How can I get AI NOT to attack certain (non-mission) targets?

[Bahger]

I have a flight of AI A-10Cs attacking a column of Russian armor that has made an incursion south of the Russia-Georgia border. I've placed a few Red EW radars north of the border because it's realistic and I want the player's RWR to light up with threat radars when he is in the area. However, the AI Hogs cross the border and hammer the EWRs, as well as a group of passive Russian aircraft I've placed on the ramp at Sochi-Adler.

 

IRL, no flight would go off-mission and hit these targets, which pose no threat, especially when doing so requires the Blue flight to cross the Russian border into enemy territory, another tactical no-no.

 

Is there any way to keep the AI on a leash?

 

The A-10C flight has been given orders on ingress to strike a particular unit that has strayed south of the border and then holds in a CAS orbit. This is when it starts attacking the unbriefed targets.

 

It's probably too ambitious to expect to be able to program the AI not to attack in certain areas or not to hit certain enemy objects that would be outside a mission's brief, i.e. to discriminate; perhaps this kind of behavior can only be expected in MP missions with no AI...

 

I thought about making these objects "invisible" but that's a bit of a kludge. I also thought about using the Static Objects menu as opposed to the Vehicle menu to place these objects; does anyone know if that would influence the AI's behavior toward them?

 

If the above is impossible, can anyone suggest how I might construct a dense radar-threat environment without having the AI go off-mission to hit the emitters? It would also be good if I could get SAM radars to paint Blue aircraft without launching missiles. It would be realistic in a quasi Cold War scenario and keep the player on his toes.

 

Thanks!

[Grimes]

Is there any way to keep the AI on a leash?

 

There are a few ways.

 

Invisible is useful because AI will completely ignore that target. The downside is that its ALL AI will ignore that object. It literally makes the object invisible to the AI.

 

The best way is to limit what AI can do. All AI flights start off with a default task that is the same as their role. SEAD, CAS, CAP, etc. This task gives the AI alot of freedom for what and where they can and cannot attack. For instance the CAS role means that the AI will attack any ground target they detect. Due to how the EWR works the AI will detect the EWR on their RWR. It is a possibility that if you placed a major sam site next to the EWR the A-10s would not attempt to attack it (because they stand no chance), but that isn't the best way to do it. Instead delete the default CAS task and use either:

 

Perform Task>Attack group. By using this command the AI will know exactly where the target is and attack it. The downside is that the the AI always know where the target is, and will ignore all other threats or targets it comes across.

 

Enroute Task>Search and Engage. This method works best because you can limit the engagement by a list of threats and limit the area you want them to target. For example using Search and Engage in Zone with default attack options is basically the same thing as the "CAS" task, but it will only attack objects within the zone. You can further filter out what you want them to engage if there is an approximate target type you need it to take out.

 

 

The search and engage group/unit are similar to perform task>attack group/unit. However the major difference is that the AI will not know the groups location and therefore must find the target.

[Bahger]

Thanks, grimes, as always. I will definitely try Enroute Task>Search and Engage in Zone, as this seems the most realistic, i.e. least scripted, option. I need the flight to orbit, as before but I assume I should delete the CAS-/?a-Ref orders from the unit's orders?

[Grimes]

Yeah, delete the first CAS order.