A.I. Comparisons Between Games

[Zipper730]

Which game has the best and worst A.I.?

 

[greybeard]

Interesting question, especially for the answers: I too would like to know which is the simulator with the best AI, since I play only single player.
It seems to me that they are all mediocre: they do the same evasive maneuvers, the same incredible things and the same stupid things. There is some minor difference here and there, like Rise of Flight's "William Tell" tail gunners hitting you as their plane crashes now wingless, while those from Battle of Stalingrad look much more human. Here, this is the point: I think we really like AI if it behaves like a human being: this study was the subject of cybernetics, today it seems that this word doesn't even exist anymore.
For the record, I currently have IL-2 1946, IL-2 Cliffs of Dover, Battle of Stalingrad (the series, including Flying Circus 1), Rise of Flight United and Falcon 4.0 BMS installed (the latter they say has a great AI, but I was overwhelmed with learning difficulties and couldn't verify it).

 

[Dimlee]

Most of my experience was in Il2 1946 and I saw how the quality of AI improved almost with each version, especially after 4.09 or 4.10. Still, many glitches remain as the behaviour of the bombers under attack, for example. (B-17's aerobatics...).
I heard that AI in the Battle of Stalingrad is less "smart".

 

[greybeard]

I heard that AI in the Battle of Stalingrad is less "smart".

I don't think so. Lately (version 5.002), they introduced a new breed of AI evasive maneuvers on the vertical plan - for me an absolute novelty. On the whole, I think they both remain on the same plan of mediocrity.

Post Scriptum: trying to make myself understood about what I mean for superior AI, I'm attaching an excerpt from a booklet I wrote about thirty years ago, telling some experience of mine playing "Falcon 3.0" by Spectrum Holobyte:

"The Kurils are a small, unknown archipelago, made up of islands, many of which little more than rocks in an icy sea, aligned along an imaginary arch that connects the upper end of the island of Hokkaido, in Japan, with the peninsula of Kamciatka. At the end of the Second World War, the Soviet Union took possession of them, in the collapse of the Japanese Empire, due to their great strategic importance. In fact, during the winter, the Pacific Ocean north of Hokkaido is frozen, while during the summer anyone who wants to bring ships, or an entire fleet, to the eastern coasts of Russia must pass between the Kuril Islands and the pack, retired to the north for the summer. The Russians knew this well after the tragic experience of the naval battle of Tsushima, in 1905, when their fleet, forced to pass through this strait to reach Kamciatka, was massacred by the Japanese one.
All this I learned from the manual of an F-16 simulator, where various "hot" scenarios of the world, present or possible future, are hypothesized for the use of the aircraft. It is precisely in the early 2000s that it is hypothesized that Japan, taking advantage of the weakened government of the C.S.I., would take back these islands with military action, provoking the reaction of Russia.
The role of the United States in this limited conflict is particular, although it does not want to wage a war with the Russians, it must facilitate the Japanese allies. Their presence must therefore be essentially deterrent, in the awareness that even the Soviet counterpart has no intention, if not forced, to provoke an escalation by involving the Americans.
The F-16 pilots therefore received precise R.O.E. (Rules Of Engagement: rules of action) which provide for the protection of Japanese vehicles without direct actions against their opponents, except for those resulting from contingent situation evolutions and in any case only after authorization, via radio, from the command post.
Thus begins a strange war that sees me on a mission with a wingman, in flight (simulated) with an F-16 on a reconnaissance mission towards the Russian fleet, moored about 150 km north of Hokkaido. Soon, as soon as we take off from the Memambetsu base, we are framed by the radars of large Soviet naval units, as the TWS (Threat Warning System) tells me by making a small number 6 appear on its circular screen; this indicates the reception of radio waves emitted by a long range "chirp" type radar (chirp indicates the cry of the birds, since the signals of this radar, translated into sounds, resemble a chirping). Soon two Sukhoi 27, taken off from the aircraft carrier Admiral Kutnetzov, are heading towards us. They do not launch missiles, but quickly queue up to frame us with their firing radars on; this causes an annoying and excruciating hiss in our headphones, mine and my wingman, and an injection of adrenaline in the blood. This acoustic signal, in fact, is the most feared by modern fighter pilots, because it warns that you have been framed ("hooked" in jargon) by the enemy aiming system and at any moment he can start the missile that there it will disintegrate. My wingman does not hold up and goes away, his nerves have given way, as the AWACS, the flying command post, tells me on the radio. I go on undeterred ("it's a game!" I think to myself), I know they can't shoot, these tiny electronic brains conditioned by the binary system. But this is not the case, the programmer has also foreseen this move, so much so that it seems that the software has a life of its own, it is so unpredictable; The Sukhoi fires, not with the missiles that in that tactical situation would have inevitably hit me, but with the cannon: I see its tracers passing me.
<< Damn! He shot! >> the unexpected move leaves me dazed for some time: he could tear me apart, but it is clear that he just wanted to scare me and thus dissuade me from proceeding in this more demonstrative action. But the reaction to an attack is always emotional, so I abruptly turn around with the intention of being able to frame him and launch a missile at him. While I tighten the turn as much as possible, the AWACS, given the attack by the Sukhoi, authorizes me to fire; so I avoid the (simulated) court martial but I would have shot anyway. Thus begins a frantic series of evolutions, with the Russian hovering over my screen, sometimes disappearing, with breathtaking maneuvers, while I am forced to watch myself even from his wingman who tries to cover him. In the end I manage to collimate him and launch a missile that he manages to evade by throwing flares, but the second, launched about a second away, hits him, transforming him into a ball of fire that falls towards the ocean ... The moment of complacency for the electronic murder is enough to make me forget for a moment of his wingman, who cannonballs me after he went to "six o'clock" with respect to me, while I was busy killing his leader; I rush towards the freezing waters by operating the ejection seat only because I know that I will not really end up in it ..."