I have an idea for how to make a programmable AI that would not require players to know programming, and make it accessible to nearly everybody.
There would be a GUI, kind of like a flowchart, that would let you customize what the AI should do, what order to do it in, and how to react to various situations. For example if you wanted a drone controlled by an AI to protect your faction base, you would add a search command to its program. Set it to search for enemies within 1000 meters perhaps. You would then add an attack command, and connect the search order to the attack order so that when it finds an enemy ship within 1000 meters, it undocks and attacks the enemy. You would then set up an action for each potential outcome of the order. If the enemy ship is destroyed, if it gets too far away or is lost, if the drone travels too far from the faction base, if the drone gets too damaged or loses too much mass in the fight, etc. These follow up commands could be to loop back to an earlier one like to search for more enemies, or to lead to a new one like to return to base and dock at the same place it was when it started.
Following this format, I think the AI would be much more useful and could be assigned to do anything that the built in commands would allow, with a minimal learning curve for the players. It would probably clear up any complaints people have with the Bobby AI modules if they can customize them like this. I don’t know if this type of thing would even be possible to implement, but I think it would be awesome if it could.
There would be a GUI, kind of like a flowchart, that would let you customize what the AI should do, what order to do it in, and how to react to various situations. For example if you wanted a drone controlled by an AI to protect your faction base, you would add a search command to its program. Set it to search for enemies within 1000 meters perhaps. You would then add an attack command, and connect the search order to the attack order so that when it finds an enemy ship within 1000 meters, it undocks and attacks the enemy. You would then set up an action for each potential outcome of the order. If the enemy ship is destroyed, if it gets too far away or is lost, if the drone travels too far from the faction base, if the drone gets too damaged or loses too much mass in the fight, etc. These follow up commands could be to loop back to an earlier one like to search for more enemies, or to lead to a new one like to return to base and dock at the same place it was when it started.
Following this format, I think the AI would be much more useful and could be assigned to do anything that the built in commands would allow, with a minimal learning curve for the players. It would probably clear up any complaints people have with the Bobby AI modules if they can customize them like this. I don’t know if this type of thing would even be possible to implement, but I think it would be awesome if it could.
