AI Pilots ranking up

[shilhi]

Would such a thing be possible? On the surface it would seem pretty simple, especially if it was just stacking better modifiers on them and unlocking new abilities.
Having a progression system of sorts for long standing pilots would be rewarding to a player that manages to keep his combat/trade ships alive and safe as time progresses. Perhaps it could even have it's own drawbacks as well, such as the higher the rank the higher the salary they demand? This way when a pilot has 'demonstrated' their ability and is eligible for a promotion, the player can choose when to actually do so.

This would have the added effect of a much wealthier, advanced player not willing to simply throw his most powerful ships to their deaths in suicide missions and players in younger games playing much more conservatively with their smaller fighter fleets since those ships aren't simply monetary investments anymore, but also time and skill investments in their pilots and crew.

Good idea? Okay idea? I always wished for more crew management in older X games.

[RAVEN.myst]

Assuming that staff/crew (similar to Rebirth) are used (I don't know whether this'll be the case), I would very much hope that they will improve skills with experience (I believe this was done for Rebirth in a mod, so it's certainly not technically insurmountable.) For one thing, this would make it more acceptable for a player to hire a lower-skilled crew member, knowing that over time it would improve (as opposed to the absurd hiring-firing frenzies in Rebirth, going through at times up to dozens of candidates for every single position, because with static skills one is only willing to accept crew/staff of a certain skill level, since it's permanent.)

[gbjbaanb]

Whatever was wrong with the X3 system of Marines - send them on training courses for tech skills, and let them gain experience in the field. Why should pilots or mechanics be any different?

[Axeface]

I just hope that different levels of AI will have real observable differences, like a good pilot should be hard to shoot down because they use evasive manouvers all the time, and can even attack a capital without getting blown away instantly. Would be amazing if they used boost in a clever way too.

AI skill improvement (and varied enemy ai) could be one of the most rewarding parts of the game, but in previous games it's been very lackluster.

Oh, and if the player has 'decoupled' mode then the ai should have it too and be able to shoot at you while moving backwards.

[Morkonan]

Would such a thing be possible? ...

It has already been done in mods for X3TC/AP. So, yes, it's possible. In the vanilla game, it was already done for certain types of pilots, like CLS and training up traders to UT status, for instance.

I'd love to see it. I just wouldn't want it to be so detailed that it hogs up too much resources. So, I would "settle" for player assets like "Commodores" that could be put in charge of a flotilla of ships and would increase in capability, giving that specific flotilla of ships certain bonuses, perhaps.

But, ideally, all pilots would have to receive some sort of training. And, ideally, this training would be specific to their function, much like some of the training regimens for "pilots" in X3TC.

If you want military pilots, then they have to be trained along the "Military" path of training, requiring a special Military Pilot Training complex. Pilots would occasionally fly "training ships" around the facility, for immersion, and may fly between such facilities, on occasion, if more than one exists, amping up their training rate. Their abilities would progress, much like "tunings" avallable for ships at shipyards, to make it easy to incorporate their rank into the overall ship scheme they'll be piloting. (No really "new" abilities gained, just amping up a ships capabilities a bit, so its not too complicated.)

Merchant pilots would have their own training schools, too, but would largely be piloting low-level freighters as a practical, hands-on, training experience, just like in X3TC.

Logistics pilots would have a training regime similar to what's already in X3TC. They'd train, or would at least be centrally located, at Merchant Pilot facilities.

And, lastly, "Officer's Training Academies" would traing top-rank Military Pilots to be commanders of large ships and fleets.

Lastly, just so capital and other ships would never be useless, if the player didn't yet have these sorts of training facilities established, they could hire merchant traders and mercenary pilots/fleet commanders that wouldn't have the same bonuses as a truly trained Officer or other type of player-trained pilot.

Ideally, that's the sort of complexity I'd like to see. But, I'd settle for a slight expansion on what exists already in X3TC. And, I think that's what we'll end up with, anyway, so I'm pretty hopeful

[antoniut]

Would such a thing be possible? ...

It has already been done in mods for X3TC/AP. So, yes, it's possible....

+1

My two cents:

Gaining XP

-Slow gain for stars through time, and the possibility to gain a star paying an "academy". Maybe Player HQ could be used for this function

Stars effect:

-Pilot nav stars affecting the "base" forward, strafe, boosting, etc. values of the ship's engine: 3 stars, 100% of the values, 2 stars, 95 %, 1 star 90%, 4 stars 105 %, 5 stars 110 %, and so

-Defense values affecting to velocity response, damage, and effective distance values of the weapons mounted

-Moral more dinamic, 5 stars from the start and loosing moral attached to the % of the ship's hull, low moral, crew bail out (pods)

-Enginnering: more stars, fast repair and % hull, leaving % to be repaired in shipyards or by repairing ships or by drones? As in XR?

No more ideas for now. Dunno if technically feasible, cpu load, etc.
Sorry for my english