Is it just me, or do your wingmen tend to die a LOT? I try to help them as much as possible but they all seem to have a death wish. Then I have to beat the missions essentially on my own.

I'm playing the '98 version of this game. I don't recall the older versions having quite as many wingmen deaths as this one does.

Any tips to keep them alive for longer so there's more cannon fodder for AI on AI violence?

I played the original version almost 20 years ago and found wingmen to be one thing or the other; supermen or cannon fodder. Its really hit and miss with them. I'm playing the 1998 version and I find the same thing.

Fun fact: in the DOS version, If you have other pilot profiles made and rank them up, you can assign them to your wingmen before launching and they will fly better depending on that pilot profile's rank!

In the 1998 version, though, yeah... they're pretty much useless lemmings. >_<

Copy a couple of dozen TOPACE4.PLT files and use them as your wingmen. That usually makes them a tad smarter . . .

I'm currently playing the 93 DOS version again after 20 years (having a balls-out insane amount of fun, dear God) and all I can say is this: There is no AI deserving to be named as such. There is you, and you alone, to accomplish the missions. Assigning player made top ace profiles as wingmen does help as long as you are flight leader, since you can order them to attack targets. For that they are useful because high level profiles tend to fight more effectively (meaning they aim/kill quicker). But beyond that, don't expect anything constructive from the computer controlled friends. :)

Its really hit or miss. I usually try to end missions with most or all wingmen alive as a challenge. I also let them get kills by having TIEs chase to me and zig zag back and forth.

The biggest issue I've noticed with my wingmen is that they seem to have very poor situational awareness. Sometimes they don't seem to react to a TIE Fighter on their tail unless I explicitly order them to evade. I've also seen them shoot each other (or me!) down when they get into each others' crossfire or just crash into each other.

One time I watched a wingman fly straight into the broadside of a frigate when I ordered him to attack a target on the other side.

Another time, my flight group was escorting a group of shuttles. A wave of TIE Interceptors came in and started attacking my wingman, who seemed to be just casually flying around, not caring that his shields are going down. I ordered him to evade... and watched as my wingman says, "Rodger, taking evasive action!" and proceeds to plow right through two of our escort shuttles, destroying them and himself.

I'm not sure whether the wingmen are useless or just "comic relief."

you can edit your wingmen's skill level with xwing mission builder. but you have to do that per mission.

its a dos-tool, but works for xwing1998 as well, as the mission files are the same.

http://www.rebelsquadrons.org/xwing/tools

dont know for sure, but i guess in most of the missions they're novice pilots by standard, which is why they are only good at dying well.

Keep an eye out on them, especially on head-on engagements - that's when they usually ignore missiles launched at them and get killed. Select them quickly and use SHIFT+E to order them into evasive maneuvers.

Other than that keep them away from capital ships and corvettes, don't order them to attack a different target when they are dogfighting a TIE or a Gunboat that is targeting them - that will make them a sitting duck during their approach to the new target, and use SHIFT+E when you see they are taking lots of damage.

One of the things I remember the most from this game is that wingmen were absolutely useless most of the time. There are a couple of missions where you have to disable capital ships. Wingmen would ALWAYS charge in flying their moving-at-the-speed-of-death Y-Wings and firing nothing but their ion cannons, EVEN WHEN THE TARGET WAS AT FULL SHIELD CAPACITY.

I had to develop the strategy of ordering those idiots to camp somewhere out of range while I began the laborious process of destroying every fighter in the frigate one by one, and then lowering its shields MYSELF by making dozens or hundreds of attack runs. Otherwise, my mission would fail as my idiotic wingmen got themselves, and the ion cannons needed to succeed, blowed up.

List of things that Wingmen are good at:
1. Head on engagements with unshielded starfighters such as TIE Fighters.
2. Firing torpedoes at capital ships (if the range is long enough, they'll probably use torpedoes, usually two at each run)
3. Taking out Starfighters that are chasing you when you are flying straight (VERY useful when you are exiting a dogfight. The straight flight of the attacking starfighters will make it easier on your wingmen to take them out . Be careful not to use that tactic if your wingmen are targeted, for the exact same reason).
4. Drawing fire of capital ships (you'll have to order them to target the ship, keep an eye on them and constantly order them to perform evasive maneuvers).