Tag along?

[gdotts]

All the missions I have or seen involve me leading or solo.  Are there any missions where I can fly wingman positions and have AI lead so I can learn a little technique and follow?

[NeedzWD40]

Unfortunately, the AI doesn't really have much of a technique. The only way would be a heavily scripted mission; the helicopter AI is very rudimentary right now. As a flight lead, the AI won't communicate and will do things like see targets and start sliding left or right, often brushing up against obstacles, then maybe fire one or two missiles without announcing anything.

[gdotts]

Fudge Sickle!  Ya I guess the AI is weak and can't lead unless scripted.  Maybe.... a partially scripted mission just to get your team to target area with enemy firing on the flight upon arrival which does sounds doable.  Maybe script the lead to initiate just 1 shot with the rest left up to you and then all exit homeward.  No loitering around to make it simple.  

[NeedzWD40]

It's really hard to get the helicopter AI to take on anything beyond the most basic of tasks with any form of survivability. All attack helicopter AI follows this general pattern: See target > choose missiles if available, then rockets if no missiles, then gun if no rockets > hover fire with missiles, climbing up to altitude to get LOS > when out of missiles, charge in with rockets > rocket fire til point blank, then turn away and repeat until rockets empty > use cannon wildly until empty > done. Some have a slight variation of this like the Mi-24V where they'll try to do running fire with missiles, but the remaining steps will be the same. Aerial combat cases will also alter the decisions somewhat, where they'll attempt to fly as high as possible and utilize missiles and gun at the same time.

As one might guess, this usually results in the AI either getting blasted by SACLOS missiles, ADA, or 12.7/7.62mm fire. It also tends to result in a lot of collisions because they ignore obstacles during their evasion process, so they tend to fly into the nearest tree/building. You can circumvent some of this attack routine by avoiding the default CAS behaviors and individually assigning targets with a set weapon type, but then the use decisions (ie hover fire, running fire, or circling for a better shot) are still automated. It's also impossible to set the AI to fly NOE altitudes at lower than 98 feet unless one scripts their route. Doing so has some pitfalls as well, since they tend to speed up, pull up before hitting the ground, then dive again, usually until they hit the ground and take enough damage to RTB or explode.

In essence, unless you're loading them down with all the ATGMs they can carry, skipping over rockets, and telling the crew to kill at any cost, they'll consistently fail to perform.

[gdotts]

Thank you I will try a multiplayer situation.