Standing orders for SLFs?

[Stealthie]

Straightforward question....

Is there any way to set some kind of "standing order" for an SLFs prior to launch?

Or, does the NPC AI improve, so they can respond usefully, as they rank-up?

It'd be nice if, for example, you could set a "Defend the mothership" standing-order so that, as soon as an interdiction happened, you could launch the SLF to attack the ship responsible.
Equally, if you're BHing, it'd be nice if you could set an "Attack my target" standing order so that you could enact strikes with less faffing around.
On the flip-side of the coin, it might also be nice if there were orders such as "strip the target's shields" or "disable the target's drives" for pirates to use.

I get that FDev have said that they like things to be a "process" so you have to interact with the UI - and that makes sense in cases such as docking - but when you've supposedly got an NPC sitting around somewhere in the back of your ship for no other purpose than manning a fighter, you'd think they'd be capable of "scrambling" at a moment's notice.

Or, as I said, do NPCs act more usefully without needing to be told once they've ranked-up?
I had an SLF pilot who was "deadly" but I didn't notice much initiative as a result.

 

[Requiem Mortis]

Default is defend, you must specify anything else

 

[Stigbob]

I'd prefer standard energy settings, my NPC makes odd power choices.

 

[Daniel Cloudsifter]

Straightforward question....

Is there any way to set some kind of "standing order" for an SLFs prior to launch?

Or, does the NPC AI improve, so they can respond usefully, as they rank-up?

It'd be nice if, for example, you could set a "Defend the mothership" standing-order so that, as soon as an interdiction happened, you could launch the SLF to attack the ship responsible.
Equally, if you're BHing, it'd be nice if you could set an "Attack my target" standing order so that you could enact strikes with less faffing around.
On the flip-side of the coin, it might also be nice if there were orders such as "strip the target's shields" or "disable the target's drives" for pirates to use.

I get that FDev have said that they like things to be a "process" so you have to interact with the UI - and that makes sense in cases such as docking - but when you've supposedly got an NPC sitting around somewhere in the back of your ship for no other purpose than manning a fighter, you'd think they'd be capable of "scrambling" at a moment's notice.

Or, as I said, do NPCs act more usefully without needing to be told once they've ranked-up?
I had an SLF pilot who was "deadly" but I didn't notice much initiative as a result.

A standing order to auto-launch would be nice - combine it with deploy hardpoints or something?

As far as what we have now, there are two useful postures: Aggressive Posture and Defensive Posture (Or "Fire at Will" and "Defend the ship"). In Defense, the fighter pilot will only engage ships that have fired on you. They will also switch targets if another targets fires on you more (sometimes). I've also seen this posture get the fighter killed a lot because it will ignore threats to itself in favor of whatever is threatening the mother ship. In contrast, Aggressive Posture tells the pilot to attack anything hostile to your ship at his/her choice. Their survivability goes way up (assuming they're highly skilled) as they will engage/destroy enemy SLFs and/or ships that come after them as well as pursuing targets of their own.

"Attack my target" temporarily overrides either of these and tells the pilot to attack your target. They will then return to their previous combat posture when that target is eliminated.

If I'm only fighting one target at a time, I generally leave them in defense and add the "attack my target". If I'm engaging multiple targets (say in a Haz Res), and especially if one is an enemy SLF, I'll switch to aggressive. He'll shoot down their fighter and keep switching targets to keep himself alive and the enemy busy. In a combat zone, it depends. Sometimes I keep them on defense... and they attract less missile ships that instantly kill them. Other times, I put them on aggressive and watch him wipe out ship after ship on his own while I'm killing other targets. He also seems to survive longer (deadly/elite ranked) against a low level missile ship if on aggressive.

But back to your main point, yes, I wish there was a way to get them to auto-launch at the same time I deploy hard points. Seems kind of obvious.

 

[Ravnik]

If you are interdicted and launch the slf as soon as you drop out of cruise, then i am sure the slf attacks the target as soon as he fires on you.

Ooops..Daniel beat me to that one!!

As to the auto launch, im not sure that would work, as on some occasions Commanders, myself included, may like to pilot the SLF and let the crew fly the mothership. Its nice to have a bit of speed and manouverability sometimes instead of the graceful slow turn of the 'Conda

 

[Daniel Cloudsifter]

I'd prefer standard energy settings, my NPC makes odd power choices.

Yep. Though Deadly/Elite pilots tend to make pretty good power choices (similar to what I would do). Still, I prefer them to be in my Gu-97s (with plasma cannons) because they fly like aces and tear ships apart!

 

[Stealthie]

Default is defend, you must specify anything else

Heh, that's interesting.

I wondered if they might have a "default" setting.

Last night I was BHing in my Corvette and one of the "pirate lords" I went after turned out to be flying an AspS.
I'd launched my SLF and stripped his shields and I'm sure he must've shot me too but I felt a bit sorry for him so I thought I'd leave it for my SLF to finish him off but she was just flying around, patrolling.
In the end, I had to issue her with an "attack my target" order before she'd engage the "pirate lord".

Presumably, she didn't think I needed much defending so she was off taking selfies or something.

 

[Stigbob]

Yep. Though Deadly/Elite pilots tend to make pretty good power choices (similar to what I would do). Still, I prefer them to be in my Gu-97s (with plasma cannons) because they fly like aces and tear ships apart!

I'm a big fan of SLF's I'd just like my power choices to be persistent, I don't mean NPC's shouldn't be able to control them I'd just like it to revert to my setting when I take over, mothership too for that matter.

Heh, that's interesting.

I wondered if they might have a "default" setting.

Last night I was BHing in my Corvette and one of the "pirate lords" I went after turned out to be flying an AspS.
I'd launched my SLF and stripped his shields and I'm sure he must've shot me too but I felt a bit sorry for him so I thought I'd leave it for my SLF to finish him off but she was just flying around, patrolling.
In the end, I had to issue her with an "attack my target" order before she'd engage the "pirate lord".

Presumably, she didn't think I needed much defending so she was off taking selfies or something.

If you give the aggressive stance order they'll attack anything you fire on, no further orders needed. If you give attack my target they'll switch back to aggressive once it's finished.