[karajorma]

Changing their positions in FRED somewhat solves the problem, but bombers would tend to close their formation if they're sufficiently close

Only if you tell them to all go after the same target.

[Reprobator]

it would be easyier if it was controlled by flag i think (i love flags in tbl's  )

[Dilmah G]

Well they're all going to be aren't they? In the ****-aip.tbm?

[Sushi]

Regarding Capship AI, yeah I agree, maybe you could take a look at the existing code and see if there's anything that looks blatantly out of place or looks like it could cause some errors and make some edits there instead. In terms of following waypoints, try to keep the AI level when they follow them, occasionally they seem to bank and it looks plain retarded seeing a Deimos on a 45 degree angle.

Waypoints have an orientation, right? Meaning you can set which way is "up" for each? If so, do capships currently respect that at all?

[Dilmah G]

I've no idea, visually waypoints appear as blobs in FRED so it's hard to tell if the rotation editor affects them.

[Topgun]

You mean something like this? 

yes but I was thinking of capitol ships.
if two caps are in a battle, they should add shield power to the side that faces the other ship.
but that thing is pretty darn good too.

[Dilmah G]

Caps actually have shields? I thought that was a FRED anomaly

[Topgun]

I mean for mods where caps have shields.

[Sushi]

I mean for mods where caps have shields.

OK, I see what you mean now. Added to the wishlist.

[Mobius]

Changing their positions in FRED somewhat solves the problem, but bombers would tend to close their formation if they're sufficiently close

Only if you tell them to all go after the same target.

Well, yeah. I was giving that for sure.

[Reprobator]

i could try with a friend my shield concept and that work perfectly (only aaa beam sometime pass through)
About the way it should behave under ai control, i was thinking like making pass around the heaviest turret defended cap ship side ?
or maybe some kind of order, when you ask him to attack a turret he'll just approach it untill it is 10/5 meter away then get away and loop back unitll you give him order to stop or to attack another target?

 

[Aardwolf]

Just a thought about broadsiding (not a suggestion, more of a 'think first'): What happens if two ships with equal speeds are facing the same direction and start the 'broadside' behavior?

Wouldn't they go off forever (or until one is destroyed)?

[Dilmah G]

Once their in ideal positions as aforementioned they should come to a halt shouldn't they?

[Sushi]

It's pretty unlikely that two ships will have compatible "ideal positions." For example, two Ravanas (assuming you had a situation where sparring Ravanas made sense) would both want to attack each other from the rear, and would presumably just chase each other in circles.

[Dilmah G]

Well IMO, the default behavior should be to broadside the ship until it's in ideal position (directly right or left of the ship facing same direction as attacking ship) since most ships bar the Ravana, Sath and Sobek have the majority of their beams mounted in broadside attack positions with a few in forward positions. FREDers using offensive orientated ships should set waypoint paths for them. This isn't supposed to be a blanket fix for CapShip attack behaviour IMO, just something to help take the weight off FRED-ers FRED-ing complex missions.

[Mobius]

It's pretty unlikely that two ships will have compatible "ideal positions." For example, two Ravanas (assuming you had a situation where sparring Ravanas made sense) would both want to attack each other from the rear, and would presumably just chase each other in circles.

Ouch. Not again, not here.

Back on topic, I think the whole changes to the AI controlling warships is, well, not necessary. Warship duels are to be handled via waypoints so that they can be under control. Telling two warships to attack each other makes the battle weird and unpredictable due to the various and well known turret placements.

In other words, use waypoint paths when trying to represent a battle.

[Dilmah G]

Yeah for custom made campaigns I agree, but the issue is in retail on several occurrences (High Noon, Last mission with the 53rd) AI Ships cruiser class and above are given attack orders, so just some streamlining would help in those cases.

[Rodo]

it makes no sense not trying to fix this 'cause if it is supposed for the fredder to script every aspect of the battle then eliminating the "attack ship" order for cap ships would be the thing to do... as we need to always use waypoints, so in that case what's the point of the attack order anyway?

besides in a mission with +3 cap ships in battle wouldn't you literally kill for an order that could take the burden of scripting one of the ships waypoints and other stuff?

[Dilmah G]

Yeah, maybe just ships of cruiser class should be using attack orders.

[Rodo]

yes... cruisers are likely to be good subjects of test for an IA improvement.