FFX: Questions about topology and AI behaviour

[kekelekou 42]

Hello,

I have just watched a video that explains that the wildfire spreading speed depends on fuel (quite obviously) but on topology too. The fire runs away much quicker toward uphill terrain, and slows down if downhill.

Has this been implemented in FFX?

Another question was the loading of AI planes. Is it plane dependant? Do they carry as much water/retardant as possible to stay below MTOW? Could it be possible to define some planes as retardant only and other ones as water only?

Thank you! 

Edit the answer to the last question is yes : the load type is defined in the AI windows.

 

One last thing:  what about a drop down menu for the swath width parameter? Or a help window?

Airtractor --> 80"

Tracker--> 100"

CL-415 / P2V / BAe146 / C130 Maffs --> 150"

Orion / RJ85 / C130-Rads --> 200"

DC10 / 747 --> 300"

I am not sure that the numbers are correct, but it might help to give an example for each bomber category.

[Lorby_SI 2,036]

Hello,

Only wind, precipitation, temperature and, to a certain extent, the type of fuel is factored into the fire simulation. Besides the two obvious (and vastly different) "realistic" and "manual" lifecycles, there are many parameters that can by overriden by the user. That, and the fact that the simulator scenery is so inaccurate, determined that there is practically no point in going beyond the basic rules of thumb for fire propagation. Part of the propagation process is randomized too, to make it seem more life-like. The fire will burn out at different speeds on grass, forest or urban surface types. The problem here is, that the surface types in the simulator are far from accurate, and most importantly, they have little to do with landclass or the textures that you see in that spot. It is fruitless to try and induce accuracy in a virtual world that is inaccurate and that every user can tweak too.

As a matter of interest, this fire lifecycle seems to be of little concern for professional customers. They prefer to place the fires themselves, so they can be certain what will happen in the scenario.

AI: their carrying capacity only factors into the visual depiction of the drop effect. The larger the plane, the bigger/longer the effect. Other than that, capacity is irrelevant for AI, they never run out of retardant (just like they never run out of fuel). The reason here again is the inaccuracy of the aircraft models. There is no telling if the weight parameters in the aircraft.cfg aren't just plain wrong. So I decided not to go into too much detail, especially in light of the general behavior of AI - like crashing into hills, turning away before they hit the fire (fear?) etc.

Best regards

[kekelekou 42]

Roger that for the fire lifecycle. There is no point being more demanding than professionals!

Regarding AI, I just wanted to ve sure that AI SEATs will not be as effective as VLATs! I lile playing the  big gun and saving the day while all the AI SEATs painstakingly try to contain the fire. I'd prefer them not to extinguish the fire before I can start the aircraft and fly to the site! 

 

[Lorby_SI 2,036]

"Demanding": well, there is so much more to an accurate fire lifecycle simulator, this goes way beyond what is possible in a flightsim. Check this out for example: http://www.firegrowthmodel.ca/

The real question is, if you need that kind of accuracy in an aerial fire fighting simulation. If you play it realistically, then your time over the fire is too short to really make out those details. But the "professionals" tell me, that the fire simulation in FFX is actually pretty good. The lifecycle is sensitive to the simulation rate, so I suggest that you start a fire, set proper weather conditions and then turn the rate up to 4x. The pattern that evolves after a while should be pretty much the funnel-like shape that the rule-of-thumb says it should be (at least in realistic fire mode). But the FPS drop will be immense if you allow for large enough fires (max number of elementals).

AI: capacity for a single drop is derived from 70% of the "total gross weight" minus "empty weight". Be aware though, that if you send an AI directly to a fire, it will always hit it (terrain permitting). In your case I suggest that you use the fire designer to assign the AI hit points outside of the burning zone.

Best regards