TOD drone buff formations in the MA AH2?

[Citabria]

I recall stories of brits using buffs to lure the luftwaffe into a fight in circus missions. I know for a fact that if you get enough bombers in the air and fly them over enemy teritory where the enemy will notice them the enemy will climb very high to get to them. this is the true reason for high alt fighting not some dweeby high altitude airbases. thus because the enemy is attacking these hgih alt buffs their is a place for high alt escorts to protect these buffs to their target and back.

HTC is talking about adding buff drone formations that simulate the large scale bombing missions for TOD in ah2

I think it might be a pretty kickass feature to add to the main arena as well.

I could see a workable use for the large ai formation in the following way, lets say every two hours a large buff formation of random plane type is available for player tasking and targeting (have a que for players waiting to command it with highest ranking buff pilot given the controls of it like a carrier group)

once the player has control they plan out the flight route and altitudes for the buffs to fly and what target to fly to. the buffs would up like regular airplanes from a base near the countries HQ perhaps? some place far from the front lines. I think the player controlling the bomber force should still be responsible for being the lead bombardier for the group and have bomb targeting the same as is currently in the MA but the steering of the planes would be best kept on a waypoint system except when on the bomb run. maybe if the player controllign the buff formation is in a plane escorting the buffs someone else could jump in on the bomb run and play bombardier heck playing bombardier could be a whole separate thing from being the one in charge of the buffs.

it would be nice to see this because currently 3 buffs on their own are not survivable under heavy attack and large buff formations of multiple players are also ineffective in bombing as a group on the command of the lead bomber due to lag and formation flying difficulty for most players. but more importantly it adds a way for the buffs to be used realistically and gives the fighters a real reason to fly and stay high when they are in enemy territory.

that and it would look cool seeing all those bombs fall and explode at once... very cool!

[Rutilant]

Yes, i'm showing off a lot..

[WldThing]

Originally posted by Rutilant


Yes, i'm showing off a lot..

Might wanna post this in the "Screenshot and Images"..

[Rutilant]

That i will!

[Biggles]

And another...

[Zanth]

Last time I tried out Warbirds, they had AI bombers in the MA that were available for some AI general to control (as well as ground forces).  They did it for some special Main arena, and I think they just needed someone at the server end to send the AI's on their way.  They have/had a really good AI programmer on staff though (Warbirds even has some pretty decent offline AI ).   Evidently this is a pretty specialized skill and I don't know if HTC has anyone like this on staff but sound like a neat idea in principle.

[wetrat]

Computer AI (from everything I've read/heard) is extremely complex; it is very difficult to simulate what a human would do (or so I've read). I don't know that HTC has someone with these skills on staff, but I also don't know that they don't. In any case, with the type of AI they've said they will be using (buff formations, iron convoys), I don't think they will have much trouble with it.

Now, to fester's post. The buff formations could be a good addition to the MA, but they could be quite lame.... I have to get to night school, so I'll pick up here when I get a chance

[F1Bomber]

Ai is a big field in computer science right now. But i think it has allways been. Though the ai drones what fester is asking woundnt really be Ai instead it would be more like a scripted events, follow x until x moves, ect...

Ai, is when you let a full formation of 300 buffs up in the air and watch the results and see what they do! other than that, i would call festers idea programable for hitech.

Now on the other hand. if you really wanted a better AI system. I am talking about one that can adapt to different events, and different vechiles without player or programing interface is the hard bugger to solve. For example, having the same AI system, that can fly a bomber, drive a tank, be a foot soilder. Based on its ability to controle and manage a solution and also problem space.

btw, somtimes Ai needs to be stupid at times to reflect whats its Simulating.

Intresting stuff.

[BlckMgk]

Since Fester is on the bandwagon maybe he'll pull more weight, I had a similar idea for AI Bomber Attacks, but using perk points. This gives more experienced bomber pilots the ability to really conduct a large scale bomber attack.

AI Bomber Idea

I didn't hash out all the ideas in the thread mainly because I was hoping the community here on the boards would've discussed it a bit more. (was wrong, I guess board Name carries a bit of weight when deciding to read a thread or not).

I suggested the "mission planner" just so the interface was simple using the available planning way point method. The mission doesn't have to be many players, it could just be 1 experienced bomber pilot with some perks.

And getting this into the MA now will help polish it for TOD, hope we could test the AI system soon.

-BM

[Montezuma]

Would be great for squad ops.

[Sikboy]

Originally posted by Montezuma
Would be great for squad ops.

As a CM who is constantly putting poor saps in GVs, this is what I'm looking forward to most (and I bet the CAP players will be happy too! lol). Someday...

-Sik