Making AI Wingmen land

[e.a.wicklund]

I built a brief and quickie mission to test how well AI wingmen can land a particular airplane.

Trouble is: they aren't trying to land, even though the last waypoint designates "Land at base."

So...how do I get them to land?

 

[Captain Kurt]

Which airplane?

Some will, some won't, and some will try but cock it up and crash. It's all in the .air file design

 

[Ravenna]

You should also be looking at your last waypoints. It seems to me that they need a straight glide path lined up on the landing coordinates from a good distance and at the right speed.

 

[e.a.wicklund]

Which airplane?

Some will, some won't, and some will try but cock it up and crash. It's all in the .air file design

It's the AH_Spitfire, but it is a modified .air file from a different spit. Does everything well, but the attempted AI landing at Hornchurch looked nightmarish.

I want to see if I can fix that.

I built a mission just for watching the landings, but can't get them to attempt a landing yet.

 

[MaskRider]

You should also be looking at your last way-points. It seems to me that they need a straight glide path lined up on the landing coordinates from a good distance and at the right speed.

Hmmm..., I'm not sure this is the case Ravenna. The runway entry itself tells the AI everything it needs to know about where to line up and begin its final approach. However, it has been a really long time since I have done any serious mission building and I could be talking out of my you know where. I'd need to create a new mission and see.. stand-by....

Yep, it looks like the final way-point can pretty much be anywhere. Just going by this very simple mission- out and back with some spawning of friendly AC. Every AI- the AI flights spawned nearer to the target and the AIs flying with the player came back and landed safely.

MR

 

[e.a.wicklund]

Okay, got them trying to land, but they are attempting to land waaay short of the airfield in the grass. And of course, they blow up there. Is that an airfield issue?

 

[Ravenna]

Hmmm..., I'm not sure this is the case Ravenna. The runway entry itself tells the AI everything it needs to know about where to line up and begin its final approach. However, it has been a really long time since I have done any serious mission building and I could be talking out of my you know where. I'd need to create a new mission and see.. stand-by....

Yep, it looks like the final way-point can pretty much be anywhere. Just going by this very simple mission- out and back with some spawning of friendly AC. Every AI- the AI flights spawned nearer to the target and the AIs flying with the player came back and landed safely.

MR

Thanks MR, I've been focusing too much on waypoints and approach to runway then. Many thanks for setting me straight.
Cheers,
Ravenna
T

 

[Shadow Wolf 07]

I have found that when you set your waypoint to land, the aircraft line up on the approach glide path and at a distance to land properly as Maskrider says. Sometimes they land, sometimes they crash and sometimes they land and crash into me. As Captain Kurt says, it's probably a separate plane/airfile issue. When a mission calls for me to land on a runway, not a carrier, I come in, watching my wingmen, that they don't fly into me. When the message; "You may land or hit X to end the mission" I usually hit X in order to save wingmen and not spoil an otherwise good mission. Wingmen losses are critical in most long campaigns and I don't like to risk them.

 

[e.a.wicklund]

Wingmen are landing Short

I'm finally getting the wingmen to attempt a landing, but they are trying to land far short of the runway. They try landing in a field and blow up.

This is at Henderson field with MaskRider's scenery. Any chance there's a conflict between MaskRider's field position and the default runway position?

 

[kdriver]

Yes, the airbases.dat entry for Henderson needs to changed from the stock one to MaskRider's.

 

[Captain Kurt]

Wingmen landing short of the runway? Look in the airbases.dat file in the INFO folder. Each airfield has an entry that reads landing_touchdown_pos=XXX. This is the point that the AI aim for on landing. It's the distance from the center of the runway. I believe it is in meters. Reduce this number until the wingmen land a little beyond the runway threshold.