How do I tell if I'm playing against AI?

[Stridswombat]

So I just started playing air battles as british and I've been having a blast but I'm starting to wonder if I'm just facing AI. I've won 5 out of the last 6 games I've played and gotten the top spot in all of them.

I know atleast the 2nd game had players in it as they were talking in chat but aside from that is there any way to tell?

Oh and is it me but are the british starting biplanes much ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ than a lot of what they face? I downed a bf109 in a fury. Hardly seems like a fair matchup.

[Eftwyrd]

bots have single word names in square brackets like [boris] etc.

[AttackerCat]

If teammates and enemies have names like:
Pedro
Frank
Bridget
Alandro
Raiju

Etc... Then they are bots.

UK biplanes are all right, no one nation has 'good' reserve aircraft, other than Italy.

[Stridswombat]

Is it possible to get games partially filled with bots? Because sometimes I get games like these.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1419415059

But it seems that at least some of the games I got had real players in them.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1419416049

I thought you were supposed to stop being matched against bots after you've faced real players. Is there any amount of games played I need to stop seeing them?

Thanks for the helpful answers btw.

[AttackerCat]

Originally posted by AK Rowling:

Is it possible to get games partially filled with bots? Because sometimes I get games like these.

But it seems that at least some of the games I got had real players in them.

I thought you were supposed to stop being matched against bots after you've faced real players. Is there any amount of games played I need to stop seeing them?

Thanks for the helpful answers btw.

First photo - partial bot game, you can tell by the names that have zero score even with kills.
Second photo - player game.

You will only see bots until you get into tier 2 tanks (or at least, that's how it's supposed to work currently, I haven't been lower level in a long time). But you can also see player battle as well.

[Stridswombat]

I assume that's true for planes too?

[AttackerCat]

Originally posted by AK Rowling:

I assume that's true for planes too?

Possibly, I've only heard about people mentioning it in tanks, but in tanks the bots drive straight into buildings. In planes they would fly semi-regularly at least.

[Stridswombat]

Okay thanks.

[Lain]

If you'd like any tips for playing Brits or planes in general let me know. Your best bet is gonna be the Spitfire line, the later ones can do pretty much everything well, turn fight, energy fight, boom and zoom, climb, head ons, great series of planes, my personal favorite is the F Mk IX.

[Stridswombat]

Thanks that's what I was going for. It seemed a good place to start until I've got my bearings. Plus who doesn't like a classic like a Spitfire?

Unfortunately I know next to nothing about planes both from a gameplay perspective and historical perspective so I hardly even know where to start figuring this stuff out. Tanks are more my area of interest and expertise.

Seems a bit overwhelming atm but I'll just play and hopefully I'll figure it out as I go.

[Emcie]

I'm pretty sure bots can show up in all tiers of planes, but it drops off dramaticly after you get past biplanes. Keep at it, the gameplay improves a lot once you get past the tier one "mess" and becomes a lot more varied. If you're struggling to get past it or it's getting stale try using a bomber to agressively go for ground targets as you'll get a lot of assists to boost your rp gain or just take out a low tier tank lineup to break things up a bit

[Lain]

Originally posted by AK Rowling:

Thanks that's what I was going for. It seemed a good place to start until I've got my bearings. Plus who doesn't like a classic like a Spitfire?

Unfortunately I know next to nothing about planes both from a gameplay perspective and historical perspective so I hardly even know where to start figuring this stuff out. Tanks are more my area of interest and expertise.

Seems a bit overwhelming atm but I'll just play and hopefully I'll figure it out as I go.

Nothing like trying something new! For tier 1 and tier 2 stick to turn fighting (the donut maneuver if you will), for the Spitfires except a few of them you can usually turn fight anything that's not a Japanese plane (you'll know it's one if it has "Ki-" or something like "A6M5"). Make sure to use stealth on 7.7s and air targets or stealth for 20mm guns. The Hurricane Mk IIB Trop has 12 7.7 guns so use tracers if you want and blind your enemies with lead.

[PMA]

That is pretty rare, I don't ever get bots on any of my games.

[Stridswombat]

Ok so I've been playing a few games and I wanted to ask some questions if you don't mind answering them.

Firstly, the engine boost you have in arcade (I assume it's only in arcade), how much should I use it? I assume my engine will start to fail/start to take damage if I use it to much but is it only on a cooldown and it's fine as long as I don't use it too much at once or will it stack up damage from using it at all?

Secondly, bombers. I've been using the Swordfish and I'll be honest it's kind of garbage. Maybe it's just the Swordfish in particular, but there doesn't seem to be a lot of reason to use bombers atm as you can strafe ground targets fairly effectively with fighters as it is. I guess bombers become more useful later on?

Gotta say having a pretty good time so far. I like that you can literally lose wings and as long as you fly well enough it's still possible to stay in the air. I would have assumed that'd be an insta-kill in any other game.

[Vilab]

arcade is arcade, you can use boost/auto coll down as long as you want.

there is "losing wings" and "losing wings", IRL, planes which lost half of a wing can sometime still fly.

[Stridswombat]

Oh I wasn't being sarcastic or anything. I literally like that it's a feature and taken into account in the damage model.