A-10s wont use their main gun

[randir14 10]

I keep messing around in the editor trying to get the A-10s to use their GAU but for some reason they never do, they only use the Mavericks and rockets. When they're out of ammo for those they just keep doing passes over the enemy without attacking. Is there some way to get them to use the GAU?

[chaplainDMK 10]

Hmn, i did a village filled by 5 russian squads, 1 T72, 1 T90 and 1 BTR and they used all their weapons on the runs.

Looked spectacular, tho they will always use their missles and rockets for taking out armor first with is a bit unrealistic since people always say their primary weapon is the gau.

They did strafe the place afterwards. Probably picked off infantry with the thing.

[randir14 10]

Maybe that's the problem, I only had them attacking tanks. I assumed since the GAU is a tank killer that they would use it, lol.

[Windexglow 10]

In real life, they'd probably use their bombs/missiles first to lighten the load + less explosive hazard on the wings.

[p75 10]

Is there a command you can use in the init so that the plane only uses it bullets?

[galzohar 31]

IRL you'd use the missiles first (long range and safe)... Then bombs because they're SO much more damaging and can be dropped from a much higher altitude, and then rockets because they're simply better than the cannon and then only use the cannon when there's nothing else to use. I know some say the vulcans on the (ground attacking) F16s are there "just in case" and are practically never used. A 20/30mm cannon just doesn't do anywhere near the same damage as the big explosive weapons.

[frederf 0]

I'd disagree about the FFAR vs cannon order. FFARs on an A-10 would most certainly be WP variety, terribly inaccurate, and mostly used for marking targets while acting as FAC for other aircraft.

The A-10's cannon is a breed apart from that found on the F-16 or AV-8B. It's not an air-to-air cannon pressed into the ground attack role but a dedicated ground attack weapon.

[ReiKuhr 0]

3000+ rounds per minute of 30mm HE or AP rounds is certainly not something to sniff at. Not to mention, they're effective at knocking out anything short of a bunker and cost a lot less to use.

[Alex72 1]

To me the A-10 use the GAU after they depleted mavericks and FFAR's. Maybe they arent using the A-10 100% proper, but they do use the GAU.

[maturin 12]

Does anyone know whether reducing an A-10's starting accuracy depletes all weapon types evenly, or does it remove bombs and rockets first? That would be a useful tweak.

[Windexglow 10]

Probably all weapons evenly - test it out yourself, isn't hard.

[richardg 10]

Seeing how A-10s roll in on gun targets from around 6000 feet its useless anyway, its impossible to see targets. Ingame draw distance isnt far enough for proper air attacks.

[manberries 0]

You can use this removeMagazine <magazine name>, <number of magazines> to remove specific weapons therefore forcing it to use the GAU. Don't quote me on the specific syntax it might be a bit off, but its something like that.

[Kabolte 10]

Seeing how A-10s roll in on gun targets from around 6000 feet its useless anyway, its impossible to see targets. Ingame draw distance isnt far enough for proper air attacks.

I thought the game draw distance was measured in meters. If I'm correct, then that would make 6000 feet about 1800 meters, which is more than doable. On my average spec system, I'm using 2500 as a draw distance

[manberries 0]

ya i run on average 4000m (i dont fly much) if i do plan of flying I kick it up to 10k

[ajsarge 10]

The round using in the GAU on the A-10 is not 30mm. It's 1.5" of depleted uranium in diameter, roughly 6" long, and coming out of the barrels at 3000rpm (I've got a "trophy'd" round+casing right in front of me). The plane was built around the gun (which hasn't been done before it or after) and a ground attack role. It's a BIG bullet, and you're mistaken if you say that the kinetic damage alone isn't enough to rip a tank in half. I think that the power in the gun is more than that in the rockets (which I view more as infantry killers due to their explosive radius) against tanks.

It would be nice to see the AI using their guns, and a couple of improvements in the flight model to help with players' aim. Notably the use of rudders while moving more than 90km/h. Planes unfortunately, were designed in the game to be support assets for the infantry and not used as primary strike assets against enemy vehicles and fortifications without the help of ground forces.

[randir14 10]

Notably the use of rudders while moving more than 90km/h.

I noticed this and thought it was a problem with my joystick. It's really hard to adjust the plane for attack runs when you cant even control the rudders after a certain speed.

[Liability 10]

Most aircraft use a gattling gun as an after thought accessory, the A-10 is literally built around the GAU-8. The entire design thought of the A-10 was "I have a massive gattling gun, now build me a plane to use it".

[THEBLITZ6794 10]

IRL you'd use the missiles first (long range and safe)... Then bombs because they're SO much more damaging and can be dropped from a much higher altitude, and then rockets because they're simply better than the cannon and then only use the cannon when there's nothing else to use. I know some say the vulcans on the (ground attacking) F16s are there "just in case" and are practically never used. A 20/30mm cannon just doesn't do anywhere near the same damage as the big explosive weapons.

by the time u could penetrate sloped-reactive-composite armor that is moterfucking thick a horde or sams would make u a burning wreck. u would have to shred the armor off a tank...

[Jimmy the Saint 10]

Though I'm (still) playing the demo, I have no problem to lock on, attack and destroy ground-targets with any weapon at pretty high speeds around 220km/h with the Cobra Attack Helicopter. I use a rendering distance of about 3500 meters. Of course it heavily depends on what weapon you use on which target. That means, the secondary gun (which is often used for soft targets like infantry etc.) is almost useless against (hard) armoured vehicles - especially tanks.

The 30 mm GAU-8 is without question designed for heavily armoured vehicles, but it looses its effectiveness mounted on a plane like the A-10. Reasons are for example: It is not very precise, making it hard to hit the same spot many times, and it also has a pretty low muzzle velocity, resulting in a correspoindingly low armor penetration, compared to most modern anti-tank guns which are often mounted to the ground, bunkers, tanks etc.

But as a supporting weapon on a A-10 against tanks etc. it is still doing the job when hitting the lower armoured sides, the back armour or just by damaging the vehicle.

(I was thinking here about flight-simulation games like F16 Falcon, AH-64 D Longbow II or A-10 Warthog - which games are of course much more complex then ArmAII in the sense of flying aircrafts)

*And by the way - the key for a successful ground attack is to have a low altitude, so the enemy cannot see or get a SAM lock on you.

Edited July 12, 2009 by Jimmy the Saint

[S_Z 0]

I noticed this and thought it was a problem with my joystick. It's really hard to adjust the plane for attack runs when you cant even control the rudders after a certain speed.

When you say you don't have any control, do you mean they don't have any effect at higher speed?

My rudder works fine at higher speed (~500) but for some reason, regardless of speed, after using the rudder to pull left it automaticly pull to the right for a second which is quite annoying. This does not happen when I use the rudders to pull to the right and its not my joystick, using keyboard gives the same effect.

Sorry for off-topic...

[Jimmy the Saint 10]

When you say you don't have any control, do you mean they don't have any effect at higher speed?

My rudder works fine at higher speed (~500) but for some reason, regardless of speed, after using the rudder to pull left it automaticly pull to the right for a second which is quite annoying. This does not happen when I use the rudders to pull to the right and its not my joystick, using keyboard gives the same effect.

Sorry for off-topic...

this should be normal, aircrafts should always be dragging a bit to the opposite direction while using the rudders

*i was just reading over your post again - usually the aircraft is dragging back a little, but your description sounds a bit different. More like your joystick is not calibrated fully or it does not have a neutral deadzone in which movement should be impossible. Have you configurated a deadzone for your joystick? Try to make a bigger deadzone first and then lower it steadily until you notice the (wrong) effect. - Though I am not sure if there is wind integrated into the game which effects aircraft movement.

Edited July 12, 2009 by Jimmy the Saint

[galzohar 31]

Look at the wikipedia penetration values of the GAU-8. Even if they're 5X lower than real, it's still not anywhere near enough to do any serious damage to heavy armor. You'd rip apart any light armored vehicles though such as BMPs, Bradly, MLRS etc, if you get to actually hit them.

How do you set a dead zone for your joystick? I didn't notice anything like that in the windows calibration process.

[ajsarge 10]

Yeah, that's ONE round at a time. The A-10 spits out 50 rounds per second at 3000rpm (rough estimate). That's akin to being shot with one paintball in the back, versus being shot with 100. One won't do much more than maybe give you a welt. 100 will split your back open and cause great pain.

Reactive armor is designed to explode and deflect explosions. The only other armor on tanks and ground vehicles is ceramic plates and maybe 2" of steel in certain areas. Once a ceramic plate is shot, it's useless. Now throw another 49 into roughly the same area and you get a lot of damage. Bonus points if your aim runs rounds through the cannon mount or magazine.

And I like how the thread has gone from "how can I make A-10s use their guns instead of..." to "the GAU-8 IS teh shiz! you lie!" and "help! my rudder doesn't work right!"

[S_Z 0]

*i was just reading over your post again - usually the aircraft is dragging back a little, but your description sounds a bit different. More like your joystick is not calibrated fully or it does not have a neutral deadzone in which movement should be impossible. Have you configurated a deadzone for your joystick? Try to make a bigger deadzone first and then lower it steadily until you notice the (wrong) effect. - Though I am not sure if there is wind integrated into the game which effects aircraft movement.

At first I also thought it had to do with the joystick but as I said even when I didnt touch the joystick and only used the keyboard it did this every till i pull to the left.

I just tried disabling the joystick but that resulted in some even more weird rudder issues. Now it doesn't matter what way I turn, when i release the rudder key the rudder keeps going back an forth for a few second. I searched the community issue track and found this reported bug: http://dev-heaven.net/issues/show/2041 Perhaps my issue is related to that one.

I can still aim quite well using rudder (when the joystick is connected) so i just hope they fix this in an future patch.

Enough off-topic from me :)