AI is impossible

[NetMeister]

I know I have a lot of hours on this but its finally getting to me. The skills of the AI is downright impeccable. It takes the enjoyment out of the game when not even 10 seconds into combat, my aircraft gets wasted. It takes a freaking sacrifice to the gods just to get behind the AI's aircraft, but they just flip around like crazy until either they're behind me or until I run out of ammo, I cant recall surviving a single major aerial battle, I can snag a kill or two in the air in a fight, but never can I survive no matter how hard I try, however, the AI rips me up instantly with impeccable accuracy and timing from insane, impossible angles, I have a logitech extreme pro 3d joystick just to clarify. The only way to shake the AI off your 6 is either for a wingman to shoot him down, or you maneuver like crazy until you stall in which you risk a crash. Ai is very fast and and maneuverable, they can point their aircraft freely without any regard to physics, they give physics the middle finger and pull off insane, impossible maneuveres and take you out. When I do get behind the AI's 6, I have to concentrate to get a perfect shot on it, but when I do, one gets behind me and wastes me with impeccable accuracy and simplicity and just breaks off as if his task were a piece of cake. The AI is absolutely flawless, even if I'm flying a superior fighter they still maneuver like their fighter is 10 years ahead of me. Its getting to the point where I want to give up on this game. They need to make the AI less godlike because except for the AI its a fantastic simulator. Am I the only one whos actually bothered by this??? Sorry for sounding whiny, but its just very frustrating, any help is appreciated
Thanks

[mellow]

well the ai doesnt have any cheats, besides their engine cant overheat. but it really just takes practice. you should probably stick to one plane tho, to learn how it controls and stuff, youll be able to turn tighter and stuff once you have lots of practice in the same plane (the best speed to roll or turn the fastest, how hard you can pull on the joystick without stalling or breaking the plane, etc)

you can go into quick mission builder to do a 1 on 1 and you can set the ai's difficulty, so you can set it low until you get a bit better.

and you say your using a superior fighter, but it might be worse than the other plane in some ways.

example, a6m2 is better than f4f in almost every way, but f4f can roll faster at higher speeds.
so you should try to know what your enemy plane is like too.


other than that, try to keep an "energy" advantage, which is your speed and altitude. (if your really high and the other plane is low, he wont be able to get you, but you can get him. but if he's going fast enough, he will have enough speed to get up to your level.)

so say your attacking a plane that doesnt see you yet, you wanna dive on him, shoot, then whether you miss or not, use your speed to come back up so you dont lose your advantage.

but gl

[NetMeister]

Thanks for the advice, I will try to stick to one plane, I will do any research on it to determine its specs, and to take advantage of its capabilities. I will try to stick to the Spitfire because its easy to fly. It can maneuvre at higher speeds than its Messcherschmitt counterpart. Staying at a higher altitude before the dogfight seems like a decent tactic too. I will use your advice and see how it goes...
Thanks

[NetMeister]

I feel like I've never improved, if you fly straight for like 3 seconds, you get shot up. I maneuvre to point that I stall and I still get hit, they just move around as if the laws of physics do not apply to them, as soon as I pass the enemy head to head, within 3 seconds I go to an external view and I see two behind me, they open fire and immediately do extensive damage to my fighter and sometimes even me! Frustrating!

[Aryndra]

Lots of research and practice. Everyone had a very difficult time when they started flight simulators (if they say otherwise they are lying), but with research, practice, humility, and self-critique you will improve. It can be daunting and frustrating at times. Take breaks when you need to and come back with a fresh view. It also helps to record tracks and watch them from an external POV and see what you did wrong in order to improve.

For example a few months ago I was playing the USMC campaign starting at Wake Island with the F4F Wildcat. Going up against a pack of Zeros wasn't easy but I managed to take down two and was about to get a third. I had altitude and was diving down on them and gave them a peppering but not enough to down the aircraft. Checked the skies all around to see if any Zeros were around and I didn't see any so I tried to gain altitude by looping up. I ended up getting destroyed by a Zero that came out of nowhere because I didn't see him and was going really slow. It was a huge mistake to try and outclimb/outloop a Zero, haha..lesson learned though. Didn't find out where he came from until I watched the track, it was from below.

Watch documentaries on WWII aircraft and interviews with pilots. Reading books on the subject also helps a lot but if that isn't your jam stick to the visual media.

an lol mellow also gave some solid advice. Tactics and strategems are also different according to what plane you are flying and what planes you are fighting against. Environment and climate are also important factors. I recommend reading some of the guides here on Steam as well, here are some really good ones. I've been playing this game since 2006 and I'm still learning.

Hope this helps. Watch the skies, traveller. :P

[Ushkyr]

AI in Il2 1946 is outright dumb.

[mellow]

Originally posted by epichorrormaster:

I feel like I've never improved, if you fly straight for like 3 seconds, you get shot up. I maneuvre to point that I stall and I still get hit, they just move around as if the laws of physics do not apply to them, as soon as I pass the enemy head to head, within 3 seconds I go to an external view and I see two behind me, they open fire and immediately do extensive damage to my fighter and sometimes even me! Frustrating!

well youll get better if you keep practicing, maybe you should just try 1 on 1 against the same plane in quick mission builder at a low difficulty until you get better. its what i did, i think i started at average difficulty and did a 1 on 1 against the same plane, and kept increasing difficulty until i could win on ace every time.

also when i was say, pretty good at vetran, but couldnt survive at all in ace, i would only use machine gun in vetran. i used the plane a6m2, which has a weak machine gun, so i had to have allot of good shots on him until i won. then eventually i got good enough to do the same in ace

[Aryndra]

Originally posted by Ushkyr:

AI in Il2 1946 is outright dumb.

It's a lot better with mods installed (I used BAT and the ai is pretty good).

[DarkenedFantasies]

It's far from impossible; you simply need a different strategy. Plenty of maneuvers that you would use against a human opponent can't be applied against the AI because they play on a different set of rules.

For example, a human-flown A6M Zero would be subject to the aileron controls stiffening above 350km/h, allowing you to exploit that weakness in a player vs player scenario. However, against an A6M flown by the AI, you will find that even at speeds exceeding 500km/h they will still roll around like a Fw 190.

With that being said, though, once you're aware of the AI's strengths and weaknesses and learn how to approach them, you'll find that they're pretty much incompetent at everything except marksmanship (in most cases), situational awareness, energy retention (kind of), and flying in formation.


Some predominant AI strengths/cheats:
• Can pull 10+ G turns with no structural damage.
• Very good at not blacking out (but they CAN black out).
• Roll rate is not hindered by high airspeed.
• Not affected by turbulence (but are affected by wind.)
• Accurate firing: Usually when closer than 0.4km, but the AI will typically open fire at 0.6km.
• No blind spots: They know exactly where to shoot even though you're behind their nose, and instantly spot/evade you when you get within 0.7-0.6km behind them. (Blind spots were added for AI way back in 4.11 but I'm still not convinced at all.)
• Energy cheats: They will not lose as much speed as human players when executing turns/maneuvers, and can sometimes seemingly pull energy out of a magic hat.
• Ace AI has all of those things boosted to heck.
• I'm still not sure if the AI can overheat, but they can activate non-manual WEPs at will. (e.g. Water Injection on F6F Hellcat or F4U Corsair can only be activated when going above 100% throttle, but AI can use it whenever they wish at any throttle %, presumably giving them increased cooling.)
• Veteran & Ace AI usually will win in head-ons.

Some weaknesses:
• Clouds.
• Their accuracy can be used against them; barrel rolls (not to be confused with aileron rolls) are an excellent way to avoid being hit by AI planes and make them waste ammo if you got one on your six.
• Bad at dealing with boom-n-zoom tactics: As long as you can maintain energy/altitude advantage over the AI, it's going to be a relaxing turkey shoot.
• Extremely vulnerable to proper teamwork between human players, especially if you keep the previous point in mind.
• Veteran & lower skill AI are very easy to out-turn at low speeds if you have a plane that has at least decent turn rate (e.g. having low fuel + using flaps).
• There is a "safe zone" low above ground level where most AI planes will never be able to shoot you, as they will constantly try to avoid the ground.
• Rookie & Average AI usually will not open fire in head-ons.

In my experience, the AI isn't as godly with more realistic settings than it is with easier settings (Flight Model category). I hope this information helps.

[Pistolero]

With the exception of Soviet P39s, which run circles around German 109s and FWs, it's generally no contest for the bad guys. The other commenters have good points; it was the 90s I started on flight simulators; long time gone now. And yeah, I pretty much crashed into everything. Day will come you can do a hammerhead, and the peckerwood chasing you is so much jam, and his wingman a flaming mess auguring in. It is you, rookie, for the most part, so keep at it.

[MiKye200]

I remember reading somewhere that the developer said that he accidentally made the AI accuracy too perfect; but for some reason he never fixed it.
Yes, I quit years back for the same reason: 10 seconds into a mission and shot down by perfect AI accuracy.