Desert Fighters Interview by Jim "Twitch" Tittle
	Q. Desert Fighters centers on the ground war. Tell us about AI for ground objects? What kinds of actions and responses will we see? The first thing that AI needs to do is to shoot at aircraft. The AI will go through a detection and identification phase, which means that they could misidentify friendlies as enemies or vice versa. The size and shape of the aircraft is a prime factor in determining whether the aircraft type is identified as enemy or friendly. For example, the Liberator is the only 4-engine plane in the theater, so when it appears, there is a near 100% chance of properly identifying it. On the other hand, Hurricanes, 109s, and Mustangs have a very similar shape and appearance from certain angles, so there is a greater chance of misidentifying those craft. After determining that they are facing an enemy, each AA gunner picks out a target and fires when that target is within range. Based on target distance and speed, the AI will have a certain aiming radius around the aircraft which, on subsequent re-aims, will tend to get smaller until the aircraft is hit. When attacked by air units, motorized ground units will scatter in an attempt to provide a less concentrated target to the enemy air units. After the attack is finished, the ground units will reform and continue on their way. Q.With no radar in those days, how is detection modeled in the sim? What factors contribute to my squadron being spotted when I make a dawn raid on an enemy base? Detection is based primarily on your proximity to enemy troops and your altitude and speed. Additionally, size and shape have a lot to do with whether you are detected as an enemy or not. For example, if you come roaring in to an enemy airfield on the deck, there is almost no chance that you will be detected until you hit the airfield. But, if you come in at 10,000 feet, you can expect to see enemy aircraft taking off in response to your presence. Hit them with enough surprise and you may be able to catch some enemy aircraft on the taxiway. Q.Are we going to be in danger from infantry? All ground troops are capable of putting up some kind of anti-aircraft fire, so you are in danger from that aspect. If the enemy ground troops advance into your sector, you may have to abandon your airfield and take up residence somewhere in the rear areas. Q.In Desert Fighters the player can change history and the Axis can win. This really adds an element of intrigue to the sim. What would be required for this to occur? To win the war for any of the services, you must do several things. First of all, you need to hit the enemy where it hurts. You need to destroy his equipment, which will cost him supplies, and you need to destroy his source of supply, i.e., ports. By damaging ports, you reduce the amount of supplies they can take in each day. Click to continue		Bristol Blenheim Secondly, you need to protect your own supplies and equipment, thus allowing your forces to build up a supply advantage, which allows them to launch attacks and capture territory. Finally, you need to preserve the lives of your pilots. As they become more experienced, they will be able to have a greater impact on the war effort. Of course, a bit of luck is required as well. Q.What type of time compression will Desert Fighters have besides autopilot? Pilots want to bug out when they are some distance away from the action but many sims restrict this, creating a boring wait. Desert Fighters will have two levels of time compression. First, it will have the time compress like Red Baron 3D has, allowing up to 16x normal speed. Naturally, you will want to engage the full autopilot when in this mode. Secondly, we are returning to the "warp" type of autopilot found in our earlier titles, AOTP and AOE. Press the "warp" key and you will be advanced to the next point of action. Due to the large distances involved, this is really a necessary feature. Q.Given the variety of flight controllers and graphics cards that exist, did most of them get addressed in your development? Is there specific support for Glide? Yes, we have specific Glide support as well as the generic OpenGL support. We've also retained the software render mode for those people that don't have 3D cards. As for flight controllers, we've designed a controller configuration/mapping system that allows the player to set up their controller the way they like it. The controller "mappings" are then written to a file which can be assigned to any pilot in the game as well as being portable to other users and systems. Go to Part VII
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