AI is on top of my list

[Fall_Pink?]

Originally Posted by buddye

I have been asked the following question many times, Can you just pull out the BOBII AI and use it in another Flight Sim?

The BOBII AI could “not” be easily be made into a separate program and used in another Flight Sim as it is tightly integrated with the BOBII design and data. Of course, the BOBII AI design and approach could be implemented in another Flight Sim but the cost would be high in development and testing.

The Game Industry has so many issues trying to make a profit that I some times worry that most all people who do this type of work do it out of love and not profit (I am a retired Executive Business Manager for 25 years in the software business so I understand and always focused on profit/loss). Just consider for a moment how risky the business of investing in games actually is. Geoffrey Zatkin of Electronic Entertainment Design and Research is quoted in this article as saying:

"Only 20% of games that begin production will ever finish. Of those 20% that are finished and released to the market, only 20% of them will ever realize a significant profit... that equals 4% of games that start production return a significant profit."

Talk about long odds and I bet the odds for Flight Sims are even lower.

BTW, the BOBII approach to AI performance has players who do not agree. The following is a statement by a good BOBII player:

"The AI having acrobatic style evasive maneuver are great for testing your skills in quick combat flights, but in real combat there were relatively few extended dogfights. Most fights usually ended very quickly with the first burst, and the loser seldom seeing his counterpart."

I am sure that everyone has read these words many times. This may be the real way air combat was fought but I am not sure it was the case all the time. This approach for the AI would be very "boring" for a player, IMHO, but it would be easy to implement (fire, run and hide, then repeat). IMHO, a combat Flight Sim developer must always factor in the Player's "Fun Factor" so the air combat dog fights are enjoyable and fun.

buddye,

Just out of curiosity, but what if you 'commercialize' this knowledge you have on flight sim AI? How hard would it be and how much time would be needed?

Now every game has it's own AI (mostly flawed and buggy at first) and each developer seems to make the same mistakes over and over again. First person shooter AI is different from flight sim AI, I understand that, but BoB2 and Cod are essentially the same: ww2 flight sims. They have the same number of planes in the air, same type of fighters and bombers.

Even more modern flight sims would be able to make use of the AI tables/matrices and set of maneuvers you made for bob2, right? AI pilots remain AI pilots, whatever the time period, so mimicking human behavior is the constant here. It's just the capabilities and tactics that change when new weapons platforms emerge.

It would be really nice to see some real progress in this field, that's all

Rgs,
FP