Star Wolves - not happy with AI

[MichiK]

Ok, maybe it's just me, but I am getting pretty frustrated with the stupidity of my pilots...

They seem to think that the ideal way to fight enemy fighters or captial ships that are slower than them is to joust!

rather than sloow down and stick themselves on the '6' of the enemy fighter, they come in at full speed, shoot, pass him by and then loop around for another 'bombing run'.

Anyone else noticing this? Anything to do?

 

[Balor]

Can you name any OTHER space sim/strategy where fighers didn't do exactly the same?
Homerworld? Check. Jupiter Incident? Chech. Some other game, name of which I don't remeber - Check.
Perhaps that's the only way?

 

[Sol Invictus]

The game doesn't have real space physics, so the ships fly like that. Nexus, which features real space physics, have ships that don't fly around like WW1/WW2 dogfighters and instead pan and swivel to attack, the way real starships would. Of course, the fighters still fight that way, but that's just to make the game look exciting.

Perhaps that's the only way?

Actually, real space ships would be able to fly sideways and do arcs and circlestrafe rather than thrusting forwards like jets and airplanes. There's no wind resistance and no gravity in space, so there's no need for space fighters to 'joust', as it were.

I can think of only one space game which uses Newtonian space physics and has ship designs that are realistic, rather than ones that look like jetfighters: I-War 2: Edge of Chaos.

You could basically fly sideways and strafe your enemies. Just think Mechwarrior in space, but in full 3d.

 

[Balor]

Well, I aware that space don't have air and gravity, thanks
But, exactly, Nexus that seemed to have realistic physics had the same approach to fighters.
So, you think that's just for show?
Or perhaps it's to minimize time of being near the flaks?
On the other hand, flacks there have rather long range, and it's not helping anyway. I guess you are right after all.
P.S.
Yet, I think, that's to AVOID flaks, - you cannot manuever for shit when you are just flying near and shooting. And in a duel between fighter+it's cannons vs battleship + it's flacks... I guess I know where I'll bet my money .

 

[Sol Invictus]

Yeah it makes sense that they would fly that way to avoid flaks and missiles.

 

[MichiK]

Ok, so my problem is almost a Dungeon Siege like problem here...

Basically, once combat starts, the game takes over and I watch.

My contribution is:

1. How I 'build' my chars' skills
2. How I build their ships
3. The actions I set for them (so far, defene and missle defense arent that useful...)

Once the fighting starts, its all pretty much up to the AI....

 

[Sol Invictus]

I take it you're not very deep into the game. Defence, Missile Defence and even Repair are invaluable later on, when you face up against Hrimtuurs and Cleaners. Your skills are also invaluable because you'll be using them more and more to defeat waves of enemy fighters.

You'll also have to select your enemies, too. Once you go up against ships that use the Diamond laser-shield, you will want to take out the support craft first, or they heal up very fast.

 

[Fez]

The first Homeworld faked all the combat and physics but the second one, Homeworld 2, had "real" physics and did a not bad job of showing space game combat. Of course as Ex already pointed out, you wouldn't fly space craft like aircraft anyway, it's done because it looks good and matches the player's expectations. If it was done well I am sure there would be a way of making more realistic combat look good and fun to play. I'd like to see a game with ships moving sideways and doing impossible (for aircraft) moves during combat.

 

[Otaku_Hanzo]

Basically, once combat starts, the game takes over and I watch.

Heh. As Exit pretty much said, take that attitude later in the game and you'll seriously regret it. The first few combat sessions may be easy, but that allows you to mess with micro management of your fighters and experiment. Trust me, there is much more to the combat than sit back and watch. That'll get you killed fast once you start going up against the more sophisticated fighters, again, as Exit said.

 

[MichiK]

Minor spoliers.

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Ok, so... I made it to a mission where I have to find an anomoly. I do that, and there is this special Beserk fighter there with a laser that can basically shred any fighter I have in moments, and even toast the mother ship...

Using whatshername's Luck skill helped a lil, but inthe end, the only way to do this mission without losing a ship was to 'cheat' the UI...

I found that if the baddie would attack one of my guys, as long as his armor was still at 50%, if I took him out of the wing and sent him to dock with the mothership, that it would confuse the baddie long enough that I could get some free hits on him until he focused on another guy... by then, the first guy's shield was back at 100%, I would abort the dock, and put him back into the wing... rinse, repeat 2 times and we took him down.

I hope the later fights aren't quite this bad.

I have no idea how far I am in the game... I am being offered 2nd generation ships in the regular Trade, and a for the first time 3rd generation in the Black Market...

 

[Oyarsa]

One Q.

Is it possible to save during a mission?

 

[Dhruin]

Unrestricted saves.

 

[megabytes]

its all only for show... in reality, a real space battle would be boring, it would, hey a radar contact... fire at it... half hour later... hit... if you disagree with that, look at modern combat, a harpoon, a standard capital launched anti-captial ship weapon has a range of about 124 kilometres. the air launched anti-captial Sea Eagle AShM has a range of 110 kilometres. Even if we're talking fighter - fighter battles, the AIM-120A AMRAAM a standard on US aircraft has a range of 72 kilometres, all fighter pilots are told to avoid a dog fights at all cost.

my point is, all modern weapons are missiles, which use fire and forget technology, so, wouldn't you think that in another 200 years plus, we're going to be reduced back to WW2 dogfighting ?? i don't think so... if you ask me, its going to be more like sub battles, high technology anti detection systems, cloking, adv stealth technology etc.

so, in ever space combat game, these dog fighting tactics are purly for show, i'm not saying that its a bad thing, infact i love the 'prettyness'