Why do AI Pilots stop in hazardous regions?

[Scoob]

Hey all,

So, I've been doing a little exploring and often zoom through hazardous - shield and hull eating - areas at Travel Drive speeds just fine. Sure, I lose a little shield health, but that's it. It's a non-issue. Perhaps if I had the weakest shields it'd be more troublesome. Anyway, speed is of course the key to getting through these...problem is, my AI Pilots don't understand this it seems!

As I'm lazy, I'm having my Pilot fly my ship for me currently. I'd just given some Fly to order to reveal some "?" stations in the current sector and my pilot entered a hazardous region. I saw the shield begin to drop, but though no more of it as my speed was sufficient that I'd not be exposed for more than a couple of seconds and the route was totally clear of obstructions. Imagine my surprise why my AI Pilot decides to STOP, right in the middle of the area wobble around for a bit - as if avoiding something, there was nothing - before pointing in roughly the right direction again and pottering along at normal speeds. Argh!

This dithering behaviour by my pilot meant I lost shields and my hull started being chewed through quite rapidly. I doubt I had time to boot her out of the pilots seat and take control before the ship died. As I'd just saved moments earlier I reloaded, as this is STUPID behaviour.

So, is anyone else seeing this? Is the pilot somehow "reacting" to the initial shield damage taken and dropping from Travel Mode? This happens when hit by weapons fire of course, even when the player is flying directly, but NOT when taking hazard damage like this.

If damage is the thing dropping the ship out of Travel Mode, then I'd suggest it's a bug. If it's some random avoidance attempt - there's nothing to avoid - then it's a bug. I can't think of any legitimate reason for this action. The ship would have died.

Thoughts?

Scoob.

[Falcrack]

If you find they are in hazardous regions and taking damage, that means you are in the same sector. If possible, teleport your butt out of that sector ASAP, and the damage due to hazardous regions will stop. The hazardous region damage only takes effect if you are in the sector.

[Scoob]

If you find they are in hazardous regions and taking damage, that means you are in the same sector. If possible, teleport your butt out of that sector ASAP, and the damage due to hazardous regions will stop. The hazardous region damage only takes effect if you are in the sector.

I've not started the HQ mission chain yet, so teleporting isn't an option. Interesting that these zones don't have an effect if OOS though. Still, the AI stopping - effectively committing suicide - is an issue. I've not had it occur again since, but then I've been busy doing other stuff. I wonder if it is as simple as the AI taking damage and reacting though?

Scoob.

[nickolaiproblem]

Hey all,

So, I've been doing a little exploring and often zoom through hazardous - shield and hull eating - areas at Travel Drive speeds just fine. Sure, I lose a little shield health, but that's it. It's a non-issue. Perhaps if I had the weakest shields it'd be more troublesome. Anyway, speed is of course the key to getting through these...problem is, my AI Pilots don't understand this it seems!

As I'm lazy, I'm having my Pilot fly my ship for me currently. I'd just given some Fly to order to reveal some "?" stations in the current sector and my pilot entered a hazardous region. I saw the shield begin to drop, but though no more of it as my speed was sufficient that I'd not be exposed for more than a couple of seconds and the route was totally clear of obstructions. Imagine my surprise why my AI Pilot decides to STOP, right in the middle of the area wobble around for a bit - as if avoiding something, there was nothing - before pointing in roughly the right direction again and pottering along at normal speeds. Argh!

This dithering behaviour by my pilot meant I lost shields and my hull started being chewed through quite rapidly. I doubt I had time to boot her out of the pilots seat and take control before the ship died. As I'd just saved moments earlier I reloaded, as this is STUPID behaviour.

So, is anyone else seeing this? Is the pilot somehow "reacting" to the initial shield damage taken and dropping from Travel Mode? This happens when hit by weapons fire of course, even when the player is flying directly, but NOT when taking hazard damage like this.

If damage is the thing dropping the ship out of Travel Mode, then I'd suggest it's a bug. If it's some random avoidance attempt - there's nothing to avoid - then it's a bug. I can't think of any legitimate reason for this action. The ship would have died.

Thoughts?

Scoob.

Just to clarify is your problem with ai pathfinding or the fact that the ai went to a hazardous region.

[Falcrack]

I don't think the AI have any logic where if they are in a hazardous zone, to try to escape the hazardous zone and avoid further damage. I think that is the source of the problem.

[adeine]

As people have pointed out, it's because hazardous regions aren't implemented properly. They only exist/do damage to bother you personally when you're in them; as soon as you're away they're just like any other section of space.

This is also why the Xenon can have a perfectly peaceful system/economy in one of them without all their ships blowing up, and presumably also why the AI has no logic whatsoever to respond to them.

[Scoob]

All the AI had to to was keep flying straight and remain in Travel Mode. Simple. If it'd done that there wouldn't be any issues. However, the AI chose top stop and die. Bad AI lol.

My question here is what triggered the AI to go screwy. There was no valid reason for it to stop, there was no valid reason for it to wobble about and there was no valid reason for it to die. The key with hazardous zones has always been to avoid them entirely or zoom through them at speed. Considering the zone in this case is only a few km wide it's possible to pass through it cleanly, yet the AI chose to stop as soon as it entered it.

This is why I ask whether it was perhaps taking damage that caused the AI to decide to exit Travel Mode and trigger some weird avoidance behaviour.

Scoob.

[mr.WHO]

As people have pointed out, it's because hazardous regions aren't implemented properly. They only exist/do damage to bother you personally when you're in them; as soon as you're away they're just like any other section of space.

This is also why the Xenon can have a perfectly peaceful system/economy in one of them without all their ships blowing up, and presumably also why the AI has no logic whatsoever to respond to them.

This is also immersion breaking, because when you enter the sector all Xenon ships start to take dammage too.

That's why I'd prevere fo remove dammange fields and infinite minefields as they are poorly implemented (player-centric approach).

[photomankc]

As people have pointed out, it's because hazardous regions aren't implemented properly. They only exist/do damage to bother you personally when you're in them; as soon as you're away they're just like any other section of space.

This is also why the Xenon can have a perfectly peaceful system/economy in one of them without all their ships blowing up, and presumably also why the AI has no logic whatsoever to respond to them.

This is also immersion breaking, because when you enter the sector all Xenon ships start to take dammage too.

That's why I'd prevere fo remove dammange fields and infinite minefields as they are poorly implemented (player-centric approach).

It'd be fine if they made it so the Xenon weren't bothered by it or hulls were immune but not shields. Hey they are machine learning adaptation machines after all. What it should do however is still damage your fleets in OOS as well. Especially if the whole sector is such anyway. Then they have a foothold in a place you are unlikely to be able to oust them from. That's actually fine in my book.

The minefield sectors are worthless though. No way it can work right if there are no objects or collisions OOS.

[Scoob]

I think if the Sector design was such that hazardous regions could be exploited then that'd be cool. I.e. stations are placed while mindful of the hazards - lets have some Rebirth-style beacons for ships to navigate by. However, managing to map a region like this (new feature) and then exploiting it to place properly hidden stations (such areas immune to LRS) would be pretty cool. Hidden bases that can only be approached from one direction - a direction that likely has lots of guns pointing that way.

As it stands, I'd simply remove them / move them outside the regular sector bounds and I think gameplay would be better for it. The OOS immunity from damage makes them of less gameplay value I feel. Oh, or fix the AI lol.

Scoob.

[Scoob]

Interesting observation... I just got my first Large ship and when flying it manually I encountered a hazardous region. This caused it to immediately exit Travel Mode. Thankfully, such a well-shielded ship doesn't suffer overly much, plus my momentum took me most of the way through before I dropped to normal speeds.

There was a nice electrical discharge effect when I entered the area, which looked sorta cool. However, also interestingly, I saw NPC's seemingly fly through the area without exiting travel mode...inconsistent.

Scoob.

[radcapricorn]

I just got my first Large ship and when flying it manually I encountered a hazardous region. This caused it to immediately exit Travel Mode.

Could've hit something.

[Scoob]

Could've hit something.

Nothing visible!

Scoob.

[photomankc]

Ship/Shield damaged == Travel mode disengaged?

Probably doesn't care if its lasers or green rocks.

[Scoob]

Ship/Shield damaged == Travel mode disengaged?

Probably doesn't care if its lasers or green rocks.

Well, that was my theory for AI pilots. Though while I was watching the game last night I saw a stream of NPC's flying through the hazardous region. Many would stop, wobble for a bit, then proceed. Other's, those with weaker shields and hulls, would die, and yet others would pass through the region without appearing to slow down at all!

So, my experiences have been as follows:

Fly through manually in Small ship - no slow-down, pass through just fine.
Fly through manually in Small ship piloted by AI - Travel Mode aborted, ship wobbling about.
Fly through manually in Large ship - nice static arcing effect, Travel Mode aborted.

Observe multiple small and medium ships travelling through region - some fine, some abort travel mode and wobble.

Scoob.

[[FFCW]Urizen]

There was a nice electrical discharge effect when I entered the area, which looked sorta cool. However, also interestingly, I saw NPC's seemingly fly through the area without exiting travel mode...inconsistent.

You hit something. Some asteroid pieces are so small, your eyes will miss them. As for the AI. What skill level are the AI pilots at? Because Stop and go is normal for the AI in non hazardous regions too.

[Scoob]

You hit something. Some asteroid pieces are so small, your eyes will miss them. As for the AI. What skill level are the AI pilots at? Because Stop and go is normal for the AI in non hazardous regions too.

I did an external look around the ship while paused, and there were none of the glowing asteroids, or any other debris I could see, anywhere near.

Yeah, the AI is weird. One time I'll have an AI pilot (low level) flying using travel mode perfectly between waypoints. Another time, they'll exit travel mode every few seconds. Inconsistent. Considering this is simply flying in a straight line, I'm puzzled why the AI can struggle so at times. It's like when the AI will freeze in place and wobble for several minutes sometimes before completing a simple, unobstructed manoeuvre. Also, they'll often just fly off in totally the wrong direction, while their route plan shows a simple straight line is unobstructed. Hopefully AI navigational quirks will be ironed out over time. This are generally better, but it's still fairly common for the AI to go screwy.

Scoob.