Xenon K epically fails to kill lone Construction Vessel

[Revenant342]

So, had the rare opportunity to witness a large ship 1v1 a bit ago. In my game, the Holy Order loves to send unescorted CVs deep into Xenon territory (problem for another day). I'm down there cruising through Atiya's Misfortune and see one of them pop in through the gate, right into a waiting K. Figure this will be a good show, and result in much free stuff for me. I was very wrong. Battle starts off with the K opening up with all its weapons... which are actually hitting, but doing practically negligible damage, I'm talking 1% shields every couple of seconds. The CV is opening up with a single repeater turret which does almost nothing, but is also pumping out missiles that are actually dropping the K's shields much faster than the K is damaging it. Unfortunately, it runs out before the K gets down past 40%. The CV is making no attempt to withdraw, just heading deeper in-system.

Ks still plugging away... finally drops the CVs shields after 1-520 minutes of continuous fire. I've seen K's get trashed by faction navies before, but never realized that Xenon capital weaponry was this anemic. K gets the CV down to about 0% shields, which seems to make the CV finally decide to start looping back towards the gate. K's still shooting it and gets it down to 80% hull after a few more minutes... at which point it shifts from its position directly astern the CV to astern and slightly to port. At this point, it stops firing completely, despite the CV being within the firing arcs of several of its turrets. Chases the CV for a few more minutes, still not firing, allowing the CV shields to recharge to 20%. Then the CV turns a little bit, bringing the Xenon directly behind it again, which causes it to open back up. CV gets to the gate, makes an approach... then breaks off and dives straight down, bringing it below the K, which cuts loose with a couple extra turrets. Shields drop again, hull taking damage. Fast forward 10 minutes, and the CV gets down to about 33% hull. At this point the K moves back into its "dead zone" and stops firing again. It starts closing with the CV until it's basically touching it, still not firing, then the CV engages its travel drive and shoots off a few kilometers ahead. The K just kinda sits there for a minute, and can't seem to turn to face the CV now. CV, whose shields are recharging again now, opens up the distance to about 5-6km, then starts RAPIDLY repairing its hull, I'm talking 2% every few seconds. K finally catches back up and starts firing again as the CV (now repaired to 100% shield and 83% hull) approaches the gate. The K peppers it with a bit of fire, but it's too late and the CV gets away.

Total elapsed time over an hour.

[XTC0R]

Something with the combat AI and turret aiming (also for player ships) is completly off.

When I'm fighting with Khaak they just fly around without firing their weapons. They just start shooting at me when their hull is already 50% down. Also there flying skills are very very very limited. Always directly flying at me firing some laser beams, passing me, turning 180 degreee and trying the same again. Kind of boring.

[Revenant342]

It's not just that, though that's a big part of it. The K was firing for most of that time, but even while hitting with most of its armament, the damage it was doing when puny.

[JakubCW]

Like most ships i've watched in the game it just sits around doing nothing or firing blind, the A.I in general seems to be completely broken, Pathfinding is Borked and Combat A/I is missing entirely.. Dont know how the devs are going to fix this one anytime soon as i imagine a re-write of portions of the A.I are needed and i bet a lengthy process.

[Kadatherion]

Indeed, Revenant, the issue in the game right now isn't just the almost broken AI: it's the fact even the ship/weapon design is meant to let you be able to tackle and destroy the big ships even if you are flying a small one. A bit a la Freelancer, to make a comparison. Something I don't like in an X game, but that's a matter for another day. A collateral effect of this however vague and badly implemented design choice is that it comparatively becomes very hard for severely undergunned npc capital ships to sink each other even when they do hit. Smaller ships instead can dogfight for hours without any effect because they always miss.

Fun fact: the strange behaviour we are seeing from AI fighters closely reminds of how fights were in Freelancer as well. We called them "jousting" back then.