My Ideas For Better AI Control

[IG-1000]

The AI right now kinda sucks
the AI Config doesn't really have any purpose other than Crew control yeah sure there is a section named Fleet but it has yet to have a function it would seem.
So my ideas for the Fleet control menu in the AI Config are as follows:
Once you have a vessel that has an active Faction module and AI module the vessel should appear in the Fleet Control there will be a drop down menu with some information on the vessel like what sector it is currently in what task it is currently performing maybe the vessels health. You will also have the ability to give the AI vessel orders directly from the AI Config. some of the orders could be Defend, Attack,Idle and Recall, The Defend Mode would allow the AI vessel to attack any enemy ships within its weapons range but not pursue them, The Attack Mode would allow the AI vessel to attack and pursue enemy ships, The Idle Mode would deactivate the AI Vessels ability to attack enemy ships in a sense it would turn off the vessels AI, The Recall Option would basically recall the AI ship to a faction home base or faction controlled station, Another option for the Defend Mode would give an AI Vessel the ability to follow another Ship so you would enter the name of the ship you want the AI to follow (your own for instance) and now you have an AI ship that will follow you around this option could also be combined with the Idle Mode so the AI Vessel wouldn't attack things as you pass by them.

Another feature that would be cool to have would be the ability to set Way points for an AI ship to patrol. You would do this by entering in a few sectors that you want the AI ship to travel to maybe have a maximum of five or sectors that could be entered in, and once your done entering the sectors the AI Ship would be off. the ship could also send back updates/scans about the areas it is patrolling like maybe how many stations are in its vicinity as well as shops or planets, or even a better idea make it so you can select what sort of information gets sent back.

Here is another idea have a Fleet control block of sorts that can be placed on Stations or Ships and you can only control AI ships through this block it would give way to needing Command Ships for large scale battles and such.

 

[CyberTao]

Fleets will be done via putting a NPC AI (those Daves you can buy/hire) into a core, and commands would be done through a short menu (Was opened by holding ctrl last I played with them), Max fleet size of 5 as well.

That is what I currently know about planned AI and fleets. Patrol wouldn't really work because you would need a player there to load the sectors (Only sectors near players are loaded into memory for lag reasons, and making exceptions leads to griefing of sorts on servers).

But yeah, would need a big ship or station to survive long enough to give orders to your fleet, so there's that.

 

[Lecic]

Fleets will be done via putting a NPC AI (those Daves you can buy/hire) into a core, and commands would be done through a short menu (Was opened by holding ctrl last I played with them), Max fleet size of 5 as well.

That is what I currently know about planned AI and fleets. Patrol wouldn't really work because you would need a player there to load the sectors (Only sectors near players are loaded into memory for lag reasons, and making exceptions leads to griefing of sorts on servers).

But yeah, would need a big ship or station to survive long enough to give orders to your fleet, so there's that.

You can only have 5 under active command at once. You can have more preform orders than that, but your "squadron" where you can actively change orders can only have 5.

As for patrol, just simulate the ships going into that sector without loading it, and then actually load them in once it's done.

I'd like a "defend entity" order, where they will stay close by a targeted entity and defend it from hostile factions.