just a quick idea:
i wonder how random maneuvers would improve the ai's capabilities, ie. if a fighter is being persued, it will pick a random series of hard-coded (or even better-tbled) maneuvers.(eg. barrel roll twice, hard port bank etc)
i guess a tbl entry would go something like this:
$Situation: being_chased
$IFF: Hostile
$Maneuver1: barrel_roll
$AI_Levels: EASY, MODERATE, HARD ;ai levels in which to use this maneuver most
+fd_thrust=100 300 ;percentage of total thrust to apply to maneuver and for how long in milli-seconds
+WHILE:rt_bank=360 100 ;pitch, bank and yaw turns would be in degrees to turn and how hard to apply turn in % (thus controlling how fast and wide the turn would be)
$Maneuver2: stop_invert
$AI_Levels: MODERATE, HARD
+fd_thrust=0 100 ;kills thrust for a second
+WHILE:up_pitch=180 100 ;turns as fast as possible 180 degrees over which begins WHILE the stop instruction is being carried out
+THEN:fd_thrust=200 250 ;puts full burner speed (thus 200%) on AFTER the invert
etc.
i think this would allow a lot of flexibility in ai terms because you could have simple or complex maneuvers to perform based on difficulty level (or it could be applyed to AI setting. eg. $AI_Levels: Lieutenant, Captain, Major, Colonel etc.)
you could also have lists of possible maneuvers for situations like bombing runs, attack in wings etc.
i suggest this after seeing freelancer ai when persued-while it's slightly better than FS's fly-in-a-big-loop-to-try-and-get-around-behind-the-persuer tactic, it's still a very predictable constant barrel roll with the occasional burst of speed in a random direction.
so, would this be at all possible? or am i about to get toasted?
i would like to try implementing it, but i am only beginning to learn the basics of C, and havn't touched C++ as of yet.
