simple quality of life asks about AI - 2022

[wiseblood]

If you could ask just one thing, one single thing - reasonable, actionable, can ask the dev team lead for a timeframe to implement, and get a reasonable answer - what would you ask?

 

For me the single overriding thing I'd love is for the in flight labels system to change.

 

#1 - you should be able to see the exact engine level ID of any AI aircraft on the map, at any range, at any time, and assign them any existing AI task via console/key macro.

 

#2 - you should be able to log the current executed task of the AI / a readout of current satiety parameters as they occur, and see the most recent one & resultant task being executed, on the aircraft label, in the game.

 

I feel like the AI operations system as a whole is a big black box that is hugely resistant to player input because what's happening is too obscure, and making it more transparent would at least let people see what it is it's failing to live up to.

 

Mission makers, SP players, what else do you got that you could see being an actionable item you could assign to a dev?

 

[AEthelraedUnraed]

The Devs have a longstanding policy of not giving any timeframes and, in general, not any information at all about whether or not they'll do a certain thing, so don't expect to get any answers

 

It is however interesting to see what people would answer here. Since you mentioned mission builders specifically, I'm gonna answer as one. What I'd like most, is more different events, both to hook into and to raise. Things like OnMainGunFired, OnEnemySpotted, and the like. Or for the raising part, things like DamageEngine1, DisableMainGun, EnableBombs etc. Just think of what a talented mission maker could do with all that!

 

Another thing I'd like is the ability to re-assign formation targets on the fly. This would enable dynamic formations that split up, single aircraft that exit from the formation, separate runway clearance on takeoff, etc.

 

6 hours ago, wiseblood said:

#1 - you should be able to see the exact engine level ID of any AI aircraft on the map, at any range, at any time, and assign them any existing AI task via console/key macro.

 

#2 - you should be able to log the current executed task of the AI / a readout of current satiety parameters as they occur, and see the most recent one & resultant task being executed, on the aircraft label, in the game.

 

I feel like the AI operations system as a whole is a big black box that is hugely resistant to player input because what's happening is too obscure, and making it more transparent would at least let people see what it is it's failing to live up to.

The Devs probably already have debugging tools like that (even if it's something as simple as Visual Studio Breakpoints or something). However, I don't think releasing those to the public would be a good idea. Without access to the engine (which we haven't), we can't change anything anyhow. While it would probably lead to an influx of people who think they know exactly what's wrong without knowing anything about the engine.

 

Besides, why do you think it's practical or even possible? Who says the AI is only focused on one task? More likely, many different tasks and events are executed/raised continually. It might not even be possible to show the decision making process in a single graph, let alone one for each aircraft, within the game window.