[Omniscaper]

I'm getting ready to convert ALL my Trek conversions into fighter classes because they just act stupid with either "cruiser" or "capship" flags.

When fighters are attacking a capship, they just sit there and fire their beams. You would think a ship would move so that their working turrets would be facing the swarm.
When two capships are fighting they just keep circling like a dog chasing it's tail. At times they even get stuck together in the process and looks like they're humping each other (i'll have screenshots in a littlebit, its funny)

How important is the "mass" setting. That is the only thing I've not looked into. Perhaps that has an effect on ship AI? Are there differences in the ship flags: Cruiser capship supercapship?

If anyone can give me some insight into this issue, I'd be very gratefull. I'm trying to get a big fleet battle mission together for my next release, but these ships keep acting stupid.

[Krackers87]

Originally posted by Omniscaper
At times they even get stuck together in the process and looks like they're humping each other (i'll have screenshots in a littlebit, its funny)  

Maybe in the future captle ships experience pon-far. (or whatever the hell its caled)

[StratComm]

To answer your questions, Omni, mass determines how the ship will behave when hit by high mass weapons and in collisions (a really low-mass capital ship will act retarded when it's being fired at; a high-mass fighter could ram a small capital ship out of position) but it has no bearing whatsoever on ship AI.  The class ("cruiser", "corvette", "capital", "supercap") *does* affect ship AI on a rudimentary level, but things like collision avoidance and optimal facings are beyond the scope of Freespace AI.  For that matter, look at fighters; they are notorious for slamming into things (including each other) for no apparent reason, and the only reason that they even look like they are intelligently attacking capships is because they follow pre-defined paths.  However, you do NOT want to set a 800m+ ship as a fighter; I'm suprised the AI hasn't already rolled over and died with the Defiant model.

[Singh]

we need better AI.........I want to see the Fenris's gang up and take on a Leviathan

But the coders refuse to touch it, along with the supposedly evil FRED o_O

[magatsu1]

well if everything was easy, it wouldn't be as much fun.

does AI affect afterburners ?
I'm doin' an Aliens stylee assualt transport and am wondering which AI would suit it best.

[Akalabeth Angel]

That's why I always use pre-defined flight paths for ships in missions. I don't want any circle the wagons crap. People always complain that the Orion attacks nose first when its real weaponry is on broadsides, so then make a waypoint path around the battle so it circles, firing its guns. Pretty easy I think.

[Flaser]

Capships can't fighte on their own the AI is way too primitive to do so.

It always needed FREDING to get a capship battle going.

[Omniscaper]

So which AI is better to use for the all Trek ships? Its obvious  that Trek ships are more maneuverable than Freespace's flying bricks. Should I use Bomber or Capship? And what are the appropiate mass settings to use?

[aldo_14]

One of the main problems RE: mass is that Fs seems to need very specific moment of intertia settings in order to move stuff properly...i.e. why you see mod capships 'judder' when they fire beams.

The closest we can get to stopping this is just to copy over the stats - centre, mass, MOI -  from a similar existing model... so best just copy over from something of similar dimensions.  Still probably won't helkp with the dimensions, though.....

As for AI, I think using fighter / bomber AI may not be a good idea - I have a feeling it changes how other ships prioritise it when targeting, and I also think it may affect how it attacks - i.e. making it use paths rather than just firing a beam.

[Omniscaper]

Paths!? Is that an important factor I've  forgotten in my Trek conversions? So far, every tutorial I've ready just breezes through the paths subject, so I figured it was just used for docking. But if it uses paths for battle purposes as well, please point me to the nearest tutorial that explains paths better.

[StratComm]

There really isn't a good tutorial for paths, and if you're using primarily capship AI you don't actually need them.  However, if you are assigning ships to either the fighter or bomber classes (any ships really) and you want them to be able to disable each other, you'll need to have paths in place for the AI to behave properly.  I think fighters/bombers don't need paths on their target unless they are ordered to destroy a subsystem.

I've explained this before Omni, look at my post a few spots up.

[Singh]

AI can be made to look good via waypointing in FRED, but its ultra-tedious to do so, and you really never know where your ship is going to end up.

*prays to the SCP gods for better AI*