The new AI behavior, and a thank you to Coconut.

[BlitzPig_EL]

Well the Blitzpigs and our Pilot's Pub friends played one of Coconut's missions last night testing the new patch online for the first time together.

 

I can't remember name of the mission, but it's a VVS defense of a city just west of Moscow, with German tanks advancing on it, helped by many waves of Bf 110s and escorts.

Lots of things to do for both sides:  Eliminate the advancing tanks, stop their supply columns and trains, etc...

 

Win conditions for the Germans were to get a tank into the city the Russians are defending, and for the VVS it was to stop the tanks, and essentially hold out for three hours.  Plus some side missions that would effect numbers and types of available aircraft on both sides and speed of the German advance.

 

It was a very immersive experience, as we really felt the need to hold at all costs. (We flew for the VVS, as the Pigs usually do).   We were all of 5 players, but it worked well.  Honestly the best time I've had playing the sim since it was released.

 

Thanks for the great mission Coconut.   It's much appreciated.  

 

 

Now as to the new more aggressive AI behavior...   This mission would never have worked without it.   The Bf110s and their escorts were terrors.  NO blindly circling about doing nothing till you took a shot at them as before.  Over the city the 110s would attack with their bombs, and go after the AAA, and would defend themselves in pairs if they could, against our fighter attacks.  But, they were not stupid about engaging us.

They seemed to try to carry out their primary ground attack mission (as did our AI IL2s) first if at all possible.   A great example:  There is one long range target for the VVS way at the western side of the map, that if taken out would swap Stukas for the 110s.   We made a Pe 2 sortie against it, well I did with two of my mates flying escort for me...  On the way we passed at a distance a flight of 4 110s heading east.   They did not immediately break off to attack us like they would have before the patch, but stayed on their course to carry out their primary mission.

 

Great stuff.

 

Glad to see things improving on the AI front.

 

 

P.S.  We won by holding out for the three hours.  If we would have had a full compliment of Pigs online maybe we could have done it sooner...

Edited August 13, 2016 by BlitzPig_EL

[coconut]

Thanks for the kind words, and thanks to the devs too who fixed the bug.

I haven't even had time to try this mission with the new version of the game. I have quite a few missions with AIs that I have to dust off and see how they perform now. So little time...

[CUJO_1970]

I've flown some of coconut's mission's online and it is so much more immersive and interesting. Brings a whole new level to the sim, really. Shows that with the right direction, the sim can be great fun even flown offline.

[No601_Swallow]

Well the Blitzpigs and our Pilot's Pub friends played one of Coconut's missions last night testing the new patch online for the first time together....  Honestly the best time I've had playing the sim since it was released...

 

Now as to the new more aggressive AI behavior...   This mission would never have worked without it.   The Bf110s and their escorts were terrors.  NO blindly circling about doing nothing till you took a shot at them as before.  Over the city the 110s would attack with their bombs, and go after the AAA, and would defend themselves in pairs if they could, against our fighter attacks.  But, they were not stupid about engaging us.

They seemed to try to carry out their primary ground attack mission (as did our AI IL2s) first if at all possible.   A great example:  There is one long range target for the VVS way at the western side of the map, that if taken out would swap Stukas for the 110s.   We made a Pe 2 sortie against it, well I did with two of my mates flying escort for me...  On the way we passed at a distance a flight of 4 110s heading east.   They did not immediately break off to attack us like they would have before the patch, but stayed on their course to carry out their primary mission....Great stuff....Glad to see things improving on the AI front....

 

 

Indeed. This new version (2.0003?) slots a huge jigsaw piece back into the sim.

 

Many, probablyl most players won't have noticed anything amiss. Since most players play SP (QMB and campaign, I assume) and most online players seem to stick to the "big" DF servers (WOL, DED, etc) and so most of their encounters are player vs. player, many will not have noticed that a few patches back (when? I honestly don't know) we lost something important. The AI stopped attacking player-controlled aircraft in MP (dogfight) missions. Of course, this didn't affect the SP players or the DF players, but it had a big impact on mission builders and squadrons that like to model historical episodes by flying against the AI. 

 

Funnily enough, it was hard for us to notice at first, because of course if you meet an enemy flight you attack, and the AI did continue to fly well defensively and - once they were "turned on" by being attacked - responded as AI will. But once you knew it was there, this bug that has the AI ignore you in MP until you attack it. it really really bothered me. It meant mission builders had to try and fake it; it meant, to take one example, that it was more or less impossible to have AI bounce player-controlled bombers, among other things.

 

It was a problem that I proved to my own satisfaction with a couple of very short missions lovingly recorded in a pretty boring and bad youtube video (my first one!) here.  

 

So it's a huge relief that - a few patches later - the devs heard our cries of anguish and addressed the issue.  Kudos all round.

 

And gents: do yourselves a favour and have a look at some of Coconut's and Jupp's and Juri's and many other's missions, both SP and MP/Coop. Honestly, now (finally!) this game's only limited by our imaginations.

Edited August 13, 2016 by No601_Swallow

[SCG_Neun]

Top notch missions Coconut and glad you BlitzPigs are having some fun.

[seafireliv]

 

Now as to the new more aggressive AI behavior...   This mission would never have worked without it.   The Bf110s and their escorts were terrors.  NO blindly circling about doing nothing till you took a shot at them as before.  Over the city the 110s would attack with their bombs, and go after the AAA, and would defend themselves in pairs if they could, against our fighter attacks.  But, they were not stupid about engaging us.

They seemed to try to carry out their primary ground attack mission (as did our AI IL2s) first if at all possible.   A great example:  There is one long range target for the VVS way at the western side of the map, that if taken out would swap Stukas for the 110s.   We made a Pe 2 sortie against it, well I did with two of my mates flying escort for me...  On the way we passed at a distance a flight of 4 110s heading east.   They did not immediately break off to attack us like they would have before the patch, but stayed on their course to carry out their primary mission.

 

Great stuff.

 

Glad to see things improving on the AI front.

 

 

THIS is what I want in my SP campaigns. Been to busy to fly much, but looking forward to rolling soon!

[Yogiflight]

+1