4.12 development update discussion and feedback

[majorfailure]

Originally Posted by jameson

Please explain how this AI gets to be an ace if he's a psycho and crashes without fail? Something not quite right there, I'd have thought.

So he does just fly into the ground for no further reason? From your previous statement it sounded like he misjudges the distance required for his maneuvers and crashes -running out of airspace.

Originally Posted by jameson

Wouldn't an ace be more circumspect, lead you around and make you commit a fatal error then finish you off or set out to maximise an advantage before commiting to an attack?

In general yes. There were aces that were good at setting up their encounters, never attacking without a clear plan in mind, always attacking only in favourable position. Knowing their/the enemys planes strenghts and weaknesses.
And there were others, that got into almost any fight they could pick, most of the times surprising the enemy, were good dogfighters and good marksmen - and thus sucessful. But they lacked tactical discipline. From one of those I would expect to sometimes want too much in a fight and then maybe even misjudge the distance to the ground.

For example take Hans-Joachim Marseille, he was a brilliant fighter pilot and superb marksman, but he destroyed more than one plane upon landing.

Or take Josef Frantisek, had next to zero discipline, but racked up 17 kills in a few weeks, many of them against foes flying "superior" planes - and he died in a crash for that no technical explanation was found - supposedly he was over-exhausted.

Originally Posted by jameson

Ever read about an ace who goes head to head?

Why not? If he is an agressive, confident personality (overly) sure of himself and his abilities, then yes. Tommy McGuire supposedly did so.