AI gunners fading into obscurity

[Juntingiee]

Gaijin nerfed AI turret gunners so badly god knows how long ago that I don’t think most of the playerbase even remembers or knows that they exist. 200m firing range for expert crew is diabolical. AI gunners being useful again would be amazing to see. It’s about time this feature gets some love again.

[Wooserloop]

If only they were like current naval A.I gunners.

[Dodo_Dud]

I rarely lose a bomber in arcade without soon getting an air kill for it. What more would I expect?
(Unless it is a single small calibre machine gun)

[Real_K_Soze]

@Juntingiee

AI gunners

…is a frequent topic:

AI gunners

Is it me or has anyone else noticed that your AI gunners tend to not open fire (even when they are expert) until your plane has taken damage even when they are within range?

Tailgunners don't like to fire

Even with crew skill tail gunners are extremely ineffective. Their efficacy should be increased.

Are we finally going to fix the gunners?

0.16 km base and 0.21 km top firing range (realistic battles) is borderline useless. We’ve been living with this rushed decision for many years now and lots of people want their wasted ~5000 crew XP points back. Either remove AI gunners or revise the way they work so they’re not OP when they DO fire. Surely we can reach a compromise?

Can back gunners on planes get some kind of buff?

Im sorry but having a gunner that is 75 expert lvl crew and its not shooting at enemy that is 500m and less behind be is just pure BS. Back gunners need buff, but not to the point that that will be deadly as airfield AAA

…and many more.

There is even a suggestion:

Increase Bomber AI engagement and tracking distances to historical levels (RB/SB)

poll poll This post has been copied and pasted from my denied bug report: When using AI gunners in RB/SB, the gunners target engagement ranges are too low compared to historical real life training manuals. Currently with an Ace crew and max level in gunners firing range is 0.21 km’s (See figure 1) or 691 feet (See figure 2). Also to note, Ace target tracking range is 0.66 km’s (See figure 1) or 2165 feet (See figure 2). Source: AIR GUNNERS - GET THAT FIGHTER, NAVAER 00-80S-32/OPNAV 33-12, IS…

Regarding this claim:

@Juntingiee

200m firing range for expert crew is diabolical.

…it is wrong.

You don’t have to trust me, just read this from a suggestion mod:

@Miki_Hoshii

Thanks for bringing this to my attention; I tested it in live matches to confirm that the firing range is indeed the tracking range rather than the fire range skill. Based on current firing ranges the gunners will engage at more or less the proposed ranges on aced full crew (+ 30 meters). However the actual range in which the turrets move to track a target is the same range as the firing range; this means that turrets don’t have enough time to properly face approaching targets, and thus may not engage until they’re much closer.

Have a good one!

[Miragen]

They’ve been useless for like a decade.

[Alpharius11348]

I honestly agree with AI gunners being bad, because if they were reasonably capable then there would be little skill involved in playing bombers, as it is in addition to knowing how to fly in a straight line you need to have situational awareness and some ability to manually aim gunners

however I do believe bombers such as b29 that historically had lead computation and other systems to assist their defensive guns should have those represented in game

[capnlunch]

Either AI gunners need their old accuracy back or heavy and medium bombers should get back their original DM. This is gaijin’s trademark unnecessary and idiotic double whammy method of nerfing something when one type of nerf would’ve been enough.

[Ospholis]

its on purpose, bombers were known for speedrunning tech tree’s and farming SL back in the day so they got rid of the AI

[warthogboy09]

No. AI gunner capability is irrelevant when you can get a fantasy 3rd person omniscient linked aiming of all turrets by doing it yourself.

Skill issue, the game shouldn’t play itself for you.

[CommunistBalls]

No! Bomber turrets are already stupid enough. You do not need AI to defend you while you fly straight and press space. Learn to aim!

[RunaDacino]

I feel that’s a non-issue for RBers/ABers.

However, it is a good point that buffing RB/AB gunners will have unintended consequences on sim knowing gaijin. We’d need a different crew skill behaviour set like how arcade/RB+SB have currently.

[Stona_WT]

Please use already created thread to discuss this topic.