2nd AI plane won't take off from runway

[GrEaSeLiTeNiN]

In a mission I created, if I (player) destroy the first enemy plane shortly after it takes off from the runway, the 2nd one (its wingman) stays stuck at the beginning of the runway and refuses to take off. Is this a bug or am I missing something?

 

As a consequence, all other enemy planes in the mission that are suppose to take off from ramp position stop taxiing because that 2nd plane is blocking the runway.

 

Thks

[Tippis]

“Bug” is perhaps a bit strong. It's a… quirk, let's say of the current ATC AI: one plane has not completed departure, therefore the second cannot cannot be cleared to take off, and since the runway is occupied, it is currently closed for all other traffic.

 

Completely logical; utterly stupid; quite fragile; and ultimately very easy to break in various ways.

 

Unless you absolutely must have planes take off normally (because the players are looking), you should generally just use triggers to activate air started groups as necessary.

[GrEaSeLiTeNiN]

“Bug” is perhaps a bit strong. It's a… quirk, let's say of the current ATC AI: one plane has not completed departure, therefore the second cannot cannot be cleared to take off, and since the runway is occupied, it is currently closed for all other traffic.

 

Completely logical; utterly stupid; quite fragile; and ultimately very easy to break in various ways.

 

Unless you absolutely must have planes take off normally (because the players are looking), you should generally just use triggers to activate air started groups as necessary.

 

The 1st plane of two had taken off but was shot down. The 2nd had already taxied to the start of the runway, but would not proceed to take off. I checked the runway, there was no damage, no obsructions. The two planes were zone triggered to start at ramp (which they did). Can't think of a reason why the 2nd plane decided to not proceed with take off. Does a wingman not take off if his leader is shot down?

[Tippis]

He will, it's just that, as far as anyone can tell, the wingman isn't cleared to TO until the lead has fully completed his take-off run.

 

You killed the lead aircraft before he had a chance to be flagged as clear, and the whole AI is stuck in a state where someone is taking off… and no check is made whether that someone actually even exists in the world any more. As far as the AI is concerned, the take-off path is still blocked by an active aircraft. Had you let him go a bit farther out, the departure would have been “completed” and #2 would have been cleared to start his take-off roll.

 

It's all a bit daft, and ridiculously naive, since there are no sanity checks or fall-back behaviours where AI will clear the runway if for some reason they get stuck on it. Hence why it's not really a bug as such, but rather a completely logical consequence of the drastic limitations in how the AI handles airport traffic.

 

You can see similar, probably related, bizarre behaviours where an aircraft fails to make a turn onto or off of a runway, decide that oh no, it's stuck!, and immediately eject from a perfectly functional aircraft, thereby blocking all traffic on the airport forever. All because the only available action to the poor AI when stuck is to eject, and ejecting means that it has not completed the action of clearing the runway/taxiway, and thus the whole machinery gets locked in a “taxiway is occupied” state.

[GrEaSeLiTeNiN]

He will, it's just that, as far as anyone can tell, the wingman isn't cleared to TO until the lead has fully completed his take-off run.

 

You killed the lead aircraft before he had a chance to be flagged as clear, and the whole AI is stuck in a state where someone is taking off… and no check is made whether that someone actually even exists in the world any more. As far as the AI is concerned, the take-off path is still blocked by an active aircraft. Had you let him go a bit farther out, the departure would have been “completed” and #2 would have been cleared to start his take-off roll.

 

It's all a bit daft, and ridiculously naive, since there are no sanity checks or fall-back behaviours where AI will clear the runway if for some reason they get stuck on it. Hence why it's not really a bug as such, but rather a completely logical consequence of the drastic limitations in how the AI handles airport traffic.

 

You can see similar, probably related, bizarre behaviours where an aircraft fails to make a turn onto or off of a runway, decide that oh no, it's stuck!, and immediately eject from a perfectly functional aircraft, thereby blocking all traffic on the airport forever. All because the only available action to the poor AI when stuck is to eject, and ejecting means that it has not completed the action of clearing the runway/taxiway, and thus the whole machinery gets locked in a “taxiway is occupied” state.

 

Thanks for the explanation. I wonder if there is a way to unblock such an occurrence, to "refresh" and flag as cleared? Any smart work around?

 

I've been tinkering with ME. It's fun to watch what happens but I notice certain things just don't (or can't) happen the way you expect it to. Like tanks can only fire at a point not a target per se, and they fire forever even after the 'target' is destroyed. You can limit the rounds but it's not quite the same. But with weapons free, they will shoot at whatever is hostile but you can't specify targets like units or groups. Also, A-G missile from AH-64Ds (set to excellent) are inaccurate when trying to hit ground targets. They are better at A-A.