investigating AI Wingmen can't handle divert waypoints, abandoning the player

[cfrag]

In "Navigation And Landing", Wags tells us that when setting up a route for the Fulcrum in Mission Editor, the first three Waypoints are divert airfields, and WP number 4 (silly as it may seem) is the first "real" route point. 

Currently, AI FF Fulcrums do NOT interpret the first three WP as Divert Airfields. Worse, if you set up a group for you and an AI wingman, and follow Wag's instructions, your Wingman will happily fly to the first route point (your first divert Airfield), abandoning you while you fly to WP 4.

Here's a simple demo. Enter the airborne group, and see your wingmen fly off to Kobuleti, while your first mission WP is Sukumi.

fulcrum me tests.miz

Edited 21 hours ago by cfrag

[NineLine]

Thanks I will run this by the team. 

[NineLine]

Just reviewing your mission vs Wag's video, he set the first waypoint to the recovery airfield, and the next 2 would be the divert airfields. This corresponds to the 3 buttons on then Nav panel, button 1 being the recovery airfield and the other 2 the diverts, this is when the switch is in AD (Aerodrome). Setting my own flight like this seems to work as expected based on Wag's video. The AI seems to follow along as expected. Let me know if I am missing the issue you are seeing. 

[cfrag]

2 hours ago, NineLine said:

Setting my own flight like this seems to work as expected based on Wag's video.

Indeed, and that is only a problem from a UX perspective (the player FF Fulcrum now is the only unit that does not follow the route in sequential order, the semantics of waypoints in a route have changed for FF Fulcrums of skill Player or Client). The semantics for a 'correct' (as I understand it) flight set up for a FF Fulcrum group's route is RoutePoint 1 --> AeroDromepoint 1, RP 2 --> AD 2, RP 3 --> AD3 (i.e. the first three route points as assigned in Mission Editor go to AD points 1-3). The FOURTH route point (as assigned in ME) is the first 'mission waypoint', i.e. the route point that you are heading for in an engagement: RP 4 -> MWP 1, RP 5 -> MWP2, RP 6 -> MWP3 (I'm using non-standard terms 'route point' RP, 'aerodrome point' AD, 'mission waypoint' MWP for clarity only)

HOWEVER:
In Wag's Video, the first AD (airodromepoint) [02:00 in the video: "The first three points that I'm going to lay down are going to be the aerodromes corresponding to the switch in the AD position"] is Shindand then Farah (first divert) and the last AD is Qala. At 02:39 Wags then proceeds to add three more route points: "Next will be the three waypoints which correspond to the switch being in the WP position", and then proceeds to place three points enroute from Herat to Shindant, which all happen to be collinear with a route directly from Herat to Shindant. The last bit is important to recall in your analysis.

Imagine that there was a known SAM location between Herat and Shindant that we want to avoid so we move route points 4 to 6 to the West. The  waypoints 1-3 (route points 4 to 6) are no longer in line with the straight route from Herat to Shindant.

Add an AI wingman, fly the route and see what happens: Your wingman will fly directly from Herat to Shindant - because it takes Route Point 1 (= AP 1 Shindant) as its first destination. It will fly directly into the SAM site. AI wingmen DO NOT follow the "first three route points are aerodromes" semantic of the route, they simply fly from from route points 1-6: Herat (spawn)-Shindant-Farah-Qata-routepoint 4-routepoint 5-routepoint 6, and then land at the closest faction-owned airfield. This is VERY different from what you want it to do: Fly from Herat to Shindant while avoiding the SAM site and following the player.

So the only reason why it looks as if AI is doing what you want is because route points 4 - 6 are (by coincidence) in line with the route from Herat to Shindant. You should have known that something was amiss when you tested the scenario and found that instead of landing at Shindant, your wingman would go on to Farah.

If you arrange your tests against your expectations, you will quickly see that your desired scenario falls apart, that AI wingmen do not follow a player FF Fulcrum's route point semantic. Below please find a demo mission with a Roland SAM site that kills the AI Fulcrum because it does not follow the player's route.

 

fulcrum me tests2.miz

Edited 7 hours ago by cfrag