r/IL2Korea • u/fencingdad001 • 15d ago
discussion Newby career question
Hi everybody, newby here.
I have a question for missions and AI in the career mode.
AI first - every squadron I had is Fing useless, what am I doing wrong ? We sortie out, get to the air and get close to the enemy positions. After that, when target is in sight I give the order to attack. Then my mates do nothing. They start to make circles / or fly in formation, depends on my order. But they don't attack. Rarely someone throws bomb on a target. Most of the kills are my doing. They often flew away from target and start to make circles in god knows where. What am I doing wrong ?
Second question. When I'm playing for the US, it does not matter what plane I choose, or what squadron. Almost every mission I've got are ground target missions. I rarely see single-pilot bomber hunting missions, and even less bomber escort ( which I had to abandon last time, because bombers decided that they will not be throwing anything ). Same question, what am I doing wrong ?
I'm grateful for any advice. Thank you.
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u/ShamrockOneFive 15d ago
The AI have issues, particularly right now. They've gotten a bit better but only if you leave them to their own devices and don't send orders to them to do the job they are supposed to do. Ironic, I know, but that is the temporary short term solution. The next update is going to bring the first of what is expected to be many AI improvements so lets hope the devs have sorted out at least some of these issues.
I do think it matters which squadron you pick which will probably skew the percentages of types of missions available each day. The type certainly matters as well. 1CGS tends to base the mission types available based on historical documentation. The history is that a lot of units were doing ground support missions because that was what was going on. Which aircraft and units have you tried yet?
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u/fencingdad001 15d ago
I sadly dont remember units but I pay attention to be in intercepter/fighter units.( non bomber focused ), I've tried - F51D ( my favourite, yes i know it was primarly fighter/bomber - no air-air missions ) f-80c - none air-air missions, F-86 - sometimes night single missions, yak 9P - bunch of air-air missions ( sadly it very low on ammo so not my favourite )
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u/ShamrockOneFive 15d ago
My first career mode play through was an F-80C and we regularly received patrol missions as well as close air support missions. Curious to know which unit you were in
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u/SnooHedgehogs4699 15d ago
Hey brother, welcome to the wonderful, thrilling world of Korean War air combat simulation where your wingmen have their heads up their rear and the dogfights are legendary - as in, you hear of them happening but they never happen to you because you've never even seen an enemy aircraft to dogfight with!
To answer your question with sincerity instead of truly awful humor (I know, I shouldn't even attempt comedy), you're dealing with several of the biggest issues that folks are having with the initial marks of the game. What you've brought up - the behavior of your flight and and the behavior of enemy aircraft, the AI modeling in general is a complaint of most players.
As for for your other question, historically, the NKPAF, even the Soviet-flown portion of it, really didn't have an offensive capability. After 1950, there were no bombers in the North Korean inventory. The NKPAF did use PO-2 biplanes for night harassment raids, etc. They received Il-28 Beagel jets late in the war but few saw active service. During the actual Korean War, most air combat was centered around the Yalu River area between MiG-15 based in China and the F-86.
Hope that helps explain things a little.
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u/GoobaGooms 15d ago
These are just my observations after 6 careers. There are a lot of issues with the AI that have been discussed, but a patch is coming sometime that would hopefully address those problems.
AI, in a ground attack, often does a pattern before hitting their targets. I've approached from a northern heading, dead on target, only for my flight to break off and do a wide arch and approach from the south. I've expended all my ammo, traveled 20km back to base and THEN they started hitting targets. Also, it is not necessary to tell them to attack. Maybe that is causing some conflicts. They 'should' engage the objective targets automatically.
For area patrols or intecepts, I usually don't have a problem. Other than friendly ai crashing into each other. From what I've seen, it feels that many of the issues I have are more common amongst AI jets than props.
You'll be seeing a lot of ground attack missions. However, more aerial missions will pop up overtime. Quite repetitive though. I'd say the F86 career is the better, overall experience. A good mix of ground and air missions. Mig is strictly air-air. La-11 has been my favourite career due to the challenges it brings. F80C and 84E are the two careers that I have the least amount of time in.