Large Vessel AI

[vonfrank]

Has anyone ever written an AI script that works well with extremely large ships? For example, the Dominion Battleship, Borg Cubes, ect.

I find when the stock Quickbattle AI is controlling these ships (regardless of AI difficulty setting) the vessels spend more time flying aimlessly in random maneuvering patterns than actually firing on nearby targets. It seems particularly noticeable when there are many smaller ships attacking one of these large targets. As a result, a group of half a dozen small Starfleet ships can usually take down a Dominion battleship (given enough time) because the larger ship barely fires a shot.

I have a feeling that this happens because the AI is trying to maintain a balance between a suitable attack distance and collision avoidance, but since the vessel is so large, the 'safe distance' to avoid collision with multiple small targets flying around is farther than the 'ideal attack range'.

Not sure if that is the real problem or not, but help would be greatly appreciated.

[King Class Scout]

the AI's are one of the things in BC that was barely touched.  most modification efforts were geared toward ships themselves, the bridges, and an occasional run at character models.  the great scripters like MLeo pulled out very quick after relatively minor tweaks and refinements; after all, Python is an utter B to work with.  I think the only AI's created were by the KM team; the stock game came with fed and non fed only, and the KM team added species-specific ones and situational AI for various systems.

when I brought mine back up, I noticed the AI for the big boys has suddenly gotten damn stupid.  one of my common ship testers is pulling up a pack of dominion to duel, and the battleships and battlecruisers now tend to slam into their own men!  low maneuverability ships (such as older TMP mods) also seem to have a hard time.  I've had to completely change the way I order Felix to attack, and with low rotation ships, have to fly manually.  I've also been noticing some light ships with high speed and good maneuverability are now running chicken like their head's on fire and their ass is catching if they take impulse damage; I can clean up a set, only to find one guy has somehow gotten 300 km away at 6000 kph

there's a basic AI tutorial and sample in the SDK, so people could create their own.

[vonfrank]

Yeah, I've never recall seeing much progress in AI scripting over the years here.

I'm not even sure how to associate a specific ship with a unique AI type other than the defaults.

[King Class Scout]

I suggest having a peek through the various scripts for systems and in KM itself, and the walkthrough for basics in the SDK paperwork, which is the closest we've got atm.

[JimmyB76]

look into ATP:D AI