Community help needed with AI and Radio Comms

[Bakelit]

Originally Posted by bw_wolverine

I will jump in to agree with the people posting about asking Buddye for his help. His work on the BoB2 AI is very good. The air combat tactics in that game are pretty good (more than what I think should be satisfactory for a modern WW2 combat sim) and he seems to be very willing to offer help.

I sometimes imagine BoB2:WoV with CloD's graphics and damage model and I salivate.

If it's at all possible, put Buddye to work!

THIS.


Get in contact with user Buddye asap is about the best I can recommend. As a programmer he might find better words for your programmer to work to than simple gamers. And get a copy of BoBII:WoV urgently for your team studio, very small expense and might help your judgement and study of AI performance tremendously.

Good luck!

[Hlander]

I would like the AI to be effected by the unlimited ammo and fuel option in the realism panel. After a quick fire fight for the enemy fighters to start flying circuits is very boring.

Also the fact AI fighters will only engage under certain conditions, like they must have more than one plane in the flight needs to be changed.

[planespotter]

Originally Posted by Hlander

I would like the AI to be effected by the unlimited ammo and fuel option in the realism panel. After a quick fire fight for the enemy fighters to start flying circuits is very boring.

Also the fact AI fighters will only engage under certain conditions, like they must have more than one plane in the flight needs to be changed.

+1

i know it is getting boring to refer devs to BoB2 but in that sim you can still get a good ten to 15 min furball with the ai even when they are on limited fuel and ammo because they don't blow the whole wad in one or two hosepipe bursts like in CoD. You don't even need to make it as sophisticated as Buddye proposes to start with, what about One line of code that means

Ai max firing time = 2 seconds, pause 5 seconds

Also the ai will attack single aircraft units, if they have already been 'triggered'... I created a mission with fighters escorting one bomber, the enemy fighters engaged the fighters first and they also attacked the bomber. But if i take the fighters out of the mission, they do not engage the bomber!

I actually think there is a simple piece of guidance to the devs about how to identify the ia issues...play the game yourselves! Instead of spending all day with your heads in the code, spend just one day playing your own game! You wont need us to show you what is wrong, it is so very obvious when you play.

Then, get Buddye in to fix it

[=FI=Scott]

I think the general concensus is that ai like BoB2 WoV would be absolutely fine thank you. I hope Budeye would be prepared to contribute his expertise to CoD. Paying for his input would put the series in good stead for years to come.

[Blackdog_kt]

Good suggestions in the other points of your post. This last one is fixable currently:

Originally Posted by Heliocon

5. Change the UI/interface so that comm number menus dont overlap with top info/announcement panels.

The radio menu always appears in the same place, its position is fixed. However, the info panel can be moved and resized.

Alt-click on it to select it, right click to get the pop-up menu and select options. There you can enable the borders (which are needed to drag and resize) and title bar (which is needed to drag and move). When you are happy with the placement, you can just make the borders and title bar invisible again, or leave it as it is. Hope it helps.

[salmo]

Quote below from upcoming Team Diadolos 4.11 patch manual (see thread HERE). If TD can do it, and since COD was supposed to be the "next stage in sim development" , I wonder why COD started with such poor Ai ? My request to the COD dev's is impliment more human-like Ai performance such as the many points indicated below.

AI IMPROVEMENTS
AI routines in 4.11 have been modified extensively in order to introduce several limitations that human pilot would experience. Below is a list of things player can expect to see in 4.11:

• Various new AI maneuvers have been added. Number of maneuvers is increased by 25%.
• AI planes will no longer detect enemy planes automatically inside certain radius. Position and size of enemy plane is the main factor here. Bigger plane will obviously produce a bigger and more visible "dot" and it will be more visible to AI.
• AI skill will generally determine how well AI can spot targets. Also every gunner on board will contribute to enemy spotting by covering their own sectors. Generally pilots will keep looking more forwards than backwards.
• Occasionally fighters execute fishtail maneuver to get better view behind. Planes will be less visible against dark background like land, but more visible against brighter background like sky and clouds.
• Clouds & land mass blocks AI's ability to see other planes behind them. For example it is possible to evade attacking AI plane by hiding in clouds. AI planes will also try to hide in clouds in certain conditions.
• AI's own plane will block their line of sight. This is calculated from the plane's collision model. For example basically all planes cannot see directly below them, unless the plane has ventral/bottom gunner that can cover the underside. For example plane like Blenheim has blind spot rear & behind since it has no tail/bottom gunner. Plane like B-17 with bottom/rear gunners cannot be surprised from rear & behind like Blenheim (during daylight).
• Occasionally fighters will execute roll maneuvers to get a look directly below them.
• When fighter is pulling positive G's to get a lead shot and target goes invisible under nose, AI will not see the target. Instead of aiming at the actual target, AI is shooting at estimated target which position is extrapolated based on the last real observations. Much like human
  brain would do.
• AI pilot's ground collision detection is improved and now they will detect ground obstacles in front of them better. Previously AI always crashed into certain kind of hill/mountain which has too steep slope.
• Environment factors such as darkness affects how well planes can be seen. AI is blind against attack from sun and planes show up better as silhouette against moon.
• Planes are spotted more easier if they emit smoke, fire, condensation trail or have lights on or are illuminated by searchlight.
• Also ships & ground AAA and aircraft gunners have the same clouds/ground/environment restrictions as AI pilots.
• AI gunners check before shooting that there is no friendly planes in front/behind their enemy target.
• AI gunners don't keep shooting while the gun is turning towards target and the target is nowhere near when the bullets would go. So gunners will no longer waste ammo for stupid shots.
• Gunners will be less accurate shooting targets that move fast. In other words target that forces the gunners to turn guns fast is less likely to get hit.
• Gunners that experience too much positive or negative G's cannot fire at all.
• AI plane's engine will overheat forcing AI to reduce throttle and open radiators.
• AI planes respect diving limits of their planes.
• Changes have been made in AI deflection shooting. AI calculate deflection better but it is still not perfect. AI's ability to chose correct deflection and to hold steady aim vary with the skill. AI Aces shooting ability is now at human aces level and if they get into your close six you will be
  in trouble.
• AI flights doesn't go into attack as soon as they spot the enemy anymore. Depending on the situation AI might try to avoid fight or try to improve their position before commencing the attack.
• AI skills are now divided internally into sub-skills and thus provide finer distribution of skill. Aces are still better than Veterans and Averages are better than Rookies but not all AI pilots with the same skill are the same. Some fly better, some shoot better. Some are braver and some see better. This makes their behavior less predictable.
• In addition to the maneuvers, AI fighter defense is completely reworked, no more constant rolls. AI will perform diverse maneuvers and provide bigger challenge to the player.
• AI will make mistake too. They will stall and spin occasionally, panic and “freeze” and sometimes they will even bail out before you fire a single bullet at them.

[Outlaw]

Suggested improvement: Replace Alt-Click requirement for info window activation with Double-Click

Detailed description: See Above

Proposed benefits:

It now requires two hands to manipulate the info boxes. This is cumbersome & counter-intuitive to say the least. If something in a chat or server messages window is missed BOTH hands must leave the controls just to scroll up. Also, depending on the aircraft, it is sometimes necessary to move the info boxes around.

--Outlaw.