A quality of life improvement, if at all possible. It would be nice to have multiple options for ground attack waypoints along with more options for normal flight.
For ground attack:
Type of attack:
- Individual targets / break formation
- Level bombing / maintain formation
- Bombs only / no strafing
Bomb settings:
- One at a time
- Pairs
- Dump
- Train
If "train" is selected, the user inputs a value, and the aircraft will drop that number of bombs at the waypoint or during each pass. This might help with forcing bombers carrying more bombs than they would otherwise drop at the waypoint to drop all of them at once, or it could enable multiple level-bombing strikes by the same heavy bombers. If a specific target is marked for a ground attack waypoint set to level bombing, the AI won't break formation, but will direct any guided bombs towards the target.
Rocket launch settings:
- One at a time
- Pairs
- Dump
Rocket and bomb fuse timers
Just like with player customization, the user could set the AI's fuse times.
As for normal flight waypoints, there are a few more settings that would make them a lot better, again, if at all possible:
Composite formation settings:
- Formation shape
- Distance between flights
Escort type:
- Default
- Alongside
Escort settings:
- Distance
- Altitude difference
- Angle
These would enable more specific customization of formations larger than just four planes, along with their escorts (using the target selector on friendly aircraft). The formation would be determined by the lead flight targeted by the others, and the escort types would be determined by the planes targeting the lead flight.
Toggle air-to-air rocket engagement
Many aircraft that are carrying rockets won't attack other aircraft unless otherwise commanded to in-flight. This would fix that.
Type of attack:
- Normal
- Schräge Musik Up
- Schräge Musik Down
Schräge Musik settings:
- Firing angle
- Range
Selecting Schräge Musik will make the AI fly above or below enemy aircraft to use upward-firing or downward-firing guns or rockets. This one might be a nightmare to implement (or could just be flat-out impossible).
For both:
Toggle evasive maneuvers
This applies to both normal flight and level bombing. Most aircraft will veer left and right when under fire by flak. This is fine for smaller bombers, but heavy bombers struggle to perform these maneuvers without a lot of clumsiness, so this would remedy that.
Weapons used:
- Primary
- Secondary
- Rockets
- Bombs
Each weapon type could be toggled on or off. This would help a lot with aircraft that have normal forward-firing guns in addition to Schräge Musik guns or rockets.
Gunner attack type:
- Attack air
- Attack ground
- Attack all
Gunner attack settings:
- Maximum engagement range
No idea if this is feasible, but it would enable realistic nose and door gunners in helicopters and support fire from gunships like AC-130s.
I suspect that a good portion (maybe most) of this is wishful thinking, but I wanted to throw it out there just in case the possibilities exist.
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Topic: Ground Attack and Normal Waypoint Options (Read 333 times)
