When the AI decides not to engage a force and instead run to the nearest airbase and land, in my experience it is by far the biggest reason for the AI getting shot down. Instead of firewalling it and running full speed (like they seem do when going home during/after a dogfight,) the AI makes a gentle turn towards the nearest airbase and proceeds at cruise towards it. And then, when the force it's trying to flee from inevitably catches up, the AI will proceed to obliviously fly straight and level until they actually begin to take fire. Finally, if they do manage to reach the airbase, they will start the slow descent to land 1-by-1, ignoring the swarm of enemy aircraft around them and only fighting after being shot at (and promptly loosing because they are damaged).

All this means that if you're on a side with a disadvantage, like the Germans in late 1917 or the French/British in early 1917, the most dangerous place for the AI to be is on their side of the lines surrounded by friendly airfields. Because when the AI decides to flee, the shooting gallery begins, and they slowly turn to the airbase and begin the oblivious landing spiral all while being picked off one by one.

If possible, the behavior should be modified. When the AI starts to run (which means they have seen the enemy aircraft and aren't bounced), then when the AI closes within a certain distance, they turn and fight? And if enemy aircraft are within a certain distance, don't begin the landing pattern? And if a member of a flight in a landing pattern is attacked, all aircraft will break off the landing and help fight?

I fully understand that the AI should run away, and I'm not talking about "terminator" AI. I love the fact that the AI in WOFF usually tries to stay alive as a priority. Just pointing out that often, the "self-preservation" AI mode leads to it getting killed far too easily because it doesn't do it right, and that if they turn to fight at least the attacking AI has a chance of being discouraged and RTB (G-fatigue, morale, etc). The slow and gentle "run away" behavior is also a reason why two-seater campaigns are so difficult.

The big trigger for me making this post is that I almost lost a late-1917 Albatros pilot (managed an emergency landing) that I've put a lot of time into, because the AI decided to seek "safety" by slowly cruising away from the enemy in level flight, and I had to take on four Nieuports alone to save the idiots. This was in a squadron rated as "good" with several aces in the flight.

I agree with your post, as it does take away from the immersion IMO. However, I feel like this would have been changed a long time ago if it were easy to fix. I too think that when a flight chooses to not engage it should flee and flee fast, and not try landing if enemy aircraft are nearby. I'm not sure where I've seen this specifically, but I think this was brought up somewhere and I don't remember the response it was given.

Pol said that (IIRC) that once the landing procedure starts, it is very difficult for the program to change to something else.

http://SimHQ.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/4147055/Re:_What_I_noticed_with_AI_beh

Deja vu.

Been discussed before - don't forget some are running scared, panicking and not thinking straight including not looking behind. When they are fired on then they will be shocked into reacting.

Landing is very complex, doesn't look it but it is. To get them landing then to break out of it when low etc then to deal with all the fallout from rearranging the landing zones for each assigned AI etc, craft already landing, already assigned places and so on - no it's not worth it - the code required to cope with absolutely everything - it is not worth the return we get at all.

The AI is already one of, if not the best out there - definitely for WW1.

CFS3 originally didn't land properly either with WW2 craft landing on a WW2 field. At least now we have super landing.

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Bag of magic tricks getting towards the bottom, eh Pol? Not to worry, you shook more from it than anyone, (outside of the WOFF dev team), imagined possible in regards to that old CFS3 engine.

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Thanks for the explanation Pol, and it definitely makes sense to stand firm given all that needs to be considered. I for one appreciate the explanation as I don't recall having seen it before. Anyway, all that logic would probably overload my single processor thread! The PC I mean!

Best Regards;

I can appreciate wanting the AI to run for home at full speed so they are harder to kill. If they can do it, great but I also understand that things "under the hood" can get very complicated and also it can lead to some unintended effects. For example:

Imagine your AI flight leader decides to whip around and head the whole flight for the safety of home because he sees an enemy formation that he knows it's unlikely your flight will be able to win against. So imagine he heads for home at full speed....except you are a young pilot stuck in an older - slower - out dated plane. Guess who gets left in the dust and devoured alive? I imagine there'd be a forum post or two about the AI flight leaders leaving players in older planes to die.

When I am chasing an enemy flight and they go into "landing mode", I just turn around and head the other way. For "immersion" it is justified that the ground fire would be too much of a chance. More realistic than shooting fish in a barrel. Lots of work a rounds for the few quirks in this wonderful sim.

That demads a great portion of selfcontrol .

BTW lots of pilots that made a run for it, in WW1, died.

For example Lanoe Hawker ...

I wish I've seen AI landing. I'd shoot down every one of the straight-and-level filthy bastards for all the times they ignored my entire flight and ganged up on ME while everyone sat there and watched. Yeah, would love that. In fact, I think I'll go hunting over the lines.

I for one don't engage the enemy in landing mode but this could be a excellent idea OldHat,could it be made so it could be switched on/off if so wished? Or would it have to be on using your airfield mod (if incorporated)?

That has happened to me a number of times.... while flying with Jasta 5. (My flight along with its aces running away... while I'm scruffing along in my Alb DIII, and everyone else is in Alb DV variants.)

For that matter, even when I was the highest rank/ace and leading the flight... I was always stuck in the Alb DIII while EVERY other pilot in the ENTIRE squadron were in Alb DV variants.

I love WOFF, but I can't really say that aircraft assignment in WOFF is my favorite thing. (currently flying WOFF v3.5)

Best thing is simply to set ground accuracy to hard. That automatically raises the rate and number of flak, and makes also gun nest more accurate. No mod needed to increase gun nests or flaknests etc. Setting to hard does that automatically. If not by numbers (which is good for CPU), then with it's rate of fire, which in the end has the same effect.
AI attacking landing AC won't do that for too long anymore since they are low and are going to be more exposed to groundfire, both factors which will make them going home again pretty soon.

Setting aside the landing issue as being a bit complicated to tackle, it would be great if 'running away' AI could be tweeked to use full throttle rather than the current speed, which seems to be a bit leisurely (per the original post). I assume the AI are already programed to use full throttle in dogfights, so if they could somehow know not to cut back to 'cruise' throttle setting when entering their retreat mode it would help them get away better. I am sure this all been thoroughly looked already by the development team, so apologies for probably stating the obvious.

I'm not the development team but for every plus, there is often a minus. If the AI runs away at full speed, that means that your AI flight leader will do the same thing. What if you are in a flight but you have an out dated, slower plane. You'll end up being a sacrificial lamb which I imagine would also get a post or two on the forums. Even if they can change it, I think it just probably exchanges one problem for another. You'll get fewer kills, but you also might be more likely to die.

I'm not trying to stir anything, just adding my own 2 cents. Isn't there an option to turn it off if you don't like this behavior? Something like AI fights to the death. The enemy is flying straight and level because there is something wrong, otherwise he would be still fighting. Granted, it makes for a cheap victory, but wasn't it the same in real life? Pilots flying straight and level made for the easiest kills. That should not be an immersion killer. I for one am glad they're flying straight an level, otherwise I wouldn't be able to hit any of them in that SPAD.

For many kills the unlucky pilot didn't even see the enemy or was running home. Many times a pilot in trouble just could not run without risking an enemy picking them up and they knew it. However sooner or later they knew the inevitable was coming and they had to run.

As I have mentioned before Sir Gordon Taylor found himself in a similar situation in a Sopwith Pup. Low down over the mud several Albatros were above him swooping down in turns, one or two keeping him busy down low. He knew the limitations of the machine and situation. He knew the pup could out-turn, but not out-run the Albatros especially with some above him.

He had to widen his turning circle slightly towards home when he could and keep fighting - hoping they got bored. When he finally made a break for it (when almost all the Albs had indeed got bored and left the engagement) with Albs chasing him they finally left him and he landed. Only then was it pointed out that his tail wires were shot up and trailing behind - but yet he had flown home without control problems. Technically he should never have made it. He only survived by clever duel controls mod installed without his knowledge by his mechanic for the tail surfaces. In normal circumstances he would have been yet another dead pilot who ran for home.