Please Document AI Behavior

[PatrickAWlson]

I am getting complaints about Ai not engaging, AI not issuing radio calls, among other things.  The statement is always "it does this properly in career mode".

 

Is there documentation that I have failed to read?  If yes then it's on me.  Please point me to it and I will be eternally grateful (ok, maybe not eternally, but at least for a week or two).

 

If not, then please produce some.  Otherwise coaxing proper AI behavior is an inside secret and every other mission maker is crippled.

 

Why would AI choose not to attack?  A medium or high priority waypoint is one reason, but that is honestly the only one that I know of.  What else is there?

 

AI providing or not providing radio calls.  I am not aware of any mission construct that influences this.

 

Anything else like getting AI to perform ground attacks properly, without spending 5 minutes thinking about it.  Influencing AI target selection.  I usually just do an attack area and let the AI decide.  Should I be using an explicit attack MCU instead?  Why do I have to?  If attack area is given and targets are within the zone, why would the AI not attack?

 

Or is there nothing more and people flying my missions are suffering from misperceptions.  If that's all there is then that would be good to know too.

 

Regardless - please document it.

[Thad]

Salutations,

 

As a single mission creator, I discovered that setting a AI Tank waypoints to HIGH would cause it follow the waypoint route and NOT engage any enemy unit while on that route. I found it useful to prevent them firing through woods or terrain that they should not be able to see realistically. In essence the waypoint route was given the highest priority to follow.

 

If the route was set at medium... the ai may or may not engage. I suppose there is percentage chance of either. I can't prove that though.

 

If the  waypoint route was set on low.. the ai tank would engage any and every enemy unit within range.

 

I will speculate that ai aircraft respond along the same lines when following waypoint routes.

 

P.S. I truly respect all of your efforts on our simulations behalf. Well done.

Edited November 23, 2021 by Thad

[PatrickAWlson]

@Thad I am aware of that.  With planes, setting WP to High causes the gunners to hold fire.  Medium is engage if threatened but prefer to fly the route.  Low is aggressive.   I never use High - ever.  Medium for bombing and attack and low for fighter activity. 

 

It could be that the players who are complaining are returning from a ground attack mission and therefore are flying medium waypoints.  However, if the flight commander says engage air and the waypoint is medium, who wins?  This is just one of dozens of undocumented areas. 

How to get Stukas to dive bomb (exact altitude over target) was discovered by trial and error.  Only "documentation" is a blurb in release notes.

How AI chooses targets when given an attack area is not documented. 

How AI lines up an attack run when attacking ground targets is not documented. 

How AI lines up higher altitude level bombing runs is not documented.

How/Why AI issues radio calls is not documented.

 

It needs to be.

 

[Thad]

44 minutes ago, PatrickAWlson said:

How to get Stukas to dive bomb (exact altitude over target) was discovered by trial and error.  Only "documentation" is a blurb in release notes.

How AI chooses targets when given an attack area is not documented. 

How AI lines up an attack run when attacking ground targets is not documented. 

How AI lines up higher altitude level bombing runs is not documented.

How/Why AI issues radio calls is not documented.

 

It needs to be.

 

I agree... all of this data needs to be documented for us.