Well, as the title suggests this is another post about the AI. This is neither an affirmation or a negation of the AI, just my recent experience with it.
Flying in a fully A rated Cobra mkIII I had a few encounters with ships such as Vipers and Diamondback Scouts/Explorers. Several of them were your typical jousting tournaments, going for several passes until someone's shields gave out. I was able to mostly win these, but sometimes I had to run.
I only had one shield melting moment when a Vulture interdicted me while I was stationary while fuel scooping so I had no opportunity to try and win the mini game.
One pass of the joust with the Vulture took my shields out. I put 4 pips to engines and boosted out of there as quickly as I could.
All pretty generic encounters so far with a bit of added difficulty.
The most interesting encounter that showed me how the AI can vary and think was when I was in an Asp Explorer kitted out for battle.
I was interdicted and lost the mini game and confronted with a Deadly Imperial Clipper. I decided to engage rather than run and I am glad that I did.
The Clipper exhibited some interesting behaviour. In the initial joust it fired a few weapons at me but then we ended up doing loop-de-loops. And I am not talking one or two, we were flying in circles trying to get behind each other for ages. Must have done a dozen 360 loops before I decided to try a few alternative manoeuvres.
Each time I tried to break the loop cycle the Clipper put engines on full reverse and backed away, never firing, just dropping chaff. Then after I unleashed a few shots and rockets he would fly straight at me, ram me and then start the loop process over again. Rinse and repeat a few times and eventually I managed to take him out.
The whole battle took at least 10 minutes and showed to me that the AI now tries to think and adopt different tactics. Some people may not find this to their tastes, other will relish in it.
I just tip my fedora at the Mother of AI and say well done on your coding.
Flying in a fully A rated Cobra mkIII I had a few encounters with ships such as Vipers and Diamondback Scouts/Explorers. Several of them were your typical jousting tournaments, going for several passes until someone's shields gave out. I was able to mostly win these, but sometimes I had to run.
I only had one shield melting moment when a Vulture interdicted me while I was stationary while fuel scooping so I had no opportunity to try and win the mini game.
One pass of the joust with the Vulture took my shields out. I put 4 pips to engines and boosted out of there as quickly as I could.
All pretty generic encounters so far with a bit of added difficulty.
The most interesting encounter that showed me how the AI can vary and think was when I was in an Asp Explorer kitted out for battle.
I was interdicted and lost the mini game and confronted with a Deadly Imperial Clipper. I decided to engage rather than run and I am glad that I did.
The Clipper exhibited some interesting behaviour. In the initial joust it fired a few weapons at me but then we ended up doing loop-de-loops. And I am not talking one or two, we were flying in circles trying to get behind each other for ages. Must have done a dozen 360 loops before I decided to try a few alternative manoeuvres.
Each time I tried to break the loop cycle the Clipper put engines on full reverse and backed away, never firing, just dropping chaff. Then after I unleashed a few shots and rockets he would fly straight at me, ram me and then start the loop process over again. Rinse and repeat a few times and eventually I managed to take him out.
The whole battle took at least 10 minutes and showed to me that the AI now tries to think and adopt different tactics. Some people may not find this to their tastes, other will relish in it.
I just tip my fedora at the Mother of AI and say well done on your coding.