Bullethead Posted January 8, 2001 Share Posted January 8, 2001 First off, I'm using 1.1b24 if that makes any difference. Anyway, I have noticed for some time that the AI likes to shoot at passengers instead of the vehicles they are in or on, or instead of not firing at all. This has been a mild annoyance until today, when it really burned me. Worse, I can see how this feature can easily be exploited as a "gamey tactic". Therefore, I'd like to see some tweaking of the AI's target selection process when it sees passengers in its field of fire. Here are some examples illustrating why: 1. Trucks and Jeeps vs. Smallarms When the AI shoots at the passenger instead of the vehicle, the vehicle is never damaged and thus escapes, carrying with it whatever passengers survived the fire. It would be far more effective to shoot at and destroy the vehicle, thereby stranding the passengers in the kill zone for subsequent destruction. 2. Tank Riders vs. Small Arms In this case, shooting at passengers is often suicidal. It just alerts the tank to the nice, squishy soft target, which it then procedes to blow to Hell. It would usually be better not to fire at all. OTOH, if the unit MUST fire, shooting at the tank is usually more effective because it will usually cause a button and may kill the TC, crippling the tank. 3. Tank Riders vs. IGs This is pretty much the same as Case 2 above, except that the IG almost always has the ability to kill the tank with a shaped charge round. So why doesn't it recognize the tank as the bigger threat and take a shot at it instead? It's also a bigger target so you'd think the odds of hitting would be better as well. Both cases 2 and 3 are what I fear being exploited. They lead to the easy discovery and rapid destruction of MG teams and IGs. Anyway, I guess what I'd like to see is the AI giving more consideration to the consequences of its actions. It should think about what the result will be if it shoots at the passenger instead of the vehicle. Either the target will escape or it will have to face an enraged tank. On a related issue, I don't see much evidence of tank riders bailing when shot at themselves. OTOH, if their tank is shot at, they almost always jump off. This doesn't seem quite logical. Also, I think the exposure value of tank riders is sometimes overstated, further leading to bad AI decisions as to targeting them. For example, most fire comes from the front so that the riders are shielded by the turret of the tank. This indeed seems to block a lot of fire, which to me means the exposure of the riders is actually much lower than that reported. ------------------ -Bullethead In wine there is wisdom, in beer there is strength, in water there is bacteria. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jarmo Posted January 8, 2001 Share Posted January 8, 2001 You can target passengers? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hnh3_cm Posted January 8, 2001 Share Posted January 8, 2001 anti-spam bump Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olle Petersson Posted January 12, 2001 Share Posted January 12, 2001 I agree with Jarmo: Recently in an on-going PBEM I tried to target tank riders with a MG that had already been spotted by the enemy, but I couldn't. It would automatically target the tank (a Churchill) instead. Those riders were the only undisrupted soft target within effective range. About targeting soft vehicles; Shooting the driver would be the most efficient use for small arms, not trying to destroy the vehicle by hitting some vulnerable spot. Cheers Olle ------------------ Srategy is the art of avoiding a fair fight... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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