They used to go full blast, but now...yeah, I agree. I don't know if it's some kind of "feature" that helps ships avoid collisions, or if they just didn't want our ships to be effective under AI control, but I wish it would be reversed.

Like a lot of things.

While we're at it, maybe we can get the ships to actually roll up to a rock and just shoot it, instead of rotating its guns AWAY from the rock and <CENSORED> around instead of doing its job.

Scoot, park, pointlessly rotate in all directions except the target, scoot, park, rotate in all directions except the target, scoot, park, get off a lucky shot that accidentally hits something important, scoot, park...

Yea.. this is ♥♥♥♥♥♥ it's making me regret the purchase of an otherwise amazing title. -.-

While we're at it, maybe we can get the ships to actually roll up to a rock and just shoot it, instead of rotating its guns AWAY from the rock and <CENSORED> around instead of doing its job.

Scoot, park, pointlessly rotate in all directions except the target, scoot, park, rotate in all directions except the target, scoot, park, get off a lucky shot that accidentally hits something important, scoot, park...


Literally watching this right now

If you saw my standard mining method, you'd be even angrier.

Longrange mining beams, 100% coverage along all vectors, multiple turrets overlapping...all set to autofire. Then the lead ship in the fleet goes on patrol orders while the rest Escort it.

My guy...it is actually 10x faster, at minimum. The ships fire on any asteroid that enters firing range, and still protect the lead ship. Plus, they break off and attack enemies on sight, which never hurts the credit balance.

By about midgame, I can take ten ships with me and just have them Escort while I fly straight through the asteroid field. I pick up more in 30sec than I do in 30min. Anything my ship misses is picked up by the escorts.

This makes me question the whole "But AI is really hard tho" excuse. It starts to look more and more like just another method to hobble the player.

AI is very much useless in a fight when they get control of my ships, it seems like it was built for ships that like broadside attacks than frontal attacks. Typically i have my guns trained up front to intercept incoming targets before they get far enough up the side to cause trouble. It's the safest way to deal with them when you don't have the ability to deal with them up close that well.

What the AI likes to do is to run away and try to kite their targets into very awkward targeting positions to try take them out, but in the process of trying to kite, they make no real attempt to avoid enemy fire.

escort ships with heavy firepower up front should be using their speed and superior manoeuvring to place the ship in the right location for a perfect volley to take out an enemy target, not running away taking hits where most of the firepower is not used and worse not evading enemy firepower with what the ship has. so you would expect the escorts in your fleet to take apart enemy ships quickly where possible. Meanwhile Carriers should be nowhere near the fighting itself, its fighters should be dealing with that and defence of the ship, plus any escorting ships acting as a screen reacting to any potential attacks before they happen.

The AI is clearly programmed just one way. i might have to reconsider the design of my ships for the AI to keep their form of behaviour in mind, for example more turrets on the rear of the ship so when the AI kites enemies around, the AI can take them out more easily without having to change anything.

My best guess is that the AI is designed for generated ships.

Generated ships have a single turret type copied across their entire design, and they usually have a very large amount of them. Further, the absurdity of most generated ships means that they've got turret bases just about everywhere, and I'd guess every last one is filled.

Balance-wise, this is tempered by the fact that NPC ships have artificial damage/hull modifiers, difficulty level being the most obvious. As far as the AI goes, though, I'd wager that the combat AI expects their ship to just be covered in homogeneous turrets, and so makes few - if any - attempts to orient based on where their firepower is concentrated.

They try to get their lasers focused during mining and salvaging, so there might be something going on, but...well, seeing them in either of those jobs is just sad. It's like watching someone with cerebral palsy trying to get a pickle jar open.

All this links back into the advice above. If my theory's true, Weaver's method is basically just taking the AI back to its roots, and letting it act natural. It's awful for ship designs that encourage concentrated weapon placement, and counterproductive for direct player control. Still, if it's got a better success rate, it's worth thinking over. Might be worth making rocketships for your bots instead of space battleships.

the best thing you can do for mining is a ai with lots of fighters then the at least not try to hump the asteroids.....

Forget it. In this game, which came out of early access, it’s exactly the same unfinished game as this game was when it first went on sale, being in early access, the AI is so stupid that a $100 robot vacuum cleaner is smarter, although we’re not in space yet patching up as actively as in this game.

I built a new design that's long, thin but offers the most coverage for turrets on the ship. The AI has gotten a hold of these ships and they are savagely and brutally cutting through Pirate ranks quicker than expected because of the extra coverage, amount of turrets and they can engage and retreat while still being very effective in a fight.

It's most certainly built towards the idea of broadside attacks and rear gunner attacks as a secondary characteristic. I'll adapt future designs towards this design philosophy.

Originally posted by Insano-Man:

My best guess is that the AI is designed for generated ships.

Generated ships have a single turret type copied across their entire design, and they usually have a very large amount of them. Further, the absurdity of most generated ships means that they've got turret bases just about everywhere, and I'd guess every last one is filled.

Balance-wise, this is tempered by the fact that NPC ships have artificial damage/hull modifiers, difficulty level being the most obvious. As far as the AI goes, though, I'd wager that the combat AI expects their ship to just be covered in homogeneous turrets, and so makes few - if any - attempts to orient based on where their firepower is concentrated.

They try to get their lasers focused during mining and salvaging, so there might be something going on, but...well, seeing them in either of those jobs is just sad. It's like watching someone with cerebral palsy trying to get a pickle jar open.

All this links back into the advice above. If my theory's true, Weaver's method is basically just taking the AI back to its roots, and letting it act natural. It's awful for ship designs that encourage concentrated weapon placement, and counterproductive for direct player control. Still, if it's got a better success rate, it's worth thinking over. Might be worth making rocketships for your bots instead of space battleships.

This analysis of the AI is spot on. In addition, I've noticed that player ships have a tendency to not fire any weapons unless ALL weapons are in range, which fits in with the homogeneous turret theory mentioned above.

It has been a persistent issue with the game for years and I wish it was something Boxelware focused harder on fixing. I realize that this is a difficult problem, but... it's fixable.

At least it's better than it used to be. I know that's hard to believe with how jank the AI is now, but trust me it used to be way worse.

Boxelware: "Don't use all guns with the same damage type, because some enemies are outright immune."

Also Boxelware: "Okay, so our AI ships are gonna use all guns the same damage type. What about immunity? Well we just won't give that to the players."

this game has AI?

amazing changes to this game since I last played, then