Will the AI in SOW steal your kills??
 

This is one of the most aggravating things that happen in IL2, if you're heavily an offline player that is. I spent about an hour chasing a 109E-7 in my I-16-24
to about 9000 meters. Of course the AI in my flight were following him too since he was the last enemy. Well, the Messer did a fairly tight diving turn to turn into us like the AI often do. I turned too to get lined up on him as he dashed by. I made a splendid shot by lining up my nose and therefore sight to where I thought he was going to pass by. I got it right and gave him plenty of lead for the deflection. I got his engine smoking!! Of course then one of my AI squad mates magically turned on some kind of horsepower that I didn't have and blew by me as I chased down the now slowing bandit. And of course he fired and forced him to bail, stealing the kill I'd worked so hard for. And rightfully I then shot down my own flight mate!! This has happened to me hundreds of times over the years but it just doesn't get any easier. What we need is a key assignment for "I got him, he's mine!" or better yet, "Fly home, I don't need your help!!" I'd do anything for a key assignment like that!

That would be a great feature. Personally I don't have any complaints about AI kill stealing, but I understand why it would be annoying to many. Not getting credit for all kills is part of a fighter pilot's life in WWII. I actually feel bad when I get the "Kill" message after a smoking enemy makes it all the way back to his territory and ditches, because in WWII I wouldn't have gotten the kill without confirmation. This was especially true in the USSR air force. Also, I'm not above stealing the AI's smoking victim from time to time ;)

Although I agree it's annoying there is a certain historical quality to it too. All of the over claiming that went on where pilots would, in the heat of the battle, shoot at something already crippled but not down and then claim a kill. It happened... and it happens online where you have, in theory, rational human beings not limited by simplistic AI routines.

This is a toughie.

Yeah, I steal back kills from them too but it's a little hollow and not as satisfying as getting your own kill. Also there are times when I'm able to steal a kill back by putting a few bullets in the plane at the last second. But you sometimes have to trail that plane for a while to do it, while you otherwise could be getting on a new pursuit and new kill.

But I don't think it would hurt to get a key command to dissuade kill steals. People who don't mind having an occasional kills stolen would not have to use it. Or you folks who think it's kind of true to history would not have to use the command either. I'm just sayin'.....:cool:

Another great feature would be to eliminate AI having faster planes of the same kind. And I'm not just talking about them not overheating. In my scenario posted above that AI mate had some temporary testicles added to his plane's engine to blow by me like he did and it happens all the time. My plane was at full throttle and not overheating so he should not have been able to muster added speed and acceleration that I could not add myself. They are particularly ( and suspiciously ) able to get this added "mystery boost" when they try to steal a kill and that's rather unfortunate. I'm just sayin' again......

An I-16 shouldn't fly at 9000m anway... and by then, when it reaches this height, the Bf109 should be home already.

Why we always forget this...?
 

"An I-16 shouldn't fly at 9000m anway... and by then, when it reaches this height, the Bf109 should be home already."

+1

Why we always forget this ...?
I will never understand what is the point for these "historic" abnormalities.

Salutes.

You can tell them to return to base. :)

And they will... right after they steal the kills of you, and everyone you care about.

Maybe it shouldn't but it does in IL2.

You can only command them to return to base if you are the flight leader. I hate being the flight leader as one of my passions is to fly in formation with the other planes. If you're leader the others form up on you, not you on them. So in the latter case you can't really test your formation flying skills. I just enjoy staying sharp at flying by attempting to maintain perfect formation with the other planes. And over the years I have flown formation in every type of plane that is flyable. Some are tougher than others. Try to stay in formation in the Me-262 and you'll see what I mean, because constantly throttling up and down has to be done with great care or else, lest you explode or set fire to an engine. That 262 is a tough one for formation flying. Others are difficult due to massive torque. Some are really easy.

I wouldn't shoot my teammate down. Kill "stealing" happened. He's worth more alive than one dead enemy. In reality, pilots often made contact in just 1/10 flights, and even the top aces shot down aircraft only on occasion.

As for performance, it helps to know that 100% power and 100% prop pitch does not translate to highest speed. In a dive, you will go much faster by reducing RPMs and closing cowl flaps if open. Don't forget to set the supercharger and mixture for the proper altitude as well.

I don't understand the performance thing you mentioned, unless you're talking about what I said about the friendly planes going faster at key times. I already maximize my speed by doing what you said. If I hadn't got into my higher supercharger stage, for example, I would not have gotten that I-16 up that high. It just seems the AI cheat by getting some extra acceleration when they want it. Aside from the speed boost we all know about due to them not overheating. The get a little something extra that you ain't got.

BTW, I don't shoot my own teammates like that very often, just in truly exasperating cases!!

I fell you, I'm just paraphrasing the pdf guide when I say the life of your teammate is worth more than the life of your enemy. :grin:

Were the AI above you and diving down? Maybe you were climbing while they were level? The AI use the same FM as you, so the AI only cheats in that it has perfect control of the aircraft at all times: Best trim configuration, no sporadic and minuscule control inputs or corrections, no slipping, best engine configuration for the situation, etc. Programming typical human errors is hard, and not possible for the computers Il-2 was designed to play on. However, there is a good possibility that a lot of the faults will be corrected soon by DT's work.

Even online (and in real situations) people will gladly steal kills, unwittingly or intentionally. To resolve some issues with AI, it's a good idea to try the online coops. It's nice to have human teammates, and in some situations, especially in closed-pit, it's not always readily apparent if you're fighting against a human or AI pilot.

Lol, Bots stealing your kills......oh yeah, my uncle knows all about this. We often flew Coop missions and he would twist, turn, dive, and chase his target for 10-15 minutes just to have some random AI pilot come by fire 5 rounds and down his target....I was responsible for taking one of his kills haha. Then the part you said u shot down your own AI pilot....I did that once also. There was this 109 wingman of mine who wouldnt follow me, despite the order to cover my tail and my uncle was again following a target. I saw my wingman coming in head on at him, I was following my uncle, and I was like "oh shit, hes not about to.." just as i finish that thought (fireball) my wingman and my uncle crash. So, we reran that mission and this time we were flying to base and i gave my wingman I think it was line abreast or Echelon Right formation order and my wingman ignores my order. I then get make a diving right turn to prepare to line up w/ the runway....its at that moment my wingman follows my order and he crashes into me. Sooo, again we rerun the mission. This time I gave him a "Return to base" and he lands, we fly the mission us 2 vs like 6 planes, we win, return to base and my wingman is sitting on the runway so I strafe that unskilled, ignorant 109 flying bastard....if I had more ammo and there wasnt mad turbulence idda killed the guy.....So yeah, I know all about annoying ass AI who steal kills, cant fly, cant shoot, unless its my uncles kill =P.........Still after all that its a awesome fun flight sim that ive spent many hours one =D