Originally posted by Shrike:
How often does one pilot change the course of battle? Normally, when they screw up and are at the wrong place, and see the enemies coming in from an unexpected direction.
Pardon me, mon sieur (sp?), but I must run that through a "reality" translation:
"How often does
the same pilot completely determine the course of battle? Normally in Hollywood, there is always a so-very-predictable result of our super-hero Alpha 1 screwing up. Such as enemies who, without exception, sneak in a side door that Our Hero is pukeing on the other side of."
Sorry, couldn't resist...
And Setekh - just look at the beta: Mission 1 requires Alpha 1 to do some stuff (sign up and find out, all you curious people!) to prevet needless loss of GTVA forces in-mission. But the mission, aside from the first thing required of Alpha wing (which needs absolutely no "human-only" skill - the AI could accomplish it by themselves if they were told to), would run just fine without Our Hero doing much of anything.
Mission 2 - hehehe... talk about taking advantage of a human players abilities to the max!
And mission 3, like 1, requires a small thing, best left to human judgement but accomplishable by the AI (again,
if they were told to), and then Our Hero can sit back and take screenshots. Well, it's not
that easy...
The crux of the matter is in the AI. Face it: the AI sucks, especially for fighters/bombers. I mean, has anyone ever played Bearbaiting through and found that the wingmen actually managed to destroy one of the flak turrets? I haven't.
It's really a shame that even though
added flak and AAA beams to the capital ships, they appearently left the fighter AI alone. In FS1, when an AI fighter was attacking a capital ship, the only threat was if the same shield quadrant was kept facing a turret that was pounding at it. But that wasn't much of a problem, since the AI never pulled an "Alpha 1" and stayed stationary relative to the target, blasting away. They would generally make passes on the ship and then veer off for another run.
But in FS2 that simply doesn't work. When I attack a capital ship that has the usual plethora of weaponry, I generally try to take out the AAA that covers the area I'm flying in. Then I
might go for the flak, if it becomes a real nusiance. But not getting hit by AAA beams is critical. The AI couldn't care less. And
that is where the problem lies.
If the AI has a Maxim mounted, and there's no fighters in the area, it should make use of the long range on the Maxim and pound away from a distance. Like Alpha One's all around the world.
But no, it has to fly close and get a taste of the anti-fighter defenses on the ship.
So, with the problem being in the AI, I was looking in the AI.TBL. There's really not all that much in there, but I was wondering if anyone knew under which circumstances the "patience" and "courage" values come into play?
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"He who laughs last thinks slowest."
"Just becase you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you."
"To err is human; to really screw up you need a computer."
Creator of the
Sandvich Bar, the CapShip Turret Upgrade, the Complete FS2 Ship List and the System Backgrounds List (all available from the site)
