I've only noticed this since the latest patches. I'm not sure if it was doing it before as it was too stuttery to dogfight (IMO). I've been playing around in the QM dogfights and 2 things have really annoyed me:-

• 1. The AI is capable of some really ridiculous rate of roll. You get up behind them and they go into this pathetic super roll behavior .
• 2. The AI is Psychic, they know the millisecond you press the fire button. They then react as noted above. There doesn't seem to be any delay so they might be seeing the rounds go past them, nor any delay to account for human reaction time. As soon as you press the fire button they react.

Anyone else noticed this?.

Yes, it needs some work.

My biggest beef is that the AI doesn't seem to take into account the airframe it's in. Heavy bombers, before their initial point with bombs and fuel leaping around like a swallow in spring. Frustrating, especially on everything realistic like ammo etc.

+1, and that is pretty annoying, but there's more :

- Level of accuracy of gunners in bombers varies greatly depending on the type. Some, like the He 115, will put a single bullet in your head from 400 yards, while the gunners on the Heinkel 111 will just harmlessly fire in all directions.

- Some plane types seem to believe they're fighters when they're not. Dogfighting the Avro Hanson is just hilarious.

- AI wingmen are terrible at assessing their leader's level of damage, and will follow them down as they spin incontrollably to the sea with a torn off wing and a burning engine.

- Despite the above, the AI pilots in the damaged aircraft give up way too easily. Just a few hits with limited damage will cause them to bail out prematurely.

- They all make excessive use of "combat flaps", even when their planes don't have them.

Cheers

Nico

love the game but i have to admit, the last patch was pretty poor regarding the gameplay
:/ the freaking AI nearly kills the solo and the MP is broken
one month more won't be that much

Not finding the AI that bad really, although I havent flown against all types and last test for me the multiplayer was working well at least for the hour or so that I was on it was working.

I find bf109 vs Hurri the best SP dogfight experience (me in the 109). All others get a bit frustrating as they tend to keep their distance. e.g 109 vs spit or vice versa.

I've also noticed how the AI move the second you pull the trigger, rather than allowing for bullet travel time. I remember this being a problem years ago in IL2 as well.

The Blenheims are capable of extraordinary agility.

and you tried diving in a tiger moth? I almost reached the speed of sound the other day and the aircraft stayed intact.

I think there may have been an accidental AI reset in the QMB in the patch. If you customise the AI behavior in the mission builder there are eight categories and 20 settings for each i.e basic flying skills ,advanced flying skills, tactics etc. The average setting is at setting 7 and they may have all been reset to setting 20 which might be a little over realistic.
Just a guess of course.

Possibly its the AI skill but that doesn't explain the rate of roll that they are capable of. Pit yourself against the same aircraft type and they can perform a roll far quicker than you can.

Just checked a random Quick mission and several were set to Ace which is the highest level. But yeah Snap rolls at the rate of an F/A 18 are a bit much. Tried it myself and felt like I was flying under the influence compared to them....oh wait on its after 2pm.....I am!

yes i thought it was my joystick over sensitive but it was the A1 jumping soon as i fired,glad its not just me

I can confirm prety much all of the above observations.

So far I've seen:

- Hurris rolling like FW190s or even F-16s .. regardless of speed
- AI planes pulling extreme maneuvers that should at least have blacked-out the pilot (and obviously didn't) or even ripped their plane's wings off.
- Blenheims behaving like fighters, consistently outturning 109s (even AI-ones), outclimbing 110s (one did this even with half his elevator shot off). Seeemed to me as if the Blens had suddenly switched to a different FM or to a different set of laws of physics.
- AI generally being able to ignore the limitations/capabilites of the airframe they're in.
- AI pilots flick-rolling/jittering left and right like Hermann Göring high on amphetamines.
- AI pilots seemingly knowing their own position in the player's gunsight, making tiny adjustments to their flightpath the second you open fire.
- AI pilots popping flaps during combat in planes where this would've been a big "no-no" in RL. (noticed this with AI-Spits). Also: Improper flap-deployment doesn't seem to be punished by the game (no ripped off/stuck flaps)

This doesn't seem skill-specific since I mostly use average AI and have never touched the more detailled AI-scaling-sliders.

I'm also getting the distinct impression that AI has been changed in one or more of the patches. A few weeks ago, I could easily bounce a group of Hurris in a specific mission. With the latest patch (<- ?, not exactly sure since when) flying the exact same mission they'll all start jittering around and will scatter when I get within 500 meters on their low 6. Even though I'm using the exact same approach for the bounce (pass them high from their 12 to 6oc, Split-S to their low 6).


S.

The AI is somewhat thick. I've tried it on average and veteran and apart from the F16 crap it's able to pull I've noticed two particular oddities:

When it has its engine knocked out it doesn't seek to crash-land as a discrete action, it attempts to keep flying by constantly pulling its nose up and only comes down due to the laws of physics. No flaps are deployed (engine out?) and it doesn't seek to avoid trees or buildings. It's not a biggie, who watches AI crash-landing from within ones cockpit anyway.

In FMB dogfights I set simple two-waypoint flights, having opposing sides meet in the middle. After combat is done and one side is out of ammo it defaults to it's second waypoint/altitude and circles there. If a flight of a/c is attacked again one or more will react, fly some jinks and then attempt to re-join its previous pattern, oblivious to the threat still chasing it. Why doesn't the AI, having expended its ammo, attempt to return to a base without that behaviour having been set in the FMB?

The combat maneouvres, while boring and predictable, are at least effective in as much as the AI planes all jink and do so while hugely out-performing the player's machine. And I've been able to bounce them on occasion, while other times I've been spotted at various ranges. But there seems to be no variation between average and veteran...once they detect the threat they do a standard routine, depending on their type. However, I've not played with custom AI profiles yet, so more variation might prove possible. But to have to program each plane in the FMB? This is what Dynamic Campaign engines are for!!!

So far I've not seen too much odd behaviour from bombers. A couple of times He111s and Wellies have given it a bit too much of standing on a wing but by and large they behave realistically.

It's a shame the AI can't be set to 'Random' in the FMB, ala RoF.

Overall I find it very difficult to catch fighters, much less land rounds on them. Their ability to dive at speeds that make the player's plane shake and lose control, and then climb like a jet on after-burners, is absurd. But it's also difficult to be hit by them. Kills are hard to come by but survival is commensurately easy. It feels real. Bombers can be slaughtered if the player's in a 110, but you'll take too many hits yourself from turrets and you wouldn't do that in real life if not over friendly territory. Best I've managed is four Wellies and two Spits in a 110 (love the 20mm re-load), but I didn't make it home.

In conclusion I can say that all I'd like to see, apart from the AI not going F16, is rookies who don't do much more than gentle turns when being attacked. Just occasionally. As it stands you get one of two responses when sneaking up on fighters...either they don't spot you until you fire or they break and go F16.

MP is the cure for all of the above of course. Hope they get that fixed soon.

A cure? Right now, MP is on life-support itself ...


S.

On life-support? You mean Dr Frankenstein finally got the lightning-conductor working?

(GeorgeCarlin)Multiplayer-Spawn-selection ... high-tech-$h!t!(/GeorgeCarlin)


S.

Werver Voss - if you set planes just two waypoints they will always just circle after the last one. They never know to land at an airfield. That was the case for IL2 at least, and evidently there's a lot of IL2 in CoD.

Yeah, I know. Just wish their AI was smart enough to do realistic stuff without babying from the FMB. I was hoping the new FMB would have things like "Patrol this Area" and the sense to RTB once out of ammo or low on gas. What's the betting if they were left to circle at a final waypoint they'd all crash-land once they ran out of gas.

There really is way too much old IL2 code in CoD for it to be called a new engine. But damn, some of the new bits are incredibly good.