mind that asteroid, egosoft can't fix it

[Kryten]

I can't believe after a year they still haven't fixed the autopilot flying into asteroids, is it that hard to fix?

[DarkAlignment]

I don't think autopilot flies into asteroids if SETA is not active, or at 6-7% for that matter. I had a couple of crashes when SETA was 8-10 so I reduced it. OOS it never happens though.

[LordForrester]

It is not that it cannot be fixed but the CPU cost to fixing it. Right now it is a very simple script that does not use that much CPU but when you make a complex script and apply that to a score or more ships in sector and you get a nice slow down.

[LordForrester]

I don't think autopilot flies into asteroids if SETA is not active, or at 6-7% for that matter. I had a couple of crashes when SETA was 8-10 so I reduced it. OOS it never happens though.

Never have had this problem even on 10x SETA. What is your CPU speed. I wonder if the problem is worse on slower computers.

[Kryten]

I wasn't on seta and my cpu can cope with it. It was a case of...

NOOOO, you'r not gonna hit that. Please, I haven't saved for ages... SPLAT.

Reload, same scenario, autopilot works as intended. I'd forgive if it was a kestrel but this was a slow ship

[Doc Quixotic]

Still, it's often a simple matter of CPU power: faster computers can handle autopilot much better than slower ones, especially on SETA. Also, accidents with hitting stations while docking are not nearly as common with a fast PC, even at SETA x10.

[Kryten]

Still, it's often a simple matter of CPU power: faster computers can handle autopilot much better than slower ones

CPU problem? don't talk nonsense, unless cpu's invented after TC was released can't cope with the job...

I've played TC on a P4 cpu and it was about the same for the splat factor. This is a case of the ship just not recognising an asteroid is in front of it. Nothing to do with cpu power.

[Rive]

Nothing to do with cpu power.

Eeeer... It's not quite true. You are right with that part about the crashing not depends on the CPU power. But a better script - which should run on every IS ship, of course - can require much more CPU power than the actual one. So the difference is that maybe with a better one you cannot use the game on that P4 at all.

[Kryten]

This was an empty unkown sector, with just my own personal ship, please don't tell me that cpu power was the problem.

I mentioned a p4 because that's what I originally played on. It was no worse then than it is now.

[Saetan]

I never ever had a ship crashing into asteroids. One or two times I had one crashing into a complex hub which was straigt in it's way in my complex-main-sector. But the last accident is a long time ago.

The autopilot could be better but it's not as bad I think. Also, cpu power is a problem. The autopilot is script based ... and if there is too many load on the cpu, the x-engine drops running scripts by random.

And don't forget, there is a whole universe to compute, not just the sector you are in it.

But maybe it's no cpu problem in your case but only being unlucky. ^^



edit: Of course it also depends on the ship which is flying. If you crash with 500m/s with 5mj of shields, you will be space-dust if you hit an asteroid.

My prospectors with 6x25mj which were collecting debris in a field of a destroyed asteroid, while I entered the sector, lost a bit of their shieldstrengh after hitting smaller asteroid some times.

[Rive]

This was an empty unkown sector...

IIRC it was said once that there is no difference, the scripts runs on fix frequency if they can. So the route is calculated with a fixed frequency and if your ship is too fast for this, then booooom.

So it's not THAT kind of CPU problem: it is a decision that this script with its frequency will work with the average CPUs on a busy sector, and a better one with higher frequency or with a difficult calculations won't.

[CBJ]

Several people have already given the right basic answer, but perhaps the OP might believe them with a little more explanation.

The game's AI pathing algorithms are fairly simplistic (see this description by mrbadger, which is pretty accurate). They cannot be significantly more complex, which would be necessary in order to improve the situation, because if they were then the game wouldn't be able to handle busy sectors. Whether the sector you are in happens to be busy or not is neither here nor there; the algorithms have to cope with busy ones too. The same applies to your CPU; the algorithms have to work on much slower CPUs too.

Within the current AI pathing model, collision avoidance has to be balanced against sensible route-finding. If you make ships better at avoiding asteroids then they also run a higher risk of getting stuck and going round in circles trying to navigate through a busy sector. The current settings aren't perfect, but they are the result of extensive tuning to get the best possible balance within the scope of the AI pathing model available.

Of course there are many ways to improve the AI pathing, but they would all start with rewriting the entire AI engine to support a completely new AI pathing system. This in turn would, incidentally, almost certainly require the whole game engine to become multi-threaded. Sadly that's not something that can practically be done in a patch for an existing game.

[Kryten]

Within the current AI pathing model, collision avoidance has to be balanced against sensible route-finding. If you make ships better at avoiding asteroids then they also run a higher risk of getting stuck and going round in circles trying to navigate through a busy sector. The current settings aren't perfect, but they are the result of extensive tuning to get the best possible balance within the scope of the AI pathing model available.

Cheers, this is the answer I can live with, the next time I hit an asteroid I can blame myself for not paying more attention

[Ulan Dhor]

I noticed that a Kestrel hits asteroids and gates much more often than an Advanced Discoverer or a Spytfire. I'm not sure whether the Kestrel is just that little bit too fast or has too bad steering, but I noticed that there is a good chance it hits an asteroid on autopilot if it was headed for the asteroid's center. That's why I don't like using a Kestrel on autopilot.

Of course, if there are several asteroids or a debris field next to the one it evades, it's nearly a sure thing that this won't go well.

[LordForrester]

I think the only way they could improve the Path finding AI and not overwhelm the game is to make 2 path finding Scripts. One advanced one and the current simple one. The only ship that would use the advanced one is the ship the player is commanding. The rest use the old script. This would at lest reduce player deaths. This would still hit the CPU harder but not overwhelmingly.

On older CPUs it would still hit them hard when running it in SETA. Could be an option that can be turned on or off as well.

[Rive]

The only ship that would use the advanced one is the ship the player is commanding. The rest use the old script. This would at lest reduce player deaths.

As I see the topics the most painful is not the occasional player death but the property Suicidal wingmen, traders or scouts when the boss is IS and so...

[killakanz]

I call it autopilock for a reason. I never trust it. Sure you say it'll evade when it gets close to another ship, but have you noticed how close the other ship has to be before it tries to evade? If it were a direct collision course, you'd be spacedust before the autopilock even responds.

I've actually seen my autopilock ram other freighters going the same way through a jumpgate repeatedly because, it seems, when 'docking' with a gate it ignores everything.

The AI's flying abilities can be quite amusing though, watching an AI freighter stuck between two asteroids spinning in circles. Or parking myself very very close to the nearest trading station and watching the occasional police patrol splat themselves into it while trying to scan me. Saying that though it's funny just how many civilian ships bump into trading stations anyway, particularly Paranid ones. Either they're going to fast for their own talents or they can't 'see' it until it's too late in those Paranid home systems. I've even seen a few AI freighters bump into my complex hubs while trying to dock to it.

And I haven't even mentioned dogfighting yet. Savage Spur anyone?

[g04tn4d0]

I can't believe after a year they still haven't fixed the autopilot flying into asteroids, is it that hard to fix?

Try not to think of the autopilot as a real-life person who intelligently flies your ship. Instead, consider it an advanced form of modern-day autopilot where the pilot must still pay attention while the ship is in motion and take over if necessary. Once you get your head around that concept, it begins to make more sense if a pilot says that a certain area of space is too dangerous to use the autopilot so the ship must be navigated manually.

[Threesixtyci]

I suspect you are talking about TC, and are referring only to wingmen that refuse to stay in formation? If that's the case.... yeah, it's broken in TC and EGO has yet to fix it.

Reunion's wingmen match your speed, but in TC it's jacked up. It seems that in TC the wingmen constantly overshoot you and orbit around only to overshoot you again and again.

They'll run into you or any nearby objects that happen to get in their way, too. Which usually ends up with them disintegrating or yourself. Seems to me that all collision detection scripts get turned off or something with these wingmen that can't form up on the lead ship.

Only solution is to not use wingmen or to have wingmen with much slower ships than your own, while never allowing them to catch up to you.

[Golden_Gonads]

I'm fairly certain my auto-pilot has never crashed into anything significant, under SETA or atherwise. The 'other' pilot on the other hand has crashed into asteroids, stations, complexes, hostile ships, non-hostile ships, his own ships (Most recently a second-hand Barracuda Raider he picked up for under 60,000 and JUST repaired fully by hand. He then got back in his own ship, reversed out and CRUNCH, CRACK, BOOM!), his own personal ship that was being repaired and was thus stationary and jumpgates. In fact, the only thing he is yet to crash into is a planet.

P.E.B.K.A.C.