4.13.2 de-bugging

[Janosch]

Black sun is rising. Here are some more cockpit internal model oversights that I found:

In the early Ki-43 models, the sun shines through the pilot's headrest, except when blocked by the rear canopy frames. Also, the sun shines through the frontmost vertical canopy frames (between which the gunsight is) on all Ki-43 models.

The early Ki-43s and the D3A have gunsight covers. Their covers don't block the sun when closed. I also tested this with the Fokker D.XXI, and its gunsight cover does block the sun. But there's more: in Fokker, Ki-43 and D3A, the sun shines through the closed cover if you look "through" the scope using the gunsight view. This is a minor annoyance however, as there's usually no reason to attempt to look through the telescopic gunsight if the cover is closed.

[Pursuivant]

AI aircraft don't recognize static game objects (armor, vehicles, planes, ships, buildings, V-1 rails) when taxiing or taking off. They plow right into them rather than attempting to avoid them.

Static game objects seem to be immune to the effects of aircraft running into them during taxiing or takeoff. Even if the AI plane blows up, the object is undamaged - this applies to any static thing in the game, not just static objects.

[Tolwyn]

Yup. You don't want them to have to take up game CPU cycles attempting to adjust for decorations.

Best bet is as mission designer, understand the limitations of the taxi to takeoff usage and don't put stuff in their way.

Originally Posted by Pursuivant

AI aircraft don't recognize static game objects (armor, vehicles, planes, ships, buildings, V-1 rails) when taxiing or taking off. They plow right into them rather than attempting to avoid them.

Static game objects seem to be immune to the effects of aircraft running into them during taxiing or takeoff. Even if the AI plane blows up, the object is undamaged - this applies to any static thing in the game, not just static objects.

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by Tolwyn

Yup. You don't want them to have to take up game CPU cycles attempting to adjust for decorations.

Best bet is as mission designer, understand the limitations of the taxi to takeoff usage and don't put stuff in their way.

I mostly agree. The only time the AI's inability to recognize static objects would be legitimate factor is if you're trying to to create an odd mission where AI would have to taxi around an object before it can take off. Or where you're deliberately trying to block off a certain runway so that AI aircraft won't take off or land there.

In both cases, the workaround is to use a mobile game object instead.

But, I have to wonder if flying AI planes "know" to avoid ground objects. For example, will they swerve to avoid collisions with radio towers or barrage balloons?

The fact that static game objects don't take damage due to collisions with aircraft is the more serious problem.

[Tolwyn]

They won't try to avoid those objects. It would be yet another "chief" (what this game calls them) that would have to report position, (even static) and have the AI realize it's there.

Mobile object (moving chief) with timeout is probably the best bet, or to be creative.

In reality, planes didn't have to worry about objects to taxi around. In addition, they had spotters (sometimes sitting on their wings) to help them (for nose-high tail draggers).

I know what you're saying... but we just have to be creative as mission designers to "fool" the player's reality.

Radio towers and Barrage Baloons are static (decorative). So, no. They'd plough right into them.

Originally Posted by Pursuivant

I mostly agree. The only time the AI's inability to recognize static objects would be legitimate factor is if you're trying to to create an odd mission where AI would have to taxi around an object before it can take off. Or where you're deliberately trying to block off a certain runway so that AI aircraft won't take off or land there.

In both cases, the workaround is to use a mobile game object instead.

But, I have to wonder if flying AI planes "know" to avoid ground objects. For example, will they swerve to avoid collisions with radio towers or barrage balloons?

The fact that static game objects don't take damage due to collisions with aircraft is the more serious problem.

[baball]

I've recently found that the TB3's rudder still works even if the vertical stabilizer is shot. This bug has occured while i was flying the m34-r version and i haven tested with the other one. It's not really visible but I had rudder full right in this case.
grab0003.jpg

Furthermore, there is a problem where two SBDs (most of the time #4 and #5) collide into eachother when two formations of four planes fly together.
Sorry for the bad quality.
grab0004.jpg

It also happens with F4Fs when they are at the second waypoint before the objective (also #4 and #5).
grab0007.jpg

[Lucas_From_Hell]

Sorry if it's been mentioned before, but the Il-2 aircraft are missing their tail numbers. All Il-2 only have stars now when markings are on.

Great patch by the way!