Bionic AI

[JG26_EZ]

Is the behaviour of the AI being looked at since release of the last patch (v4.12)?

It's really quite ridiculous these days.

[IceFire]

Is it now...

In these cases its best to both describe the issue and record track files to illustrate in ways that words cannot what the issues you're seeing are. Personally I think the AI is such a huge advancement over what it was doing before. There may be more that can be done but there are of course limits.

It'll take a breakthrough in AI programming to really be able to do some of the things that people ask for. Research is ongoing but I don't think we're any closer to a "thinking AI" utilizing neural networks or the like than we were 10 years ago.

[JG26_EZ]

Sorry IceFire.. I was looking for an answer from a member of the team. Not an opinion, thanks.

I'm not the only one that has noticed them change for the worse. I would just like to know if they are looking at the behaviour changes they made with the v4.12 patch and wondering whether they are planning to make any adjustements or not.

[Aviar]

EZ,

My guess is that the team would probably be interested in specific examples of AI 'behaviour changes' in 4.12. Preferably, specific behavior that could be consistently reproduced in 4.12 and then compared to the exact situation in 4.11.

Aviar

[Notorious M.i.G.]

What exactly has changed for the worse, in your eyes? Simply saying "it's worse now pls fix" isn't particularly helpful for TD.

AI has definitely come a long way from the original. I think the Rookies and Averages are still maybe a bit too good on the gunnery side, and the AI being able to instantly snap out of a flat spin (even in the P-39 ) may still need some work if possible. It's still a far cry from them accelerating away and spiral climbing to space, however.

[IceFire]

Originally Posted by JG26_EZ

Sorry IceFire.. I was looking for an answer from a member of the team. Not an opinion, thanks.

I'm not the only one that has noticed them change for the worse. I would just like to know if they are looking at the behaviour changes they made with the v4.12 patch and wondering whether they are planning to make any adjustements or not.

Aviar wrote it very well.

Posting that something is "broken" without anything else is pretty much useless to the team. That's not an opinion...

[Treetop64]

Concur.

DT - in fact anyone in the community - would be happy to answer a valid question, but simply saying in effect "The AI is bad, are they gonna fix it?" in such a vague manner without pointing out any specifics isn't going to get any real answers for you.

[jameson]

But in his opinion it needs fixing!

[ImpalerNL]

He is right that the AI needs a fix. There have been more people that have noticed this.

for example

The AI keeps flying burning aircraft.

The AI can make maneuvers at 20G's without blacking out.

The AI wingman breaks formation with leader when he sees enemies, doesnt stay near the leader during dogfights and provides poor cover.

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by ImpalerNL

The AI keeps flying burning aircraft.

I used to think that this was unrealistic, but I've sort of changed my mind. While a huge fuel fire in a wing tank can quickly melt a wing spar to the point where it collapses, smaller fires, such as engine fires, shouldn't "kill" a plane that quickly.

Two extreme examples:

1) A British bomber crewman won the Victoria Cross for climbing out onto the wing of a burning bomber with a fire extinguisher in an attempt to put out an engine fire. While he failed in his attempt, the fact that the plane held together long enough for him to put on his parachute, lash up a safety rope, grab a fire extinguisher and crawl out a hatch and along the wing is testament to just how tough the plane was!

2) A B-17 crewman won the Medal of Honor for alternately putting out fires in the fuselage of his aircraft and shooting at attacking German planes. Again, this shows that fires in a large plane take a while to reach the point where the plane fails structurally.

So, while crew should bail out in a hurry if the fire has the potential to burn them or make the plane blow up or fall apart, they should try to stick with the plane if the fire is in the engine or fuselage and is relatively small, especially if by doing so they can get to safety (i.e., friendly territory/dry land).

Originally Posted by ImpalerNL

The AI can make maneuvers at 20G's without blacking out.

Unproven. I think that TD has done a pretty good job of making AI pilots more vulnerable to G forces. Where they might have work to do is making rookie AI pilots vulnerable to pulling too many Gs and blacking out, and making pilots who pull high-G maneuvers more vulnerable to losing Situational Awareness due to Gray-out/Blackout.

Originally Posted by ImpalerNL

The AI wingman breaks formation with leader when he sees enemies, doesn't stay near the leader during dogfights and provides poor cover.

Agreed. Better quality AI pilots are better at obeying orders and providing cover, but they're still not as good as a human wingman.

A simple change that would be very welcome would be for Veteran or better wingmen to tell you to break right or left (like tailgunners currently do) when an enemy is on your tail, to set up a "drag and bag" when the enemy follows you.

Another way in which AI could be improved is to give the player the ability to alert the formation to the presence of bandits and have the formation react appropriately. Often times I'll detect enemies before the other planes in my formation do. Unless I'm formation leader, I get chewed out for breaking formation!