[Warp Shadow]

Hi. I'm almost done the first part of my total conversion for freespace but I seem to have a problem. The AI is too good. Yeah, weird I know, but the players teammates either die or kill all the enemies within twenty seconds of the first volley of missiles. Once it breaks up nice and good they dogfight for a while in these lovely strafing bursts of auto fire but I don't seem to be able to stop them from shredding the enemy before the third burst. I suppose I could make everyone harder to kill, but then it loses the BtRL feeling of vulnerability I love so much.

Any suggestions?

[Snail]

Edit the AI.tbl?

[FreeSpaceFreak]

Lower AI class for your teammates? Better AI for the enemies?

[Warp Shadow]

The AI classes seem to have no effect. No matter what tiny percentile the accuracy is, they still land a kill in two or three tries.

[Flaming_Sword]

What did you do with the weapons?

[Titan]

make the hitpoints hugely uber bbq...

[killface]

Here's a strategy that worked GREAT for me: Give YOURSELF a weapon that aims accurately, but create a duplicate weapon with a slightly increased $FOF for your teammates to use.  I found this to be the best approach for three reasons:

1. You don't have to make the enemies really smart by cranking up their AI (which does nothing to increase dogfight length)
2. Dogfights last a LOT longer
3. It's barely noticable, if at all, to the player.  Your buddies are still shooting in the enemy's direction, they're just missing more often than not.

For instance: In my mission, the gun I'm using has a rapid rate of fire and an $FOF of 0.1.  Meanwhile, my teammates are using a different weapon, identical in every way, EXCEPT that it's got a $FOF is 0.3.  When I sit back and DO NOT participate in the battle (8 fighters vs. 8 fighters) it lasts for almost five minutes, and it's actually quite random who wins.  If I DO participate, and kill an enemy fighter or two, I've set it so that my friendly copilots change primaries and get the more accurate gun that I'm using, sort of simulating a boost in morale/confidence/accuracy that might come with our side having killed some of our enemies.  This way the player actually has an impact on the outcome of the battle.

[Daeron]

Is it possible to write a sexp event that modifies the courage value from the AI.tbl for individual fighters within a mission, based on if certain conditions are met?

[killface]

It may be, but in working on this issue I tried every which way to mess with the AI tables and NO combination of friendly or enemy characteristics made fights THAT much longer or shorter.  The really dramatic change came only when I started playing with weapon accuracy.

[Warp Shadow]

Here's a strategy that worked GREAT for me: Give YOURSELF a weapon that aims accurately, but create a duplicate weapon with a slightly increased $FOF for your teammates to use.  I found this to be the best approach for three reasons:

1. You don't have to make the enemies really smart by cranking up their AI (which does nothing to increase dogfight length)
2. Dogfights last a LOT longer
3. It's barely noticable, if at all, to the player.  Your buddies are still shooting in the enemy's direction, they're just missing more often than not.

For instance: In my mission, the gun I'm using has a rapid rate of fire and an $FOF of 0.1.  Meanwhile, my teammates are using a different weapon, identical in every way, EXCEPT that it's got a $FOF is 0.3.  When I sit back and DO NOT participate in the battle (8 fighters vs. 8 fighters) it lasts for almost five minutes, and it's actually quite random who wins.  If I DO participate, and kill an enemy fighter or two, I've set it so that my friendly copilots change primaries and get the more accurate gun that I'm using, sort of simulating a boost in morale/confidence/accuracy that might come with our side having killed some of our enemies.  This way the player actually has an impact on the outcome of the battle.

That sounds like a bit of extra work but it would do the job very nicely. The best thing is it will eliminate the other problem I have which is if the enemy manages to get an accurate burst in and you're not out of the way by the time the first bullet hits, you're scrap metal.

[Jake2447]

Here's a strategy that worked GREAT for me: Give YOURSELF a weapon that aims accurately, but create a duplicate weapon with a slightly increased $FOF for your teammates to use.  I found this to be the best approach for three reasons:

1. You don't have to make the enemies really smart by cranking up their AI (which does nothing to increase dogfight length)
2. Dogfights last a LOT longer
3. It's barely noticable, if at all, to the player.  Your buddies are still shooting in the enemy's direction, they're just missing more often than not.

For instance: In my mission, the gun I'm using has a rapid rate of fire and an $FOF of 0.1.  Meanwhile, my teammates are using a different weapon, identical in every way, EXCEPT that it's got a $FOF is 0.3.  When I sit back and DO NOT participate in the battle (8 fighters vs. 8 fighters) it lasts for almost five minutes, and it's actually quite random who wins.  If I DO participate, and kill an enemy fighter or two, I've set it so that my friendly copilots change primaries and get the more accurate gun that I'm using, sort of simulating a boost in morale/confidence/accuracy that might come with our side having killed some of our enemies.  This way the player actually has an impact on the outcome of the battle.

That sounds like a bit of extra work but it would do the job very nicely. The best thing is it will eliminate the other problem I have which is if the enemy manages to get an accurate burst in and you're not out of the way by the time the first bullet hits, you're scrap metal.

Thats not really a whole lot of work.  Just a few one line table edits.  (not including the morale boost concept)
Also, i thought you said you like the feeling of vulnerability.

[killface]

You can also take the concept one step further and "sprinkle" the mix of guns among the friendly and enemy pilots.  Some accurate, some not so accurate...it makes for more interesting battles when each fighter on each side is a unique blend of AI and combat capabilities.

[Warp Shadow]

You can also take the concept one step further and "sprinkle" the mix of guns among the friendly and enemy pilots.  Some accurate, some not so accurate...it makes for more interesting battles when each fighter on each side is a unique blend of AI and combat capabilities.

That would also work great for the main characters teammates. Ones with actualy characters and personalities.