Helicopter behavior

[SwissAdmiral]

I've been making a mission that involves an air assault using MI 24s armed with both ATGMs and unguided rockets, and I'm finding it very difficult to get the AI to engage targets that are clearly visible. When it does engage, the AI seems to exclusively use the ATGMs and doesn't appear to use the rockets at all. Additionally to this, unless I give the helo the order to specifically stay in place, it will only fly in circles around a target without firing at it, inevitably resulting in it's death. I have a feeling I'm doing something wrong. Both the air assault mission and the AAR are attached.

Death from Above_988_090324DESKTOP-AFNF0114.aar

Death from Above.sce

[Gibsonm]

15 minutes ago, SwissAdmiral said:

I've been making a mission that involves an air assault using MI 24s armed with both ATGMs and unguided rockets, and I'm finding it very difficult to get the AI to engage targets that are clearly visible. When it does engage, the AI seems to exclusively use the ATGMs and doesn't appear to use the rockets at all. Additionally to this, unless I give the helo the order to specifically stay in place, it will only fly in circles around a target without firing at it, inevitably resulting in it's death. I have a feeling I'm doing something wrong. Both the air assault mission and the AAR are attached.

 

 

Can I suggest:

 

When moving a combination of "Fire at Will", "Tree top" height and "Engage" routes.

 

When occupying a battle position, use of "Guard" tactics.

 

I have both AH-64 on Blue and Mi-24 / Mi-8 on Red firing, cannon, rockets and ATGMs (sometimes at each other).

 

Edited September 3 by Gibsonm

[Jartsev]

2 hours ago, SwissAdmiral said:

I've been making a mission that involves an air assault using MI 24s armed with both ATGMs and unguided rockets, and I'm finding it very difficult to get the AI to engage targets that are clearly visible. When it does engage, the AI seems to exclusively use the ATGMs and doesn't appear to use the rockets at all. Additionally to this, unless I give the helo the order to specifically stay in place, it will only fly in circles around a target without firing at it, inevitably resulting in it's death. I have a feeling I'm doing something wrong. Both the air assault mission and the AAR are attached.

Death from Above_988_090324DESKTOP-AFNF0114.aar 11.66 MB · 1 download

Death from Above.sce 574.78 kB · 1 download

 

1) Visibility range is 1200meters
2) Mission time is late evening

These are 2 factors why Hinds in given scenario cannot do anything and would eventually die sooner or later

[Volcano]

Also, in general, helicopters will prefer to use ATGMs over rockets. Just saying - rockets will be used on non-armored vehicles, but if it is armored, then it will seek to use ATGMs as much as possible until expended. 

[Captain_Colossus]

for the wishlist: either the 'suppress here' command will work for helicopters (i do not believe i have seen helicopters follow such an order) or a way to designate a target reference point and armed helicopters hit it with rockets and cannons while not necessarily acquiring a target first-

 

that is, the way it is now is that the hind will tend to transition to the hover with engage routes and attempt to pick off individual units with rockets (hovering exposes the hind to the substantial risks of ground fire) rather than approach on a strafing run and saturate a general area with unguided rockets or guns (a more difficult target for enemy gunners to accurately track and hit); they tend to ignore any fire control orders with assault routes and hold fire altogether

 

in other words, the way the hind as conceived as both an armed assault transport and a form of mobile 'flying artillery' available is not really exploited, instead it behaves with the idea of precision fire against individual units even with rockets as its basic operating MO- if it cannot see a target, it will not open fire, if it does engage, it tends to do it from the hover while trying to line up shots

 

the number of wing points to fix rocket pods on the mi-24 hind and the mi-8 assault transports are not really conceived to their potential here, since instead of demolishing a target area with a high volume of fire while forsaking accuracy, they are more likely to hover and get shot down while they rather meekly fire a few rockets in pairs while trying to line up a target for an accurate shot

[TankHunter]

"Suppress here" has and should continue to work for helicopters. Usually they'll use rockets when commanded to do such.

[Captain_Colossus]

my apologies and fair point- they will do that from the hover when stopped at a waypoint with an explicit command to suppress attached to the waypoint- not when embarked.

 

i do not think think  on their own they will freely suppress an area with unguided rockets and cannons in flight while embarked on a route- with an engage route, they seem to stop and come to a hover once they decide to engage- and so when that happens, they come to a halt but are not stopped at an explicit waypoint - just merely delayed until there is no target available- and so because they are not at a waypoint but temporarily halted, the player must intervene and creates a new waypoint at that location with a new order to suppress- otherwise they will attempt to use aimed fire at single targets rather than a general area

 

while embarked on with an engage condition, they will most likely come to a halt and fire weapons at specific targets before resuming the route once again. considerable exposure to risk, because they are halted

 

while embarked with an assault condition, they will just follow the route at high speed and tend to hold fire, since assault routes never trigger the automatic behavior to come to a halt at firing position- neither for vehicles nor for helicopters. with assault orders they neither stop nor tend fire their weapons because they do not stop to fire them

 

so if there was a way to designate an area or a reference point and assign it to a helicopter to unleash weapons while embarked, then it opens up a whole new dimension for what they could be capable of in steel beasts- in other words, accuracy of fire is exchanged for volume

to suppress a target area. they are not as likely to get shot down from the hover trying to plink individual targets, and they would come in at high speed and saturate a position with rockets or guns and so on and exit out again

 

 

 

 

 

[Ssnake]

Helicopter model-specific behavior is, at this point, out of scope for V4. I acknowledge that this is not necessarily reflecting real-life doctrine.