There is a number of inconsistencies when comparing the AI to player piloted ships which leads to complaints of the AI cheating. We've been explicitly told that the AI does not cheat, so the only conclusion that explains the strange behaviour the AI exhibits is that the AI does not play by the same rules the players do, and that has to be tweaked.
First of all, supercruise and interdictions.
Not their minigame performance, which was confirmed to be not working as intended, but how the AI gets restricted by the game itself, or rather how it isn't at all.
Upon successful interdiction a player will be artificially sent spinning by having force applied to their ship, which even overrides thrusters commands, a small bugbear of mine. You can see this by how your own dorsal thrusters (if you have any) seemingly shut down for no reason, changing the amount of thrust they give despite the player input remaining the same. I would recommend a single directional force be applied as interdiction penalty, rather than have them spinning until the handicap time wears off, but that's not exactly the point here.
I've only ever seen one instance of an interdicting AI receiving slight 20 degree yaw upon interdiction, but compared to the spinning top impression players make it was absolutely inconsequential.
And the way I farmed merits for that 50 million payout was by interdicting faction supply ships and being interdicted by faction combat ships for several months, so that's from whence my credibility comes.
The point is that the AI hardly ever receives the same penalty when they interdict the player.
Similarly, the AI never receives the penalty for being interdicted.
In both cases they merely pop the existence in the instance you've been placed. No manoeuvering penalty, no engine exhaust trail denoting they've been in supercruise.
Additional scripts or checks need to be given to the AI, so that upon being interdicted or having interdicted someone, they are penalized just like a player would.
What is more, their FSD does not seem affected by increased cooldown time that comes from interdiction. They again simply pop into existence mere seconds after you've jumped yourself. Had it been a player, not only would their frameshift need to charge first, they would need to wait for their FSD to refresh/cool down/restart after the interdiction. The only time hurdle the AI faces is the spool up time, which is strangely exceptionally short for them.
This is more of an issue of how the AI gets spawned in an instance.
You can observe this phenomenon yourself by either accruing a bounty to your name or having a 1t or more of any cargo. Once those conditions are met, eventually a bounty hunter or a pirate will be spawned, either of them utterly fixated upon killing you.
In fact, their fascination will be so strong they will be able to overcome the limitations of the material realm.
It is observable upon destroying either their engines, FSD or powerplant. When any of these modules is malfunctioning (e.g. destroyed), supercruise becomes impossible.
Despite this, the AI that was attached to the player in question will be spawned in supercruise, albeit for a moment. They then will be dropped from supercruise, because the check had been made at that point if the vessel could be in supercruise.
If the player drops themselves into normal space, the spawning rules change to those that mimic what a player would do, that is follow the wake, slow down, jump into the instance their quarry was.
Which is just fine if it weren't for the fact that the AI doesn't seem to be delayed by distances or speed, as they will again just come into being in close proximity of the player, no travel time or slowing down required.
This is even more ridiculous in the aforementioned case of destroyed modules.
The given NPC that was attached to the player because of the bounty or cargo will be spawned in that instance, regardless if their FSD has been destroyed, or their powerplant or engines disabled.
The two latter cases enter supernatural levels of nonsense as the NPC will be sent spinning helplessly in space while spouting the usual insults in the comms.
And this follows not only in supercruise, but in jumps between stars as well!
The same incapacitated NPC will be spawned where the player is with a small chance of them being shaken off with consecutive jumps, all the while violating restrictions placed upon players.
Summing this point up, what is wrong about the AI and interdictions, is that they do not receive the same penalties upon interdiction and the spawning rules they are governed by do not correspond with the limitations placed on players (travel times, module integrity).
The aforementioned issue of modular integrity having little impression on the AI is also a problem in combat.
When a player piloted craft falls below 30% hull their ship has a high chance of malfunctioning and combat efficiency takes a nosedive - shields being disabled mid-recharge, powerplant shutting down, engines being unresponsive, weapon malfunctions.
Again, the AI is not affected by any of these in the slightest. The only time they are affected is when a given module integrity drops to a flat 0%. Up to that point their ships are in top notch condition, and their combat efficiency is as ever at its peak.
And peak efficiency is the last issue I have with the AI and their combat behaviour, that is their response times to player manoeuvres.
As AI level increases (harmless all the way to elite) they become more nimble and adept at using their thrusters, as they arguably should.
However what appears to be constant are their response times to player input.
Regardless of their level their response time is nigh on instant to the movement a player makes, and their only limitation across their levels is how good they are at using their thrusters.
I think that it would be appropriate to keep the borderline prescient abilities restricted to the Elite level NPCs, while all those below receive ever increasing delay before they reposition in relevance to the player.
Thanks for reading.
First of all, supercruise and interdictions.
Not their minigame performance, which was confirmed to be not working as intended, but how the AI gets restricted by the game itself, or rather how it isn't at all.
Upon successful interdiction a player will be artificially sent spinning by having force applied to their ship, which even overrides thrusters commands, a small bugbear of mine. You can see this by how your own dorsal thrusters (if you have any) seemingly shut down for no reason, changing the amount of thrust they give despite the player input remaining the same. I would recommend a single directional force be applied as interdiction penalty, rather than have them spinning until the handicap time wears off, but that's not exactly the point here.
I've only ever seen one instance of an interdicting AI receiving slight 20 degree yaw upon interdiction, but compared to the spinning top impression players make it was absolutely inconsequential.
And the way I farmed merits for that 50 million payout was by interdicting faction supply ships and being interdicted by faction combat ships for several months, so that's from whence my credibility comes.
The point is that the AI hardly ever receives the same penalty when they interdict the player.
Similarly, the AI never receives the penalty for being interdicted.
In both cases they merely pop the existence in the instance you've been placed. No manoeuvering penalty, no engine exhaust trail denoting they've been in supercruise.
Additional scripts or checks need to be given to the AI, so that upon being interdicted or having interdicted someone, they are penalized just like a player would.
What is more, their FSD does not seem affected by increased cooldown time that comes from interdiction. They again simply pop into existence mere seconds after you've jumped yourself. Had it been a player, not only would their frameshift need to charge first, they would need to wait for their FSD to refresh/cool down/restart after the interdiction. The only time hurdle the AI faces is the spool up time, which is strangely exceptionally short for them.
This is more of an issue of how the AI gets spawned in an instance.
You can observe this phenomenon yourself by either accruing a bounty to your name or having a 1t or more of any cargo. Once those conditions are met, eventually a bounty hunter or a pirate will be spawned, either of them utterly fixated upon killing you.
In fact, their fascination will be so strong they will be able to overcome the limitations of the material realm.
It is observable upon destroying either their engines, FSD or powerplant. When any of these modules is malfunctioning (e.g. destroyed), supercruise becomes impossible.
Despite this, the AI that was attached to the player in question will be spawned in supercruise, albeit for a moment. They then will be dropped from supercruise, because the check had been made at that point if the vessel could be in supercruise.
If the player drops themselves into normal space, the spawning rules change to those that mimic what a player would do, that is follow the wake, slow down, jump into the instance their quarry was.
Which is just fine if it weren't for the fact that the AI doesn't seem to be delayed by distances or speed, as they will again just come into being in close proximity of the player, no travel time or slowing down required.
This is even more ridiculous in the aforementioned case of destroyed modules.
The given NPC that was attached to the player because of the bounty or cargo will be spawned in that instance, regardless if their FSD has been destroyed, or their powerplant or engines disabled.
The two latter cases enter supernatural levels of nonsense as the NPC will be sent spinning helplessly in space while spouting the usual insults in the comms.
And this follows not only in supercruise, but in jumps between stars as well!
The same incapacitated NPC will be spawned where the player is with a small chance of them being shaken off with consecutive jumps, all the while violating restrictions placed upon players.
Summing this point up, what is wrong about the AI and interdictions, is that they do not receive the same penalties upon interdiction and the spawning rules they are governed by do not correspond with the limitations placed on players (travel times, module integrity).
The aforementioned issue of modular integrity having little impression on the AI is also a problem in combat.
When a player piloted craft falls below 30% hull their ship has a high chance of malfunctioning and combat efficiency takes a nosedive - shields being disabled mid-recharge, powerplant shutting down, engines being unresponsive, weapon malfunctions.
Again, the AI is not affected by any of these in the slightest. The only time they are affected is when a given module integrity drops to a flat 0%. Up to that point their ships are in top notch condition, and their combat efficiency is as ever at its peak.
And peak efficiency is the last issue I have with the AI and their combat behaviour, that is their response times to player manoeuvres.
As AI level increases (harmless all the way to elite) they become more nimble and adept at using their thrusters, as they arguably should.
However what appears to be constant are their response times to player input.
Regardless of their level their response time is nigh on instant to the movement a player makes, and their only limitation across their levels is how good they are at using their thrusters.
I think that it would be appropriate to keep the borderline prescient abilities restricted to the Elite level NPCs, while all those below receive ever increasing delay before they reposition in relevance to the player.
Thanks for reading.
