Okay, take a look at this.
#AI Profiles
$Default Profile: BP2
$Profile Name: BP2
$Player Afterburner Recharge Scale: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1
$Max Beam Friendly Fire Damage: 0, 5, 10, 20, 40
$Player Countermeasure Life Scale: 2, 1.75, 1.5, 1.25, 1
$AI Countermeasure Firing Chance: 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, 1.0
$AI In Range Time: 2, 1.0, 0.5, 0, -1
$AI Always Links Ammo Weapons: 60, 50, 40, 30, 20
$AI Maybe Links Ammo Weapons: 60, 50, 40, 30, 20
$Primary Ammo Burst Multiplier: 1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0
$AI Always Links Energy Weapons: 60, 50, 40, 30, 20
$AI Maybe Links Energy Weapons: 60, 50, 40, 30, 20
$Max Missles Locked on Player: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
$Max Player Attackers: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
$Max Incoming Asteroids: 2, 4, 6, 8, 10
$Player Damage Factor: 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, 1
$Player Subsys Damage Factor: 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, 1
$Predict Position Delay: 0, 0, 0, 0, 0
$Player Shield Recharge Scale: 2, 1.75, 1.5, 1.25, 1
$AI Shield Manage Delay: 4, 2,0 1.0, 0.5, 0
$Friendly AI Fire Delay Scale: 1, 1, 1, 1, 1
$Hostile AI Fire Delay Scale: 2, 1.5, 1, 1, 1
$AI Turn Time Scale: 2, 1.5, 1, 1, 1
$Glide Attack Percent: 50, 60, 70, 80, 90
$Circle Strafe Percent: 50, 60, 70, 80, 90
$Glide Strafe Percent: 50, 60, 70, 80, 90
$Stalemate Time Threshold: 15, 15, 15, 15, 15
$Stalemate Distance Threshold: 150, 150, 150, 150, 150
$Player Weapon Recharge Scale: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1
$Max Turret Target Ownage: 99, 99, 99, 99, 99
$Max Turret Player Ownage: 2, 4, 6, 8, 10
$Percentage Required For Kill Scale: 0.30, 0.30, 0.30, 0.30, 0.30
$Percentage Required For Assist Scale: 0.15, 0.15, 0.15, 0.15, 0.15
$Percentage Awarded For Capship Assist: 0.5, 0.5, 0.5, 0.5, 0.5
$Repair Penalty: 10, 20, 30, 40, 50
$Delay Before Allowing Bombs to Be Shot Down: 0.5, 0.5, 0.5, 0.5, 0.5
$Chance AI Has to Fire Missiles at Player: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
$Max Aim Update Delay: 0.25, 0.2, 0.15, 0.10, 0.05
$Turret Max Aim Update Delay: 0, 0, 0, 0, 0
$big ships can attack beam turrets on untargeted ships: YES
$smart primary weapon selection: YES
$smart secondary weapon selection: YES
$smart shield management: YES
$smart afterburner management: YES
$allow rapid secondary dumbfire: YES
$huge turret weapons ignore bombs: YES
$don't insert random turret fire delay: YES
$hack improve non-homing swarm turret fire accuracy: NO
$shockwaves damage small ship subsystems: NO
$navigation subsystem governs warpout capability: NO
$ignore lower bound for minimum speed of docked ship: NO
$disable linked fire penalty: NO
$disable weapon damage scaling: NO
$use additive weapon velocity: NO
$use newtonian dampening: NO
$include beams for kills and assists: YES
$score kills based on damage caused: YES
$score assists based on damage caused: YES
$allow event and goal scoring in multiplayer: YES
$fix linked primary weapon decision bug: YES
$prevent turrets targeting too distant bombs: YES
$smart subsystem targeting for turrets: YES
$fix heat seekers homing on stealth ships bug: YES
$multi allow empty primaries: YES
$multi allow empty secondaries: YES
$allow turrets target weapons freely: YES
$use only single fov for turrets: YES
$allow vertical dodge: YES
$force beam turrets to use normal fov: NO
$fix AI class bug: YES
$turrets ignore targets radius in range checks: YES
$No extra collision avoidance vs player: NO
#END
You'll note that the player still receives bonuses to afterburner recharge on lower difficulties, that the player takes reduced damage from friendly beams, and that player countermeasures last longer and lower difficulties.
The AI's chance to fire countermeasures will increase as difficulty goes up.
Now, here's where we hit the good stuff:
$AI In Range time - the AI will actually fire its guns when in range, instead of waiting artificially until it's even more in range.
AI has capacity to handle ammo weapons (thanks Diaspora!)
The AI's predict position delay is reduced to 0 across all difficulty levels to reduce absolutely stupid behavior. This does not make things as cripplingly impossible as it sounds. AI will also manage their shields faster.
Artificial AI fire delays are reduced to feel less contrived.
Two key fields: max turret target ownage is now 99 across all difficulties, so capships can actually use all their guns instead of being limited to four or five turrets at a time. Max turret player ownage is also bumped, though it scales by difficulty.
Delay before bombs can be shot down is lowered to .5 seconds, I believe it was 1.5 in retail (which was aaaawful.) Invincible bombs are dumb.
Turrets are better shots than in retail. Bomber defense turrets are actually very potent now.
Now, on to the really, really good stuff.
AI will be smart about selecting primary and secondary weapons based on the amount of damage the guns will do to the target.
AI will use fast shield management to keep itself alive. AI will pulse its afterburners like a skilled human player. AI can fire dumbfire rockets at their actual rates of fire, instead of firing them as slow as Harpoons. Beams won't shoot at bombs any more. Turrets don't suffer a random refire delay between every shot - this will make standard flak and the LRed very overpowered.
In this AI profile, destroying nav won't prevent jumpouts. That can be changed.
This AI profile allows beams to count towards kills. No more stealing the Belisarius kill from the Psamtik. Easily changed.
A number of bugfixes for AI behavior, starting with $fixed linked primary weapon decision bug and down through the heatseekers on stealthed ships bugs.
AI can now dodge vertically as well as horizontally, like a player.
AI class bug is fixed - the game will not randomly reset AI classes to ship defaults, making all your hard balancing work in FRED useless. This bug was around since retail.
Turrets will no longer shoot at ships that are out of range due to a radius error.
The last flag, $No extra collision avoidance vs. player, is kinda buggy and should stay off for now (it is here.)
The AI.tbl entry (this is all AI Profiles so far) also includes beefed up AI classes that will make each individual AI type perform better.
