Quote:
Originally Posted by Furio
And that’s perhaps the problem. They keep track, and they shouldn’t. They should disappear from the battle scene. Clearly it's easier said than done. I’m aware of the difficulties faced by TD, and I’m no less grateful to them than you are.
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I think it's fairly "easy" as these things go, although it would require lots of coding to add the necessary "decision trees."
4.12 finally got AI "target acquisition" more or less right, and it seems that Rookie or Average pilots can be pretty clueless if you get into their blind spots. What doesn't seem to be modeled is loss of Situational Awareness (SA) due to target maneuvering, information overload, and other factors.
A "simple" way to make loss of SA possible would be this:
Baseline ability to retain SA is based on pilot quality.
When an aircraft flies into an AI plane's blind spot, there's an x% chance every second that AI will lose SA with respect to that plane (lose "Tally" - visual confirmation of a plane's position & type), based on the target's range and speed. (Elements like target size, camouflage, visibility, etc. don't apply because this algorithm attempts to model the human ability to mentally track targets you can't see.)
This base chance is modified upwards if the spotting plane is damaged, under attack, or pulling Gs, or if the pilot (or some of the crew) are wounded. If the other plane is pulls Gs, or gains or loses altitude while in a blind spot, there's also an upward modifier. (This is also a simplification which represents that its harder to keep track of a fast or wildly maneuvering target.)
If the other plane is smoking, leaking fuel or coolant, or contrailing, there's a big downward modifier. (This represents a pilot's ability to track a plane, and follow its path, by using its smoke or vapor trail.)
Big downward modifier if the "lost" planes are flying in formation, as long as the viewer knows the position of at least one plane in the formation. (This simulates the fact that a human can easily determine the relative location of a hidden plane's position in formation as long as he can see at least one plane in the group.)
There's also a big downward modifier if the other plane is firing on the plane attempting to sight it. (Simulating the fact that a human can easily extrapolate a firing plane's position from the angle of the tracers going past the cockpit.)
Finally, there's a cumulative penalty to keep track of targets after the first, based on pilot skill. This represents "information overload" of SA, with more distant and faster-moving targets being lost first.
A simple but arbitrary formula for maximum number of objects a pilot can track at once might be (pilot skill level)^2. With Rookie pilots being assigned a skill level of 1 and Ace pilots being assigned a skill of 4. (The very high number of objects an Ace can potentially track represents the fact that ace pilots tended to excel at the sort of spatial reasoning tasks represented by SA.)
If AI loses SA and is attempting to disengage, Rookie pilots might fly straight and level at top speed. (They assume that they're safe, even if they're not.) Otherwise, Rookie and Average or better pilots will dive or climb at full power, as appropriate, while gently maneuvering to reestablish Tally & confirm that they're not being pursued.
All pilots will use clouds and terrain as cover when attempting to disengage.
All pilots will fly towards friendly flak and fighter formations as a method of discouraging pursuit.
If AI loses SA and is attempting to engage, it will attempt to reestablish visual contact by maneuvering.
Rookie pilots might maneuver to establish line of sight to the target's last known position (i.e., they will forget that their target isn't likely to be where they last saw it). Otherwise, Rookie and Average pilots will attempt to regain line of sight by turning towards the target's last known line of travel.
Veteran or better pilots maintain some degree of SA with respect to lost targets and will usually turn towards the quarter of the sky which the target currently occupies. The exact percentage depends on pilot skill, say 60% for Veteran, 90% for Ace. Otherwise, they behave like Average pilots and turn towards the target's last known line of travel. (This represents a gross simplification of the mental calculations that a human would make regarding the opponent's energy state, speed, direction of travel, maneuverability, etc. It's not intended to make AI omniscient, just to give them a better than even chance of being able to reestablish Tally.)
If you wanted to get even fancier, you could give AI (and the player!) the ability to ask where other planes are if they lose Tally. Again, not hard to implement, but time consuming, not just due to additional coding, but also due to new commands and voice programming needed.