[Dragon]

Add in a wicked AI or a human player (both of the same skill, of course. Now where did we put Quantum Delta's evil twin?...) and the Aeshma's lateral/backwards flight characeristics and you've leveled the playing field by a significant margin. I'd like to see that one...

Obviously the Perseus is fast, but the Aeshma can move laterally in x- or y-, up or down, at 17m/s. It can also move backwards at 20m/s... If the AI knew how to use this in close quaters, you'd be in for a much, much harder fight.

The AI is quite capable of handling pure lateral/vertical manuvers, as anyone who played FS1 on Insane can tell you about Scorpions, but I think it needs more to work with.

You both need to play FS with Fury's AI.
NGTM-1R might have done that in WiH already, if a ship have slide capability, it will use it, and it use it well.
It helps if your ship also can slide, then it becomes a really handy tactic.

[Commander Zane]

I dunno...competient AI isn't "FreeSpace" last I heard.

[Dragon]

It isn't, but it enchances the feel of real flight and is more realistic.
WiH is a mod, so it doesn't have to strictly follow FS2 style.

[Commander Zane]

I already have the AI, I'm all up for the game being more fun.

[QuantumDelta]

That behaviour was in the default retail package, just doesn't seem to display much in default SCP builds (vanilla/FSU).
Fury's AI having it back = <33333 (And, it does ;p)

[BengalTiger]

when you fire at them, they accelerate, not a crazy way of dodging but..

and technically if you fire a missile, they will dodge, that's dodging before getting hit

or maybe I just suck and tend to fire on the surroundings a lot.

What I'd really like is them (AI controlled ships) flying away like a Dragon that takes some damage before they even get hit.
At least on hard/extreme.

The AI also has a habbit of dropping a countermeasure and keeping the same direction of flight (especially before getting into a dogfight), which is exploitable by firing anything (including Rockeyes) from directly ahead and still having a large chance of hitting.

[Commander Zane]

Unless it's you trying it as for some odd reason it seems no matter how fast and hard I turn after dropping even 15 countermeasures I get hammered by heat-seakers.

[Androgeos Exeunt]

When you dogfight Dragons, try not to be too close to them, especially when you're in a fairly potato-like aircraft *cough* Ares! *cough*.

Aircraft? What do you think this is? Macross?

But yeah, the general tactic of handling Dragons is either not to attack them, or attack them from very far out with your missiles. Dogfighting them in a ship other than a Serapis or Perseus is the worst thing you can ever do.

[General Battuta]

They're going to be easier to handle now that the broken countermeasures have been fixed.

[Androgeos Exeunt]

Ohhhh crap...

[General Battuta]

Countermeasures have been way more effective than they were intended to be for about the last 4 years. With CMs reverted to retail behavior you should find Dragons easier to tag with missiles.

I don't know if Wanderer spotted this on his own or if Fury figured it out during AI development for WiH.

[Aardwolf]

Was it only enemy CMs, or some difficulty-specific thing, or what?

[Fury]

All CM's without exception were 100% effective, always. This four year old bug was spotted and fixed by Wanderer in recent 3.6.11 nightly.

[Commander Zane]

Don't know, but as of late I've had at least a 1 : 100 rate with spoofing heat-seeking missiles, Trying to use countermeasures on Piranha childs seems borderline impossible now, but the AI has absolutely no problem doing it.

[QuantumDelta]

Who uses counter measures *needswhistling smilie* 

[NGTM-1R]

All CM's without exception were 100% effective, always. This four year old bug was spotted and fixed by Wanderer in recent 3.6.11 nightly.

Uh, that's why I find myself having to launch more than one, right?

[Androgeos Exeunt]

All CM's without exception were 100% effective, always.

Really? They don't always work for me, you know. Like NGTM, I usually find myself needing to release at least two countermeasures to counter a single missile.

[Fury]

If a CM didn't work, most likely explanation is that it never made contact with an incoming missile's homing cone. When you launch a countermeasure, you also turn sharp to another direction don't you? So does the missile and homing cone with it, meaning the missile's homing cone never made contact with the CM you launched.

[Androgeos Exeunt]

Are you trying to tell us that launching CMs while flying straight ensures a 100% success rate?

[The E]

No. Just that for a CM to work, the missile's seeker cone has to be in the area of effect the CM projects. If your evasive maneuver carries you too far in the wrong direction, the missile will miss the CM completely.