X2 Wingmen. Where and how?

Sever101 · Post by **Sever101** » Thu, 28. Sep 06, 07:01

I noticed one of my stations in President's End flashing red whilst i'm passing through the gate south out of Kingdom End. A quick check of the map told me one or two pirates (an M3 and M5) were attacking my bakery so i tell the only combat ship stationed in PE (a captured pirate M3) to attack the M3. Then i try to jump my Centaur back to PE from Three Worlds only to discover i'm out of energy cells. With my Discoverer off on an errand in the Paranid sectors, i decide to just go to PE the old fashioned way thinking that by the time i get there, my M3 with its BHEPTs will have made short work of the threat. Either that or been killed.

After a good fifteen minute hike in my Centaur, i finally emerge through the gate into PE to discover that not only is my M3 still alive, so too are the pirates, and they're still attacking my bakery! In the minute or so it took for me to get within range, i bring up the M3's main view in my monitor only to see it bumming around in circles in the weakest "attack" approach i've ever seen. My Centaur then kills both pirates and thinks long and hard about killing a third...

Out of interest, i gathered all my combat ships (not many, an M3, M4 and M5) into PE and take turns at sending them off on a range of attack and defend style missions with one eye on them in the monitor and one through my crosshair with my finger on the trigger. And what did i see? Fantastically pathetic flying. They all sucked. Badly. And these were the ships i was hoping to make a fleet out of?

My question: I've heard the term wingmen bandied about on these forums. Are these wingmen an added bonus thrown in when purchasing a software from someplace? (Like the commodity logistics software?) If so, do they improve upon the combat AI of the unpiloted ships? If so, where can i buy it?

Thanks in advance.

shane-oh · Post by **shane-oh** » Thu, 28. Sep 06, 07:29

I think u need to set a ship to protect a particular ship, then it is a wingman, I think you need one of the fight command softwares to give the order.

Before I learned the get behind the enemy tactic, I always used the autopilot to attack, the usual strategy being to ram the enemy

mystikmind2005 · Post by **mystikmind2005** » Thu, 28. Sep 06, 10:40

First of all, why bother trying to protect stations??? there not going to hurt it. May as well ignore them until you are good and ready.

Nothing can kill stations in x2 in OOS.

Khaak m3's may kill stations only when you stupidly park in a sector where you own stations and then use SETA.

Post by **Geek** » Thu, 28. Sep 06, 14:05

Anyway a station in PE is bound to blow due to the khaak there.

Sever101 · Post by **Sever101** » Fri, 29. Sep 06, 06:52

Ok. If i'm reading this right, then the incredibly poor combat AI i've witnessed in every ship i've tested is about as good as the AI in the game gets? There's no script or mod or software that makes it better?

As for PE, it's perfect. No other stations in sight, it's got ore and silicon, close to a shipyard and wharf, and it's protected by three corvette sector patrols. (Well, most of the time anyway :rolleyes:) I'd go so far as to say that egosoft wiped out PE's stations to make a golden opportunity for the player to create a home sector.

Stormwinds · Post by **Stormwinds** » Fri, 29. Sep 06, 07:50

or maybe they were trying to say "look, those guys tried building here and got wrecked, it's a bad idea to build here, we must look to the past to... what are you doing!? i said it's a bad idea to build..!! oh forget it, woe to ye! woe to yeeee!!!"

or then again...

Sever101 · Post by **Sever101** » Fri, 29. Sep 06, 13:18

Ya. We'll see, eh? Anyway, back on topic.

If the combat AI is already as good as its going to get, what ships in each class are the best at utilizing it. For example: I haven't tried a nova yet, but i can imagine that its rear turret puts it top its class without a pilot worth his salt at the helm. Would i be right?

Also, one aspect of AI combat that i didn't test yet was groups. Singly, each of the ships was a total failure (even against defenceless targets), but that may be due to the AI of the target ship (being somewhat similar to my ships, i'd imagine) countering each move made by the attacking ship. (Like playing yourself at chess.) If i throw in a decoy ship, are the attacking ship/s going to take some metamucil and get it together?

Or do i just make a fleet out of turreted capital ships?

mystikmind2005 · Post by **mystikmind2005** » Fri, 29. Sep 06, 15:47

I can tell you that you really don't need to bother with any ships in x2 less than an m6 or a split iguana L.

You don't want an m3 because they are all too slow. Also they do not have a patroll sector command, so quite honestly, m3's - they are all good for nothing! (except khaak m3's of course).

If you can capture a Khaak m3 - that is the one to use for a personell ship! It has awesome firepower and it's speed is just barely tollerable which is saying ALLOT compared to other m3's.

pjknibbs · Post by **pjknibbs** » Fri, 29. Sep 06, 17:41

mystikmind2005 wrote: You don't want an m3 because they are all too slow.

I would assume you've never flown a Split Mamba Raider, then, which does 200 m/s. The Nova and Perseus Raider variants are also a lot quicker than the normal ones.

Post by **Geek** » Fri, 29. Sep 06, 21:02

Er, it is a X² topic (shame on you and so on

). No fighter variants. The original X² Split mamba is very fast (286). Of course, it has only one 25mj shield so don't buy this for the poor AI, it is a waste of money.

mystikmind2005 · Post by **mystikmind2005** » Sat, 30. Sep 06, 02:52

Geek wrote:Er, it is a X² topic (shame on you and so on ). No fighter variants. The original X² Split mamba is very fast (286). Of course, it has only one 25mj shield so don't buy this for the poor AI, it is a waste of money.

Yea, you see what happens when you try to put a bit of speed in an m3... the compromise factor kicks in and by the time that finishes with the ship, it still leaves you wondering why the hell anyone would bother with anything other than a split iguana!

Carl Sumner · Post by **Carl Sumner** » Sat, 30. Sep 06, 05:15

If you are playing X2, you need the "Xai Advanced AI Project" script. And if you have courage, put in the extra files so the enemy also has boosted AI.

I would also get the "Marks Fight MkIII Patrol" and "Marks Fight MkIII Wingman" scripts, they make wingmen and squadrons much better. Wait 'till you try the "Wing Missile attack" command!

Sever101 · Post by **Sever101** » Thu, 5. Oct 06, 06:41

Thanks Carl.

Those scripts sound like just the thing i need.

Sever101 · Post by **Sever101** » Sun, 8. Oct 06, 08:44

The links for the Mark's scripts appear to be permanently broken and i can find no reference to the Xai Advanced AI project in the communtiy script sticky down in the scripting forum. Are these no longer available?

verteron · Post by **verteron** » Sun, 8. Oct 06, 09:50

I'd bet the links aren't coming back, peeps are focusing on X3 now.

I use a M6 with escorts, just keep the escorts slower than the M6. This way when they begin the attack run, the M6 will be what the enemy targets, and it's shields are better. Especially if you use the Teladi Osprey with Novas. Also, upgrading the speed too much causes them to constantly overshoot their targets. Look at the Dragon, always flying full speed it cannot hit anything.

Sever101 · Post by **Sever101** » Mon, 9. Oct 06, 11:39

I noticed the speed bug. The AI doesn't seem to be able to handle anything over the default engine setting. Unfortunately this makes it pretty useless.

I'll search around for a place that still suppports X2 scripts and stuff.

egosoft.com

egosoft.com

X2 Wingmen. Where and how?

X2 Wingmen. Where and how?