AI Hornet BFM skills got better?

[maxTRX]

I did 4 head-on gunzos with AI Hornet and in all engagements, it looked like a solid, classic turning and burning. No wild and fancy maneuvers, no 'Hornet walks' 10 ft. AGL, just trying to get angles on each other. It seemed like AI always tried to go 2-circle after merge. Whenever I turned away into 1-circle, AI reversed and forced me into a 2-circle in oblique. Turning into each other always ended up in a level, descending fight. Once or twice we ended up 700 ft. above ground but the a/s never dropped below 250 kts. 

The first fight:

 

I haven't seen a lot of defensive jinking though as could be seen here. A clip from last year:

 

Edited February 22, 2022 by Gripes323

[captain_dalan]

And not just the Hornet. 
I have a series of homemade missions that i use to train certain parts of the envelope or systems use and ACM techniques. The last time i flew those the end of last summer and the start of autumn. That is until this weekend. Many of the planes that were happy to fly themselves in the ground back then are now making a decent show of themselves in the BFM arena. Oh, and they no longer seem to go for the hammerhead 2 times out of 3 like they used to.

I get a feeling ED is not just constantly working on the AI, but actually sneaky-sneaking pushing the updates to the open beta without mentioning in the changelogs!

[maxTRX]

41 minutes ago, captain_dalan said:

I get a feeling ED is not just constantly working on the AI, but actually sneaky-sneaking pushing the updates to the open beta without mentioning in the changelogs!

Yep, they can sneak in as much as they want, as long as it's heading in the right direction 

[NineLine]

So is this a bug report or just that we have made improvements and you are happy?

[maxTRX]

1 hour ago, NineLine said:

So is this a bug report or just that we have made improvements and you are happy?

A surprisingly happy response to bug reports from earlier OB versions, and... perhaps a suggestion to make AI jink a bit more, just before getting shot, just to piss the shooter off a little 

[NineLine]

If the changes I am thinking about are seeping into release, then consider this a WIP, I am trying to confirm that is the case, I am happy to know that it looks like it is true, we have been doing a lot of cool work on this subject, and would like the team to discuss a little bit in a newsletter. Thanks!

[LeCuvier]

I'm more into WWII warbirds, and I find that the AI Spit, Mustang, Jug and Mossie now manoeuvre wildly when I'm getting onto their tail. They didn't do that a year ago.

[NineLine]

If they dont see you, and you fire on them, they will be 'surprised'.

[LeCuvier]

7 minutes ago, NineLine said:

If they dont see you, and you fire on them, they will be 'surprised'.

I'm surprised you say that. I think they always see me, even through thick clouds and mountains.  Anyway, they start maneuvering wildly before I start shooting.

[NineLine]

Send me a track and I can look, but you should be able to sneak up on them from low and behind, clouds do not block them yet, ground should. 

[LeCuvier]

11 hours ago, NineLine said:

Send me a track and I can look, but you should be able to sneak up on them from low and behind, clouds do not block them yet, ground should. 

In the attached track I tried to fight the Spit head-on, but he turned away. So I turn south towards the mountains and fly low. When I'm just past the first hill I turn west to disappear behind the hill, always very low. The Spit keeps flying towards where I am, although I'm now behind the hill,  and crashes into the slope. I used this escape tactic a lot before I learned to fight the Spit, and it has always worked. Also when I was flying higher and hid behind a mountain.

Spit hits Hill.trk

Edited March 8, 2022 by LeCuvier

[NineLine]

Thanks I will take a look.

[winghunter]

The dogfight AI certainly works better when you spawn multiple bandits as individual units, rather than a group.

I figured this out in BanditOnDemand, you can see the flag in the script to enable/disable groups and see the difference. When spawning bandits in a group, at least one of them will sit idle and become an easy target.

https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3320850/

[skywalker22]

F/A-18 AI is still trying to make a cobra maneuver at ground level when you are on it 6 and has no way to go. It actually stalls and crashes in numerous of occasions. It seems to be a bug to me.

[Burner1111]

For me it feels that AI for Hornet is some way off. Made two basic 1-1 dogfight missions (F16 vs F18). With Intercept, AI just went nuts. Basically went from 15k to lover floor with very slow speed, around 200 or less and stalled all the time. Tried to engage me but no good skills where used. AI was linked to intercept me and skill set Ace. Standard setup in ME. Other was Fighter Sweep, much better but AI get to quickly too slow and just drops in a time to the floor around 200 or less and again stalls - keeps AOA 29 almost forever! and cannot get out from that. Tried this many times, same results. Other AI does not have this issue, using the same template. In the picture with fighter sweep, keeping the angle and cannot get out.

[skywalker22]

To add, despite F/A-18 being a true monster in dogfigting driven my human, on the other hand AI just doesn`t reflect that indeed. Would be awesome to put some effort into it, and make it worth of that title.

[captain_dalan]

I guess they are changing the AI all the time. Aside from changes between missions type, how is the AI responding to changes between veteran and ace skill levels?