The following changes will be made next patch:

AI will no longer dock at an AI base when fleeing.

AI will wait 30 seconds between jumping when fleeing, though they may still run within the galaxy that they are in.

Speedy Gonzales will be nerfed, so that he isn't practically impossible to kill before he gets away.

Also next universe, many AI will no longer run away - unfortunately it would have to done manually for each individual spawn this universe. Some AI may still have this option removed manually, I will talk with Voom if he can fix some of the more important ones such as Rumble 1/2/3/Mumble.

Do you have a time frame for the next patch?

Thanks Hal

It is good to see you are responive to player input

IMO hi-level AI, those found in W3 and DG bosses in W0-2, should do everything they can to avoid being killed, based on their shields and their prime attacker's shields, including docking. There may be room in SS for some kamikaze races... but for the most part they should be self preserving.

The SS community has grown lazy and expects the mind numbing stupidity that the AI were using in the past. AI should use tactics that you'd expect from players of the same level. Based on the design of most of the AI ships, (all in fact), they all have pilots, and these pilots are supposed to be smart enough to pilot a space craft... one would think they would also have been given some battle tactics to go with the piloting.

If DMs are having problems then they need to rethink their strategy.

One thing would help is if you make it so that someone or an AI can't dock while being tractored. There are items in game to break loose from a tractor beam and both the AI and players should/could use them.

Anything that is automatically aggressive to you should not run away, period. They are the ones that attacked you not you attacking some innocent by stander.

No one ever said they should be mind numbingly stupid, just not run and hide. With the new AI code, the AI actually use their eth lasers when you just sit on a wormhole that covers your entire ship instead of their normal weapons.

If the AI were sentient beings piloting their ship, why doesn't it go into stasis and a pod or spirit pop out? Because they probably aren't sentient beings piloting the ships but something akin to control bots. But who really cares. If an AI was as smart as a player, who ever coded the AI would be an instant billionaire selling the AI code to the military, the science sector, and numerous other people and companies. Getting AI as smart as people is kinda asking for trouble if you believe the movies and it's damn near impossible.

And with AI continuously running will always be bad for DMs. Having enough energy to scoop and relay drones ten or more times would mean sacrificing everything else. The AI would turn and jump before the DM had time to lay their drones and have all the drones firing and striking the fleeing AI.

You should make any pirate ai not run (the ones that drop pirate crests).

have an idea...how about a "gravity well" drone? Just an ordinary drone, except its weapons are tractors, and it has a MASSIVE +weight bonus when deployed. What would be best is if it could tractor any and all enemies in range, and its tractors are invincable, to make the gravity effect more credible.

Neat.




O.o Broken.




mmm cept organics like the w4 ai



But pirates are the scaredeyest ever when the chips are down, they should run away screaming with a nice sound clip XD

Hmmmm. Unless these were really expensive and hard to replace, it would be very broken in PvP, I think.

And you never broke off an attack on an AI when you were loosing the battle?



And what tactics so you use when you realize that you've stepped into a pile of dodo?

Seeing as my GG is cheap, I rarely run. The only AI I will run from are the aggressive ones that jump me. And most times only when there are multiple AI attacking that I can't all kill before I die. And once again, AI aren't people.



AI docking until they are at full health was really pointless. Them jumping to the next gal was fine, that wasn't that hard to follow but them jumping back and forth was pointless as well. It hurt multiple classes and would have dissuaded people from becoming those classes. The admins really don't want to put code into a game that puts a dark cloud over a class.

You know, I really wouldn't mind this horrible coward code too much if BGs got a speed nerf. I am a gunner in a porp, I go a reasonably fast 108, yet BGs still easily outrun me! I used to use my antitractor to get ahead of them and kite them, pushing out of range if/when I got too damaged and was in danger of dying. It took a while, but BGs were easy to pwn. Now, since they run, I have to chase after them and pray there will be a sun or planet I can antitractor off of to slingshot myself in front of the BG, otherwise I am screwed. I can't use a normal tractor, either, because then I would not be able to kite BGs out, they would get in front of me and slowly crack my shield.

Green Battleships better be on the new list of ais that can't run. These thigns have too much shields and take too long to kill to runa way when they get low.

the 30 second between jumps thing actually is a nerf to me and my drones.

My tactic is if im near a wormhole drop all drones but 1 on one side of the wormhole and 1 on the other. The ai jumps away from the 4 lipos, gets shot by the 1 and jumps back into the 4 lipos. Rinse and repeat.
Now with the 30 second gap ill need to scoop and redeploy on either side cos that individual drone wont be able to kill the ai and will just cause it to run away to a different wormhole.