AI Wingmen

[GTFreeFlyer]

We all know the AI wingman aren’t great and there’s nothing campaign designers can do about that now. My question is: When I use the radio menu to tell the wingman to attack something that is clearly visible, I often get the response, “2, rejoin....2, RTB”. What is the AI trying to tell me here and how do I work around it? Is it telling me he doesn’t have a visual, out of ammo, didn’t like the attack direction assigned to him, something else? I make sure my SPI broadcast is on, but I’m not sure if this actually matters or not.

 

Often I try to tell him to re-engage from a different angle, but get the same response. Surely there’s a way to trick the AI into doing what you want, but I can’t seem to figure it out.

 

What tips do you have that have worked for you?

 

Usually I’m the one that is unable to hit targets, lol, so having two planes in the air unable to hit targets is quite the comedy show late at night in my house.

 

I’m asking in the forum because you’re probably in the same situation as me with identical missions, wingmen, and targets.

 

Thanks.

[baltic_dragon]

Yeah. My advice is: don't use specific targets (attack X with Y at my SPI). Use general commands, works much better. But it is a pity, makes the campaign much more difficult...

[Supmua]

Yeah. My advice is: don't use specific targets (attack X with Y at my SPI). Use general commands, works much better. But it is a pity, makes the campaign much more difficult...

 

 

 

How about adding an option to let a second player join as a wingman? That would be neat.

[Yurgon]

How about adding an option to let a second player join as a wingman? That would be neat.

 

It's a great idea!

 

But I believe it's fairly difficult to do it right.

 

Which of the aircraft would execute the triggers? What if number 2 takes the lead? Which of the voice overs should play in the MP environment, and which shouldn't? How to deal with a disconnected human wingman? How many client slots should be reserved, and how should missions be balanced if there are more than 2 human pilots?

 

TEW has always been a single player campaign, and I think it's going to stay that way because adding a human wingman would mean a huge load of additional work.

 

Plus, there are no Multiplayer campaigns as far as DCS is concerned. There's either a Singleplayer campaign, or SP/MP single missions. The whole campaign progress wouldn't work in MP, at least not the way that it does as a dedicated SP campaign.

 

As much as I can understand the request, I don't think it's going to happen.

[baltic_dragon]

I agree with Yurgon on this one. It is not doable.

Having said that - I am working on a large MP mission based on TEW 3.0, recreating some of the missions and adding quite a few new tasks, so stay tuned for more info. And no AI wingmen there!

[GTFreeFlyer]

I agree with Yurgon on this one. It is not doable.

Having said that - I am working on a large MP mission based on TEW 3.0, recreating some of the missions and adding quite a few new tasks, so stay tuned for more info. And no AI wingmen there!

 

 

 

Awesome. Can’t wait.

[sze5003]

What I've learned from the 7 missions I've played from the 3.0 campaign is that the wingman is very random. There were times I asked him to attack specific directions and using a specific weapon and they actually did that.

 

There were also times when I used the general commands and he said unable or RTB. In mission 6 I asked him to attack some convoy that I had been trying to get for the past 10 minutes and he does one run in and then I find him later parked at our home airbase lol.

 

I usually have a feeling of when he's going to actually do what you ask. It's after he calls out enemies that he will listen. If for example the voice overs say something about targets in an area, and you tell wingman to attack before he calls them out to you, he will say unable or negative and not do anything. But once he calls out those targets to you and bearings you can use the general attack commands and he will usually go to work. Sometimes he hits them and other times he just keeps saying running in and doesn't seem to accomplish anything. In weird extreme cases he left me by myself and went home and landed.

 

This was one of the reasons I was stuck for so long on mission 6. So many targets and I basically had to get them all by myself because he would drop bombs on the houses and if I told him go get air defenses he would do run ins but not actually hit them sometimes. It does make it harder but at the same time you have to pick the important targets first and go after them yourself and just let wingman take out the others you shouldn't be focusing on.

 

Hopefully one day DCS will have much better AI.

Edited March 5, 2019 by sze5003

[schurem]

I hope its M 11!

[Supmua]

Mission 7 was surprisingly easy compared to 6 if you make use of the scripted Su-25 AI. So AI can also be pretty useful at times.

[sze5003]

Mission 7 was surprisingly easy compared to 6 if you make use of the scripted Su-25 AI. So AI can also be pretty useful at times.

Yup I passed that one last night but unfortunately somehow wingman ran out of fuel and ejected. To me it looked like he was shot but his call out was bingo fuel, then ejecting.

[baltic_dragon]

Wingmen sometimes call bingo a few moments before they reject... I would love to have some kind of control over AI fuel use.

[sze5003]

What's odd was that we weren't even at the IP for that long. I'm glad I was able to to finish the mission on my own. Although I think I did miss out on the call of the trucks that broke down since wingman was supposed to inform me of that. Not something that can be controlled in terms of AI. We just have to wish AI is improved later.

[schurem]

now number 13 is hard even IF you manage to get the AI to engage :/

[baltic_dragon]

I will have to have another look at it, sometimes it seems you can fail because of wingman engaging.. but I agree it is pretty difficult. Let me know how it goes!

[schurem]

Well, it's more of targets than four PGMs can service. I got killed twice so far trying to gun ZSU-23 emplacements.