need track replay George is a fickle thing. Bug or problem between back seat and controls?

[shadowborn]

Hi.

I have been flying the Apache quite a bit, and I really appreciate the latest changes to George, especially him being able to put TADS on targets engaged with the FCR to allow me to do BDA. However ...

I find George works so very sub-par for most of this. Tell him to scan an area with TADS, he does. But then he suddenly stops scanning. He suddenly puts the aircraft back to "safed" for no discernible reason. When I have a whole field of targets right in front of me, he does not see any of them. When he finally gets coaxed into tracking one of them, he says "out of range" while the target is, like, 50m in front (maybe he means "minimum range"?). When we crash, and under certain other circumstances, he keeps repeating "aircraft armed!" like a broken record, being incredibly annoying. Besides, this is similar behaviour to what wingmen exhibit when calling out spotted targets: Repeating the same call forever, every five seconds, like a record, potentially until the end of times (or fuel).

All this greatly ruins immersion for me, and constantly nudging George to do stuff makes any mission tedious and, if George is not being useful after 40 minutes of low-level flying under the radar, plain out painful.

Now, this is honestly so bad that I wonder if it's me. Am I doing something wrong, am I too impatient, do I have some kind of missconception about how to use George?

Your experience and opinions would be welcome.

Thanks.

[Derbroomaster]

4 hours ago, shadowborn said:

Hi.

I have been flying the Apache quite a bit, and I really appreciate the latest changes to George, especially him being able to put TADS on targets engaged with the FCR to allow me to do BDA. However ...

I find George works so very sub-par for most of this. Tell him to scan an area with TADS, he does. But then he suddenly stops scanning. He suddenly puts the aircraft back to "safed" for no discernible reason. When I have a whole field of targets right in front of me, he does not see any of them. When he finally gets coaxed into tracking one of them, he says "out of range" while the target is, like, 50m in front (maybe he means "minimum range"?). When we crash, and under certain other circumstances, he keeps repeating "aircraft armed!" like a broken record, being incredibly annoying. Besides, this is similar behaviour to what wingmen exhibit when calling out spotted targets: Repeating the same call forever, every five seconds, like a record, potentially until the end of times (or fuel).

All this greatly ruins immersion for me, and constantly nudging George to do stuff makes any mission tedious and, if George is not being useful after 40 minutes of low-level flying under the radar, plain out painful.

Now, this is honestly so bad that I wonder if it's me. Am I doing something wrong, am I too impatient, do I have some kind of missconception about how to use George?

Your experience and opinions would be welcome.

Thanks.

Don't expect much help with this. George AI has been reported repeatedly as inconsistent, at best, multiple times. 

In any case, if you don't include a track file of what you're talking about happening and including the time mark when it happens (yes, really) you have zero chance of getting a useful response. This has been my experience, and there is still no resolution. 

At this time, if I feel like flying the Apache solo, I seriously have to weigh whether the inevitable frustration of George not working correctly is worth the effort.

[BIGNEWY]

Hi, 

if you wish to report an issue we will need to see a short track replay example that reproduces the issue. 

thank you 

[Floyd1212]

If George is "safe"-ing the aircraft when he shouldn't be, check your controller and make sure your hat (assuming you are using a hat) isn't misfiring in multiple directions when it shouldn't be. (i.e. you are pressing "right" on the hat and it is also sending a "down" command.)

Yes, the annoying loop telling you the "aircraft is armed" after you have hit the ground in a crash is a bug, but not something you are doing wrong.

I find George most useful when engaging enemies from a hover, at a distance.  Park behind a hill with a good line-of-sight to your enemy group at about 7km and go to work.  If the aircraft is stable, and you aren't being rushed, he does a good job (too good?) at finding targets and taking them out.  Now that you have the ability to queue up targets for him, and for him to adjust his track while maintaining his lase, you can wipe out multiple vehicles in one batch.  You can take it to the next level and WAS missiles yourself in the back and keep a steady stream of missiles in the air to work through the queue very quickly.

You can also use him successfully when rolling in on your target, taking the shot, then rolling out to circle back around for another run.  Picking off one or two vehicles this way works well for me.

When things tend to go bad with George for me is when I have gotten myself in way too close and am expecting him to engage a specific target (the one that is shooting at me) while I'm flying around like a madman trying to save my ass.  Finding that specific target is a pain, then he takes his time to get his crosshairs on the target when you are moving, especially laterally to the target.

I usually still use the "my LOS" method for directing George, but I do use the "scan" mode when I am flying toward a known enemy area so that he can spot them while we are still out of range and I can decide where to go to engage.