15.11.2008, 10:55
The ability to tune AI is the holy grail of programming for games full stop. It has to be designed to appear intelligent, random and challenging. IL-2 AIs are well known for their multiple barrel rolls and perfect trimming. But then there are times when they fly as perfect sitting ducks and then other times when a rookie or average pilot will fly quite well and prove a difficult kill.
The problem is, being a random system, it produces a whole degree of variation, unfortunately this distribution tends to be in the annoying/stupid end. That why we see rookies who can do 50 barrel rolls in a row and aces who can have pilot headshots at 500m. When it works, it's great! When it doesn't it drives us up the wall!
My idea is that there should be greater control over the variability of the AI. I'm not sure how it is coded (i.e. a list of pre-defined scripts for each level or random factors for each level), but the aim of whoever works on this should be consistency and realism of AI skills.
The problem is, being a random system, it produces a whole degree of variation, unfortunately this distribution tends to be in the annoying/stupid end. That why we see rookies who can do 50 barrel rolls in a row and aces who can have pilot headshots at 500m. When it works, it's great! When it doesn't it drives us up the wall!
My idea is that there should be greater control over the variability of the AI. I'm not sure how it is coded (i.e. a list of pre-defined scripts for each level or random factors for each level), but the aim of whoever works on this should be consistency and realism of AI skills.