Self-Docking/Un-Docking AI Ships

[Insanity Ape]

For a while I've been under siege by pirates almost every ten minutes, I get a transmission from the trading guild saying that hostile raid parties have been seen in so and so cords sending raid party or something like that but the backup never arrives, the pirates do. And I have three ships, my main ship, one mining ship, and a smaller fighter ship that connects to the mining ship. The bobby AI is splended, my smaller ship flys off to fend off the pirates giving me enough time to stop, get out of my mining ship and to my main ship and fight off the pirates. But the thing that I don't like is once the pirates have been dealt with my smaller ship stops and stays where ever it stopped not moving anymore and usually it stops miles away from where my mining ship is. So i have to make a seperate core only ship and fly it to where my fighter is, it's just a waste of time. It would be better if my small fighter ship can undock from where it is, fight off the pirates and once they are done fly back to it's docking zone and land itself. I bet this would help a lot of people especially those who have more then one ship.

 

[Admiral.Piett]

I sencond this!!!!

 

[Flamep98]

I Third This!

 

[Krazykat]

that would be so wonderful, like an AI Docking Module that can connect with the bobby to create a point of launch for the fighter ships. this could make large scale combat awesome with players that have automatic fighters undock when they enter combat and come back when the fighting is over

 

[Trollerbobman]

yes that is a great idea, giant battles with lots of explosions EXPLOSIONS!

 

[WatcherCCG]

The AI in general needs a LOT of work. But I think Schema probably knows that.

 

[obliterator789]

I think this is an amazing idea. Imagine having a Star Destroyer, BC-304, Battlestar, you name it with automated fighters that would launch once a battle broke out. Amazing! I think it would also be nice if you could control when the AI ships dock/undock to the mothership - so maybe triggering it like a weapons computer from your hotbar to have all docked fighters or whatnot undock, and then again to call them back to the hangar to dock. I\'m guessing this is gonna be hard to do, but hopefully the devs see this and attempt to make this idea into an actual feature

 

[obliterator789]

In addition to the docking/undocking AI, it would be nice if the AI ships could follow the mothership when not in combat, or be given coordinates to fly to, as well as coordinates to patrol (for example on the patrol idea, have an AI block that you can program the ship to fly between certain sectors the user wants i.e. (2, 2, 2) - (2, 3, 2) - (2, 4, 2) and then back, so it patrols in kind of a line)

 

[Mqwib]

You can undock them on command from your hotbar, its in the weapons tab. But you can only do it one ship at a time, so i think this auto-dock/undocking idea is great!

 

[Krauser1129]

Basically what I\'m imagining, is that you tell the AI where to commence it\'s \"docking procedure\", and when you first program the AI, it actually records exactly how you dockd the ship, so when you put in the command for them to dock, they simply redo what you did. Not sure if that\'s easier said than done, but it seems simple enough.

 

[Man_Pidgeon]

That will help so much. you got my vote.

 

[I_is_Tinsy]

Maybe to help with AIs flying out of hangars to attack pirates and such, there could be a new type of door, like a hangar door or something? It could be stronger and automatically open for the ships to fly out somehow. or opening and closing it could be in the weapons menu.

 

[GrendalsMother]

Tinsy here has it right. This auto dock/undock is all well and good, but without proper protection (and astheticly pleasing construction) I think it would look odd with bunchs of ships hanging of the Mothership at random spots. I personally build hangar bays as it is and they are just left wide open for attack. Auto doors + auto dock = fun time!

 

[popnfrresh]

yeah, It would be nice to have a carrier, or larger ship with smaller AI fighters be able to undock fight, and redock when done. The hanger door is awesome as well.


It would be cool to have a repair bot be able to undock automatically from larger ships and be able to repair the ship back to \"blueprints\" if saved. This would could cost money/blocks/energy maybe even require shields to be down to let the repair beam past.

Just like the rest of the weapons, the more repair beams, the faster or more efficient the repair is.

When done, the bot should be able to redock as well.

 

[PhysX]

maybe a function that sends them back and forth between two co-ordinates ferrying supplies. Just thinking about this so when schema implements shipyards (which I think he is going to) you could have factories on a planet and a shipyard in orbit, and then AI ships sending the factories outputs to the shipyard building ships.

 

[Athalan]

Just some solutions I would like to see:

1. Drone control. One possible solution is a linked cockpit. Imagine being able to cycle through the cockpits on the mothership, but also seeing linked fighter cockpits. Select a linked fighter and fly it back and dock it when the mission is done.

2. Set home location. this may have to be a fixed coordinate - but it would be awesome if it could be a dynamic location. The default mode of an AI fighter is to be active and fight when enemies are present and go inert when it is over. If instead of \"go inert\" we had \"return home\" it would imrove things. If home was docked in a hanger on a ship that would be even better! Remotely triggered \"return home\" command might be hard to pull off, but an end-action \"return home\" would be easier to program in. We already have an \"attack my target\" for turret AI. Could we do a \"dock with my target\" for fighters?

3. Plex doors on hangers. If we could have a feature of linking the AI to the plex doors where they remain inactive until the doors are opened that would be pretty sweet. I\'m working on a build plan where hangers and blast sheilds can be operated from the core room. If the fighters could auto-undock on opening the doors that would be a dream come true.

4. AI navigation. This would open doors for a lot of stuff. Autopilot for big ships, patrol AI ships, auto ferries, AI mission programming. It may take some of the fun out of the game though. It\'s made so people can play the game, not bots.

 

[Edbanger]

How about if you select a Docking slot on your hot bar you can Fire a reverse docking beam from it (maybe right Click) and if you hit an uncrewed or AI controlled Small craft (of appropriate Faction or Neutral) that is small enough then it Docks into the selected docking bay.

This would allow Large cargo ships to Collect Cargo Modules floating free in space, or for Drone Carriers to retrieve their Drones, although you\'d still have to go after the Drones with your big ship and could lose track of them if the wandered too far off.

 

[Nebulon-B_Frigate_FTW]

How many times now have people asked for redocking of AI-controlled ships to a carrier? It\'s just something that keeps coming up again and again.

Not saying it\'s a bad idea, but rather that it\'s so good that we talk about it so much that other ideas might get pushed to the wayside while we reiterate the same points over and over...