Suggestions for AI Improvements

[Pursuivant]

With the understanding that this is likely to be a "wishlist" thread, that AI programming is hard and tricky work, and that the improvements to AI in the 4.12 patch are generally excellent, I'd like to propose some potential improvements for AI behavior in future patches.

Proposed changes might be things that are "baked in" to standard AI behavior, but might also be things that can be set up in the FMB, or even specified as player commands.

Currently, IL2 AI doesn't always follow historical tactics and formations. While much of this information is probably old news for TD, perhaps these links might offer new information, or give mission builders a sense of how WW2 era Air Forces actually maneuvered their planes.

Interesting video on 1944-45 USAAF tactics here which covers a lot of details:

[Pursuivant]

Continuing my massive wishlist for AI behavior:

1) Alterations to Aircraft Protective Behavior.

In the FMB and/or as player commands, there could be more options for planes to only protect certain objectives, allowing for more realistic bomber escort, CAP and fighter squadron behavior.

A) Option to Assign Protective Mission by: Plane, Section, Flight, Squadron, Wing (2+ squadrons as defined in FMB).

B) Objective Protected:

Single Unit - Plane(s) defend a particular unit - plane, ship, etc.
Section - Plane(s) defend a 2 or 3 plane section.
Flight - Planes defend a 4 or 6 plane flight composed of two sections.
Squadron - Planes defend 3 or 4 flights.
Type of Unit - Planes defend one or more of Bombers, Fighters, Ground Vehicles, Artillery, Ships
Formation - Two or more units moving more or less in formation, regardless of type. Used to make CAP protect entire fleet, or fighter escort protect entire bomber wing.
Location - Particular map sector or a geometrical shape defined by the the mission builder in the FMB. Certain altitudes can be set (e.g., defend map sector C-13 between 1,000 and 3,000 meters). This could be an extension of the existing "Loiter here" command.

In the FMB, it could be possible to assign multiple objectives to be protected, prioritizing them, and/or shifting from one objective to another once a particular waypoint or trigger has been reached.

C) Type of Protection:

Very Close Cover/Wingman - Keep protected plane(s) in sight, more or less following their path, and weaving or circling closely around the protected objective if it is slower than you. Just attack enemies which are maneuvering to attack you or the objective you've been assigned to protect. Break off attack as necessary to follow assigned objective. Default distance to pursue an enemy is 500 meters, but this can be set to less in the FMB. Default behavior is to follow, then weaving to keep station with a slower target above protecting aircraft's stall speed, then a circling or "racetrack" course to keep station with a slower target moving below the protecting aircraft's stall speed.

Close Cover - Keep objective in sight, ignoring enemies which aren't attacking or maneuvering to attack you, planes in your formation, or planes you've been assigned to escort. Break off attacks against fleeing enemies beyond assigned close cover range and return to escorting position. Default "roving" range is 1000 meters, but can be altered in FMB.

Top Cover - The current AI option. Once sighted, chase and attack enemies as necessary. Only return to defended objective once enemies have been destroyed or are out of sight.


D) Degree of Self-Sacrifice

Highly Defensive: Defend objective only if multiple advantages are in your favor - numbers, plane quality, altitude, etc. Temporarily abort protective mission and flee or adopted defensive behavior if outnumbered, faced by superior planes, or otherwise severely disadvantaged.

Defensive: Defend objective only if some advantages are in your favor. Temporarily abort protective mission if severely disadvantaged.

Aggressive: Defend objective even in unfavorable conditions. Temporarily abort protective mission and protect yourself if attacked, but resume attack if possible after attackers are dealt with.

Suicidal: Defend objective regardless of odds. Ignore attacks on yourself if necessary to protect your objective.


E) Miscellaneous Modifiers:

* Defend units of same nationality only (default is defend all allied units within an assigned category)

* Defend damaged/undamaged units only (default is to defend all units within an assigned category)

[Pursuivant]

2) Improvements to Self-Defensive Behavior.

There should be more options for AI maneuvering when attacked, in the FMB and/or as player commands:

A) Defensive Maneuvering In Formation:

Full Defense - Planes break formation when attacked - fleeing or defending as necessary.

Limited Defense - Individual planes maneuver when attacked while maintaining overall formation (i.e., limited jinking and weaving).

No Defense - Planes don't break formation when attacked.

B) Defensive Behavior Against Attack by Aircraft

Highly Defensive: Maneuver to avoid contact with/sighting by the enemy. Flee if attacked unless escape is impossible, then defend yourself.

Defensive - Flee if attacked unless escape is impossible, then defend yourself.

Aggressive - Current AI default. Defend yourself if attacked, fleeing only if badly damaged.

Suicidal - Ignore enemy attacks. Don't maneuver to defend yourself, although gunners can still attack.


C) Flak Defense Options:

Individual Defense - Planes maneuver to evade flak individually - alternating left and right turns of 10-60 degrees, and/or or minor climbs and dives of +/- 50-200 meters, at 15-30 second intervals while following the overall assigned flight path.

Formation Defense - Planes maneuver to avoid flak as a formation, as described above.

Suicidal - Planes ignore flak. E.g., bombers on bombing run from IP, torpedo bombers or kamikazes committed to attack run.


D) Cooperative Unit Self-Defense Options: Probably as player commands, although could be set as pre-programmed defenses in FMB or AI programming.

Lufberry Circle - By flight or squadron. Planes form a circle, with 100-300 meters between planes. Planes in the circle will engage in limited maneuvering to attack enemies manuevering to attack planes in front of them, essentially treating the plane ahead of them as the "lead" plane in a lead/wingman formation.

Beam Defense/"Thatch Weave" - by plane, section or flight. Lead and wingman, 2 2-plane sections in "line abreast" formation, or 2 4-plane flights in line abreast formation make overlapping "S-turns" to cover each other's flank and rear, maneuvering only to engage enemies attacking the leading formation.

Cover - by plane, section or flight. One or more planes, sections or flights in a squadron is assigned to take position above, below, ahead, behind, or to the left or right of another plane/section/flight, protecting them against attack. Example, "Section 1, give top cover to section 2".

[Pursuivant]

3) New Flight, Squadron and Wing Formation and Behavior Options:

There should be more options for standard squadron and wing formations as well as section and flight formations, which include standard AI behaviors for various sections or flights.

A) Ability to choose 3 plane sections as opposed to 2-plane sections.

B) Ability to choose 2, 3, 4 or 5 flight squadrons.

C) Option to allow planes to switch positions within a section, flight or squadron.

* Ability to regroup sections/flights. For example, if you have two sections which have each lost one plane, you should have the option of assigning one surviving plane as lead and the other surviving plane as wingman to form a new section.

Veteran or Ace pilots should automatically regroup in this way based on rank or initial flight position. For example, if if the lead from section 2 loses his wingman, and the wingman from section 3 loses his lead, then they should automatically reformate with section 2 leader as leader and section 3 wingman as wingman in a new section.

* Ability to reassign section, wing or squadron command, with planes changing position accordingly. This is important if a leader is injured or his plane is damaged.

D) More section, flight, etc. commands:

* Ability to make sections, flights or squadron gain or lose altitude while still holding formation, allowing formations which are "stepped" to the left, right, front or rear.

* Option for "formate on my target" allowing for very close escort of individual plane.

* Option for "follow my target" allowing for looser escort of a particular plane (or formation) or non-hostile pursuit of enemy.

E) New formations, either in FMB or as commands.

* Various USAAF Heavy Bomber "box" formations.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combat_box
http://www.398th.org/Research/8th_AF...scription.html
http://www.airpower.at/news03/0813_l...ark/15USAF.htm
http://www.battle-fields.com/commsce...-17-Combat-Box
http://forum.worldofwarplanes.com/in...tacking-guide/

* 1944 USAAF Fighter Squadron Formation - 3 sections of 4 (2-plane sections) in line abreast and stepped down.

2 1 3 4    6 5 7 8    10 9 11 12

* Common Fighter Squadron Formation - 3 sections of 4 (2-plane sections) in "finger 4" formation with trailing flights stepped down.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finger-four

For squadrons of 12 planes, the formation is modified like this:

      1
     2  3
          4
 5            9
6  7        10  11    
     8            12

Alternately, this formation could be in line abreast:

  5 7       1 3       9  11
6     8   2     4   10      12

* Finger 4 could also be modified into "loose deuce" formation (could be achieved by using the existing "loosen formation" command).

         1

       2       3
                
                  4

or

      1        3


    2             4

* 1939-40 RAF squadron "Vic" formation with 4 "vics" of 3 planes. Each "Vic" maneuvers as a unit while maintaining overall squadron formation. The Soviets and Japanese also used this formation for a while, and it was a fairly common formation for light bombers and attack aircraft.

         1       4
       2   3    5  6
    7                 10 
  8   9             11   12

* 1939-40 RAF squadron "Line Astern" formation with 3 lines of 4 planes or 4 lines of 3 planes. Each line maneuvers as a unit while maintaining overall squadron formation.

   1   4   7  10     1  5  9
   2   5   8  11     2  6  10
   3   6   9  12     3  7  11
                        4  8  12

* "Gaggle" - by flight, squadron or wing. A loosely clustered group of aircraft with no formation.

       1
   11
4        6    5
   9  7  
3       12    
                  2
     8
           10

* Bomber Stream - essentially a very long "line astern" formation, but with each plane slightly offset in altitude (by 500-100 meters) from the plane ahead or behind.

F) Unless radio silence is being observed, flight leaders should call out speed changes (as well as course changes) when they reach a waypoint. This would make it possible to actually hold formation with the bombers you're escorting!

G) Waypoint information on map should include formation information.

H) Flight and Squadron formations should take off, formate, and make turns "by the book." Currently, formations turn very clumsily (at least in the QMB) such that they collide or lose formation.

http://www.stelzriede.com/ms/html/mshwpmn2.htm

http://www.quora.com/Operationally-s...run-in-Germany

* Command to "follow the leader" so that trailing planes in the formation attempt to follow the lead plane no matter what. Not historical in most cases.

I) Situational Awareness should be reduced for pilots who are attempting to hold close formation with their leader, or who are attempting to formate with other planes.

J) Option to set rally points. That is, a player designated "waypoint" on the map where planes which are isolated from the rest of the formation will travel to and loiter around. Similar to existing "Loiter Here" command, but can be set for a distant location.

[Pursuivant]

4) Ideas for AI attacking behavior

A) New attack commands

Attack Assigned Types Only - Assign by Nationality, Roles, or individual type.

Attack Only When Threatened (i.e., shot at or enemy plane gets within 1,000 yards).

Attack Only When Escorted Types Threatened (when shot at or enemy plane gets within 1,000 yards of escorted types)

B) Specific Attack Strategies - in FMB or as player commands:

Frontal attacks on/off
Beam attacks on/off
Flank attacks on/off
Rear attacks on/off
Diving/Boom and Zoom attacks on/off
Climbing/attacks from below on/off
Turn fighting on/off

This will help the player keep the AI from doing STOOOPID things like slow closing attacks from the rear against a heavily armed bomber, or dogfighting with a more maneuverable opponent.

C) Attacking Formation behavior:

Lead plane in section attacks only - other planes only provide cover if lead plane attacked. This is equivalent to the current "Cover Me" command.

Formation Attack - All planes in section/flight attack lead's target while maintaining formation. A variant on existing "Attack My Target" command.

Individual Attack - The current default. All planes in section/flight attack independently. This is covered by existing "attack fighters," "attack bombers" and "attack" commands.

D) Target choice:

Attack damaged/undamaged planes only.
Attack lead/trailing planes only.
Attack high/low planes only.

E) Attack aggression

Defensive: Against fighters, attacker only makes an attack if he has clear advantages in height, position, numbers and/or plane quality. Against bombers, attacker only makes an attack if no enemy fighters are present and he is supported by multiple attackers (no solo attacks). If attacked, attacker will attempt to flee before he attempts to defend himself.

Aggressive: Against fighters, attacker only makes an attack if he has at least one advantage in height, position, numbers or plane quality. Attacker only attacks bombers if no enemy fighters are nearby (within 1,000 feet).

If attacked, attacker will attempt to defend himself before fleeing unless outnumbered or damaged.

Highly Aggressive: Current AI option. Attacker will press home attacks regardless of disadvantages and unfavorable tactical position. If attacked, attacker will attempt to defend himself against all odds until severely damaged or destroyed.

F) Options to Aggressiveness:

One Pass Only - Subject to conditions above, attacker makes one pass on the target and then attempts to flee.

Limited passes - As above, but the attacker will make a number of attacks specified by the mission builder (or player).

G) Options for cooperative attacks by section, flight or squadron.

"Drag and Bag"

Coordinated Beam Attacks

Coordinated High-Low Attacks

"Bracketing"

Shaw's book on fighter tactics covers the various options in detail.

http://www.jg-51.com/topsecret/Fight...aneuvering.pdf

[Pursuivant]

5) Individualization/Roleplaying Elements for AI Aircrew

Many people object to the concept of "role playing" within a flight sim. Even so, some aircrew were notably better or worse than others, and had specific skills and vulnerabilities.

A) Overall Skill Levels

Within the FMB or a campaign, it should be possible to assign certain skills and personality traits to a particular pilot or crewman.

For simplicity, it probably makes sense to use the existing AI quality levels for setting skill or trait levels.

Rookie - Minimally qualified, but has graduated from a decent training program. For piloting skills, this might represent 200 hours of overall flight time, with about 10 hours "in type."

Average - A pilot or crewman who has survived at least 5 combat missions, or a lavishly trained rookie with 400+ hours overall flight time, and 40+ hours "in type." (Or equivalent skill levels for non-pilots.)

Veteran - A pilot who has survived at least 25 combat missions, or a very experienced military pilot with no prior combat experience, with thousands of hours of overall flight time and 100+ hours "in type." (Or equivalent skill levels for non-pilots - like gunnery or bombardier instructors.)

Ace - The top 1% of military aircrew. Has flown dozens of combat missions, and has achieved extraordinary success in combat - or is capable of doing so.

I'd also include:

Unqualified - A pilot or crewman who hasn't received sufficient training, and/or who shouldn't be allowed to fly for some reason. E.g., Typical products of late 1940 RAF training, 1941-42 Soviet training, or 1944-45 German or Japanese training programs.

B) Specific Traits

Once skill levels are defined, here are the traits that define a successful air warrior. Note that some of these traits might already be present in the game.

Aggression - Preference for reckless attacks against difficult odds vs. cautious "stalking" behavior. Regardless of overall skill level, realistically most aircrew never exceed "Average" aggression levels.

Courage - Willingness to face danger, i.e., fly through flak, engage the enemy, or stick with a damaged plane. Regardless of overall skill level, realistically most aircrew never exceed "Veteran" courage levels. "Unqualified" aircrew are outright cowards.

Day Vision - Range at which targets can be detected in daytime. Includes target identification.

Dive/Glide Bombing

Fitness - Ability to handle G-stresses, hold high G maneuvers, and survive or recover from injury.

Guided Missile Attack

Gunnery - Includes fixed and flexible guns, as well as range estimation.

Leadership - Ability to effectively command other aircraft. Includes group tactics. In a campaign setting, this skill also includes teaching ability which allows more rapid improvement of other pilots in the unit, up to the teacher's level of skill.

Level/Guided Bombing

Navigation - including use of navigation aids.

Night Vision - Range at which targets can be detected in low light conditions. Includes target identification.

Piloting - includes acrobatics, engine management, damage control and air combat maneuvering skills and tactics.

Radar Operations - Range at which targets can be detected and identified using radar (limited by the maximum range of the radar unit itself). Includes target identification.

Reflexes - Speed of reaction times, hand-eye coordination. Affects dive bombing, gunnery, piloting and rocketry skills.

Rocket Attack

Situational Awareness - Tracking ability. The ability to keep track of other aircraft once "target acquisition" has been achieved, even if "lock on" (i.e., visual target acquisition) has been lost.

Torpedo/Guided Torpedo Attack

The FMB or by a campaign designer could assign some or all of these traits, or they could be randomly assigned within ranges by country and year. By default, they're all set at the proper level for overall AI skill level.

These options could also be used to define historical people.

E.g., Eric Hartmann would have Ace level Piloting, Gunnery, Reflexes, Day Vision, Situational Awareness and Courage, but merely "Average" Aggression, making him more of a stalker than a brawler.

John "Killer" Kane (who led the first U.S. raid on Ploesti) might have Veteran level piloting and navigation, but Ace level Courage and Leadership.

Typical 1945 Kamikaze pilot: Unqualified in most respects, but Veteran to Ace level Courage and Aggression.

Typical late 1944 Luftwaffe Pilot: Unqualified to Rookie piloting skill, Unqualified gunnery and rocketry skills, Average to Veteran Courage, Unqualified to Average Aggression.

C) Reactions in Combat

Combat is terrifying and physically demanding. For this reason, it is realistic for aircrew to react accordingly.

Fatigue: Pilots cannot sustain high-G maneuvers for long periods of time, even if they don't black out. Veteran to Ace level Fitness helps to sustain high-G maneuvers longer.

At night and at high altitudes, Fatigue interferes with vision.

Extreme fatigue can interfere with Aggression and Courage.

Fear: Cowardly and/or inexperienced aircrew might panic, causing them to react in sub-optimal ways - like fleeing when they should turn to fight. In some cases, a panicked crewman might even bail out of an otherwise flyable plane. (IL2 AI actually has AI crew occasionally bail out at inappropriate times, which is a nice touch.)

Even otherwise courageous aircrew might "go defensive" (i.e., behave in a cautious manner or flee) if injured, if their airplane is damaged, or if they are faced by superior numbers of enemy aircraft. For example, German airmen were typically very cautious, perhaps too much so, around massive formations of U.S. heavy bombers.

Fear makes Aggression and Courage drop, and creates a situation where a crewman might panic.

Panic when attacked or outnumbered - Turn away from enemy and fly straight (or go into a straight dive) until you've achieved separation from all visible enemies. Might accidentally dive until plane is damaged and/or can't recover.

Panic when plane is damaged - Bail out.

Target Fixation: Inexperienced pilots, particularly aggressive ones, tend to focus on a single target when attacking, neglecting "Situational Awareness" and making them easy targets. When making diving attacks against ground targets, they might not pull up in time.

Pain and Injury: Wounded aircrew can't perform as well. IL2 currently simulates this very well, far better than most other flight sims.

[robday]

Whilst all the above posts represent laudable goals for improvement to the AI behavior, I have a couple of questions;
1: Will Il-2's game engine support such complex AI,
2: Is there anyone out there with the time, skills and inclination to do the coding required,(I'm assuming it won't be a small job).
T.D. after all are "Amateurs" in the true sense of the word. Individuals who use their considerable skills, for no financial reward, just for the pleasure of it!

[majorfailure]

While most of your statements are true, I think it may be too much to ever include.

Things that irk me the most are:
AI in a plane truckloads faster than the enemy slows down and slowly turns, because then its so much easier for the enemy to catch up - its just baaaaaad to have a whole flight of Fw190 killed by I-16 due to this.

Bomber attacks are still generally from 6, though now they sometimes get high and dive on the bomber. Beam attacks and head ons should be in the repertoire, especially when flying a faster plane, a head on approach is easy to do.

AI is near incapable of beeing unaware of an attack carried out against them - no matter how many enemies are currently close. Their SA is almost perfect, even for rookies.

AI pilots in same flight crash into each other or you just because they TOTALLY INSANELY want to fly formation in every maneuvre - and you cannot even tell them to get lost, and stay away until you are done with the maneuvre.

Bombers sometimes switch into high gear and then behave like fighters - not too funny.

And while their shooting is beyond contempt now (lower AI grades, low deflection shots - they shoot a long burst high, correct their aim, and shoot high again, and so on...), they still occassionally have a tendency to serve 600m one shot kills.
Better AI is insanely good at high deflection shots - though when parked behind bombers they still shoot a lot of ammo in the air.
Bomber gunners get shots in the dead centre of your plane, and while they may do so more often when attacking from 6, results are more critical when attacking from other directions - as usually dead centre hits from off angle injure or kill pilot. Given a sturdy plane it is usually easier to pick up a lot of speed and go for the dead six approach, at least that gives you a good shot and you can try to take out gunners.

EDIT:
Something else that is troublesome - AI always pursues severly crippled enemies that are largely out of the fight (e. g. shot out controls/control surfaces/engine smoking/severe fuel leaks/on fire) with no regards to any other enemies present or possibly arriving soon, and often end up bogged down for only the gain of putting an already largely harmless out of position enemy out of its misery.

[Derda508]

Originally Posted by majorfailure

While most of your statements are true, I think it may be too much to ever include.
Things that irk me the most are:
AI in a plane truckloads faster than the enemy slows down and slowly turns, because then its so much easier for the enemy to catch up

AI is near incapable of beeing unaware of an attack carried out against them - no matter how many enemies are currently close. Their SA is almost perfect, even for rookies.

they still occassionally have a tendency to serve 600m one shot kills.

Better AI is insanely good at high deflection shots .

I absolutely agree to the points quoted above.

AI´s situational awareness, plus its ability to do everthing at once exactly right, plus their deflection shooting makes many missions in older campaigns simply impossible to survive (Ok, if you fly KI-43 in 1944 against P-51, Spit VIII or I-185 the odds are not in your favour anyway...)
As a repost from the other thread, I think this could help:
At present, if you try to attack a big formation of bombers with a small number of attackers, the protecting fighters will all immediately go for you, leave their bombers and chase you all over the map, even if you spend all your ammo and are no threat anymore. Your own AI (even obsolete Bf 110) will not go for a quick attack on a bomber, but happily engage in turnfights with vastly superior numbers of enemy fighters.
To create more 'realistic' bomber intercepts and survivable missions for destroyers the missionbuilder would need to be able to give several commands for attackers and defenders:
Blue high flying fighters (Bf-109, Ki-100 etc.): Attack fighters only
Blue bomber interceptors (Me 410, FW-190, Ki 84 etc.): Attack bombers only
Red fighter cover: Stick to the bombers, never get further than XXX distance from them.

[Igo kyu]

Originally Posted by Pursuivant

Tl:dr

Actually, I read the first couple, but after that? I've got more interesting things to do with my time.

Originally Posted by Derda508

Blue high flying fighters (Bf-109, Ki-100 etc.): Attack fighters only
Blue bomber interceptors (Me 410, FW-190, Ki 84 etc.): Attack bombers only
Red fighter cover: Stick to the bombers, never get further than XXX distance from them.

That is not accurate for WW2 in Western Europe. The P51s were given free rein to roam the bomber streams attacking all enemy fighters they saw. They had huge numerical superiority, so this paid off.

It's not a fair balanced game, but at that point (1944 and 1945) the war wasn't balanced.