Stupidity of AI pilots

[Kalann]

Dear Frontier,

Mostly loving the game so far, however If i have one gripe, it is about the utter STUPIDTY of the games AI Pilots. I know they have differing levels of "ability" But without exception their level of intelligence is zero.

What i mean by this, is as follows:

1.) Ships that are shown as green, i.e allied interdicting and attacking you, saying die scum... err we are allies?
2.) AI ships entering and exitting stations.. this is the worst and one experience i just had really says it all. In my Lakon 7, coming into George Lucas Station. I'm nearly all the way through the letterbox, when an AI pilot in an Anaconda, decides that instead of waiting for my to get out of the letterbox, he is just going to fly straight into me. Fortunately I have a top grade shield, so its not instant hull breach and massive repair bill. Now having crashed into me (where does it think I can go?) instead of maybe backing off and letting me out, he guns it full throttle, jamming us both into the letterbox. By some miracle, I managed to force enough of a gap, to allow me to go down, whilst he is trying to crush me against the side of the station. I the land with shield down, and hull at about 80%, while he continues to gun it in the letterbox (despite still be jammed) and gets blown up by the station.

Heck i even get this kind of stupidy from AI pilots in a Sidewinder etc, fortuntely they just bounce off the shield.

Is there any chance you could change them and at least give them the command not to fly into the letterbox when another ship is already in it? Especially if they are a big ship and there is not chance both ships can fit..

It would also be good, if they ever took any form of avoiding manouver, rather than just keeping going on their flight path and crashing into you..

 

[shadowwar]

One more thing that irked the you know what out of me was a ship in my station got blown to bits by Station security. Then the bits of blown up ship floated everywhere in the space dock and my ship got hit while waiting to depart! I mean this cost me plenty to repair too. BTW I agree 100% with your comment about dumb ass AI Pilots. Bain of docking they are!

 

[Kramster]

Green ships are allied/friends with that faction not everyone else around them, it does not make you their friend.
Think of as being a accepted in your home country, hit someone from the same country with the same passport in a bar and I will guarantee he will hit you back.
Agree the npc ships can be a bit of a pain in/around stations sometimes, but be aware and keep your eyes open...if you think they suck go to a busy station with real players

 

[Carlos Fandango]

Yeah I know what you mean. I was going into a space station last night and could see a NPC waiting to come out. All seemed clear so I started to enter when a Cobra came rushing out, Hit the NPC and bounced off into the letter box aperture and into my face. I tried to reverse and thrust down, but he hit me full in the face killed my shields and hull down to 46%. I usually have 4 pips in SYS when docking, but not on this occasion. The Cobra blew up. The speed he came out at me was stupid, almost as if he was boosting. It certainly wasn't like the rest of the NPC who always take an age to dock.

 

[spectra7045]

Twice now my ship has been shot to pieces leaving a station.
The NPC ship ahead of me stopped and somehow got stuck and I couldn't get round it as I bashed into it and in trying to get round it I picked up lotering threats then got blown to pieces 100k+ for the insurance on my ship.
Today the same thing happened again, this time a lakon 9 (I think) came shooting in from nowhere bashed into me and kept going tried to get out of the way but was picking up loitering warnings so thought I would back into the station which I did tried to request docking but was refused then got blown to pieces another 100k+ loss.

Am I just unlucky or am I doing something wrong

 

[babelfisch]

On allied status: Just because he belongs to a faction allied to you it doesn't mean there can't be criminals in this faction.

On NPC behavior at stations: They fly better than every real commander I have seen so far. Sure, AI could always be better. The fittest will survive, if you are in a sidewinder and there comes a t9 you better step aside. Just how it works in real traffic...

EDIT: If you are trapped in a station because of blocked letter box, save and exit to main menu before the station shoots you to pieces.

If you are afraid of floating parts of destroyed ships, install a shield generator or enter hangar.

Almost all problems can be solved easily.

 

[Wallace]

Dear Frontier,

Mostly loving the game so far, however If i have one gripe, it is about the utter STUPIDTY of the games AI Pilots. I know they have differing levels of "ability" But without exception their level of intelligence is zero.

What i mean by this, is as follows:

1.) Ships that are shown as green, i.e allied interdicting and attacking you, saying die scum... err we are allies?
2.) AI ships entering and exitting stations.. this is the worst and one experience i just had really says it all. In my Lakon 7, coming into George Lucas Station. I'm nearly all the way through the letterbox, when an AI pilot in an Anaconda, decides that instead of waiting for my to get out of the letterbox, he is just going to fly straight into me. Fortunately I have a top grade shield, so its not instant hull breach and massive repair bill. Now having crashed into me (where does it think I can go?) instead of maybe backing off and letting me out, he guns it full throttle, jamming us both into the letterbox. By some miracle, I managed to force enough of a gap, to allow me to go down, whilst he is trying to crush me against the side of the station. I the land with shield down, and hull at about 80%, while he continues to gun it in the letterbox (despite still be jammed) and gets blown up by the station.

Heck i even get this kind of stupidy from AI pilots in a Sidewinder etc, fortuntely they just bounce off the shield.

Is there any chance you could change them and at least give them the command not to fly into the letterbox when another ship is already in it? Especially if they are a big ship and there is not chance both ships can fit..

It would also be good, if they ever took any form of avoiding manouver, rather than just keeping going on their flight path and crashing into you..

Gah I completely agree - this is ruining the game for me.

A few days ago I was shot down by security forces in the mouth of the space station for no reason (I had been trading completely legal goods in a Lakon Type 7 and never once deployed hardpoints or attacked anything). Possibly an idiot AI player had smacked into me or grazed me at some point and then somehow I got a WANTED status for it, although I didn't notice any WANTED status - I ticketed Frontier reporting it as a bug but over 48 hours later I still have no received a response. 1.5 mil buyback and over 2 mil in cargo lost.

Then a few hours later I had the same problem as the OP. An Orca rose up and gunned it towards the mouth of the station as I was flying through the slot entering the station. I didn't have time to reverse so I tried to speed up and get through the slot but the Orca pinned me into the mouth of the station, and then just kept driving forwards rather than reversing to resolve the situation.

The security forces blamed me and shot me down. Another 1.5 mil buyback and over 2 mil cargo up in smoke.
I'd lost over 7 million credits in a short space of time all due to AI stupidity in space stations.

This stupid AI HAS to improve because it is making an otherwise great game almost unplayable at times, and very unfair on players who incur fines / WANTED statuses / hull damage and even destruction through no fault of their own. Why should I lose hours and hours of trading profits because of the AI stupidity?