Air Combat Mini-Game

[Anon_Spartan]

A few weeks we had a heated debate (I.e flame war) over air combat and it was eventually decided that an auto resolve option would be implemented but people would still be allowed to play it if they wanted.

I have not played Experimental Build 5 but I played 4, and it felt like the Air Combat mini-game was made impossibly difficult in an attempt to turn public opinion against it. Missiles now had a range of automatic weapons, meaning you had to get up close and personal with the aliens. This was bad enough with Interceptors, but at least those could evasive roll. I never built a MiG because my files kept corrupting and crashing but I'm assuming they have to get close too, and since they can't dodge I assume you'd be losing you MiG every time. Even before this, alien craft always targeted the MiGs almost as if they knew they'd be taken out for sure.

I still think that the solution to saving Air Combat is to break up the monotony. Give MiGs the ability to dodge. If you thought the missile range was too long (I agree, I could usually blast a UFO with a pair of MiGs and escape before the alien craft could even react). And instead of having all the planes come in from the same location, have them come from different points, so the UFO might have an easier time of targeting one. I still think there is plenty that could be done to save Air Combat, and us flight simulator adherents still really want to see this implemented in the game.

[thothkins]

and it felt like the Air Combat mini-game was made impossibly difficult in an attempt to turn public opinion against it.

No, it's just a little more difficult than a number of people would like at present. There wasn't a deliberate attempt to make it more difficult.

I never built a MiG because my files kept corrupting and crashing but I'm assuming they have to get close too,

No, MIGS have a much longer range.

and since they can't dodge I assume you'd be losing you MiG every time.

You can adjust the speed of your MIG, and the other aircraft, so you can avoid losing it.

Even before this, alien craft always targeted the MiGs almost as if they knew they'd be taken out for sure.

Yes, they did.. I often found that by putting the afterburner on one of the Condors the craft would target that instead. That was a few builds ago.

I still think that the solution to saving Air Combat is to break up the monotony.

I still enjoy it. 19.5 varies the UFOs more, so it's even better in that respect.

Give MiGs the ability to dodge.

Does it need it considering the point about speed adjustment above?

And instead of having all the planes come in from the same location, have them come from different points,

You can adjust your planes to draw the UFOs out a bit then attack form a variety of angles. It doesn't have to be head on collisions.

[Anon_Spartan]

Sorry, but requiring the ships to nearly bump nose to butt exactly makes it slow and boring. As for aliens picking their targets, it always seemed they were going for your bomber on delightful purpose, but choosing the closer (and faster) target would be explain why they always went for the poor MiGs. However, unless this is new in 19, I've never seen the option to go slower, only faster. In earlier builds it would have been unthinkable to have the Interceptors have increased speed, since that was the MiG's trick. But now we've shared it. I see no reason why the transfer can't go both ways. I honestly can't imagine it being game breaking. It's certainly better than losing the ship to bad luck then save scumming.

As for the manual changing of directions, that is possible, but given straight flight paths to designated points on the map just ends up wasting time, while if it were already a feature it could shake things up.

[Lorebot]

I'm pretty sure the throttle on the left side of the aircraft panes has always been interactive not just informative.

Personally I love the mini-game. It's fun, it's usually quite fast, and it's pretty easy imo. I just wish it didn't require me to go through it so often. I'd rather have a single engagement decide a fight. If I can't take the ship out in the first fight it should either flee to space because it's damaged or require more than 1 extra fight. I hate having to return to base just to grab 1 extra missile or torpedo and then go back to finish the job, it feels much less like a 'mini-game' when I have to devote that much to it. I wouldn't mind the occasional 'BOSS FIGHT' type air battle where a very large craft requires 2 or 3 battles to finish it off, but when every single ship requires me to head back to base to reload it's really annoying.

[thothkins]

Sorry, but requiring the ships to nearly bump nose to butt exactly makes it slow and boring.

You don't have to do it that way in the same way that you don't have to go straight for the UFOs. The air combat is versatile enough to have a number of approaches.

However, unless this is new in 19, I've never seen the option to go slower, only faster. In earlier builds it would have been unthinkable to have the Interceptors have increased speed, since that was the MiG's trick.

I have the feeling that slowing down was there a long time before I noticed it. I certainly saw the slider, but probably assumed it was cosmetic. Speeding up with the afterburner has been there for practically as long as I've played it.

As for the manual changing of directions, that is possible, but given straight flight paths to designated points on the map just ends up wasting time, while if it were already a feature it could shake things up.

Considering the increased survival chances, it's not a waste of time to manually change directions. Lines are straight, but generally, you're only using short jumps to say flank a UFO so it works quite nicely.

[Max_Caine]

Just to note, the throttle has worked to my certain knowledge since 9.x.

EDIT: Anon_Spartan, you're not the first person to ask where the throttle is/does it work. Here's an example from last year.

Edited August 1, 2013 by Max_Caine

[henri5]

Spreading out one's planes and checking out which one the alien follows (when there is only one) usually allows winning without taking damage, assuming good timing. Against multiple alien ships, as said above it sometimes requires two missions to finish off the big ship, which is irritating. In this case, if you split your fleet, the big alien ship will usually fall behind the escorts, which allows one to destroy them before the medium can intervene. In the stable version (18.4), since the Foxtrot has 4 missiles with two of them long-range, it is usually sufficient to head straight for the enemy and fire everything.

[Anon_Spartan]

Wow, that throttle thing is pretty cool then. I thought it just went from normal to afterburner and always thought "Aw, what a cute effect." That certainly helps then. Was this something you just figure out or was it written somewhere? I can't believe I never saw it.

I'll give v5 a shot and check it out with all these new gadgets and tricks.

If the current UFO AI just targets the closest aircraft, what are the odds a future AI might make do more dastardly things like target more expensive aircraft?

And yeah, I hear ya, Lorebot, although one of my favorite things in v18 was to use 2 MiGs and a Condor to bomb a landing ship, run away as soon as it turned around, and keep doing that. Haha, it was great.

Edited August 1, 2013 by Anon_Spartan

[thothkins]

I admit I read it here, in the last few months, having played the game for ages and never having noticed it did anything.

[smoitessier]

If the current UFO AI just targets the closest aircraft, what are the odds a future AI might make do more dastardly things like target more expensive aircraft?

Yeah the devs are aware of this and said they are thinking of making it random, right now the AI will always target plane #1 first, and shoot at anything that crosses it's LoF

[thothkins]

At higher difficulty levels, you'd look for the game to learn. So, if the player uses the same tactic on the UFOs, then the UFOs should respond to counter it.