What is Flee Method 2 supposed to do?

[dayang]

So... I'm under the impression that method 2 of the flee methods is supposed to dock at the nearest safe station.

Method 1, the default for just about everything... simply boosts away from the enemy until the shields are exhausted... and then promptly waits for the enemy to catch up and blast them out of the sky.

Method 2 appears to be leave the current system and dock at friendly but otherwise random station? I suspect this has changed from previously established known effects.

Which method do I choose if I want them to dock at the nearest safe station and stay there until the enemy has left radar range?

Vanilla, V6 btw.

[Zaihbot]

Method 2 checks for neutral/friendly sector nearby. If there is none, the ship will boost away.

viewtopic.php?t=427185

[dayang]

That's not what that thread post says?

Flee Methods

1 - Highway
2 - Dock
3 - Boost
4 - Maneuver
5 - ? (Same as Highway)

2 - Flee Dock Behavior

If Ship Type is L or XL then it will exit this method immediately and go to next method (Boost).

If the ship is already docked then it will check if it is safe by ensuring the attacker is greater than 15 KM away. If the attacker is more than 15 KM away then resume behavior. If less than 15 KM it will wait for 1-2 minutes, after which will recheck. If rechecked 3 times then it will just risk it and resume behavior.

The ship will check for any stations in the zone that are neautral or higher relation and choose the closest one. If no stations then will go to next method (Boost).

It's not doing this.

Do you know which is the correct one to check the current zone for a neutral or higher station that can be docked at?

[Koizuki]

If you'd like to confirm for yourself, I believe you can take a look at aiscripts/move.flee.xml and the associated aiscripts/move.flee.dock.xml, but from what I can tell, method #2 is indeed still finding somewhere to dock.
If it is not doing as described and you have an unmodified save available you might try and report it as a bug.

I'm not participating in the beta, though, so I don't know if anything changed in it, but as of 7.00 the main move.flee.xml file contains this instruction to call move.flee.dock during method #2:

Code: Select all

      <!-- #2 - Dock at a station -->
      <label name="dock" />
      <do_if value="not @$attacker.isclass.celestialbody and (this.assignedcontrolled.subordinates.count or (this.assignedcontrolled.towedobject and this.assignedcontrolled.isplayerowned))">
        <!-- subordinates will be left with no orders. use other flee method. -->
        <resume label="boost"/>
      </do_if>
      <do_if value="not $cannotdock">
        <debug_text text="'attempting to flee by dock'" chance="$debugchance"/>
        <run_script name="'move.flee.dock'" result="$success">
          <param name="attacker" value="$attacker" />
          <param name="space" value="if @$attacker.isclass.celestialbody then this.cluster else this.zone"/>
          <param name="urgent" value="@$attacker.isclass.celestialbody"/>
          <param name="debugchance" value="$debugchance"/>
        </run_script>
      </do_if>
      <do_if value="@$success">
        <resume label="done"/>
      </do_if>
      <do_elseif value="@$attacker.isclass.celestialbody">
        <resume label="leavecluster"/>
      </do_elseif>

"celestialbody" I believe refers to the Avarice sectors and its Tides that will force the behavior to "leavecluster" if it cannot dock, meaning leave the Avarice sectors entirely in that case. Edit: Interestingly, there is an explicit exception earlier in the script if the ship has a ship mod that negates hazard damage to simply ignore the Tide alert.

Additionally, move.flee.dock.xml has this at the top, suggesting that only specific ships will utilize this behavior to reach a dock (and via boost?)

Code: Select all

  <!--  
  
  Flee to dock. This script will find a nearby friendly station (in this zone) and if it has a free dock, this ship will boost there to dock
  
  Only allow for small ships (not l or xl size) that do not have subordinates
  
  -->

If you are running 7.10 beta or just want to confirm yourself, look at those files to see if there's been any changes.

[taztaz502]

They really need to add an "Ignore" global command.

"Flee" Just means drop out of travel speed for a quick conversation before deciding to do a very slow U-turn and flying directly into the thing coming to kill you.

If you see a ship getting harassed by pirates quickly click on them and remove the flee order, they'll just pop travel drives and carry on with their day leaving the pirates in the dust.

[dayang]

It is a bit weird how ships respond to pirates. I have no clue why they drop out of travel. I could understand if they were interdicted but often they are not (and there's no real mechanism for interdiction in this game).

The flee order itself is a little weird as they will re-apply that in a heart beat. I've noticed military ships doing it as well.

[Tanall]

Its because if they did nothing, then pirates would be a non-threat. At the moment, NPC pirates have no way of forcing their prey out of traveldrive. Thus the AI response scripts all forcing the target ship to stop.

[dayang]

Its because if they did nothing, then pirates would be a non-threat. At the moment, NPC pirates have no way of forcing their prey out of traveldrive. Thus the AI response scripts all forcing the target ship to stop.

Yeah an interdiction feature would be... interesting. Perhaps akin to a Satellite beacon, so anything within range has a chance of being knocked out of travel mode, with the effect stacking where there's an overlap up to say three or four times. Pirate or military would then be able to go in for the kill so to speak.

Would also make the boarding element of the game more predictable as you would be able to set up an interdiction zone... well, if targets had predictable routes...

[PV_]

There are already EMP and Interceptor missiles. Pirates have to take 1 weapon / turret slot as tracking launcher specifically for knocking out of travel drive. When all missiles gone switch role to hack stations, die, respawn with new missiles.