Quote:
Originally Posted by X-Raptor
They are going to release 4.12 with just other things improved... ..but IMHO way less important compared to try to resolve all this A.I. "bugs" we still notice in 4.11  |
Respectfully, I disagree. My experience is that TD listens to the fans and works hard to correct their mistakes. Over the course of the past 3 years TD has worked hard to fix things that 1C/Maddox couldn't be arsed to fix during the previous 7-8 years of the game's existence.
As an example, the vast improvement in fighter AI in the 4.11 was literally a game-changer for me. AI fighters are a real challenge to beat, unlike before when I was routinely winning fights against entire squadrons. Bomber gunner behavior has finally been fixed to deal with the dreaded "sniper" problem.
In the upcoming 4.12 patch, there are lots of little fixes fans have asked for for years, like customized sounds, aircraft which taxi in an intelligent fashion and the ability to padlock ships. In previous patches, we've seen small fixes to things like sky appearance and 3d fixes for some of the older aircraft.
But, AI programming is tricky work, there are lots of planes in the game, lots of different missions and many different tactics. Even worse, "fixing" one aspect of AI behavior might "break" another aspect. I accept that the 4.11 AI wasn't perfect, but I'm confident that TD will fix the problem.
Anyhow, dogfighting bombers is an easy problem to fix. There's less AI programming in making a plane keep station with the other planes in formation, fly straight and level or try to run away than there is in making them try to dogfight. Even if the AI were programed so isolated bombers try to "corkscrew" or hug the ground (if flying low and no ventral gunner) it would probably still be easier to program.
More challenging for AI would be for isolated bombers to try to turn to present the most number of guns against few attacking fighters to trying to "jink" or "break" in such a way as to spoil attacks (e.g., slipping or diving just as fighter making a high-side attack starts its attack run).