So there I was, I was leading a 4-ship SEAD Escort, I tasked my inept wingies to drop some bombs and stuff on some AAA sites, I had expended my HARMS and was just looking out for some fighters as the TARCAP was busy engaging those threatening AN-124's.
So, there they are, a flight of four MiG-21MF's. Since the guys in the whole package are busy doing other stuff, I decide to hassle the MiGs to keep them off of my dudes.

Well, I lock up the lead and at about 15 miles, I launch a Slammer. I have Labels on, BTW,. Anyhoo, I see his drop tank drop...and then see him punch out. Hmm...I lock and fire on the remaining three and the same thing happens. All drop their tanks and then eject while my missles are still several seconds from impact.

Anyone else experience this? I am running 1.04

That's some smart AI. I wouldn't want to be sticking around.

No kidding. Damn.

This pilot was a smart one, too

Yeah the best part of AI IMO. I would do the same thing if I were him.

Where's the skin in that pic?

There are skins for planes in AF?


P-)

You've set the AI level to "Rookie". With this level the AI is not very brave .... set it higher and they fight to the end.

I've seen this myself, but I'm not sure what difficulty level they were on. I think they were ace, in instant action. With a slammer inbound, they ejected before they were hit. I've also seen it where they ejected before the missile was going to hit them, but the missile ended up missing them, so they could watch their unharmed plane continue to fly off into the distance while they rode down to the ground.

I have seen this happen on ACE setting as well. Sometimes the pilots just eject when they know they are done.

I had an Su-24 crew eject without being hit last night. We have it set to ACE. I would have liked to have saved the missile, but it was already off the rack. The crew ejected from the Fencer and then a few seconds later, SPLASH!

You just gotta love the depth of this game.

-Skater

Having the AI eject before being hit adds depth to a game? Since when?

Pilots ejecting from their fighters before being hit has not happened in the history of jet combat, even in the most lopsided turkey shoots where one side absolutely gets clobbered.

An Iraqi training aircraft ejected once shortly after Desert Storm to avoid being shot down by an F-15C, but AFAIK that is the only recorded example of someone ejecting from a perfectly fine aircraft. And it certainly wasn't a fighter.

It's totally unrealistic. I would classify this as a bug.

"Pilots ejecting from their fighters before being hit has not happened in the history of jet combat, even in the most lopsided turkey shoots where one side absolutely gets clobbered."

D-scythe, I agree that this is most probably a bug rather than a "feature", but I take exception to parts of what you say.

Just because you haven't heard or read about it happening doesn't necessarily make it fact.

I doubt very much whether any air arm is going to admit to its pilots bailing out under these circumstances and there are many examples of so called "probable kills".

There were many defections, particularly in WW2 and while this is a little different to what we're talking about here, there are definite examples of pilots bailing out over enemy territory for this reason.

It most likely has happened, although there is no proof that I can find to verify it one way or the other.

"... so many things are so easy to say when one is a spectator..."

Reloadicus Maximus (712AD)

Okay, and I agree with you for the most part. But do you really think 4 MiG-21s bailing out in a row is a feature or a bug?

Even if bailing out prior to being hit has happened before, it certainly would not have happened en masse. Pilots talk to each other you know - if an entire four-ship is going to bail out in such a way, I think the captains and commanders would rather ground the air force and at least save some aircraft, instead of losing them all.

Have fun with your feature and the extra depth it provides then.

yeah, iirc, when i first got the game and played on th easy, easy, easy settings I noticed that the MiG pilots would eject once my missle was launched. Once I bumped up the difficulty level they stopped doing this newbie-friendly course of action!

I'm going to put this in the bug (or at least "something fishy" column); just my opinion, though.

From what I've read about ejections, it's not exactly a friendly alternative to being hit by a missile. A spring catapult launches your seat forcibly out of a high-speed aircraft (sometimes shooting it through the canopy), and then rockets fire and accelerate you away from the aircraft at ridiculously high g levels. A last resort, to be sure; plenty of pilots in Vietnam and a few in Desert Storm were hit by SAMs, but I doubt any of them thought about ejecting from a perfectly good airplane.

Get your wingie along side and ask him to go smoke. He'll read your mind.

I believe pilots bailing when being attacked is dependent on the morale of the unit the jets are from and their skill level.

There's been many reports of people bailing out at the first sign of the enemy from aircraft - particularly in the battle of britain when the strain was just getting too much.

As for the 'ejecting is as bad as being hit by a missle' line of argument. If you get hit by the missile what's going to happen.

You're going to have to eject.....

Why not just cut your losses and eject so you don't take the risk of 'missile related' injuries or any situation that'll make ejection difficult (such as a violent spin where you blackout).

If I was in a farmer and a viper was firing missiles at me i wouldn't be able to get my hand on the eject handle quick enough

I'm pretty sure it's just the rocket. I don't think there is any "spring catapult" per se on the ACES II. The seat definitely fires prior to the the pilot leaving the aircraft.

I could be wrong though.

[/QUOTE]I'm pretty sure it's just the rocket. I don't think there is any "spring catapult" per se on the ACES II. The seat definitely fires prior to the the pilot leaving the aircraft.[/QB][/QUOTE]

You're not wrong...it's a rocket all the way. Older seats used an artillery shell type charge...one BANG and you're out. Modern seats use rockets so the acceleration isn't quite so extreme (not that they're slow by any stretch) and for control. You could devote a day just to study all the systems that have to interact properly to get a successful ejection on a modern aircraft.

FastCargo