What happened to the 'flee' behaviour?

[LameFox]

A few versions ago, I remember that when my ships used this behaviour, they would make extensive use of laser towers I had given them to distract the enemy. They'd drive away and leave a trail of them behind, giving other ships time to react and assist them, and sometimes even letting them get away on their own.

Now, although I still give them laser towers, it seems like they've forgotten how to use them. I have to make them deploy manually as they run, otherwise they would rather die with a hold full of laser towers. Was this nerfed on purpose? Is it broken?

[Buzz2005]

npcs still drop them constantly though