when a player gets a certain distance from a sector, that sector is removed from active computer memory to improve performance, similar to minecraft chunk loading. an ai would freeze upon entering any such sector, immobile until a player came close enough. since this applies to pirates as well, patrols are not necessary anyway, although I admit I would like to have them.
also, to have them load up sectors themselves would greatly affect performance, as each ai would add lag equal to another player, which would be bad enough under normal gameplay, let alone if griefers used them.
so, while it would be cool to have drones guarding the space around your starbase, it simply will not work with the current game engine.
also, to have them load up sectors themselves would greatly affect performance, as each ai would add lag equal to another player, which would be bad enough under normal gameplay, let alone if griefers used them.
so, while it would be cool to have drones guarding the space around your starbase, it simply will not work with the current game engine.