AI seems to be much improved

[Tomsk]

Yeah the AI still seems really pretty bad to me. They'll still chase you half way across the map, deep into your territory and be killed by base flak. They'll still mindlessly sit on someone's tail, ignoring the guy behind them chewing their plane up. They still seem to never disengage, no matter how badly damaged. They still regularly fly into the ground. They still regularly fail to take-off properly, often crashing into ground objects. They still frequently cruise too fast to keep formation with. The AI is the weakest part of the sim in my opinion, which is a shame because a few small tweaks (such as just having the slightest concern for their own survival) would improve things dramatically.

Edited April 1, 2018 by Tomsk

[Bando]

I agree with your statement that the AI needs work.

I'm afraid that it's a bit more then just "a few small tweaks".

I remember Jason saying (over a year ago it must have been) that overhauling AI would be a huge undertaking and they (7c) lacked the resources.

 

I hope with the new players generating revenues, we'll get to see the devs have some time and love for the AI.

We'll see.

[Tomsk]

I'm quite sure the AI does need a serious overhaul. However, a few small tweaks would improve things significantly for little investment.  For example adding behaviors such as disengaging if damaged, or going defensive if taking fire from the six, or not chasing enemy planes for too long if not closing, or not attacking the same target as a wingman if there are other targets nearby. None of these should be hard to implement (which I say as a professional programmer with experience writing AIs for games), but could improve things quite dramatically. It's all about "bang for your buck".

Edited April 2, 2018 by Tomsk

[Yogiflight]

The AI behaviour, that annoys me the most, when I try to help a squadmate, that is chased by an enemy fighter, my squadmate always (absolutely 100%) turns in my direction, to make clear, that I don't come on the enemy's six to help my squadmate. I first have to outturn my squadmate, to be able to help him, mostly then too late for him, Absolute Idiot.

[Blutaar]

25 minutes ago, Yogiflight said:

The AI behaviour, that annoys me the most, when I try to help a squadmate, that is chased by an enemy fighter, my squadmate always (absolutely 100%) turns in my direction, to make clear, that I don't come on the enemy's six to help my squadmate. I first have to outturn my squadmate, to be able to help him, mostly then too late for him, Absolute Idiot.

 

I know exactly what you mean lol. This happens all the time even when i fly 190s, they will turn even if they had enough distance to the enemy instead of just going straight. I ended up playing on easy difficulty and just take maximum 3 AIs with me but most often just one wingman because i cant be everywhere at the same time for saving them. This is my minigame in the game so to say. To not lose my comrades and try to level them up which never happened so far. 

 

One problem with AI comrades is that the difficulty does not change the skill level of your comrades, just the ones who dont belong to your flight are at Ace level AI on easy while all enemy flights are rookie. My highest ranking squadmates (3) have a rank of Hauptmann which is the 2nd highest and have a skill level of high (2nd highest). Which sounds fine and all but they hardly can do anything exept for dying. In the time i destroy 8 planes they manage to destroy just one. After being done with the escorts (all by myself of course), i order my flight to patrol for airtargets so they attack the IL2s. Its ridiculous to watch how they cant kill a damn IL2 and crashing to the ground. Then i restart the mission and do it again and again til everyone survives or i abort the mission and let the AI fly them without me.

 

The problem with losing squadmates is that you mostly get lowest ranking raplacements which is rookie AI, same for the 2nd lowest rank. No chance to level them up because they cant do anything and will crash more often. They just die and i hate them for being incompetent. Also they cant keep formations and will always fall back (190s). 

 

It seems that the AI trys to be below your own powersetting. Just test it yourself. Take a 190 and cruise at 60% trhottle and watch how they also throttle down even if they are 1km behind you. Now increase your power to 70% which is a lean mixture setting which produces blue flames and watch how they constantly increase power to orange flames (above 70% throttle) and imediately decreases power to blue flames (70% throttle or below). Its not as bad in the 109 but they behave kind of the same. The Hs 129 is the worst so far.

 

It is so frustrating after 60 slighthours in my current campaign.