Are there others…? 
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Yep 
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Yes. “Run away” is also a strategy.
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There’s also that maneuver that he learned from Paula Abdul…
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You mean like brave Sir Robin…?
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Exactly! There you go, historical record of the strategy!
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Not mine, but a beautifully done video with the Tomcat.
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Beautifully done.
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Definitely a great video there. (Only subtracting 1 point for not enough Hornet…)
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That was awesome!!
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Nice vids both. Watching them both back to back is a bit tiring as they’re all climax, no buildup or rest. The second more than the first one.
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I think the first 30 seconds of this video perfectly sums up the AI in DCS. 
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LOL! Yep. I laugh but I also shake my head in disgust. The AI for the Harriers and the Tarawa have been screwed up for so long I wonder why it still has not been fixed? When I play with the Harrier it is always from a land based airport. I don’t touch the carrier aspect of that module. Kind of defeats the purpose of playing with in some respects.
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I so wish the the Harrier AI gets some love. Not having wingmen that can take off or land on a boat is horrible in single player.
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It probably sucks in MP too. 
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Probably because the AI in general is borked beyond belief.
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They make good bait.
One of the problems in my mind is DCS has broken from every other combat flight sim in history and stopped developing the core engine to be relevant to the playable units it encompasses. They’re trying to get back to that now, but it will take a while.
Examining DCS history will hopefully show what I’m on about (long winded history alert!):
Summary
I’ll start with the original LO:MAC. The playable units there included modern US and Russian fighters and ground attack jets. In order to have a satisfying experience, you’ll need period correct enemy fighters, ground attack jets, bombers, and transports for the fighters to go after, and a reasonable set of tanks, air defense units, transport vehicles, and so on for the ground pounders. LOMAC had all of those. Falcon 4.0 had similar needs and similar units, give or take a few here and there. Il-2 had the WWII equivalents, and all was good. Flaming Cliffs 1 and 2 come along and no great changes were needed; so far so good.
DCS Black Shark comes along and introduces an entirely new concept: the attack helicopter. In this instance, there is a lot more focus on ground units. Fighters and ground attack jets are still important; bombers and transports not so much. Given the change in focus of the playable unit, the developers take the basis from Flaming Cliffs and create a new engine to complement the Black Shark. Units are copied across, and extra effort put into ground units, their AI, and probably the terrain. Again, all is well with the world.
DCS then turns to the A-10C. Ground units and terrain are still important, which are carried over from Black Shark. Fighters and other ground attack jets are also important, luckily they were also ported over from Flaming Cliffs 2. The one major component of A-10C ops that was missing, though, was JTAC. So, Eagle Dynamics got down to business and developed a system to replicate the flow as best they could. All of the radio calls also use typical A-10 callsigns, so the environment feels relevant to the plane you’re flying.
The next module is where everything starts to break down. DCS releases the P-51 to test the waters and see if people would be interested in a non-modern combat scenario. People are happy with the plane, but there is no relevant environment for it. It is simply plonked in the game with nothing to make it feel at home. No ground units, no air opponents, not terrain it really flew over. I think there was the unwritten expectation from customers that the era would be filled out in relatively short order, but ED thought they could just push out an aircraft module with no supporting environment. Months pass without much word on a WWII environment, and the seeds of doubt begin to be sown.
Next up is Combined Arms. In all fairness all it does is allow you to drive ground units with a basic aiming interface and control some units on the map. Good in theory, but the full promise of a dynamic battlefield with players controlling vast numbers of units and managing the whole battle is left unrealized. A stumble, but at least they were still trying to improve the environment. Next, Flaming Cliffs 3 is integrated into DCS, which is really just a copy/paste of the existing Flaming Cliffs 2 units. Since the DCS engine is an improved version of the Flaming Cliffs 2 engine, nothing is really gained or lost here.
The first “third” party arrives with the Huey. This starts expanding the promise of helicopter operations that started with Black Shark, but the Huey is forever linked with Vietnam. DCS has neither the aircraft, ground units, nor terrain to realize that environment. While it’s use in the Black Sea is feasible, it’s not the one we all associate with. The next release is the Hip, and similar feelings to the Huey persist.
Next up is the Saber. This is really the nail in the coffin for any hope of creating engaging environments for the existing units. By now we’ve got relevant environments for the Black Shark, A-10C, and Flaming Cliffs 3. Hip and Huey are arguably OK, but the Mustang is criminally out of place. DCS has now just expanded into the Korean war with the Saber, but still has no plans for making the Mustang at home and/or is hoping to rely on the WWII Kickstarter to let someone else do it for them. The FW-190D9 emerges and brings a glimmer of hope for filling out the WWII environment, but a lack of work on it quickly squashes that hope.
The following MiG-21 is then another Vietnam-ish plane dropped in the mix, with no hope of realizing a true Vietnam environment. By this point, the idea of releasing an aircraft into the existing engine without any though to having an engaging environment in which to use it is the norm, and the entrance of third parties without any control over the core engine makes reversing the trend nearly impossible. Fast forward to today and nothing much has changed.
Even though Eagle Dynamics is slowly starting to reverse the trend and look at improving and fleshing out the multiple environments it needs for all its current modules, it will be an uphill slope. Updating the core simulation and creating environments for all the current modules would take years. In that time, more modules will be released, requiring more time to get them relevant environments, and so on and so forth.
Breaking from the trend of every other combat flight sim I can think of and severing the link between a playable unit and a relevant environment in favor of plonking exceptionally modeled, but random aircraft into a static core engine may be catching up with them.
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