Invisible planes

[Stalwart]

After running one of my own missions a few dozen times, I've noticed sometimes I get a ghost chaser, sometimes I don't.  I've read what others have said about the invisible planes showing up, but I don't read anything conclusive.  Has anyone learned any more about this issue?

[soda72]

There is a way to work around this issue.  I have noticed if you reduce the number of planes in your flight groups the issue seems to go away.  Try keeping the number of planes in your flights to 2 ( perferably 1 plane per flight) and use the 'offset segment' to create formations.  For example if you have a one flight group that has four planes, change that one to use only 1 plane and create 3 more flights with 1 plane each for a total of 4.

[USRanger]

AH is built to only allow 32 planes on your screen at a time.  Are these missions with more than that many planes?

[Stalwart]

I'm seeing this on the Hurricane IIC Firepower mission.  Most flights are solo, and the largest is a wing formation.  There are 36 planes total in the mission, but the merges are spread out over 15 minutes.

Maybe it's my imagination... but the "ghosts" seem to show up after I make a pilot kill.  It might just be my mind playing tricks, but it seems like if I see the enemy pilot bail, then there's no ghost later.

[USRanger]

Just played it.  Here's a shot of a ghost plane firing on me:

[Stalwart]

In the editor, running a mission where a Me163 intercepts some B17s, I observed the Me163 'pop' in the air, presumably from a head shot.  To my amusement the mission viewer continued to track an invisible Me163 through the air.  Then, the clincher...  The invisible 163 began lighting up a B17.  In addition to the cannons firing, the little wheels from the 163 were jettisoned from the invisible plane as if they were bombs.

Having now observed this invisible plane phenomenon a few times and successfully recreating it a few times, and then tonight watching it happen in the editor, I am thoroughly convinced there is a bug in the off line mission logic that handles the head shot 'death' of AI controlled planes.  The plane explodes and disappears, but the AI continues to fight an invisible plane.

[Stalwart]

Here's the related mission thread for the example above:

http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/topic,242660.msg3349614.html#msg3349614

Watch this in the editor and follow the 163 flights.