Possible error with Balloon Busting missions

Hello

Really enjoying playing WOFF again. So much has been improved in this game over the years it's really a work of art. Thank you to the team!

Had a couple of balloon busting missions where things did not work as expected with regard to the behaviour of my AI squad mates. We climb very high - way too high for such a mission - something in the region of 13,000 ft (4000 odd metres). We fly along the route prescribed in the mission and then when we reach the balloon, the AI continue to fly straight ahead and as far as I can see, carry on indefinately! They remain at the high altitude too. I stopped following them and went off to attack the balloon myself and then flew home. I waited for the AI to return for a while but no sign of them.

This happened once with the British and once with the Germans. I haven't had any other BB missions yet so can't tell if this is just a random glitch or something that happens all the time.

Has anyone else seen such a thing?

I have no mods installed - it's a relatively fresh reinstall of the base WOFF: BHAH2 with the 1.35 patch installed.

Cheers,
Stu.

Hi Stu,

Can't speak for the developers or mission builders; but I've definitely seen the default flight plan as being too high. What I usually do is call up the Mission Editor and change the altitude to something more realistic.

As for continuing to fly past the balloon, I've seen that too. I think the AI wants to fly past the balloons, get into line astern formation, and make their attack run heading back towards the lines so that have a quick getaway once the enemy are aware of what they're up to. I've seem to remember seeing the same thing when bombing things near the front lines too (or maybe I'm mixing up the two mission types in my feeble memory).

Cheers and Happy Flying,
MA

mandrews, I too have seen the "attack on the way back" method employed by the AI, to the point where I thought they forgot what they were doing! stufer, do you think you stuck around long enough to see if they came back that way? If they registered the balloon as "destroyed" they may have just headed for home or to land at a different aerodrome. Do you remember what their status was on the debrief screen?

Thank you mandrews and Rick. I appreciate your replies. The first time it happened was with DH2s from 24 Sqn and they definitely didn't start to turn back. I stuck with them for ages and we must have gone 20 miles past the balloon. The second time was in Jasta 18 in Alb DIIs and I didn' t give them as long this time but circled down to the balloon just a couple of miles passed it. I looked back at them and could see them just flying straight and level onwards.

On the debrief screen, they were listed as flying still, both times.

I'll look out for another mission and see what happens then. I think it may be related to their altitude - perhaps they are considered too far from the target and so it doesn't change them to their attack routine?

I can't say that I've seen it happen on a balloon attack mission but sometimes the rest of my flight will start chasing enemy planes that have been sighted in the distance. They seem to be locked in on them and continue to follow them deeper and deeper into enemy territory, ignoring the original mission and waypoints. Perhaps this happened on your balloon attack mission.

That's possible! Maybe try moving the waypoints on the briefing screen a little bit?

It's possible they were searching for it and didn't see it. If it happens again when they are flying very high on a balloon mission, exit WOFF and then copy the off_campaign_mission.xml from C:\OBDSoftware\OFF\OBDWW1 Over Flanders Fields\missions\historical
(default install location) and gather logs files so we can see (files in WOFF\Logs) - and send them to the support email address please (do not post logs here). Thanks.

Note they may climb some for safety getting over the lines. Higher is safer.