4.12.2 de-bugging

[b5523482]

Hi, you flying pig!

The instruments aren't Swedish, either. The questions are:

1. Does the J8A not deserve an own object-entry for the uninitiated?

2. Isn't the J8A a Gladiator II?

3. Shouldn't it be possible to put planes into both categories, Axis and Allies?

There's even a list of its operators:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...ator_operators

[sniperton]

The object viewer hasn't been updated for years. It's missing some 40+ planes/variants. It would be a lot of work for the developers who work as volunteers. Look for HardBall's Aircraft Viewer on the internet instead (it's up-to-date till patch 4.09 -- now we have 4.12.1).

[b5523482]

No, not worth it.

So this whole developer-team-job is just a story...

[Pursuivant]

Maybe it's an old bug, but on QMB maps where one side only has aircraft carriers to land on (e.g., Hawaii, Coral Sea, Midway) non-carrier aircraft will still attempt to land on the carriers.

Maybe this is a QMB bug, maybe it's another AI glitch.

Either way, non-carrier aircraft should either be programmed to exit in the direction of the nearest historical friendly base or to ditch rather than landing.

Interestingly, carriers don't suffer damage from having heavy bombers crash land on them!

[wheelsup_cavu]

Originally Posted by Pursuivant

Maybe it's an old bug, but on QMB maps where one side only has aircraft carriers to land on (e.g., Hawaii, Coral Sea, Midway) non-carrier aircraft will still attempt to land on the carriers.

Maybe this is a QMB bug, maybe it's another AI glitch.

Either way, non-carrier aircraft should either be programmed to exit in the direction of the nearest historical friendly base or to ditch rather than landing.

Interestingly, carriers don't suffer damage from having heavy bombers crash land on them!

This is not a bug, it is how the mission waypoints for landing are utilized. If the template maker attaches the LANDING waypoint to a carrier all aircraft will attempt to land on the carrier. If the template maker attaches the LANDING waypoint to a land airfield all aircraft will land at that location.

There are 8 flights per side and each flight will always follow the same waypoints that are on the template that is loaded by the QMB. There is no variety to the waypoints that the planes will follow unless the template maker has made more than one template of the same mission and changes the waypoints for each flight. The template that is loaded will determine the waypoints that each flight will follow but every time that particular template is loaded you will get the waypoints that were used on that template, there is no variation done to those waypoints by the QMB.

I made the Hawaii and Midway templates for the QMB and made the choice to allow planes to land on the carriers since in older versions of the QMB prior to allowing the templates to be user created the planes would just land in the ocean since the LANDING waypoints were not attached to the carriers. I know it's not perfect but due to the limitations of the QMB I felt allowing the aircraft to land on the carriers was better than having them land in the ocean and sink. Unless a way can be made to allow for multiple LANDING options per flight that takes into consideration the type of aircraft that is using that set of waypoints then this will always be a choice that has to be made by the QMB template maker when it comes to allowing aircraft to land on the carrier.


Wheels

[Tempest123]

has anyone had AI planes landing gear collapse on the runway before takeoff, I experienced this with several planes in the QMB, MiG 3 Yak 3 and yak 9. Doesn't seem to occur in FMB with taxi to takeoff. Also pilotless AI aircraft hold their airspeed, attitude and heading indefinitely, meaning a damaged aircraft can keep climbing forever (defying physics).

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by wheelsup_cavu

This is not a bug, it is how the mission waypoints for landing are utilized.

Fair enough. I'll accept that it's a limitation on the QMB. Sounds like something for the next "readme" file, so sticklers for historically accuracy know to specify carrier-capable planes in their QMB missions.

I'd still hold that it's a bug that heavy aircraft attempting to land on a carrier don't cause damage or at least stick around longer, however. I don't know what the weight limits were on a carrier's deck (probably pretty impressive, given that B-25 were able to take off from a U.S. fleet carrier), but a crashed medium bomber on deck would take some time to clear, and a fire involving such an aircraft might take some time to put out.

[cacha]

Trains can kill themselves with their own AAA. They aim at you but hit their own wagons. This almost always happens for me.

[wheelsup_cavu]

Originally Posted by Pursuivant

Fair enough. I'll accept that it's a limitation on the QMB. Sounds like something for the next "readme" file, so sticklers for historically accuracy know to specify carrier-capable planes in their QMB missions.

The list of usable planes for the Coral Sea map was limited to the carrier capable planes in the original QMB. IIRC, It was also the only water map available in the QMB. When DT opened up the QMB to allow user made "maps" they allowed all planes to be used on every map. Even though the heavies try to land on the carriers I like that we aren't limited to specific aircraft anymore.

Something that can be done by the player to help minimize the incidences of this occurring is to create their own custom plane list, you can create two of them currently, and limit what planes can be used on a map.

Originally Posted by Pursuivant

I'd still hold that it's a bug that heavy aircraft attempting to land on a carrier don't cause damage or at least stick around longer, however. I don't know what the weight limits were on a carrier's deck (probably pretty impressive, given that B-25 were able to take off from a U.S. fleet carrier), but a crashed medium bomber on deck would take some time to clear, and a fire involving such an aircraft might take some time to put out.

I agree that the heavies don't do enough damage but I also don't really want them sinking my carrier every time one of them tries to land either...


Wheels