Possible P51 AI bug?

[Stonehouse]

I'm building a mission about a B29 raid a long way behind the lines. The B29 formation has an 12 P51Ds flying close escort. I am running into a persistent issue in that for some reason about 26 mins into the mission the P51s go crazy and slow to best climb speed and start climbing like mad and wander off course.

 

The first time through I was using the escort task for the P51s and they were set up with 73% fuel and tanks and about 3000ft higher than the bombers with a similar speed to them. Pretty much that worked until they got to the point indicated in the attached pic. So thinking that the escort task had issues I set them up as a CAP role with the same course and speed as the bombers just starting slightly in front and about 3000 ft higher same loadout. At the same location it happened again and they wander off course.

I've done these two approaches about 50-60 times each with the same result. Finally thinking perhaps it was related to the tanks, I removed the tanks from the P51s and put the fuel up to 100%. Unfortunately the same thing happened. I was time accelerating at 2-3 times normal to avoid going crazy with the repeat tests. The bombers and the escorts start as airspawns by the way.

 

I am going to try some other ideas eg remove the B29s and see if that makes a difference (ie mod problem) although the B29s with the same course just soldier on as their escort sails off into the sunrise. However I wanted to mention it here in case someone has any ideas as to the cause or similar experiences recently.

 

In case it is somehow map related I am attaching the location pic - I can't see how it could be but am clutching at straws I guess.

 

Thanks for any help or suggestions that you can offer.

 

Cheers,

Stonehouse

[Stonehouse]

Ok not an ED issue I think. I've stripped the mission down to just the P51s but still having mods enabled and the issue doesn't seem to happen. I'll just have to add back the layers until I find the culprit.

 

Cheers,

Stonehouse

[NineLine]

I have a similar mission I use for testing with P-51s escorting B-52s and I dont see this issue, its possible its something with the B-29 mod? Maybe try a stock bomber or aircraft in its place?

[Stonehouse]

Actually think it is script related somehow but was thinking that B29s were a possible source of the problem so will sub in something else and try it out.

 

Strange thing is one of my other WIP missions is a Korean war one based on a historical raid and the F86 escorts don't (well haven't looked at it in a few patches) do anything weird when escorting the B29s.

[Stonehouse]

Ok I think I have found the cause. I reran my test this time using a new copy of the mission with B29s and all the rest still in it. However I removed the call to GCICAP which is solely responsible for launching enemy aircraft as I wondered if there was a connection to the script. So this time the P51s behaved perfectly and held their course. I now wanted to try to prove or disprove that the script was at fault. So I went back into the editor and added a single 109 which takes off well to the far NW and then flies towards the bombers and P51s climbing as it goes. I initially set it to fly up to the same height as the P51s but wondering whether it was the EWR stations telling the P51s about the 109 I made it climb to 23000 ft which is above the P51s alt. The response was interesting. The 109 was outside the EWR detection range and over 200nm from the P51s but as soon as it got near their alt and then went above it the P51s pulled up into a spiral climb trying to regain height advantage. In my mission playtesting using GCICAP it takes roughly the 26 mins I've been noticing for the Luftwaffe planes to take off and climb to the CAP alt which is between 6000 - 8500m or 20000-28000ish ft. In other words as soon as the enemy gets above the P51s they will climb to regain advantage even though they are 204 nm away.

Is this the way it's always been and I've just been lucky and not had the issue before or has a problem been introduced in recent patches?

 

I have the P51s set to weapons free. The reaction of the P51s is reliably reproducible for me at least.

 

<edit> sorry I should also have said that I did set 20nm engagement distance on the escort task when I used it and also set 10nm engagement distance on the search then engage route task when I tried changing from the escort to CAP role for the P51s and that didn't make any apparent difference. I suppose the thread now should really be called "Possible AI bug?" rather than "Possible P51 AI bug?" and it may well be a DCS World bug.

 

Thanks,

Stonehouse

Edited April 7, 2016 by Stonehouse
forgot the pic

[Stonehouse]

Sent you a PM Sithspawn if you can have a look when you have a spare minute or two.

 

Cheers,

Stonehouse