Setting Up AI Escorts - Please Save My Sanity!

[gofres]

Hi all,

I've read quite a few posts on this, most of which seem to suggest that the AI escort mission parameters is bugged? I'm just trying to set up some progressive training missions as some friends and I learn the Hornet's weapons.

Surely this should have been fixed after all these years or am I doing some thing very wrong, but the AI will just not behave as intended. I've made very similar missions with FC3 modules and didn't notice any problems.

I have 2 escorts:

Blue - 2x F-18's escorting E2D AWAC. These keep overshooting, going high/low/burning/braking.

Red - 3x Hinds Escorting fuel truck supplies. These keep crashing into each other or the ground/sea.

I've spent 5 hours of editing and allowing the game to play while watching the AI behavior and then adjusting but to no avail.

Am I being dumb and missing something or is this seriously bugged?

Miz file is attached (Syria map).

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. The final campaign will be uploaded.

FA-18C - Stage 1 Rockets and Guns.miz

[dmatsch]

AI is buggered to all get out.  Good luck getting it to work out of the box (that you paid for).

What you want to accomplish is only do-able via moose scripting.

[Exorcet]

19 hours ago, gofres said:

Blue - 2x F-18's escorting E2D AWAC. These keep overshooting, going high/low/burning/braking.

You have fast jets trying to cover a slow prop plane. That's why this isn't working.

Escort is not a good choice for AWACS cover, what Escort is for is covering packages that are moving along waypoints.

If the defended target is stationary or orbiting, you just need to setup a CAP flight next to its orbit.

 

You also had the escort task at WP0. Don't do this, it doesn't give the AI time to set itself up. The E-2 Also is told to fly to its final waypoint at 30,000 ft but orbit at 20,000 ft. Why the big gap in altitude? It only complicates things (and AWACS flying low doesn't make much sense).

19 hours ago, gofres said:

Red - 3x Hinds Escorting fuel truck supplies. These keep crashing into each other or the ground/sea.

Again you had escort at WP0. I gave them a waypoint to form up and then pushed the escort task down the line and it seemed to work.

 

EDIT

I deactivated the client planes for testing by the way, so don't forget to fix them if you use the mission modification I added

 

FA-18C - Stage 1 Rockets and Guns fix Escort 2.miz

Edited January 26, 2023 by Exorcet

[gofres]

Very much appreciated! 

My crappy mission planning just got that little bit better. 

[markom]

The way I do it is I set up escorts to take off first, and then orbit somewhere near the path of the plane I want them to escort. Then, I create a trigger zone, and when escorted airplane enters there, I stop the orbit for the escorts, and push the escort AI task. This works rather well, IF, and ONLLY IF, the escortee is at its final altitude. If it's still climbing or descending, escorts will just get lost in trying to find the altitude at which they need to be.