AI bravery, simple common sense or cowardice

[HappyHaddock]

One of the criticisms of the AI in ROF was their predictability meaning that after a short while getting used to the sim you stopped reacting to what AI enemy were actually doing at that moment and simply positioned yourself to take advantage of what you knew they would do next meaning they effectively hung around like sitting ducks.

 

I was pleasantly surprised that in FC the AI seem to have a few new moves and in my fist few flights in the DR1 was shot down by Spads zooming out of nowhere only to disappear into the distance.... initially I thought great and that  I might get some more challenging combat experiences.

 

However having now flown many quick missions I'm spotting a possible problem, I'm hoping that this is just that the AI may currently be geared towards WWII aircraft with greater speeds and less agility and as such may get tweaked before the full release of FC. However when in a DR1 irrespective of whether I set myself against one or eight spads and whether I set the enemy AI to novice or ace, I always start an engagement with a quick kill, the remainder of the enemy then extend to a "safe distance"  but become so spread out I loose sight of most of them. I can pursue one of these and perhaps get a second kill but by that point things have become so dispersed I can't find the remainder of the enemy to re-engage them. Nor do they regroup or come back to engage me. So called dogfights become a matter of flying about aimlessly looking for any action and when I use the in game cameras to check the position of the enemy aircraft I frequently find they either have, or are in the process, of landing at an airfield. I wouldn't mind the AI Spads using their speed advantage to "boom and zoom" to surprise and shoot me down but they just seem to fly home rather than fight back.

 

I know that FC is still in early access and that the DR1 and spad are very different aircraft and that things could be very different once we get closer to full release but how are others finding the AI when applied to WWI aircraft?  Do you feel this is a problem or simply the AI showing too much common sense by refusing to engage in a dogfight when their own aircraft aren't well suited to a tight turning furball.

[4driano]

I think variety would be great.
I think a certain approach on how dealing with a "combat encounter" may be considered the "best recommended", but, it seems natural to have divergences depending on the pilot and the situation.

[US63_SpadLivesMatter]

Seeing the same.  DR1's stick around to fight, but SPADs gtfo and don't come back.

 

At first I thought; "Wow, they're not turning with me, and actually extending away like they should."

 

But then they just went back to their airfield and landed, which is...alrighty then.

Edited October 12, 2018 by hrafnkolbrandr

[Thad]

36 minutes ago, HappyHaddock said:

One of the criticisms of the AI in ROF was their predictability meaning that after a short while getting used to the sim you stopped reacting to what AI enemy were actually doing at that moment and simply positioned yourself to take advantage of what you knew they would do next meaning they effectively hung around like sitting ducks.

 

I was pleasantly surprised that in FC the AI seem to have a few new moves and in my fist few flights in the DR1 was shot down by Spads zooming out of nowhere only to disappear into the distance.... initially I thought great and that  I might get some more challenging combat experiences.

 

However having now flown many quick missions I'm spotting a possible problem, I'm hoping that this is just that the AI may currently be geared towards WWII aircraft with greater speeds and less agility and as such may get tweaked before the full release of FC. However when in a DR1 irrespective of whether I set myself against one or eight spads and whether I set the enemy AI to novice or ace, I always start an engagement with a quick kill, the remainder of the enemy then extend to a "safe distance"  but become so spread out I loose sight of most of them. I can pursue one of these and perhaps get a second kill but by that point things have become so dispersed I can't find the remainder of the enemy to re-engage them. Nor do they regroup or come back to engage me. So called dogfights become a matter of flying about aimlessly looking for any action and when I use the in game cameras to check the position of the enemy aircraft I frequently find they either have, or are in the process, of landing at an airfield. I wouldn't mind the AI Spads using their speed advantage to "boom and zoom" to surprise and shoot me down but they just seem to fly home rather than fight back.

 

I know that FC is still in early access and that the DR1 and spad are very different aircraft and that things could be very different once we get closer to full release but how are others finding the AI when applied to WWI aircraft?  Do you feel this is a problem or simply the AI showing too much common sense by refusing to engage in a dogfight when their own aircraft aren't well suited to a tight turning furball.

You could create your own missions for testing the AI performance. One can dictate the AI aggression along a route to some degree. If the flights waypoints are set on High Priority, they may not engage at all. If set to medium they may or may not engage and when set to Low they will engage any enemy they encounter along the route. 

 

Any canned missions will probably not have such unpredictable AI actions built into them.