All fights against AI = afterburn + FA off turning

Sarah Jane Avory

Retro Queen
AI improvement on the way? THANKS AGAIN SARAH!!! :)

May I also suggest that NPCs learn to chase you properly after interdicting you? By promptly using subsequent boosts?
For instance, when I fly a fat Python interdicted by Viper security, I need to boost (slightly above 300m/s) only twice to be out of fire range and if I keep boosting, they cannot catch up. As per my experience, it seems that:
- They decide to go after me too late
- While they fly at full speed (310 m/s is the fastest a base Viper can go), they simply do not use boost (which is about 390m/s for a base Viper).

One could be scared being interdicted by a real player, while being interdicted by NPCs is nothing but a little inconvenience.
Changing that would both bring challenge and also get all these players learn not to simply submit and boost after an interdiction (except if they know their ship is faster than the one interdicting them).
Currently we have all these trader players who whine on the forum because this nasty pirate player took them down after they decided to submit and boost away in their T7. If NPC pirates would pose more of a threat, they would learn how to deal with, understand that piracy threat is part of the game and stop crying "griefer" every time they lose after taking the wrong decision...

It's all to do with pip management. I've changed the code on my build so that AI ships can go full pips to ENG when pursuing as they don't need SYS and if their prey is outside weapons range, they can go full to ENG and boost like mad! :) This is governed by rank as low ranked ships can't use full pips to ENG. But if you're being chased by an Elite and he's in a faster ship... :O :D
 

I can fly backwards at 2/3 of full speed with zero throttle and full speed reverse with full throttle.

Can you explain this in detail? I'm aware that there is throttle and forward/backward thrust. Is there a difference between those two settings? I tested it and didn't really notice a difference, but it might just be my faulty testing or not enough testing.
 
While it might be interesting and amusing to occasionally see an AI personality like that, it'd also be amusing to see some lower ranked pilots panicking at the idea of getting into a fight with a higher ranked player.

Saturday I was testing a bunch of different weapon loadouts on my combat equipped Anaconda in a Nav Beacon and got scanned by several wanted NPCs. A lot of them said something along the lines of "Uh, woops, this is not worth the fight" or something like that and sped away. Okay, I don't know if they were really "afraid" of me (I'm only 'expert') or my ship or just because I had no cargo, but in case you have no cargo they usually say something like "I don't know how any of you make a living!" so they probably thought they couldn't win against me.
 
It's all to do with pip management. I've changed the code on my build so that AI ships can go full pips to ENG when pursuing as they don't need SYS and if their prey is outside weapons range, they can go full to ENG and boost like mad! :) This is governed by rank as low ranked ships can't use full pips to ENG. But if you're being chased by an Elite and he's in a faster ship... :O :D
This woman is amazing. Can someone give her the 'Coolest and Most Diabolical AI Developer' or something?
 
Tasty AI. (but all the ships in ED are overtanked)

I saw here 100% backward speed while faoff. How?
 
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This is correct, they have no need. Also I can add that AI combat is getting a big upgrade. It's what I'm working on right now, adding a load of new tactics to make things more... interesting. ;) Oh, and with the new tactics, flying in reverse won't work. :) You have been warned.

That's a pretty big statement, given most players don't know how to deal with reverse flying. ;)

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If you did that it would be obvious you were screwing around. I'm asking you to prove what you say because as far as I'm concern the AI is behaving as intended and no change is going to be made to address whatever perceived issue you have unless you can prove to me and the dev team that there is in fact something fishy going on.

This game is not supposed to be a space combat sim in the same way as freespace. That was a single player story driven game with hundreds of cannon fodder AI, FPS style flight controls and was meant to be a very empowering and cool typical scifi space battle experience where you are the hero. I would hate for the NPC's in our game to be dumbed down to that level just so players can kill multiple ships every couple of minutes. They're supposed to act like real players would and that means trying to survive and avoid fire as much as dishing it out themselves.

I am a bit appalled you're giving that much attention to this .... poster... when many perfectly legit and well written threads about issues regarding your game get ignored.
 
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I don't often have to disengage from combat, but I was engaged by a wing of 3 Vipers (Master-Dangerous level as I recall) at a HI RES this morning, in my well-kitted Vulture, and it was looking like a no-win for me until the police arrived. They didn't get me, but they sure ran me off for a bit! Well-played Sarah ;)
 

Mike Evans

Designer- Elite: Dangerous
Frontier
That's a pretty big statement, given most players don't know how to deal with reverse flying. ;)

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I am a bit appalled you're giving that much attention to this .... poster... when many perfectly legit and well written threads about issues regarding your game get ignored.

They don't get ignored, they're read and looked into. They don't always get replies though. I have no obligation to write replies to the issues I see on here and I tend to only do so on areas that are directly related to my area of the game. This post mentioned flight assist off and that is something I am responsible for so it got my attention, that's all.
 

Javert

Volunteer Moderator
They don't get ignored, they're read and looked into. They don't always get replies though. I have no obligation to write replies to the issues I see on here and I tend to only do so on areas that are directly related to my area of the game. This post mentioned flight assist off and that is something I am responsible for so it got my attention, that's all.

Just out of interest, when you say they are read and looked into, I'm guessing that the devs don't have time to read all posts on the forum - do you get some kind of summary report from the Community Managers of key threads that might benefit from dev attention?
 

Javert

Volunteer Moderator
Demo please.

If the flight model is still the same as it was in Beta, you should be able to fly backwards at full speed, but only in FAOff.

I'm not sure how it's possible to fly backwards at full speed with FAOn but "using thrusters" as some on this thread have stated - I'd be interested to see or know how that is done. Thrusters on my ship are up, down, left, and right. Maybe you can map forward and reverse thrusters as well (?) but even if so, I think the flight model is supposed to be nerfed (oops...optimised) so that you can't fly backwards at full speed in FAOn. There was a huge thread about this last year.

At the time, the devs said that they wanted to discourage flying backwards as being the default mode of fighting.
 
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If the flight model is still the same as it was in Beta, you should be able to fly backwards at full speed, but only in FAOff.

I'm not sure how it's possible to fly backwards at full speed with FAOn but "using thrusters" as some on this thread have stated - I'd be interested to see or know how that is done. Thrusters on my ship are up, down, left, and right. Maybe you can map forward and reverse thrusters as well (?) but even if so, I think the flight model is supposed to be nerfed (oops...optimised) so that you can't fly backwards at full speed in FAOn. There was a huge thread about this last year.

At the time, the devs said that they wanted to discourage flying backwards as being the default mode of fighting.

You most certainly can map reverse thrusters, and I do. I've always found you can fly backwards (or sideways) at a higher velocity with FA off than with FA on. I'm curious, and skeptical, about the "full speed reverse with FA-ON" claim.

(My other posts in this thead detailing what I know of the flight model and what's ONLY possible with FA off: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=164543&page=4&p=2510328#post2510328 , https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=164543&page=7&p=2510793#post2510793)
 
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