AI Question

[Redshirt]

posted on August 3rd, 2007, 2:51 am

Last edited by Redshirt on August 3rd, 2007, 2:52 am, edited 1 time in total.

I have a question concerning the AI. 

For background, the one thing I have always hated about the Armada series is that your units automatically focus fire on one ship until it's destroyed, and then move to another.  Occasionally you get more than one target at a time, and if you micro it can get better, but this is not what you see in Trek.  Ever.  If it was ever seen without direct orders, I'm not aware of it.

So my question is; is it possible to wire the AI in a way that it prioritizes enemy ships in a group and, instead of having all ships attack, have a certain number attack, due to the priority of the vessel?  After that, could it then move to the next vessel and repeat the process?  Of course, this is just the basics, and it would (probably) be much more complex in action, but can it legally be done?

Note with me, if you will, that this question is intended for anyone with a working knowledge of the A2 ingame AI and specifically for the FO staff who we all know have very much experience modifying said AI.

posted on August 3rd, 2007, 3:04 am

if i can add something it would also be cool if we could like have battles like one ship is never targeted by ALL the fleet  but that is what hapens with armada so this would be a cool thing to look into fixing

i dont know if that is what you are asking so i asksed

posted on August 3rd, 2007, 3:33 am

If I'm not mistaken, the "fleet gangbangs one ship" rule is hardcoded in the Armada 2 Engine and thus the FO team cannot do anything to change it.

posted on August 3rd, 2007, 1:13 pm

I wouldn't be sure bout that....   

this would indeed be very nice if e.g. cruisers will automatically fire on their "favourite" shipclass.
That would bring a very "intelligent" flair with it.

posted on August 3rd, 2007, 1:35 pm

Gangbang is the first rule of most space combat glames when it comes to player vs player =/. It started for me with Homeworld, and "alpha strike", "concentrated fire" and "spam little ships" has generally been the rule of the day for every space combat game I've ever played.

posted on August 3rd, 2007, 2:23 pm

As I happen to like "pretty" battles, I find that the gangbang aspect of this game really irritates me: if it was possible, the favorite ship targeting system would indeed add a "pretty" aspect as well as another layer of micromanagement (or take one away: if your destroyers automatically fire upon cruisers etc... what would you need to do). I think this would make balanced fleets immensely more useful on the other hand, for each ship could be "set" to fire on the ship that is most susceptible to its type of attack. Hopefully that made some kind of sense ... really tired and no sleep.... wait, that was redundant. Oh well.

-dn