our mission" command in this instance -  they should return to formation until you issue an attack order or the bandits get too close for comfort, in which case your flight will act on their own intiative regardless of your commands

 

I believe "Cover me" and "Do like me" might also have the effect of preventing your flight from rushing headlong into the fray or at least getting them to formate on you again if they've already gone Tally Ho.

Edited September 3, 2022 by Russkly
Spelling

[vonGraf]

Exactly because of this behaviour I don't really play the game anymore.

Other reasons are, you have no wingman/Rotte and the missing radio calls by your wingmates for enemy contacts.

(Exception is when you're in an escort flight; then your mates call out enemies from around 10 km distance properly)

[sevenless]

Yeah, about time to bring this at least on level with Il2-1946 commands and functionality.

Edited September 3, 2022 by sevenless

[spreckair]

Thank you all for the input!  Since I am usually the Squadron leader, I am then also the flight leader, so it does give me the option to give commands.  I just wish there was an option to turn this automatic command off when the player is the flight leader; it would give the player more realistic control over the flight.

[RedeyeStorm]

I have found that the AI has a tendency to work better to let it do it’s ‘thing’. I have found that if I interrupt the AI it’s stops doing anything and just follows you and has to ber ordered to attack again and again. This is especially noticeable in ground attack missions.

 

I usually let them do their thing and follow them in order not to end up with six enemy fighters on my tail.

 

I agree more AI commands would be great but I suspect that it is not a small thing to add/change.

Edited September 4, 2022 by RedeyeStorm

[Youtch]

Can this be modded or it has to be coded?

[AEthelraedUnraed]

2 hours ago, Youtch said:

Can this be modded or it has to be coded?

It can't be modded, but technically it doesn't even need to be modded since it's mission scripting.