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- Jun 29, 2013
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Remember when Isanth-VI pirates would kick the shit out of any and all similar size vessels without turrets just because the AI could reliably core drill while circle strafing around the target at knife fighting range?
I remember that time. I miss it. It made pirate hunting a little more dangerous when the AI would charge forwards.
And now I see people regularly bum rushing 10k mass pirate NPCs with 2.5k mass corvettes and winning because those pirates don't know how to use their weapons anymore.
Suggestion is simple enough, but may be a little tough to implement.
AI, upon engaging a target, IF it is an NPC faction AI ship (as opposed to "turret"), should determine the mass difference between itself and its victim, and its own thruster force. If the enemy is in a larger ship and the AI is in a significantly smaller one (ie: snowball's chance in hell), it runs unless it has significant backup. If the enemy is in a larger ship and the AI is in a moderately smaller one (quarter to half mass? dunno), then the AI attempts to stay behind the enemy ship at knife fighting range to avoid the main guns. If the AI is above those mass zones, then it moves to the next stage of tactics selection.
The AI then determines which weapons groupings are its main gun and its auxiliary guns, ordering them by block count, with a strong emphasis placed on Ion effect weapons. The AI bases its engagement range and movement style on the primary weapon, using a totally different setting than the "Max Range" bits in blockbehaviorconfig.xml because AI doesn't like fighting across sector boundaries - it generally results in the AI unloading itself by trying to fight at maximum range with certain guns. Missile-Beam primaries, for instance, would be limited to a maximum range of something like "one sector" for AI, whereas cannons are shorter range, and missile-cannon is "in-your-face" range, and so on and so forth.
If the AI determines its target's shields are down, if it is using an ion effect main weapon, it will cease doing so and start using secondary weapons. If the AI can otherwise support the power requirements (in e/s) of firing all weapons, it will fire all weapons. If it can NOT support the power requirements for a given weapon, it will attempt to burst fire to maintain positive e/s regen.
The only time an AI should specifically attempt to circle strafe is when it is in close enough range that it can do so without risking flinging itself out of visual range.
AI behavior can be overridden by selecting the Bobby AI Module, and linking a given weapon computer to it directly. This will not necessarily be its "main gun", but it will determine its behavior in combat. Linking a warhead to the Bobby will enable "Ramming AI", which will not only attempt to get close to the target, but will also attempt to cancel out its own lateral velocity in relation to the target to ensure a collision (rather than, say, orbiting it).
I remember that time. I miss it. It made pirate hunting a little more dangerous when the AI would charge forwards.
And now I see people regularly bum rushing 10k mass pirate NPCs with 2.5k mass corvettes and winning because those pirates don't know how to use their weapons anymore.
Suggestion is simple enough, but may be a little tough to implement.
AI, upon engaging a target, IF it is an NPC faction AI ship (as opposed to "turret"), should determine the mass difference between itself and its victim, and its own thruster force. If the enemy is in a larger ship and the AI is in a significantly smaller one (ie: snowball's chance in hell), it runs unless it has significant backup. If the enemy is in a larger ship and the AI is in a moderately smaller one (quarter to half mass? dunno), then the AI attempts to stay behind the enemy ship at knife fighting range to avoid the main guns. If the AI is above those mass zones, then it moves to the next stage of tactics selection.
The AI then determines which weapons groupings are its main gun and its auxiliary guns, ordering them by block count, with a strong emphasis placed on Ion effect weapons. The AI bases its engagement range and movement style on the primary weapon, using a totally different setting than the "Max Range" bits in blockbehaviorconfig.xml because AI doesn't like fighting across sector boundaries - it generally results in the AI unloading itself by trying to fight at maximum range with certain guns. Missile-Beam primaries, for instance, would be limited to a maximum range of something like "one sector" for AI, whereas cannons are shorter range, and missile-cannon is "in-your-face" range, and so on and so forth.
If the AI determines its target's shields are down, if it is using an ion effect main weapon, it will cease doing so and start using secondary weapons. If the AI can otherwise support the power requirements (in e/s) of firing all weapons, it will fire all weapons. If it can NOT support the power requirements for a given weapon, it will attempt to burst fire to maintain positive e/s regen.
The only time an AI should specifically attempt to circle strafe is when it is in close enough range that it can do so without risking flinging itself out of visual range.
AI behavior can be overridden by selecting the Bobby AI Module, and linking a given weapon computer to it directly. This will not necessarily be its "main gun", but it will determine its behavior in combat. Linking a warhead to the Bobby will enable "Ramming AI", which will not only attempt to get close to the target, but will also attempt to cancel out its own lateral velocity in relation to the target to ensure a collision (rather than, say, orbiting it).
