Simulator Gauntlets - How are the enemies selected?

Prometheus

Spaceman
That's pretty much a question to the developers, about how the enemy ships are "drawn", as in randomly selected, in Sim Missions 1 and 2, Kilrathi and Confed Gauntlets.

Some observations I made:

Kilrathi Gauntlet: The first few waves seem to consist only of Sarthas, Drakhris, Jalthis and Krants. Later, starting with, I believe, wave five, Hhriss and Grathas are added to the mix. I don't think I've seen anything else yet. (In Sim Mission 1, that is).

Confed Gauntlet: Hornets. Lots and lots of Hornets. Nice to get some quick kills. :D Also Raptors, Ferrets, Gladii, later on some Epees, Sabres, ... overall in Confed Gauntlet they appear to be selected more randomly than in Kilrathi Gauntlet, apart from that weird preference for Hornets.


So, obviously both missions use quite different algorithms, but what exactly are those?

And also: Do they differ depending on what ship YOU fly... Sometimes I think they do, then again I think if they did, there would be more radical differences.
 
Well, basically, each gauntlet is divided into three wave groups - waves 1-5 have their set of ships, waves 6-10 have theirs, and waves 11-15 have theirs. The early waves are dominated by older ships - so, you won't see a Hornet or a Gladius past wave 5, for example. Similarly, you won't see the most powerful ships in the first waves. The Wraith in particular only appears in waves 11-15. Keep in mind, while lighter ships do, in general, tend to appear early in the game, that doesn't mean you won't see any light fighters in the final waves - it's just that they'll be limited to what is considered state-of-the-art for both sides.

On top of that, the probability of a particular ship being drawn varies between these three wave groups. A Drakhri has a chance of about 22% in waves 1-5, then drops to 17% in waves 6-10, and then rises to 33% in the final waves.

(why does the Drakhri's probality rise? Because facing down five Drakhri, all lobbing DFs at you from different angles is a daunting experience indeed! :) )
 
Without starting a new thread, two additional questions if I may...

- How come the Salthi doesn't appear in the Sim? :)

- How come the Dralthi doesn't appear in the campaign? I mean, it's Wing Commander, you gotta fight Dralthi! Also, I love the Standoff Dralthi, it's a beautiful model.
 
The Salthi & Dralthi are very late additions to the game - they were added either in Episode 4 or 5. They were added retroactively to the sim, but only to those missions that, at the time, were not yet score-enabled. We didn't want to add them into the gauntlets, because it would create possible balance issues (mild ones, but still...).

As for the campaign - well, there's really just one place where I think the Salthi and Dralthi would not be out of place, and that's the backwater missions on the Episode 3 losing path. I don't remember at the moment, but it's quite possible I did add them there, in fact :).
 
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