+1 Great thread.

I think improved AI would well increase the playability, appeal and longevity of the game (and sales!)

I'm sure there is a hell of a lot of purely SP action going on that doesn't ever make the headlines in forums.

Does someone have a recent vid of the fast roll rate? I used to see this a lot in the quick missions but have lately been playing custom SP missions, mostly against veteran 109s and 110s, and the roll rate is fine.

For those who haven't seen this video I did, here is an example of BoBII in action.

Now the initial attack from behind on the bombers I'd never get away with in IL2, but if you watch the rest you will get an idea of how good the AI is when under attack.

Also if you watch the titles, you'll see Gun camera footage I made from the game and in it I am chasing a damaged 109 low on the deck. Just as it goes out of view I get into position and when I get onto him he is stalling and goes into the ground.

Now that is impressive AI to make it try a move and then stall...brilliant.

Here's the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lPmkkBFT8M

Cheers, MP

I agree that the AI should be held at one of the highest priorities now. Its importance for single-player goes without saying, however I feel that it would benefit multiplayer as well.

Not sure if eveyone is aware, but you can actually spawn with AI wingmen in multiplayer. This is a key feature in regards to helping recreate the sheer number of aircraft that featured in the Battle of Britain - it is impractical to expect to get the same amount of humans to join the one server. ;)

At the moment its not worth taking AI wingmen because they just can't fly properly, on the ground or in the air. Coupled with the fact you just don't have any real control over them and it just turns into a frustrating experience. For the amount of work they put into enabling AI to dynamically spawn with players regardless of the missiontype, it just seems wasted when they just didn't come through with the code for the actual AI itself.

I don't know what the full story is. Maybe they lost the team member who was working on the AI and someone else had to fill in his place. I would hope that now however that they have enough team members working on it to actually get it working within a reasonable timeframe. A significant chunk of enjoyment that someone can get out of this game is lost because of the broken AI.

I so do agree with these points above.. i only play offline and because of that COD is unplayable an just collecting dust atm. for me. I travel a lot and have mostly bad internet so online is out anyways. sometimes i used to let the AI fly for me and i just give orders to pass the time (which entertained me for many hours in 1946) ,when i'm in a hotel but even that is not possible in COD :(

Hope they get it done right because i long for some flightaction again (now i can play only SH5 when not at home :wink:)

ooh and throw in some medals that you can earn :)

This my comment is not directly related to the topic, but BoB II: Wings of Victory seems to be even more unique WW2 flying combat simulator where is the opportunity to be at the same time hundreds of AI planes without the game's FPS dramatically fall, visual displays, even now, sometimes pretty good, although quite an old sim is already the case.

- Excellent video.

The Battle of Britain II WOV AI performance should be the benchmark for any recently released WW2 air combat simulation. That is, if it is still true that as improvements are made as they are continuously improved thereon.

Like Microprocessors, hard disk drives, computer graphics... don't think I need to say more.

Buddye and the BOB WOV community, set a benchmark that is achieveable with AI performance. You can virtually fly the BOB II WOV, and experience the AI. It's not pie in the sky and the community made that happen. There should be no going back to old AI standards or non-standards. The kind of AI performance in the BOB II WOV should be the starting point for current developers at minimum.

Buddye and the BOB WOV community will be glad to share what they know and how to achieve the kind of AI performance they have achieved. You can't ask for more.

Same here now that MP is getting decent numbers!

Hi all,

Many thanks for this! :)

BTW, I remember how we tweaked the AI for F4 RPG 10+ years ago using similar techniques...


Leo "Apollo11"

"What method do testers and players use when testing and refining the BOBII AI maneuvers"? (we have over 80 complex maneuvers for selection [both the aggressive and defensive maneuvers]) for the fighters (Spit,Hurri,109.110) and over 50 simple maneuvers for selection for the JU87 and Defiant).


Sorry, I have just one more boring technical post to try and communicate how the BOBII players and testers worked with a single programmer on the AI for the last 6 years (version 2.03- 2.11). Each and every maneuver was reviewed, tested, evaluated, and refined. This was a committed team approach involving a large amount of work. Is the COD community ready to commit to a large long term task?

We use Move Code Labels in real time as a tool to show which maneuver has been selected.

The best way to learn more about the BOBII AI is to turn on Move Code Labels and watch the AI. A good way to watch the BOBII AI is to use Auto Pilot (control+A) so you can just sit back and watch the move codes change.

BOBII’s label options are the following:

1. Move Code Labels - Used to test BOBII AI maneuvers
2. Short Labels - Short text
3. Full Labels - Full text
4. Single Character Labels - Player selected single character
5. No Labels - For realistic game play

Here is a Pic example and text description for Movecode labels:

1. Move Code --Examples like AUTO_FOLLOWWP (following WP like bombers), AUTO_COMBAT (fighting move code but depends on individual maneuver code), AUTO_LANDING, etc.
2. Maneuver code -- Examples like MANEUVER_DISENGAGE (stop fighting, reasons are many), MANEUVER_TURNINGFIGHT (aggressive maneuver), MANEUVER_BREAKHIGH (defensive maneuver), etc.
3. Range to player (meters)
4.Skill level (Novice, Veteran, Ace, Hero and each subdivided, example Ace1, Ace2, Ace3)
5. Alt (feet)
6. Speed (MPH)

http://www.shockwaveproductions.com/.../movecodes.jpg