4.11 - AI debugging

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by FC99

I already addressed this so fix is ready for 4.12. But while we are at it what would be desired AI behavior in this situation. Currently, I have them stay in landing pattern unless they are directly attacked.

It's probably too late for 4.12, but for future patches, AI planes shouldn't enter the landing pattern if there's an enemy plane within sight, unless they have no other option other than landing - low on fuel, badly damaged, have wounded crew aboard or dangerous weather conditions closing in.

Just leaving the landing pattern when directly attacked leaves planes at too much of a tactical disadvantage as enemies maneuver into attack position - dispersed formations, low altitude, low speeds and predictable behavior.

In the future:

Escorts should respond aggressively to drive enemies away from airfields, not just protect the planes they are escorting. They should immediately go into attack formations when enemy planes are sighted.

Veteran escorts should use intelligent tactics to engage the enemy - for example, not just attacking piecemeal from below but getting above the enemy and attacking as a unit.

In the presence of enemy planes, bombers should form (or reform) flight- or squadron-sized defensive formations and loosely orbit their airfield at altitude if there is no other place to land, or if there are escorts to drive the enemy away. Otherwise, they should divert to a suitable friendly airfield where there are no enemy planes present.

Transport and auxiliary planes should always flee - possibly orbiting well away from the airfield - or divert to another airfield if there are any enemy planes in the area.

Two exceptions to the above:

1) Mission builders should have the ability to control - or override - landing behavior. That allows for "ambush" scenarios or situations where a particular plane must land, or to allow planes to divert to a specific airfield. It could also set up situations where one section of planes lands while another section engages the enemy.

Mission builders should also be able to set distances at which landing planes begin to react to enemies - both height and ground distance. They should also be able to set triggers so that landing planes react in different ways to different types of planes.

That way planes might still land normally if there is just a single enemy recce plane at high-altitude over their base, but in another way if there is a formation of enemy bombers coming in.

2) If there is radar in the game, ground control/radar ops could give orders to formations to behave in a certain way. For example, even if a formation can't see incoming enemy, ground control could still have them divert/resume defensive formation/attack.