AI questions for the Devs

[ftgc]

Can your AI wingmen run out of ammo? Additionally can your AI wingys shoot down one of the named aces? I was flying an escort mission when we were jumped by 6-8 Albatross scouts. Seemed like everyone of them was a named ace and one of the was Werner Voss. I shot one down and went after another. The fight had spread out a little and I had one of my flight near me. Well he goes after the guy I'm shooting at and I can clearly hear and see him shooting at the guy. (BTW Winder, the recall "R key" had no effect, he kept right after the guy I was fighting :wave Anyway we head of in search of the rest of the flight and find them engaged with other E/A from the flight that jumped us. I'm outta ammo now so I'm just flying above watching the fight and again I can clearly hear and see the rest of my flight shooting at the enemy. Finally I have most of the flight together and we start heading for home and come across the last member of the flight engaged with Voss. I order the attack and circle above to watch. Voss has five Nieuports on his tail and at any one time there are at least two in position to fire on him but yet they don't. I don't hear any gunfire and don't see any tracers. After several minutes of this I see an opening where most of the flight is headed in one direction and Voss the other and order a recall and start climbing. I figure we'll out climb him and head home. It works except for one flight member that's must be damaged as he lags behind, Voss catches up to him and shoots him down. Voss was pretty shot up and should have been an easy kill for the flight but they never did shoot at him so I'm guessing that either they were all outta ammo or the code won't allow the AI to give the final blow to the named aces. This is what Voss looked like when we left. Kinda explains why you have to pour tons of ammo into a plane for it to go down. If I have enough damage that it shows like this on the skin, my plane would be either barely or completely unflyable, yet Voss's plane acted like it had no damage at all

Scott

[Polovski]

R won't always work they are busy or ingore you somtimes.
AI pilots can kill Aces as far as I know at least we've never made it impossible.
AI have NO IDEA when Voss died. The OFF Manager does

Maybe it was luck?
AI guns used to jam don't think they do now (RexH would have to answer that one for sure).
5 on his tail would not all be firing at once, maybe take it in turns with 2 or 3.

Aces are really good so maybe he used Matrix moves and slowed time

[Gremlin_WoH]

You call THAT damage? That looks just like some bullet holes to me :d

By the way ... Voss was an exceptional pilot. He should outclass you even in a damaged plane

[ftgc]

R won't always work they are busy or ingore you somtimes.
AI pilots can kill Aces as far as I know at least we've never made it impossible.
AI have NO IDEA when Voss died. The OFF Manager does

Maybe it was luck?
AI guns used to jam don't think they do now (RexH would have to answer that one for sure).
5 on his tail would not all be firing at once, maybe take it in turns with 2 or 3.

Aces are really good so maybe he used Matrix moves and slowed time

Thanks Pol,

Still I would like to know if your AI flight members can run out of ammo. I know in most sims they always seem to have more ammo. Again I ask because I did see them attacking but not shooting and so if they can run out I know to turn for home after a big fight.

You call THAT damage? That looks just like some bullet holes to me :d

By the way ... Voss was an exceptional pilot. He should outclass you even in a damaged plane

Hehehe Well the boys at OBD have done a great job with the AI but I'm afraid it's not that good. I could have killed him several times but was out of ammo from a previous fight. I included the picture because it's representitive of the damage that shows when thoughly worked over. I admit it doesn't look like much but when you've taken enough damage for the graphics to show what you see on Voss's plane your pretty well shot up. I know it takes a lot of work to make skins for differant levels of damage but I've always thought the visual clues for damage in OFF were a little short. On many occasions I've had damage that noticably effects my ability to control my plane yet visually I can see nothing wrong.

Scott

[Catfish]

Hello,
i would also like to simply know whether the AI can run out of ammo, or not - for both AI planes, wingmen and enemy.

And the shots and holes - well i am still waiting for my P3 copy, but in phase 2 (which may not apply at all i know) you need one or two bullet holes in an aileron, and your crate is almost unable to fly - not so in reality. If a stringer or a control cable, or a cable roll would break you have problems, but some holes will not really limit your manouevering in a way it is modelled in P2 < crybaby i know lol

Greetings,
Catfish

[Polovski]

Not sure on gun ammo I never hang around enough to find out. But they can of any other ordinance. If RexH sees this maybe he can comment.

Catfish P3 has completely different DM system so best to comment on that when you have it.

[Creaghorn]

I think they can run out of ammo, but maybe some of them don't know when to stop fighting when beeing out of ammo. i remember two different missions. once a tripe chased me in my alb dII. he stuck behind me, but he didn't shoot. another time a Nieuport 17 lewis came out of the sun when i lost contact to my mates and was heading back to my drome. i was loitering around and saw a lake, so i wanted to enjoy the beauty of it. suddenly one single noop appeared behind me and damaged me so i could hardly stay level. suddenly he stopped shooting and just followed me for several minutes, like george peppard till i reached a friendly drome. then he turned and flew back home.