AI formation and fuel consumption

[FSKRipper]

Maybe a difficult issue but I noticed that flying lead with an AI wingman in planes with afterburners leads to problems with long range missions.

 

Made a simple two ship flight with 2 F-15C with myself as lead. After forming up my wingman is keeping formation with a constant use of afterburner and speedbrakes. While the upload allows only tracks up to 5MB, I choose a short example. I played a 1 hour Mission today where my wingmen arrived at the target with half the fuel that I got in my tanks (I know that in the example track he has no droptank).

 

I'm aware that this might be a real balance Problem with the AI since sims like Falcon BMS are also fighting with such issues. But even moderate speeds without changing course or altitude seems to make a difference it could be a real showstopper on Escort flight into enemy territory.

F-15 formation.trk

[Exorcet]

It's an annoying issue yes. Setting formation to close tends to help. I was able to get my wingman to stop wasting fuel on a flight from Vaziani to Guduata, starting from ramp. However even when he flies properly, he still always runs out of fuel first.

 

I really think a fuel consumption slider for AI would be very helpful. Even if ED doesn't want to implement a "half hearted" fix, it could be useful for other things like practicing. We can already set AI to immortal, I think the infinite ammo and infinite fuel options should also be available for AI units.

[enigma6584]

I completely agree this needs to be looked at. Been working on a mission. I constantly notice my AI wingman does indeed run out of fuel, almost to the point of him being completely useless in the mission. Been experimenting with changing distances in the mission and have not yet found solution.

[FSKRipper]

Ok thanks for the replies. I'm agreeing that setting single AI flights or flight members to unlimited fuel would be a great workaround and solve many problems in mission design.

 

I hope that someday ED will be able to fix this issue somehow. If this will be true, maybe other sims could also get an idea to solve such problems as long as we have no DCS-F16 :music_whistling:

[Dun_Aenghus]

I'm agreeing that setting single AI flights or flight members to unlimited fuel would be a great workaround and solve many problems in mission design.

 

Now that's a good idea. The problem needs an urgent fix - fast jet wingmen are becoming useless and the campaigns are impossible to complete.

[theHUNTERS]

Its a problem also with the 2nd ship of a 2 plane group when flying an escort task. The 2nd ship is always speeding up overshooting and then slowing down too much and the going to burner to catch up.