AI mission generator for AvA

[jimson]

HTC was developing an AI mission generator for Combat Tour.

Quote from Pyro:

"We’re going to pull the CT AI mission system and redevelop it for use by CM’s in scenarios and special events."

I really wish they would do this and turn it over to AvA staff.

Here is a way it could be used:

A neutral (at first) base near the center of the map with a very short downtime.

A large Rook AI bomber force attacks it, but it is not captured. It comes back up very quickly then a Bish AI bomber force attacks it.

It continues to alternate this way even in an empty arena and the base is never captured unless..........Players bring in troops quickly after the attack.
 
At this point the capturing sides AI bomber force automatically disables and the base is subject to repeated AI attacks from the opposing force until players from that side capture the base. Rinse and repeat.

Players could choose to capture the base, defend it, or escort the bombers against opposition.

An effective way of combining AI and human players.

This would run independently of any other player activity that was going on in the arena, but would always provide something to do in there.

It has been said that people do not enjoy battling AI fighters, but they might be OK with AI bombers.

[Chilli]

  Love it! 

  Might actually have to use the second AvA arena  Arena is full (cap 200) 2 players online 198 AI's 

  Do this and I'm buying a year's subscription!! 

[TnDep]

that is a pretty cool idea 

[gyrene81]

Has potential... Just have to make sure the AI doesn't show up as players logged in.

[smoe]

Yea, make the AI pilots send <S> and nasty messages, just like in 1980's flight sim "Top Gun: Fire at Will."

[Chilli]

  Have you seen some of the missions folks have made?  Talk about immersion!  The war room movie screen when you log in!!!  Inspiring background music!!  Wingmen that don't go afk   

Starting off one mission that I have created, you hear Morgan Freeman, "Get busy living..... or get busy dying..."  What's not to love.... except maybe bandwidth or server resources.

[jimson]

Has potential... Just have to make sure the AI doesn't show up as players logged in.

That shouldn't be hard to do. Or just give em fake names so no one knows for sure LOL.

[USRanger]

   I volunteered long ago that if AI was brought to the AvA, I would take care of the AI "programming" work, giving the AvA staff scores of "missions" to choose from.  It would just require an AvA staff member to choose and launch such missions at the time & place of their choosing.  I'm sure there's much more involved than just building offline missions, but the basics would still be the same & I'm still willing to do my part if the AvA staff is ever given this tool.  I think it would breathe a huge breath of life into the arena if players could fight large historical battles any day of the week, instead of waiting for FSO, etc.

 

 

[trotter]

   I volunteered long ago that if AI was brought to the AvA, I would take care of the AI "programming" work, giving the AvA staff scores of "missions" to choose from.  It would just require an AvA staff member to choose and launch such missions at the time & place of their choosing.  I'm sure there's much more involved than just building offline missions, but the basics would still be the same & I'm still willing to do my part if the AvA staff is ever given this tool.  I think it would breathe a huge breath of life into the arena if players could fight large historical battles any day of the week, instead of waiting for FSO, etc.

 

 

+1111

[jimson]

   I volunteered long ago that if AI was brought to the AvA, I would take care of the AI "programming" work, giving the AvA staff scores of "missions" to choose from.  It would just require an AvA staff member to choose and launch such missions at the time & place of their choosing.  I'm sure there's much more involved than just building offline missions, but the basics would still be the same & I'm still willing to do my part if the AvA staff is ever given this tool.  I think it would breathe a huge breath of life into the arena if players could fight large historical battles any day of the week, instead of waiting for FSO, etc.

 

I can only imagine how awesome your efforts would be.

It's definitely right that Hi-Tech needs to put most of the development into his bread and butter, but this is something HTC could do for the history/immersion fans out there.

As Combat Tour is shelved, the AvA is the perfect place for Combat Tour "lite".

I understand, the biggest attendance will always be in the MA, and there is still the feeling that forced AvA set ups led to the demise of other sims.

There is however, a smaller community of historical/immersive play fans, that deserve some development time as well.

I can rarely attend special events and since I just don't care for the "every plane, from every country, at any time" concept, it's nice to have the AvA option, and I'd like to see some development there.

In fact, you might say that it is only the AvA that kept HTC from losing me as a customer.

I believe that enabling an AI mission generator for AvA could lead to some great things for the "historical immersive" player community.
 

[soda72]

   I'm still willing to do my part if the AvA staff is ever given this tool. 
 

[writes name down on list]..

 

[USRanger]

 

[jimson]

There has been no further news on this possibility since Oct 2008 and no one from HTC has responded to any of the threads that have asked for this sort of thing since then, so it is unclear if it is still being considered.

The AI mission system for offline use premiered in March of that same year. It makes sense that the offline version was originally developed as part of CT and was adapted for offline use, and it would seem possible that the coding to use it in an online arena may already partially exist.

For a use such as I describe, it would need to have some sort of timer/queue mechanism for missions to launch at selected times.

I wonder how much of this work was already done as part of CT and much effort it would take to bring it to fruition.

HiTech? Pyro? Anyone?

[jimson]

Hmmm, well I guess we have our answer as to whether or not anything like this will ever happen.

[trap78]

An AI mission system that could be used by CM’s would certainly make possible many new event and arena set ups. Here are a couple of examples of events I have actually flown in:

1) A large number of AI Ju-52’s was used to simulate the airborne convoys flying from Italy to Tunisia supplying Axis forces in North Africa. Real players flew 109’s, 110’s and C202’s as escorts while other players intercepted in P-40’s and Spit 5’s.

2) Large groups of AI armored vehicles fought ground battles in North Africa and the Eastern front while players provided both air cover and ground attack.

An amphibious assault using AI landing craft would be another possibility.

Once the AI mission system is in place for special events it could be made available for the AvA as well. I think folks are onto something with this idea. Does anyone know the current status of AI mission generator for online use?