How does AI manage damaged bombers

[motoadve]

Seems easy to down bombers in DCS, B17s one engine catch fire and crew bail quickly, kind of they don't try to continue, put the fire out , feather the engine? And try to fly back to England?

[NineLine]

There is not much a B-17 can do when it comes to an engine fire from combat damage. They didn't have a fire suppression system for most if not all of the war. Even if they did the fire suppression systems of the time were not great. So your standard procedures for putting out an engine fire due to mechanical issues probably will not do much in case of combat damage fire.

So when an engine is lit up by combat damage there is 100% chance there is much more going on in that engine, it's most likely down cylinders and other issues. As well the fire in DCS will spread. Even fuel fires from tanks will spread and continue to spread damage. I am sure there was special circumstances throughout the war that a crew managed another solution but for the most part getting out of the aircraft was the most plausible outcome. 

Missions are pretty time-sensitive, so even a B-17 with one engine down is not able to keep the speed it needs to in most cases so if the fire were to stop or the engine damage did not cause a fire, the AI would (and does) feather the engine and return to base. If the B-17 is say the lead in the formation, it will drop out and another B-17 will move into lead of the formation.

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[Nealius]

I may be putting maybe too much faith in the source material and visual adaptation, but in Masters of the Air they consistently do everything they can to AVOID bailing out until it's the last possible option. 

[vgilsoler]

3 hours ago, Nealius said:

I may be putting maybe too much faith in the source material and visual adaptation, but in Masters of the Air they consistently do everything they can to AVOID bailing out until it's the last possible option. 

I didn't watch the series yet, but I read the book that is based on. In there the author explains there are several reasons to avoid bailing out, and usually the mechanical ones were the last to take in account. Basically for emotional reasons, for injured mates, trapped crew, to avoid be lynched by the people you just bombed, etc.

DCS is good, but adding feelings to the IA crew is a overkill 

Edited March 1 by vgilsoler

[NineLine]

15 hours ago, Nealius said:

I may be putting maybe too much faith in the source material and visual adaptation, but in Masters of the Air they consistently do everything they can to AVOID bailing out until it's the last possible option. 

I think the show does a great job of showing what the crews went through not only in their own fate but the fates of their crew mates. That said the B-17 is AI and will do X + Y = Z, adding emotional responses and different attributes would be well outside what we can do right now. We do try to make them attempt to get back home, but in general a burning fort was not a place you would want to stay, even in the TV show.

[Nealius]

21 hours ago, vgilsoler said:

DCS is good, but adding feelings to the IA crew is a overkill

Obviously. I was thinking more of programming more variables into the AI so that bailout it delayed longer than it currently is. Similar to the variables we got in the WW2 AI for what targets to engage or when to disengage from a fight.