So this one in the file under this heading?:

rem *** Construct Bomber weights ***
aiSettings.createBehaviourModifiers BomberWeights

aiSettings.setBehaviourModifier MoveTo      7.5

and change it to 0.0? Anything else you've changed to make things a little more fun with bots?

FH1 had the same exact problem with people seeing the nose of a bomb while driving in a tank far too often.  You heard the siren and you basically jumped out and ran away or you died.  If anyone could have fixed it I have a feeling they would have tried to make bots dropping bombs a little more like bot infantry firing a rifle but it never happened....and we're talking years of development.  I have a feeling adding a cone of fire to a bomb simply isn't possible in the BF2 engine.  All they can do is put limits around the problem that was created or never fixed by DICE.

Why do they do that?

CombatAreaManager.use

That's it thank you...changed it from 1 to 0 and Falaise pocket totally opened up to the allies.  There are now some really nifty nicely polished areas on various maps that just beg to be fought over.  Just a shame I have to go through such a backwards process editing each individual server file.  In the project reality python files it's possible to edit just about every aspect of coop play.  I can't seem to find more than a handful of py files in FH2 python directories.

Dir

Is there a way to turn off the dome of death on the enemy home bases?

Dir

Yeah I can see where that is going to be a problem...but it's unlikely that you will ever teach a bot to pull out of a steep dive and deal with obstacles like mountains.  I don't know a whole heck of a lot about programming but I'm a keen observer of behavior and from what I've seen DICE has left little room for improvement with regards to bots flying planes.  Since the early days of 1942 things haven't changed much and all you can do is make them look like they belong in the air.  I do think the strafing has gotten impressive but a bot dropping a bomb will always look like a bot dropping a bomb.  In the end you could end up being at that particular drawing board for the remainder of the life of the game.

I really don't see things improving much in BF3... in fact I think they will start cutting out a good portion of the air play in favor of ground play.  Just like they cut the guts out of the naval aspect of the game which was next to frigging perfect and Forgotten Hope had made a crown jewel missed to this day.

I hear ya ...had very little to do with the feature.  I could have been talking about the unique reloading function on one of their hand pistols.  The point was the player base is really really thinning out and are becoming more and more fickle and sensitive to shortcomings.  At one time it may have made sense to sway in the direction of a "combat simulator" promoting the most realistic mod in existence.  Now it's more about hanging on for dear life to the people that are left.  Cutting a portion of them out to promote an idealistic crusade is just quickening the pace.  Translating that idealism into your mini-mod won't do much for attracting new players that just want to have a little fun.  I can't see how sprinkling a few custom pickup kits all over the place at various flags would hurt the mod as a whole.  After all we'd just be doing it to kill bots not people.  Last night when FH2 got kinda tiresome and slow we switched to AIX and they have got kits EVERYWHERE and all weapon's slots are full to bursting.  Made for a fun night...but then we tend to gravitate to towards anything that “unlocks” the game from restrictions as most mini-mods tend to do.

Bah! screw the number of players.  If multi player game play is near perfect the player base will remain constant and even grow regardless of how much time has passed.  Nostalgia is a very strong attractant.  It's the players that entertain each other and the game is only the arena.  The only thing going to draw them away is a bigger better arena with more stuff.  What's gone or “dying” is BF2 mod development....which means it's pretty much over.  Boredom and melancholy are just a few steps away.  BF2 is losing it's hair and the talented mod devs are fading away introducing their kids to dreaded babysitter consoles...like the traitorous scum they are.  May your kids die of blood clots in the thumbs!

What ever you do with the bots don't bother focusing on things you can't fix.  Instead focus on the things that will hide the ai's imperfections and that takes an frigging artist.  Getting too tied up in technical details and troubleshooting may go completely unnoticed for the player that has no interest in reading the changlog or visiting a forum in order to appreciate your work.  Mind you if the game crashes no one is playing anything.  You could probably start by simply deleting the offending piece of equipment or detail and move on from there.  My favorite tried and true troubleshooting technique is method of elimination.  You can always put it back later once you trip over the reason but focusing on it for days and weeks could keep you from developing more noticeable and appreciated details...but don't ask us because we aren't artists and probably don't even appreciate art when we do trip over it.

Speaking of art something that blows me away to this day was how the hell did the NAW guys get that shoulder launched Javelin missile to lock on, fire straight up in the air and attack the target....from the top?! Too bad their last release caused massive crashing on half the machines it encountered and with little or no interest in troubleshooting the mod is now dead...troubleshooting forums are dead...it was released in April with 4 enormous map packs.  The NAW team's solution was really quite conventional and really quite useless.  Fill out this form and we'll get back to you.  I love mods more than anything but fill out a form? FU.