@ThomasRoderick hey, you might be interested in this

@OrderlyHippo @11qazxc @rexzion
(Let me know if you don't need or want to get tagged)
First decent prototype using B-36. I'll publish it later after I'm done making a few more modifications. This one is using original PQ-14 FT, so no waypoint system yet.
https://www.simpleplanes.com/a/J9N6c0/PQB-36-AI-bomber-AIB-YG-v1

Set to fly 1700m (I think), and bomb Yeager airport's runway. Flies at around 540kph max in my usual testings. Spawn this near Wright, or somewhere between Wright and Yeager.
Bomb trigger, dropping delay, and course heavily affects the accuracy. Waypoint system will probably improve accuracy (sorry, haven't tested your modified version yet 11qazxc), but trigger needs improvement as well (it needs to adjust to current altitude). Some RNG like element might be great also, if that's even possible (can be based on speed, heading, etc.)
It's pretty fun though, spawn like 5 of them, and you get a pretty neat formation of bombers.

@OrderlyHippo
Damn, you're right. I musta misunderstood the cause. This is great though, now I can build a SAM site, thanks for the tip

@Kendog84 Are you sure that detacher workaround won’t work? Maybe you are talking about something else. My old build, click me, uses Act7 to “damage itself” but if you add a missile somewhere it still works after Act7. The detacher method tells Simple Planes your aircraft is “damaged” when the number of parts being released is greater than or equal to the number of parts on the plane it’s detaching from

It seems either terrain or other aircrafts lose collision when the distance between you and them are further than about 45km. Stuff on the ground sink through the land, touch water and get destroyed. That's shorter than distance between Wright and Yeager (which is about 57km). Happens on my game at least.
In game physics/graphics/terrain settings don't seem to matter (tested with low, mid and high). Consideration for where you spawn bombers and ground targets, or in what order.

@OrderlyHippo @11qazxc
Oh no, I mean, the SAM launcher must be critically damaged (ie cockpit detached from the rest--no actual damage required) so the AAA don't target and shoot it (which would be friendly-fire).
But you can't use missiles once you are CD-ed (weapon ammo goes to 0 regardless of whether the part is intact or not*), so the 'missile' part of the SAM system must work on a different mechanism.
Luckily, critical damage state doesn't necessarily make you lose your fuel or disable FT on it (see MysteryTimeTraveler's Shilka), so I think it's possible to build SAM that fires automatically based on target distance, and guides itself to target with FT gyro or something.

As for dodging, maybe it can have bad maneuverability (like SA-2), or use some other means to make them only target bombers (spawn order and distance to each other upon spawn might effect who targets who).
As long as player can dodge it, though, it should be good enough as a target for SEED scenario.

*there's a bit of workaround for this if you use detachers, but only works with unguided projectiles like bombs, and rockets. Not possible with cannons or missiles AFAIK.

Hippo's right, any weapon is useless if you don't know position of target.
Also FT-based missile will not give enemy any warnings and will not care about chaff|flares, so it will be almost impossible to dodge it.

@Kendog84 If a plane is critically damaged, it can’t be targeted by ai. Like when you shoot down a plane and you can’t select it as a target anymore. Because you can’t select the target, the game doesn’t give you any target coordinates to work with. I don’t know how ai would fire anything at it

@OrderlyHippo
I think you'll be convinced once you see my prototype, it's really fun, and more refuned version should give you a lot of options to create a custom mission scenario in freeloam mode. Will tag you once it's published.

Anyone seen or have a gyro/control surface guided "missile" btw?
I want to have SAM along with enemy AAA tanks
(I'm using MysteryTimeTraveler's ZSU-23-4 Shilka for testing, it works nicely), but these FT AAA target anything "alive", and actual missile parts in the game needs your plane to be alive (not "critically damaged" yet), so a different type of guidance method is needed.

@11qazxc Sorry to disappoint you, but I'd prefer to not be tagged on this anymore. I just commented once to comment my thoughts relating to my idea.

Here it is. I don't really know how it'll work, but it's actually coded.
@PlaneFlightX
@rexzion (perhaps you noticed already)
Kendog, you will know about this comment without mention since it's your post...

@rexzion YEEEEEEAS THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT IVE BEEN LOOKING FOR
@Kendog84 Very cool concept. I was heavily considering building something like this, but deemed the whole thing too complex and time consuming. Maybe, implementing rexion’s system will convince me otherwise

@Kendog84 On your first comment, I am planning that. Really, I'm half stealing half developing it from a friend. It will be a nightmare to code though, I'm just putting it off by doing every other thing I can think of for the SWL-120.

Oh wait, hold on. That prototype may not work properly when spawned as an AI. I'll get an updated version.

@rexzion
Thanks, didn't expect to get a working example. Glad you made it.
Just played around with it, made some super basic modifications, and we've got our (maybe first) spawnable AI bomber.
Spawn it near Bandit, and it should drop bombs somewhere within the runway.

https://www.simpleplanes.com/a/Ndm16c/BPQ-14-1-rexizon-autopilot-bomber-LPpAI

Now, if you strap-on a nuke on this thing, spawn some "friendly" buildings and static aircrafts you need to defend, you get an actual high-threat target that you want to shoot down over the ocean. Nice and easy custom mission basically. You can even spawn some custom AA vehicles, and make them aggro at the bomber via some means. I'm thinking, maybe put a super long range missile w/low fuel time (so it won't actually hit anything) on your enemy bomber, .

Anyway, I have a low part B-36 just for this occasion, so I'll tinker with the concept later. Looking very promising though. Needless to say, feel free to experiment with the idea if you feel like it.

Tagging since you guys might want to see it in action also. It's a proof of concept
@11qazxc
@PlaneFlightX
@hpgbproductions

@PlaneFlightX
That sounds really cool, do you plan to make it auto-land-able as well? (Seems super hard though)

You've basically described the functions of the SWL-120's waypoint system. It's not actually coded, but I know how it will work.

i did smth like this but not bober

you could easily put the funty trees from that into a large bomber and add some sort of bomb drop trigger

the other features you list may take a while to make

Forgot to mention something.
PlanariaLab's GoldPrix Win machine (https://www.simpleplanes.com/Videos/View/1664851/Gold-Prix-000)
seems to be the closest thing to this, but I'm not sure if it works on a similar principle as this.

Example FT didn't display right on the post, here's it.

latitude < (A) & latitude > (B) & longitude < (C) & longitude > (D))