There is a rather large gap between NPCs passing a Turing test and NPCs with a bit more verisimilitude. As it stands a given NPC may as well not even exist beyond a momentary tactical encounter, and even within those laser-beam-narrow confines, still don't seem real. They ill-disguised props and stage dressing...flying pinatas of materials and credits that vanish or are swapped out should the spotlight drift from them for even a moment.
I can excuse the inability of being able to hold a protracted conversation with an NPC, or not simulating their entire virtual lives in minutiae, but this game revolves around mercantile activity and combat, yet NPCs are asleep at the wheel even here.
IMO the AI is more of an autopilot than a personality. I'd actually prefer APs -
Artificial Persons. In fact, you can kinda blame me for the NPC mining and passenger ships that drop mines and run when attacked, because I specifically requested this feature back in the day when all NPCs reacted the exact same way when attacked - they all would turn and fight as if they were all clones of Tom Cruise. I suggested that a typical pilot of a passenger ship or mining vessel would not be Tom Cruise and would more likely run than fight, and in this case Frontier listened and adapted the AI accordingly. Me, I like the new change!
I would love to see multiple AI algorithms created based on a small subset of personality traits assigned to APs when ships are spawned. Is the pilot aggressive, timid, or an outright coward? They should also have different attack patterns. Something I notice is that all AIs behave the same for a given combat rank, to the point where they have to position themselves in the
exact same quadrant on my ship's axis, which becomes very predictable and robotic. Higher ranking AI also tend to have inhuman reflexes all the time, performing perfect flips and PIP-management. I'd love to see an AP who is sometimes distracted because an AC (artificial cat) jumps on his / her lap, LOL.
These days I actually prefer to fly smaller, weaker ships against lower-ranking AI, because in my opinion the lower ranking AI fly more believably compared to the Elite aimbot AIs. From an immersion perspective, it feels more like I'm flying against a real person when going against a competent / master / dangerous (or even mostly harmless) AI than it does when I go against an Elite AI. Granted, I need to fly something like an Eagle or shieldess Cobra to still give myself a challenge, but I prefer this over flying a G5 FDL against a bunch of bullet-sponge aimbots.
And then there's the terrible comms from AI, which are an MVP effort. Though sometimes I actually prefer the repetitive "I'll boil you up!" threats over some of the things real players type in chat....
