Turrents not returning fire

[Martyn van Buren]

I'd been having some trouble with free ships wandering onto my homeworld---it has a Mark IV world next door that I don't want to take out---so I tried setting up a forcefield and some turrets over the far side of the wormhole.  Strangely, though, I'm finding that AI frigates keep sidling up to the emplacement and shooting at it, and my turrents aren't shooting back on their own.  They're definitely within range----if I order them to shoot at the frigates, they'll do it, and sometimes they'll shoot at a ship at a ship at the same range, even other kinds that haven't fired yet.  On the other hand, there are a few AI bombers and fighters doing an odd dance, moving toward and away from the emplacement within range, and these they ignore.  If ships come closer and attack them, they respond reliably.  Anyway, is there something I can do about this?  I've never had trouble like this on one my worlds; do turrets have a less aggressive stance for AI worlds to stop them from starting fights?  If so, can I turn it off?  Or is it a bug?

I attach my save game, in case it is a bug.  I think I may have chosen my planets quite badly, please don't make fun of me 

[keith.lamothe]

There's a few things that could be going on, taking a look

[keith.lamothe]

Yep, definitely some need for improvement on the code side, thanks for letting us know

It's a combination of issues related to the rules for when an AI unit "frees" from guard duty to attack and the rules for when human units auto-fire on units, or more specifically when they don't.  In an effort to not free a ton of extra AI ships your ships typically avoid firing on non-free AI ships, etc.

To give an example, when I was testing one of the command-station guard missile frigates sidled up and started taking potshots at your turret network.  The turrets didn't return fire because doing so would alert/anger the missile frigate and the unit it was guarding.  Since the unit it was guarding was the command station, that basically means angering everything on the planet.

But something did seem weird with how close the AI units were able to get to you while maintaining their guard status, so will be investigating that.

[Martyn van Buren]

Thanks!  That's a useful rule.  May I ask, too---what's with the little clump of ships playing wallflower a little northeast of the turrets?  I've seen ships do this when I'm swarming over their worlds as well, which seems like pretty useless behavior; they don't help with the defense, but they don't stay where they're covered, either, which makes them pretty easy to mop up.

[keith.lamothe]

You mean the guys hanging out under the forcefield?  That's exactly what they're doing, there's a rule that prevents them from leaving that because (the thinking goes) they're more dangerous if they keep their cover.

There's also the tank/bomber groups partway from their guard posts to your ships that keep juggling back and forth.  That's them wanting to go after your stuff but being "leashed" back towards the guard post because they aren't allowed to get much further away than that.

In general they're not supposed to all bumrush you, you're supposed to be able to attack a planet one guard post at a time.

[Martyn van Buren]

Oh, I see; I meant the clump of bombers and fighters.  I guess I thought once a unit "woke up", it was free to go fight anywhere.  Thanks!

[keith.lamothe]

No, "alerted" (woken up) is still guarding, "angered" is when they free.  If you don't shoot back at them, they don't get angry unless they're firing from close range... which is why it's strange that some of those units were able to fire on you from inside that range (11,000) and not anger.  The missile frigates are long enough range to pull it off, though.

[Nalgas]

There's also the tank/bomber groups partway from their guard posts to your ships that keep juggling back and forth.  That's them wanting to go after your stuff but being "leashed" back towards the guard post because they aren't allowed to get much further away than that.

I've noticed that a few times recently, too, and it definitely at least looks buggy, because pretty much every time I've seen that kind of dancing movement without making up their minds one way or another in any other game, it's always been because of some kind of bug.

Even if it's a result of them doing what they're supposed to do, it still looks kind of ridiculous to have them diligently patrolling a tiny patch of space in the middle of nowhere instead of obviously guarding something or attacking you.  If they were a bit less spastic about it, they'd at least seem like they're swarming menacingly and trying to cut off your route to something important, but they come across more like they have extreme ADD with a 1.5 second attention span or something.  Heh.

Not exactly a major issue if it's mostly cosmetic, though.