Large Formations in SoW?
 

I hope that it will be possible to quickly and easily generate large (more historically accurate) formations of AI aircraft in the new SoW FMB. It is possible to do this in IL2 but is very fiddly and time consuming to get right.

PPanPan

As far as IL2 goes there is no real way of creating proper large formations, especially for the USAAF.

I do hope this area gets more attention in SoW...

S!

Scouring through older Oleg's interviews reveals that big formations will be in SoW and to enable this the AI has been completely reworked to keep the performance at acceptable levels. When the formation is farther away it uses a simple mode and only when you get closer it switches to a more complex one. This enables many formations as you can not be at them all at the same time. Do not know if this has changed, but that was the information released earlier on the matter.

Great news :grin:! Thanks Flanker. Let's hope Oleg hasn't changed his mind.

PPanPan

The problem in Il2 was every single AI bomber had its own flight model and AI controller. This made for accurate dog fighting but large bomber streams eventually kill the FPS on even the fastest machines and creating large formation was a nightmare.

All indications are a compromise has been reached in SOW, lets hope so.

Oleg has also announced that formations will likely have a more flexible structure - it will be possible for aircraft to meet after takeoff and merge formation etc. Instead of having a flight with two sections as the only formation Oleg spoke about a hierarchy of sorts (flights, squadrons, wings etc.)

My understanding is that Oleg would be using a level of detail system for AI interactions. So if there were several large formations on the go, only the ones closest to the player would be reacting with the highest level of detail. Sounds like a good way to do things... although complicated probably.