Pilot Overhaul Question

[Bullwinkle]

I have a pilot who's listed as an "Elite" pilot in the yellow tag by their portrait, but in their bio text they're listed as having "Novice" AI. I also have some "Green" pilots with "Regular" AI.

What am I missing about the pilot ranking system? Are there two different tracks for the pilots abilities? "Green" and "Novice," for example, don't appear to refer to the same thing? Help me understand how this works.

*Edit: I also have Pilot AI Descriptions, which is a mod that replaces the last two lines of biography with the AI that is indicated (elite, veteran, etc.) as per https://steamcommunity.com/app/784080/discussions/0/3417685728363492203/

So it appears that PO is labeling a pilot as "Elite" or "Green" or whatever, while the bio is using the trick to determine their AI ("regular," "elite," etc.). So now I'm wondering if PO overrides the traditional method of determining the AI abilities.

Anyone know?

[Explore]

As far as I'm aware, the only things that matter are the individual pilot skills. The bio description just depends on their overall skill cap.

Edit: Sorry, I didn't know that was the name of a mod. What I described is vanilla behaviour - have no idea if the mod changes that.

[ICE 9]

Quirks?

[lordpooky]

pilot overhaul changes the original pilots but not the text

[Bullwinkle]

Originally posted by Explore:

As far as I'm aware, the only things that matter are the individual pilot skills. The bio description just depends on their overall skill cap.

Edit: Sorry, I didn't know that was the name of a mod. What I described is vanilla behaviour - have no idea if the mod changes that.

Check my link above. It goes into amazing depth explaining how to detect your pilots' AI levels when you hire them.

[Bullwinkle]

Originally posted by lordpooky:

pilot overhaul changes the original pilots but not the text

Do you know if it actually changes their abilities and their level of AI? In other words, does it leave the text but override the abilities and labels with its own? Is this how I'm getting the text showing "elite" ai while PO show them as "Green" in the UI for the pilot?

[Kosevich]

Originally posted by Bullwinkle:

I have a pilot who's listed as an "Elite" pilot in the yellow tag by their portrait, but in their bio text they're listed as having "Novice" AI. I also have some "Green" pilots with "Regular" AI.

What am I missing about the pilot ranking system? Are there two different tracks for the pilots abilities? "Green" and "Novice," for example, don't appear to refer to the same thing? Help me understand how this works.

*Edit: I also have Pilot AI Descriptions, which is a mod that replaces the last two lines of biography with the AI that is indicated (elite, veteran, etc.) as per https://steamcommunity.com/app/784080/discussions/0/3417685728363492203/

So it appears that PO is labeling a pilot as "Elite" or "Green" or whatever, while the bio is using the trick to determine their AI ("regular," "elite," etc.). So now I'm wondering if PO overrides the traditional method of determining the AI abilities.

Anyone know?

I'm pretty sure Pilot Overhaul override descriptions, basically make PulotAI Descriptions pretty useless.
Moreover I recommend to go deeper and also install TTRulez AI.
It drastically change AI perfoance (your lance mates and enemy mechs).
https://www.nexusmods.com/mechwarrior5mercenaries/mods/269

[Bullwinkle]

Originally posted by Kosevich:

Originally posted by Bullwinkle:

I have a pilot who's listed as an "Elite" pilot in the yellow tag by their portrait, but in their bio text they're listed as having "Novice" AI. I also have some "Green" pilots with "Regular" AI.

What am I missing about the pilot ranking system? Are there two different tracks for the pilots abilities? "Green" and "Novice," for example, don't appear to refer to the same thing? Help me understand how this works.

*Edit: I also have Pilot AI Descriptions, which is a mod that replaces the last two lines of biography with the AI that is indicated (elite, veteran, etc.) as per https://steamcommunity.com/app/784080/discussions/0/3417685728363492203/

So it appears that PO is labeling a pilot as "Elite" or "Green" or whatever, while the bio is using the trick to determine their AI ("regular," "elite," etc.). So now I'm wondering if PO overrides the traditional method of determining the AI abilities.

Anyone know?

I'm pretty sure Pilot Overhaul override descriptions, basically make PulotAI Descriptions pretty useless.
Moreover I recommend to go deeper and also install TTRulez AI.
It drastically change AI perfoance (your lance mates and enemy mechs).
https://www.nexusmods.com/mechwarrior5mercenaries/mods/269

Already there! And I love it. I also installed 330's Formation Changer which is looking incredibly promising! For now, though, I've just been driving myself nuts, however, trying to figure out why my pilots have two completely different grades and which to use when I hire them!

[Explore]

Originally posted by Kosevich:

Already there! And I love it. I also installed 330's Formation Changer which is looking incredibly promising! For now, though, I've just been driving myself nuts, however, trying to figure out why my pilots have two completely different grades and which to use when I hire them!

Again, that might not matter. I don't think a veteran pilot with x skill points evenly spread, is going to be better than a regular pilot with x skill points. The guy you get at the start of the campaign, Freeman I think he's called? He seems no worse than the higher rank pilots I get mid game, until their skills rise higher. I'm not even sure if pilot skills affect AI - it could all just be buffs to damage, heat dissipation etc.. The only one that looks like it might affect AI is chance of avoiding fire, but even that could have something like a debuff to enemy AI aim.

If I'm wrong though, call me out. I also love TTRulez, but I find I'm getting more from it since installing YAMA, because that has an easy way to assign AI roles to different mechs.
(Bet you have that already too!)

[Stalectos]

Originally posted by Explore:

Originally posted by Kosevich:

Already there! And I love it. I also installed 330's Formation Changer which is looking incredibly promising! For now, though, I've just been driving myself nuts, however, trying to figure out why my pilots have two completely different grades and which to use when I hire them!

Again, that might not matter. I don't think a veteran pilot with x skill points evenly spread, is going to be better than a regular pilot with x skill points. The guy you get at the start of the campaign, Freeman I think he's called? He seems no worse than the higher rank pilots I get mid game, until their skills rise higher. I'm not even sure if pilot skills affect AI - it could all just be buffs to damage, heat dissipation etc.. The only one that looks like it might affect AI is chance of avoiding fire, but even that could have something like a debuff to enemy AI aim.

If I'm wrong though, call me out. I also love TTRulez, but I find I'm getting more from it since installing YAMA, because that has an easy way to assign AI roles to different mechs.
(Bet you have that already too!)

afaik pilot skills do the same thing for the player they do for AI teammates. weapon skills increase damage shielding reduces damage taken heat management increases heat dissipation (iirc) and evasion gives enemies accuracy penalties. I think in pilot overhaul they also determine AI level of teammates but if so the skill level displayed on the pilot would be accurate and is determined by skill caps rather than current skill levels. the level in their bio would presumably only be accurate before quirks.

[Explore]

Originally posted by Stalectos:

afaik pilot skills do the same thing for the player they do for AI teammates. weapon skills increase damage shielding reduces damage taken heat management increases heat dissipation (iirc) and evasion gives enemies accuracy penalties. I think in pilot overhaul they also determine AI level of teammates but if so the skill level displayed on the pilot would be accurate and is determined by skill caps rather than current skill levels. the level in their bio would presumably only be accurate before quirks.

From reading the thread in the OP's post, it is certain that Green, Veteran etc. in pilot overhaul affect accuracy. Evidence that it affects AI competence seems anecdotal. Also my understanding of the mod is that it only adds this rank to make it easier to see. In practice, I see that being strongly correlated to skill caps, but it does mean what I said before wasn't entirely accurate, because I wasn't taking into account this hidden accuracy stat.

[Bullwinkle]

The way I understand it is that in the vanilla game the pilots have "hidden" AI levels that don't correlate to their skill caps. You could have a pilot with 60/60 skills, but they might only have a regular AI that would make them make worse decisions than someone with the same skills but a veteran AI assignment. Someone did a thread on how to interpret their biographical information to glean their actual "hidden" AI level.

All that to say, I'm not sure the skill levels and the AI level serve the same function. But I could be wrong on this. And Pilot Overhaul could scrap the whole system with one that is more predictable but leaves out the randomness of the vanilla system.

[Stalectos]

Originally posted by Bullwinkle:

The way I understand it is that in the vanilla game the pilots have "hidden" AI levels that don't correlate to their skill caps. You could have a pilot with 60/60 skills, but they might only have a regular AI that would make them make worse decisions than someone with the same skills but a veteran AI assignment. Someone did a thread on how to interpret their biographical information to glean their actual "hidden" AI level.

All that to say, I'm not sure the skill levels and the AI level serve the same function. But I could be wrong on this. And Pilot Overhaul could scrap the whole system with one that is more predictable but leaves out the randomness of the vanilla system.

in vanilla they don't have AI levels afaik. don't remember where I heard this but in vanilla lancemate AI is always the same it's only enemy AI that varies with skill level and enemy AI skill is not hidden.

[Stalectos]

Originally posted by Explore:

Originally posted by Stalectos:

afaik pilot skills do the same thing for the player they do for AI teammates. weapon skills increase damage shielding reduces damage taken heat management increases heat dissipation (iirc) and evasion gives enemies accuracy penalties. I think in pilot overhaul they also determine AI level of teammates but if so the skill level displayed on the pilot would be accurate and is determined by skill caps rather than current skill levels. the level in their bio would presumably only be accurate before quirks.

From reading the thread in the OP's post, it is certain that Green, Veteran etc. in pilot overhaul affect accuracy. Evidence that it affects AI competence seems anecdotal. Also my understanding of the mod is that it only adds this rank to make it easier to see. In practice, I see that being strongly correlated to skill caps, but it does mean what I said before wasn't entirely accurate, because I wasn't taking into account this hidden accuracy stat.

accuracy isn't a hidden stat it's one of the main things AI levels influence Green pilots aim worse than Elites

[Explore]

Originally posted by Stalectos:

Originally posted by Explore:

From reading the thread in the OP's post, it is certain that Green, Veteran etc. in pilot overhaul affect accuracy. Evidence that it affects AI competence seems anecdotal. Also my understanding of the mod is that it only adds this rank to make it easier to see. In practice, I see that being strongly correlated to skill caps, but it does mean what I said before wasn't entirely accurate, because I wasn't taking into account this hidden accuracy stat.

accuracy isn't a hidden stat it's one of the main things AI levels influence Green pilots aim worse than Elites

I was confused by your comment, so I just loaded up the game to check I wasn't going crazy. Without the pilot overhaul mod, you cannot tell if a pilot is "Green", "Elite" etc.. At least, not without decoding information in their bio, which that thread quoted by the OP goes into. That's essential what the pilot overhaul mod does - makes it easier to see. I still don't think it changes anything beyond that.

[Explore]

I just noticed the mod size is over 1GB. Forget everything I said. I have no idea what the pilot overhaul mod does. It doesn't help that they don't make it clear, but I'm guessing it must be a lot more than cosmetic changes after all.

I'd be interested in hearing about your experiences.