There should be a target priority settings for AI ships

[Warnoise]

Since I am seeing egosoft working on subordinates management and stuff, i think they should really add a target priority management while they are at it. It is sad to see my gorgon AI wasting torpedoes on some xenon N or things like that. This is a problem especially when the whole army start chasing that single Xenon M passing by while they get blasted away by xenon K 6 km from them.

I think this would be a really welcome feature that would make the IS combat experience more fun.

[Matthew94]

I completely agree. There's often too much micromanagement of turrets depending on the current target. A behaviour and target ranking system would help a lot.

You could get capitals to only use missiles for S ships unless its shields had been breached in which case it would fire everything to survive.

Maybe that's too involved but I agree that it would help massively.

[Falcrack]

Yeah, I do not want my destroyers to be chasing down small fighters, I want them to prioritize attacking other capital ships and stations. If I have fighters outfitted with anti-fighter weapons, I want to give them the priority to hunt down fighters, then M sized ships, only going after capitals and stations once the fighter threat is eliminated. If I have fighters outfitted with plasma weapons, or torpedoes, they should get a priority for anti-capital or anti station duty first.

[phrozen1]

Yes there should.
Some sort of behaviour/priority-scripting would be great. Actually i now remember that i dreamt about it lately
It would also be great if i could tell ships at which hullstrength they retreat, dock and/or fly back for repairs.

The more i think about it i realize those things are actually a must-have

[LameFox]

Remember how we could customize turret priority profiles in X3? Why did that ever go away?

I wish it were possible with both turrets and the ship itself.

[nickolaiproblem]

Remember how we could customize turret priority profiles in X3? Why did that ever go away?

I wish it were possible with both turrets and the ship itself.

Doesn't that exist with turret attack profiles like attack all enemies or attack capital ships.

[LameFox]

Remember how we could customize turret priority profiles in X3? Why did that ever go away?

I wish it were possible with both turrets and the ship itself.

Doesn't that exist with turret attack profiles like attack all enemies or attack capital ships.

There are profiles now, but if you can edit them like before I haven't found where to do it or haven't updated the game that far yet.

[nickolaiproblem]

Remember how we could customize turret priority profiles in X3? Why did that ever go away?

I wish it were possible with both turrets and the ship itself.

Doesn't that exist with turret attack profiles like attack all enemies or attack capital ships.

There are profiles now, but if you can edit them like before I haven't found where to do it or haven't updated the game that far yet.

If your using the beta you should be able to see and use turret controls.

[mr.WHO]

I think this is very good idea and would make more ship types much more useful.
There is no point in having a destroyer chasing lone scout across the map. This is a job for other scouts and interceptors.

[csaba]

From the Depths's point system would be the most ideal. There it controls both the main target the weapon targeting as well, but here it should be enough to just pic out the most logical target as turret settings already cover the other aspect of it in a more simpler way.



It's a bit hard to understand just from the picture: But this setting basically targets the smallest (value per block -1.0) most armed (value per weapon 10.0), closest (value per range -1.00) ship that has the most engines (value per propulsion 10.0).

Once the target of this criteria is destroyed it switches to the next highest value. So this particular setting is ideal for lets say an interceptor role ship.

Should also set maximum value ranges. So let say a Destroyer totally ignores a fighter or an interceptor wont ever attack a large ship unless specifically told to.

Maybe use some presets or even a tutorial so people don't get confused.

It could likely be done for each turret on larger craft but I'm afraid that would add too many calculations to the game. Of course this depends on the script running intervals so there are workarounds for that.

[mr.WHO]

I wouldn't go into so deep and customizable setting.

More practical solution would be to go with Homeworld 2 system, where you simply give "attack all" order and each ship automatically pick proper target based on their type (e.g. corvettes hunt fighters, bombers bomb capitals, Destroyers hunt frigates, Battleships hunt destroyers).

Micromanagement is bad. I hated X3 micro with all my heart and embraced XR simple macro style.

We already have basics for this with fleet management where you designate"Attack, defend, interceptor".
All we need is tuning of this system andadding some missing stuff (like bomber to suplement interceptor)

interceptor = engage non-capitals only
bomber = engage capitals only

[Aron]

I tend to agree with the macro argument... But the AI doesn't switch profiles for turrets. If the pilot in charge of the ship could do so, this is fine.

The problem is there's no universally "good" profile. Think of missile defense like in X3. That was a catch all for a good enough profile. Prioritize missiles and then everything else. For bigger turrets, capital targets are more important. This is the type of thing that should be on the macro level.

[LameFox]

The trouble with doing it in the style of Homeworld 2 is that in that game a ship has a set role and loadout and that's all it ever needs to prioritize. If we're to have control over the loadout of the ships, and the weapons are to be effective in different cases, we must have the ability to make the same ship type prioritise different things to make use of the loadout we create for it.