Hog_driver

Now that you mentioned it... A strange story about the Aussies facing off against Stinger missile-wielding kangaroos started circulating around the internet in 1999. https://www.wearethemighty.com/mighty-history/australian-air-force-vs-kangaroos/

It's not bad. I don't use it with DCS, but without it, I wouldn't be able to fly the A380 in MSFS2020.

Maybe it was, it seems it no longer IS.

All right, but it's seemingly a simple task - don't get shot down, shoot down the enemy plane. What advanced actions are necessary? Fight better? Be a better pilot?

I see what you did there! You clever... But no! You shall not silence me! Improve the AI 'cause I need more challenge!

As I said, I'm not very good at this, but when flying the F-15c against Ace AI in the Flogger, I usually shoot it down in a minute or two (after the merge, not shooting head-on).

All right, apart from bingo fuel and stuff like that; I experimented with various AI settings and results were different - sometimes the MiG crashed, sometimes it was shot down. But still, Ace F-15 committed mistakes such as overshooting the target, which could be dangerous. I think it should be addressed.

Well, I may be wrong, but I think it should win most of the time. I tried four times; the F-15 won once, the F-15 pilot ejected twice and the MiG-23 crashed once. Do you think it's a reasonable result for Ace AI?

Fine. But if AI F-15 can't shoot down AI MiG-23, where's "intelligence" in that? Poor speed management, missed opportunities, pointless maneuvers... and you need a working AI for the DCE.

Well, I thought that AI actions such as "check fuel, if bingo then RTB" are part of the core sim.

Well, maybe, but then he should rather have thought "bingo fuel, time to RTB" and RTB. Do you think that walking back to base across the desert is a more reasonable option?

Ok, here you go!

Spoiler alert! After almost 10 minutes of turning, climbing, diving, rolling, dropping flares, etc., this F-15 pilot says "nah, it's pointless anyway" and ejects F15vsMiG23_eject.trk

I can't send you a track at this moment, I'll just say that the F-15, at least once, while being at the MiG's 6 o'clock, performed a barrel roll instead of shooting. What was the point of that?

But could you at least improve the AI in the meantime? Even without the DCE, it would make missions and campaigns more immersive. Just a few days ago, I made a simple mission, an F-15C vs MiG-23 (both Ace AI) and the combat didn't look good. I'm not very good at dogfighting, but I was able to shoot down the MiG much faster and more efficiently.

Unfortunately, I had a similar experience when I was trying to play a mission in Operation Liberation. Extremely immersion-breaking. Apart from that, I found out that instead of trying to bomb an enemy airfield, all I had to do was to set my ground forces to "aggressive" and tanks overran the airfield in a few hours. I was also witness to some very unrealistic "tank combat". IMHO, DCS AI is the first thing that should be fixed/improved, it would make the already available campaigns much more realistic and enjoyable.

So could we at least get... intelligent wingmen?

I don't know, but what should I do? Wait another 3 years? And we're talking some basic stuff here, like formation flying, "thou shalt not ram your leader"! Fun fact: this time my wingman didn't kill me, but there were some hair raising moments...

I checked again twice and it seems there may be, in fact, some improvement! 1. Wigman just blasted one FW190 off the sky, almost collided with me, but all ended well (not for the FWs though). 2. Wingman almost blasted one FW190 off the sky, but collided with me, so this time it ended well for the FWs. Still not perfect!

AI you say... that's funny, because I just tested that Mossie mission in which you strafe the Abbeville airfield. Just as you start the mission, there are two FW190s taking off right at your 12 o'clock. A perfect opportunity to get two kills, one might think. I set my wingman's AI to Ace and told him to "engage the bandits". We are at their 6 o'clock, they're taking off, it's easy, right? A minute later, the wingman radioed "I'm hit, bailing out" and that was that. I played this mission 3 years ago and nothing's changed since then, I'm afraid. I'm really fed up with this and won't buy any plane soon 'cause it's pointless.

BTW, a strategy game is to be released on 12th November, "Maritime Strength" or something like that From what I've seen, it has some nice SAM launch effects.

Damn, and I wanted to start this campaign soon. Hope it'll be fixed by then.

[Place for that Buzz Astral/Woody meme - whiners and soyboys everywhere, even in the sim community!] Will items in the wishlist and bug section be addressed faster?

Sometimes I think that it would be better to have one game with a working module, ATC, AI, campaign, etc. than a game with a dozen modules that "just works".

Probably everybody realizes that any dynamic campaign is a complex undertaking and a difficult one to implement, yet it was promised, quite a few years ago. And if we can't get it soon (or at all), let's at least have a believable AI. Campaigns such as Operation Liberation are a bit clumsy to use, but I could live with that, if only AI started behaving sensibly.