I cannot make AI flights climb and follow their waypoints.

[Tree_Beard]

I am trying to create a WW2 scenario and the AI will not climb past 1.7-2k feet ASL to follow their planned flight path. No reaction to threat is set and they have no mission task enabled until later in their route. 

If I have waypoint 1 set to 30k feet, the AI will take off and fly at 2k until they reach it, then they start trying to ridiculously climb from 2k to 30k as fast as possible. Also, setting intermediate waypoints at increasingly high altitudes seems to not make any difference in their behavior. Its like something is telling the AI not to go past 2k feet until the last possible second no matter what parameters I set.

Surely I am missing something and there is a way to get the AI to smoothly climb to a given altitude, right? 

[twistking]

you have to set an appropriate airspeed. also the aircraft must be capable to actually reach 30k in it's set configuration. the editor prevents you to set super unrealistic values for altitude and airspeed, but you will still be able to set combination that the given aircraft struggles to match. setting the speed too low can be as problematic as setting it too high.

also set enough distance for the climb and be aware that a flight of multiple aircraft wll only begin climbing when all aircraft are in formation, so you have to account for that...

Edited May 28, 2023 by twistking

[Tree_Beard]

On 5/28/2023 at 3:17 PM, twistking said:

you have to set an appropriate airspeed. also the aircraft must be capable to actually reach 30k in it's set configuration.

Thanks. I haven't been able to jump back on for more trial and error since I posted this, but I think my AI flights are all set to take off from runway and then waypoint 1 (30k feet) is probably a good 40 miles away with the airspeed set to I think 250kts. These are BF109s and P51s with external tanks, which I would assume should both be able to get up to 30k in such a configuration since that is the altitude that heavy bombers would be flying. 

Is there a good general rule of thumb in terms of airspeed settings for warbird AI climbing? 

Edited May 30, 2023 by Tree_Beard

[twistking]

3 minutes ago, Tree_Beard said:

Thanks. I haven't been able to jump back on for more trial and error since I posted this, but I think my AI flights are all set to take off from runway and then waypoint 1 (30k feet) is probably a good 40 miles away with the airspeed set to I think 250kts. These are BF109s and P51s with external tanks, which I would assume should both be able to get up to 30k in such a configuration since that is the altitude that heavy bombers would be flying. 

Is there a good general rule of thumb in terms of airspeed settings for warbird AI climbing? 

 

oh... i somehow didn't realize you were doing a WWII mission, even though you clearly stated it. i think my post is still valid, however i want to add, that i also found the warbirds more finicky. i don't have a rule of thumb for warbirds unfortunately... the good news is, that it will work eventually, if you figure out the correct speed. maybe try with one or two intermediate waypoints and i would try with lower airspeed. 250 seems rather high. make one flight with 200 and another - just for science - with 150, run the mission and check AI behaviour, as well as power setting (in f2 view status bar for the unit you have RPM or some other metric for power output). I use this a lot to make sure AI is not struggling: you want it high, but also not stuck at 99 or 100%...

in your case, i'd guess that airspeed is a bit too high, BUT AI can struggle in the same way, if airspeed is set too low. check AoA or RPM to see what might be the issue.

good luck!

[twistking]

... and remember that all aircraft of the flight need to catch up to lead, before the AI begins to climb properly. it's good practice to have a first waypoint at very moderate airspeed to allow flight members to catch up... on 4-ships flights you could even consider having a short orbit task at a first waypoint for the same reason...