Looking for specific aiscript

[deemerz]

Is there any aiscript in the box that I can mess with to try and improve AI behavior in cases where NPC ship is attacking player controlled ship? I mean those situations when you get close to some enemy ship and it pretends to be chasing you in order to get you out of the travel mode. AI do this so ineptly that it literally has no chance of success even if its ships' actual parameters (speed/maneuverability) are significantly superior to yours. I want to check if this behavior can be improved.

[deemerz]

Judging by the many answers here, this aforementioned behavior is implemented internally and cannot be changed by modding. Is this so?

[euclid]

No, it's not hardcoded but the problem is that there are many scripts and interrupts that trigger and define combat. And none is restricted to player-owned ships only. You would need to check all attack/fight related scripts which is tricky (and tedious) as most are called by other scripts like patrol, plunder etc. and those have restrictions that may limit, even cancel any engagement at one point.

Cheers Euclid

[deemerz]

Thanks for the tip. To be honest, I already checked some of the scripts you mentioned and didn't find what I seek.

My concern is not that the enemies can cancel engagement at some point, but the fact that AI isn't taking full advantage of ship's capabilities. Eg, I can circle in travel mode around a pack of [ZYA] Asps, Mambas and Chimeras using my Mk1-geared Courier for as long as you want, and they won't be able to even get close to me, not to mention hit me. In theory, such encounter should be incredibly dangerous for a player and should be avoided at all costs, but in practice, it's easier than taking candy from a baby - just turn travel mode on and fly thru them like a knife thru butter - they are unable to catch you anyway.

There seems to be some kind of restriction that forces AI controlled ships not to use travel mode properly in order to effectively intercept their targets. It looks as if they deliberately slow down long before getting close to their target, speed up again for a few seconds, slow down again, and so on and so forth. Inadequate behavior, in short. That's what I'd like to find in the scripts and try to fix. If it's possible.

[euclid]

Hm ... combat during TM, interesting. I cannot recall ever encourtered that but think it's a nice idea. Maybe you should adjust the title of your post accordingly to attract other scripters/modders

Cheers Euclid

[deemerz]

Hm ... combat during TM, interesting.

I wouldn't call it "combat during TM". Rather, a way for AI to effectively chase and intercept ships out of TM.

But, it seems like this behavior is a part of internal implementation.. after all. I tried to reproduce given scenario with debugging enabled in all available attack and interrupt scripts, but none of them ever triggered for player controlled ship. Travel mode is OP and can't be fixed via modding. Sadge.

[euclid]

Quite right, maybe something like "Combat using TM". And I'm not sure but think you can adjust that using modified scripts. For example there are restrictions like

Code: Select all

<check_value value="not this.zone.isclass.highway and not this.assignedcontrolled.travel.active and (this.assignedcontrolled.attention ge attention.visible)"/>

and I wonder what happens if you remove the travel.active part. Moreover there is the travel="true" option in the <move_to object= .. command and hence it should be possible to force the npc ships to use TM. However, I've never tested that and might be wrong.

Cheers Euclid

[Realspace]

I'd like to improve this aspect too. I've made both space very big and speeds high in my mods. Traveling through enemies is a piece of cake. It should not be..

[euclid]

In the past we had the disruptor missiles which are quite effective to disable TM. A missile that is fast, does no damage but disables engines for a few seconds. Not sure something like that can be implemented via script but worth a thought.

Cheers Euclid