Difficulty doing bombing missions in career

[alphagamer1981]

So I have a selection of careers going on all sides, and im finding it very difficult doing the bombing missions in the mosquito, the junkers and the HE111. All are night missions with search lights but everytime me and my squadron fly over we are always getting absolutely rinsed by AAA fire causing us to fall out the sky or barely limp home with a cheese grater for a plane. How I have tried doing a high approach and a low approach but the results are always the same, how do we do these missions and get home?

[alphagamer1981]

anyone? 81 views and nothing?

[BlitzPig_EL]

It's an AI issue.  They always focus hard on the human player, to the exclusion of all your AI wingmen.

[=MERCS=JenkemJunkie]

The AA AI will make an accurate shot at where your plane will be if you don't change your flight path in relation to the AA. So if you change your flight path in relation to the AA after the AI fires it will miss. You can either do a blind maneuver and just zig zag or bob up and down over AA for example (you might get hit anyways while doing blind maneuvers if you don't change your flight path in relation to the AA enough), or you can get sweaty and consciously change your flight path when you see the tracers (doesn't work so good for tracerless AA). 

Edited April 9 by =MERCS=JenkemJunkie

[AEthelraedUnraed]

1 hour ago, BlitzPig_EL said:

It's an AI issue.  They always focus hard on the human player, to the exclusion of all your AI wingmen.

That's a fairy tale that just keeps being repeated. The AI doesn't specifically focus on human players more than on other AI. There is however certain behaviour that may make the AI more likely to focus on you. If you know how to exploit it, the opposite can be equally true where the AI is less likely to focus on you as a player.

 

I think the main problem is that AI in general is a bit too accurate, especially if set to higher difficulty levels. IIRC there's one career difficulty option that controls the Flak AI difficulty; set it to the option that turns down the AI level. With low level Flak AI you should be fine, especially if you fly high and change your flight path often as =MERCS=JenkemJunkie suggests.

[BlitzPig_EL]

I see it happen all the time in missions I have generated.  For example, I was leading a flight of 4 Mosquitos, escorted by 4 Spit IXs, when a lone Me 410 came into view on a reciprocal course slightly above me.  He flew past the entire flight, turned around, while my escorts totally ignored it, flew past the other Mossies and came straight for me, and blasted me out of the sky.  It had to fly past 7 aircraft that were behind me to get me.

 

It is not an uncommon experience.  The AI will key on a single human controlled aircraft, ignoring easier targets to get the player. 

[spreckair]

It seems to me that AI fixates on the first enemy it "sees".  If I fly ahead of the flight I am escorting and make myself "seen" by the enemy AI before any other plane in my flight, the AI will all come after me, even it it means they fly right over the bombers that I am escorting.  It is really unrealistic and immersion busting.  It also makes for gaming the mission by flying ahead as bait and leading the enemy away from the rest of the flight.

 

I don't know if this tendency applies to AA ground units, but it might.

[AEthelraedUnraed]

5 hours ago, spreckair said:

It seems to me that AI fixates on the first enemy it "sees".  If I fly ahead of the flight I am escorting and make myself "seen" by the enemy AI before any other plane in my flight, the AI will all come after me, even it it means they fly right over the bombers that I am escorting.  It is really unrealistic and immersion busting.  It also makes for gaming the mission by flying ahead as bait and leading the enemy away from the rest of the flight.

 

I don't know if this tendency applies to AA ground units, but it might.

This ^

 

The AI does have fixation issues, but those are not directed towards the player aircraft specifically. Whenever I encounter enemies, I take care not to fly too far ahead of my flight but rather stay back with the rest of them. As a result, the AI never singles me out.

 

I think it's likely that AA ground units would suffer from the same tendency. If you're flying at the head of your flight, the AA will spot you first and might indeed start targeting you specifically.

[alphagamer1981]

so is there a way to edit a script to make AAA fire more random and less accurate, specifically for cinematic videos i want to make?

[RedeyeStorm]

The AI also has a tendency to focus on the flight lead when flying bombers. When you star a career at a lower rank you can easily observe this. AI attackers flying straight up the V formation of bombers. Great fun to be had when manning the dorsal gunners position!

 

ps the mosquito is considered a bomber in the game so yeah don’t fly as lead if you don’t want to singled out.

Edited April 11 by RedeyeStorm
Ps addes