Wingman feedback

[jibfreeekout]

Hi there! I played through the first two missions of this campaign yesterday evening and so far I love the build-up - especially the requirement of doing things by the book and as reported in the landing plates. That was a very satisfying landing

One thing that I noticed is that the AI flight you are attached to decides to make rapid adjustments to their flight speeds that are impossible to replicate as a player. My first experience of this is with the first mission. Flying at FL350 at M.8 was fine. We received the call to descend to FL150 but without warning, I shot way far forward of my flight because they suddenly slowed down to M.68. As a result, I received a message from the flight lead critiquing my formation performance.

I know the DCS AI in flights can be a bit unpredictable but I'm hoping there's something that can be done with the speed adjustments. Next time I run across this I'll try to get a track file out of it and post it.

[Sandman Simulations]

39 minutes ago, jibfreeekout said:

Hi there! I played through the first two missions of this campaign yesterday evening and so far I love the build-up - especially the requirement of doing things by the book and as reported in the landing plates. That was a very satisfying landing

One thing that I noticed is that the AI flight you are attached to decides to make rapid adjustments to their flight speeds that are impossible to replicate as a player. My first experience of this is with the first mission. Flying at FL350 at M.8 was fine. We received the call to descend to FL150 but without warning, I shot way far forward of my flight because they suddenly slowed down to M.68. As a result, I received a message from the flight lead critiquing my formation performance.

I know the DCS AI in flights can be a bit unpredictable but I'm hoping there's something that can be done with the speed adjustments. Next time I run across this I'll try to get a track file out of it and post it.

 

Hi,

Thank you for your feedback.

I know exactly what you mean. The same issue occurs when you're approaching a tanker or carrier and trying to stay on the lead's wing. The AI might throttle up towards the tanker with full afterburner and then open the air brakes shortly after. Unfortunately, there's not much that can be done about this. When the AI is performing its assigned task, such as descending or approaching the tanker, it shows little interest in following the given speed commands. As you get used to the flight lead's way of flying, you'll learn to anticipate speed changes, making it a bit easier to stay on the wing. However, no mission will fail just because the flight lead is dissatisfied with your performance.

Don't take the flight lead's criticism too hard. You'll hear it a few more times throughout the campaign. Achieving a perfect performance without criticism is tough due to the AI lead's flying style. The aim is more to motivate the player to fly as well as possible.

[jibfreeekout]

Thanks for checking back on this! Yeah, it's an unfortunate thing with how the DCS AI decides to handle certain tasks. Good to know that it doesn't affect scores though. Looking forward to moving through the rest of the campaign

[Augermc]

The flight lead, especially in Mission 8, has me really frustrated.  I wait for her to get cleared to plug, then I go ahead and start my refueling.  She finishes about a minute ahead of me, and takes off.  I need to go to AB to catch her, wasting most of the fuel I just took onboard.  Seems she should wait in formation with tanker while I finish and then we can go to the target together.  I did see that she is invincible, as I put 500 rounds, 2 sidewinders, and an AAMRAM into her plane before ramming her to end the mission.  It's hard to concentrate on anything while flying but keeping up with the wild flying of the flight lead.  Good campaign, but it would be a lot better if the flight lead would not fly so erratic, OR maybe loosen the didtance requirements for the wingman.  In addition, how about giving us a bit of time for us to spot a target.  As it stands, JTAC gives the picture, and she sees all, immediatly...through clouds.  When I have to spend a minute finding the target since my see thru cloud vision isn't as good as hers and I have to get into a clear area, she gives me "do you have a problem" and then tells me to orbit while she uses her x-ray vision to attack the target.  As I said, good campaign....just these few frustrating items.

[Sandman Simulations]

54 minutes ago, Augermc said:

The flight lead, especially in Mission 8, has me really frustrated.  I wait for her to get cleared to plug, then I go ahead and start my refueling.  She finishes about a minute ahead of me, and takes off.  I need to go to AB to catch her, wasting most of the fuel I just took onboard.  Seems she should wait in formation with tanker while I finish and then we can go to the target together.  I did see that she is invincible, as I put 500 rounds, 2 sidewinders, and an AAMRAM into her plane before ramming her to end the mission.  It's hard to concentrate on anything while flying but keeping up with the wild flying of the flight lead.  Good campaign, but it would be a lot better if the flight lead would not fly so erratic, OR maybe loosen the didtance requirements for the wingman.  In addition, how about giving us a bit of time for us to spot a target.  As it stands, JTAC gives the picture, and she sees all, immediatly...through clouds.  When I have to spend a minute finding the target since my see thru cloud vision isn't as good as hers and I have to get into a clear area, she gives me "do you have a problem" and then tells me to orbit while she uses her x-ray vision to attack the target.  As I said, good campaign....just these few frustrating items.

Hi,

Thank you for your feedback. It's always welcome.

I have avoided keeping the lead following the tanker after AAR since seeing so many broken campaigns where the stop follow -command stops working and the lead won't proceed.  As you said there is no point if you need to burn your fuel to catch the lead after aar. I will definitely set this to my fixing list.

DCS update introduced some new bugs with the campaign and I'm working to get them fixed asap. With those bug fixes there will be update for the formation flying requirements for better playability and less nagging. I'll also add the player a possibility to report when he has the target in sight during JTAC talk-on. 

[Augermc]

Thank you! And I understand the issues with programming the actions of the planes.  Appreciate that you are working on this.  As I said, good campaign.  Thanks for the quick response.

 

Mike