Bombardier & Gunner stations: Whats up with the AI?

[Watash]

Whenever I change from the pilot to either the bombardier or any of the gunner stations I notice a couple of things:
1)The bombsight doesn't appear about 80% of the time even in aircraft that are supposed to have them.
2)When you occupy the station the plane begins to do things that are not consistant with AI flying the aircraft to complete the mission ie.. it nose dives to the ground.
3) The same thing happens whenever I occupy any of the gunner stations, I begin to immediately lose altitude and head for the ground.
4)When the bombsight does appear you cannot make even the slightest course correction while in the bombardiers station without severe shuddering.
I have E-mailed these same problems to Microsoft and the initial response was that it cannot possibly be the game it must be operator error. Does anyone have similar problems? Has anyone figure out how to fix them? Other than these and some other minor problems the game runs great but is a resource hog.
Look forward to your responses. Good luck and good hunting!
Watash

[fsc_FA]

Watash,

I have exactly the same problem. Could it be that our graphics settings are drawing too heavily on CPU-resources causing the A.I.-function to fail? I'll try to run the game with the lowest possible settings and see what happens.

Fritz

[Avstar113]

Janes Combat Sqdn. It went on autopilot when you switched to the gunners positions on the B-17. Maybe because the real B-17 had an autopilot? I don't know. Generally, it would be more enjoyable to have a "pilot" take the controls while you go be the gunner.





http://www.flightsim.com/dcforum/User_files/3d5305e87163c0a9.jpg
-J.C.

[KJNdev69]

If you have problems seeing the bombsight in the bombers, make sure that when you leave the pilot station, the Virtual Cockpit is on. If you have just the HUD in the pilot's station, no bomb sight will appear when you switch.

The stuttering problem is sort of screwy. Obvioulsy, you are aware that when you go to the nose section from the cockpit, you're still driving. The only way to spare yourself the "stutters" in course corection is to be lined-up on the path to the target waypoint from at least 10 to 20 miles. Have the airplane trimmed to fly as straight and level ON COURSE to the target as best you can, leaving your duties as a bomb aimer a tad easier. It may also do some good to load out with the biggest bombs the plane can carry. This will eliminate the need for presision. If your close enough, you'll do sufficient damage to satisfy mission goals. Keep in mind that when folks say the bombardier flew the airplane on the bomb run, they are correct somewhat, but what isn't stated clearly is that in reality, his aiming controls were slaved to the autopilot. Since CFS3 has no autopilot, we're stuck with the full motion of the controls. This is a major oversight on MS's part.

As for AI in the game. It sucks. In B-26 missions, I would be the only one bombing from 10 to 15,000. When I order the flight to attack the target, they break off and dive in for low level passes. This almost always results in half the squadron being shot down. As for switching to the gun stations, do so with a minimum of at least 5,000 feet of altitude to spare. The aircraft will occilate until your AI "copilot" gets the plane back into control. You ask your self how the clown ever made it out flight school.

As far as MS telling you it's "user error", that's a standard reply, and a shield to hide behind a junk product that is becoming more and more popular.

Hope this lends some insight.