I have an asset that could help game developer to make an air combat/dogfighting game. Actually, this was my exeperimental project when i learnt something about aircraft AI. The asset features are:
Locomotion, the aircraft will move its body in a way that mimic a player controlling an aircraft with keyboard or joystics. I mapped the steering force to the aircraft input without cheating it.
Some steering behaviors, Evade, Flee, Seek, Arrive, Pursuit, Obstacle Avoidance
Finite State Machine. The FSM are pluggable and a user can define its own.
Game Modes (maybe? please give me suggestions)
Camera views?
However, i still have no more ideas to enrich this asset features. So, please give me any feedback, tell me if this asset worth to buy or not and the reasons.
Based on my experience with x series and few flightsims…
I think following behaviors could be interesting:
Flying in formations.
“Protect target” behavior.
Mothership/Motherbase support. Meaning a ship is stationed somewhere it can take off, fight and fly back.
Zero-g flight, vacuum flight.
Landing/takeoff.
Destructible wings affecting flight model.
Helicopters and non-plane-like objects.
Also make sure the game properly support stalls.
Replays.
Flares, chaffs, radars, missiles and aa-guns prototypes.
Regarding camera modes:
Standard camera modes in flight sim are:
Cockpit view. (you can look around with pov hat on flight stick)
Hidden cockpit view (you look from within the plame with wireframe hud)
Lookin AT the plane/ship from left/right/top/bottom (9 directions total)
Cinematic view (camera looks at ship from distant randomly selected point that would generate cool lookin flyby0
Traffic control tower view.
Regarding gameplay modes:
Standard gameplay modes in flightsim are usually, plan mission and maybe set waypoints, fly to target, destroy target. Some sims had few more exotic missions, like “refuel from flying tanker”, but those are rare. Take off, fly to target, destroy it, fly back, land. With penalties for collater damage and maybe bonuses for destroyed extra target.
Also, it would be cool to provide a flying ai capable of flying through a moving ring without crashing into it. X3 had real trouble there, especially with large ships.
Speaking of your site:
Your site has blank pictures for screenshots but already has testimonials. That implies that testimonials may not be real.
Flying model displayed in the video does not appear to be physics based. (when a plane tilts, it is supposed to start turning horizontally). Not sure if that’s what you wanted, though. Might be suitable for an arcade game.
I’d be really interested in an AI system that decoupled the aircraft controller from the AI, presumably with some sort of PID controller.
In my case I’m using a highly customised extended UnityFS aircraft, which already receives aileron, elevator, rudder and throttle input from a centralised handler- I could switch this input from player to AI in a relatively straightforward manner that would be ideal, if I had AI logic to bolt on.
I would love to try this out. I am currently building a sci fi flying game.
It looks like your using the Airstrike starter kit and Unities standard aircraft control and creating something with both of them? I have started with the Airstrike starter kit and have created my own aircraft AI from it.
I was never happy with the way the AI controls were different from the players controls and wanted the same flight system for both of them, but I cant figure out how to do it. The AI never has to roll first before going into a tight turn but the player does. Which makes it unfair for the player.
I would be very happy if
The AI moved just like the player would with roll direction in mind.
There is an option for the player to toggle between advanced controls and simpler controls so they don’t have to worry about controlling the roll or leveling the aircraft, the aircraft will do it for them while using the same flight model as the advanced controls.
Those are the most important but it would be nice to see other features added. I have been able to figure out alot of AI behaviors but would like to see if someone else could do it better.
Obstacle Avoidance
Ability to use different weapons and be able to tell which weapon is best to use in different situations. Such as machine gun for close range, and seeker missiles for long range. Be able to switch between them when they get closer to the target. Ability to tell what kind of weapon to use on different targets. Such as bombs and air to ground missiles against tanks, etc.
Damage Models, e.g. WW1 airplanes were mostly cloth and wood with wires for controls so any damage to the plane would be minimal unless it happened to hit a control wire/engine/fuel/tank or pilot.
Even modern aircraft could take significant damage before a critical system is impacted.
Damage to the coverings would indeed hamper the flight model, enough so that it would be a big task to land or even keep stable in the air or on approach.
One of my favorite facts about the Warthog, is that the front mounted gatling gun (GAU-8), fully engaged produces ~5 tons of recoil force. The Warthog’s engines combined can produce a max of ~8 tons of thrust. So, if it had two forward facing guns instead of one, firing them would overpower the engines at full throttle, and create a spectacular result!
Two guns the A10 is just one big flying gun with a pilot strapped to it!
A10’s GAU8 next to VW (A10 has close support/anti-tank role so deployed in Europe).
But I don’t think you’re off topic as wouldn’t you want an accurate physics simulation of what happens to the plane when the gun is fired. And accurate flight model simulation when bombs, missile and ammunition is expended and the mass and drag of the aircraft changes.
I wonder what the force was for WW2 fighters that had half a dozen forward facing heavy machine guns and a single propeller driven engine?
. Sorry about that. I will fix them.
