AI War Beta 4.048 Released!

[Echo35]

Right, I wouldn't do that to the AI behavior

Well carry on then!

Well, it would be that AI ships wouldn't retreat if they were under their OWN shields, anyway, not yours.

Not forcefield immune things like Cutlasses. That's more along what I was thinking. If they ran into your ships with shields like the Spire ship, you could hold them there and kill them pretty easy, but like was mentioned, not for the AI behavior.

[x4000]

That wouldn't be very "immune" in that case, heh.   Anyway, all agreed.

[Sizzle]

Since they're "auto kiting",  maybe some sense of where the current "blob" is (the largest mass of nearest ships) so that when they're done kiting -- that is no enemies in range, they (toggleable?) will snap back towards the blob.

[keith.lamothe]

Since they're "auto kiting",  maybe some sense of where the current "blob" is (the largest mass of nearest ships) so that when they're done kiting -- that is no enemies in range, they (toggleable?) will snap back towards the blob.

Well, I guess that could be defined as the averaged center of all ships on the planet, but it would also require a ship to remember that it's kiting.  Currently it has no mode to that effect, it's just a bit of extra logic in how it handles the fact that it has a target (it just maintains effectiveRange-500 from the target).

I'm guessing that wouldn't be very useful, as it would really have to involve all your mobile ships on the planet and they'd all have to do it or not do it (if you had a toggle, either on or off).

But it might be useful if it were set per-control-group, so you could have some designated groups that would auto-clump when they no longer had any target.

My question is: which of you would actually find that useful?

[Echo35]

My question is: which of you would actually find that useful?

I was actually just thinking about bringing a Mobile Rally Post or something along with the fleet to solve that issue. Course I can't remember if those things can even warp or not...

[ShadowOTE]

Better idea - ships rally on fleet command ships in their control group (ie, flagship line) and as a toggled behavior flagships group together when  not in combat regardless of control group.

[Invelios]

I'm still having scout starship problems. I used the starship filter, and since you added the ability to see "eaten" ships, I found out where they where. Check about 10 min later and they where gone, so I assumed they died and I could build more, but the build menu still says I have 5 out of 5 in service, even though it didn't build any more. And yes, I used the find button in galaxy view and still only found the one on my HW, no others.

Also, is there a way I can send units to a planet and have them ignore rally posts? Like is I have a redirector post on a planet, but I want to move my regular fleet there, and not have them start patrolling my planets.

[x4000]

I'm still having scout starship problems. I used the starship filter, and since you added the ability to see "eaten" ships, I found out where they where. Check about 10 min later and they where gone, so I assumed they died and I could build more, but the build menu still says I have 5 out of 5 in service, even though it didn't build any more. And yes, I used the find button in galaxy view and still only found the one on my HW, no others.

I know, I haven't really fixed this yet.  I was in process of working on that and decided I really needed to do a release because of some of the other bugs.  It's my intent to get this one tomorrow, I'm at least closer now than I was before, heh.

Also, is there a way I can send units to a planet and have them ignore rally posts? Like is I have a redirector post on a planet, but I want to move my regular fleet there, and not have them start patrolling my planets.

Not that I can think of, unfortunately.

[keith.lamothe]

Better idea - ships rally on fleet command ships in their control group (ie, flagship line) and as a toggled behavior flagships group together when  not in combat regardless of control group.

Please define:

"rally" - do you mean the when ships are just built or come through a wormhole onto the planet (which is the only time they rally now, iirc), or when they no longer have a target, or both, or what?

"flagships" - do you mean absolutely all of your flagship-line ships on the planet?

"group together" - do you mean move towards their averaged center?

"when  not in combat" - do you mean when they don't have something in their target list, or when there are no dangerous AI units on the planet, or what?

Thanks

[Invelios]

Also, is there a way I can send units to a planet and have them ignore rally posts? Like is I have a redirector post on a planet, but I want to move my regular fleet there, and not have them start patrolling my planets.

Not that I can think of, unfortunately.

That's too bad. I went ahead and posted a report on Mantis about that. #0001964

P.S. How do you get the numbers to be a link to the report? I'm pretty sure I have seen other people make the numbers a link directly to the report on Mantis

[Echo35]

I think I'm going to go report this one to Mantis, but after having a lot of trouble with overly aggressive Neinzul Enclaves (Seriously, they're hitting me with waves at least twice the size and 2 Mk levels higher than the AI is) I noticed I was having a super hard time rebuilding my fleet. Upon looking at my resource flows, I was shocked to see my Crystal dipping at over -2,000 and my Metal getting close to -1,000. Odd seeing as all I'm building are ships from two Space Docks (Unassisted) and a few turrets. I opened up my resource flow chart and added up the Crustal and according to that I should be at about +175, but the game thinks I'm well over 2,000 below. I haven't added my Metal up yet but the numbers are fairly similar. Is there some hidden crazy multiplaier I'm being dumb and not noticing or what?

Metal is up to -1K now and Crystal is at -3K. I even paused my constructors so all that's being built is the defenses on my main choke point planet being rebuilt from the scrap piles all those Neinzul left behind. I don't get it.

[keith.lamothe]

The resource flows don't report everything, I've found (notably ships building modules), but they do get most of the usuals.  Please include your save in that mantis report

[Echo35]

The resource flows don't report everything, I've found (notably ships building modules), but they do get most of the usuals.  Please include your save in that mantis report

None of those either. My couple of Riot ships are already built. Anyway, filing a Mantis ticket now.

EDIT: Here you go. http://www.arcengames.com/mantisbt/view.php?id=1965

[x4000]

Also, is there a way I can send units to a planet and have them ignore rally posts? Like is I have a redirector post on a planet, but I want to move my regular fleet there, and not have them start patrolling my planets.

Not that I can think of, unfortunately.

That's too bad. I went ahead and posted a report on Mantis about that. #0001964

P.S. How do you get the numbers to be a link to the report? I'm pretty sure I have seen other people make the numbers a link directly to the report on Mantis

Cool. As I noted when that feature came out, it's pretty basic at the moment, just because people wanted the basics of that really bad.  Of course, that always tends to snowball, right?  Well, I have this, so what I really need is also that.   I'm not saying it's wrong, I'm just saying we haven't gone through that cycle very far at all with this, so it's just the rough basic feature and none of the crazy customized extra options.  A lot on our plates right now, so not sure when that will get more love -- but getting it voted up on the vote tallies screen (and voting it up yourself) so that it's at the top of the pile is a sure-fire way to make sure it gets more attention sooner.

For the numbers, on the forums there's no special secret.  They just paste the number and then make a link to the url of that issue using standard bbcode.  On mantis itself, you can cross-link in comments using exactly the syntax you did.

[ShadowOTE]

Better idea - ships rally on fleet command ships in their control group (ie, flagship line) and as a toggled behavior flagships group together when  not in combat regardless of control group.

Please define:

"rally" - do you mean the when ships are just built or come through a wormhole onto the planet (which is the only time they rally now, iirc), or when they no longer have a target, or both, or what?

"flagships" - do you mean absolutely all of your flagship-line ships on the planet?

"group together" - do you mean move towards their averaged center?

"when  not in combat" - do you mean when they don't have something in their target list, or when there are no dangerous AI units on the planet, or what?

Thanks

Ok, I guess I walked into that one

After further consideration, perhaps give flagship-line ships the ability to build stationary, short-lived rally posts in enemy territory. After a few minutes (longer as you go up the tiers) the rally points decay. Ships not presently engaged in combat will attempt to regroup at the nearest rally point. Not sure how difficult it would be to add that option, but since something similar was done with riot ships I'm guessing it's possible.

Also, if you really wanted to, the rally points could serve as repair facilities, freeing up your MRS cap for defense and allowing more granular rebalancing. Just a thought.

Edit - http://www.arcengames.com/mantisbt/view.php?id=1966