Better Aircraft Behavior Experiment

[XabbaRus]

Good luck, hope you can figure this out. AI aircraft performance has always bugged me.

[LoBlo]

EDIT: Corrections made
Ok, here's what I'm testing so far and its shown some marginal improvement over current behavior. First is a modification to the FighterEvade doctrine that will call upon a "AirIntercept" Doctrine when an enemy plane is detected.

 
; $Header: FighterEvade.txt   Wed Apr 23 16:04:39 EDT 2003    $
; $Revision: 1 $
; $Copyrt1: Copyright (c) 2003, Sonalysts, Inc.  All rights reserved. $
;
; FighterEvade
; LoBlo attempted Edits,June 2006
; attempting to script better anti-air behavior from interceptors to make them better protectors
; currently untested
; Set Tactic
IF NEWTRACK THEN {
 ; AAM or SAM Missile?
 IF TgtClass $= "MISSILE" AND ( TgtMissileClass "AAM" OR TgtMissileClass "SAM" ) THEN {
  SETTACTIC "AirEvadeMissile"
 } ENDIF
  ; Enemy fighter?
 IF TgtClass $= "AIR" AND ( TgtID $= "HOSTILE" OR ( TgtID $= "UAE" ) OR ( TgtID $= "UPD" ) ) THEN {
  SETTACTIC "AirIntercept"  
 } ENDIF
 ; SSM or ASM Missile?
 IF TgtClass $= "MISSILE" AND ( TgtMissileClass "ASM" OR TgtMissileClass "SSM" ) THEN {
  SETTACTIC "AirIntercept"
 } ENDIF
} ENDIF

The AirIntercept Doctrine is then called (if an enemy plane is detected) and hopefully the AirIntercept will act in the following ways
3. A intercept course to the enemy plane is plotted and engines are revs to 85% trottle.
4. When within attack range missiles are released
5. After missile release, a evasion route is plotted.

 
; By LoBlo, attempt to script better intercept and attack behavior from fighters
; Intercept incoming aircraft
IF NOT LostTrack THEN {
 IF TgtClass $= "AIR" AND ( TgtID $= "HOSTILE" OR ( TgtID $= "UAE" ) OR ( TgtID $= "UPD" ) ) THEN {
  SetSpd Maxspd / 1.15
  Intercept
  IF ( TgtRng <= AttackRng ) THEN {
   ATTACKBEST
  } ENDIF
 } ENDIF 
} ENDIF
; Evasion after firing
IF WeaponAway THEN {
 SteerAway
 SetSpd Maxspd / 1.1
  } ENDIF

That's the theory anyway, it accomplishes it with moderate consistency on the small scale battles that I've been testing, though there are some problems. The main one being that the evasion route after engaging the target, are not taken most of the time and the planes will still close on the target after their weapons have been released, where they should better evade to avoid return fire... WIP:hmm:

If anyone would like to give it a try themselves feedback would be appreciated.

lb