Wow, a lot of good feedback there, let me go point by point:
shovelmonkey wrote: ↑Mon, 25. May 20, 17:14
Would be nice to designate who I want the corsair to prey on. Right now it seems standings based with them going after anyone -15 or below.
It's doable, but no vanilla command at all allows it (Patrol, Police, Protect position/station, etc.), because while nice in concept, it will add a lot of complexity to how to use the order, both conceptual and UX complexity, just for a very few gain.
Not on my roadmap.
shovelmonkey wrote: ↑Mon, 25. May 20, 17:14
Currently, it seems difficult for them to catch anything.
That's a vanilla issue indeed... If you set your traders to "Flee from pirates", how many of them will you lose? (Spoiler: less than 5% of them.)
Combat AI doesn't know how to handle fleeing/moving targets and will fail to engage them almost every single time unless both of them are actively attacking each other.
I can "fix" this by making your Corsair (Wing leader) to "taunt" his target so that it forcefully engage in combat against your Corsair (Adding an attack order to the top of their list), but then we have the other situation, no-one will never ever be able to scape...
Maybe I can make it work only sometimes, depending on pilot skill (30% for 3*, 60% for 4*, 90% for 5*)?
I will try to add something like this for the next update if it makes sense, feedback and opinions are welcome.
shovelmonkey wrote: ↑Mon, 25. May 20, 17:14
I stick them in a traffic lane by a station and generally, ships will travel drive right by them.
If you were going to hijack a car, you for sure will do it while it's parked, not in the middle of the highway at full speed.
Position your corsairs near areas where your target stops, not where they pass at full speed, that will dramatically improve their success rate.
shovelmonkey wrote: ↑Mon, 25. May 20, 17:14
... but my corsair continues to pursue unless manually cancelled. Make sure you cancel any subordinates as well as simply cancelling the commander doesn't reset all ships in the fleet. In one instance I wasn't paying close attention and found my little corsair fleet of 1 m and 3 s' clear across the map chasing a target they were never going to catch.
They will only pursue it within the same sector, they will never pursue it further, make sure that you have the latest version.
They will also stop if the target docks somewhere, so don't worry, you don't need to manually cancel them, they will desist and go back to the starting point.
shovelmonkey wrote: ↑Mon, 25. May 20, 17:14
If I am flying and select the harass options my subordinates will invariably destroy the target regardless of whether they are set to defend, attack, or intercept.
That's a symptom of you having your subordinates equipped to KILL, not to SCARE.
Try reducing the number of subordinates to 2 or 3 S ships.
Also avoid plasma, shotgun, missiles, torpedos or any other high damage weapons, prefer Ion and mk1 weaponry in general.
Remember, you want to scare a merchant, not to take over a sector!
shovelmonkey wrote: ↑Mon, 25. May 20, 17:14
If I set the AI to Corsair and let it do its thing, the fighters I have attached as escorts won't kill the target but generally, just derp around and make a nuisance of themselves by chasing target for many sectors for nothing unless manually told otherwise.
Make sure again that you are in the latest version, they should never ever left their sector under any circumstances.
shovelmonkey wrote: ↑Mon, 25. May 20, 17:14
So, all in all, I really like the concept of the corsair but currently, it requires so much micromanagement that I might as well just do harass operations myself solo in an M or heavy fighter.
Quite funny, I have exactly the opposite experience, I have 2 corsairs harassing:
- One in HC1, in the "Argon trading station" where you start the HAT plot, 1M + 3S ships, he "Acquires" more than 20 M trading ships per hour (ZIA and HOP)
- Other in a Telady mining sector where ZIA send his Minners/Gas ships, 1M + 2S ships, it "Acquires" around 10 M miners per hour.
That makes around 30 ships per hour without any intervention/micromanaging at all (Only going there from time to time with a ship full of marines to claim everything)
shovelmonkey wrote: ↑Mon, 25. May 20, 17:14
Your harass command works really well, however, love it!
Glad to hear that!