Miner AI change: do not flee/ripcord or launch in to sectors with enemy ships

[kgersen]

Currently the miner AI has it to where it will enter in to a sector if there are these conditions:

• A friendly base.
• If enemy ship, friendly base + one friendly ship.
• A friendly sector with enemy ship if miner is in adjacent sector (and moves to the friendly base).

These three things can seriously get miners killed. I don't know how many times I've had to save miners because they decided to wander in to a ref with scouts roaming around only to decide that they wanted to leave the sector AFTER they got inside and saw the enemy.

The first item of business - not allowing undocking or ripcording if there are enemy ships even in the presence of friendlies - is something that would greatly benefit many commanders, as they don't have to keep their eye on the sector at all times and constantly reordering miners in to base. I understand that a new command is in the works for this very thing, but I think this change would also be beneficial in case the commander for some reason forgot to do #dock or whatever it is. The #dock command wouldn't work for ripping miners or cons, though, as they'd still ripcord to a sector if out of base and filled with a substantial amount of He.

However, the second business item simply states that a miner would wise up to do a couple of things before entering a friendly sector:

• Before entering a sector, check to see if there's an enemy ship inside it.

• If there is, flee back to base. This in itself would save many miners from being killed, as sometimes they decide that as soon as they're in a safe sector and no longer under attack, they want to mine again in the same place they just came from. The Death Turnaround, I call it. So if we could get rid of this...yeah, that's be lovely.

  Imported from trac ticket #173, created by anonymous on 07-24-2010 at 10:14, last modified: 07-28-2010 at 22:56

[kgersen]

Replying to anonymous:

I understand that a new command is in the works for this very thing The AI is dumb and it's not going to change w/o complete approval. What has been approved AFAIK is what you mention above and that's allowing the commander more controls that he or she can act upon, not having the actions done for them; What you propose to enhance would be refereed to as "major changes to gameplay". sidelined....for now

see also #48

Trac comment by Imago on 07-25-2010 at 14:41

[kgersen]

I've marked this invalid until the reporter posts a link to community discussion/approval. I personally do not approve of making miners smarter on their own, certainly not these sweeping game play changes and especially w/o community approval.

Trac comment by Imago on 07-28-2010 at 22:55

[kgersen]

Replying to Imago:

I've marked this invalid until the reporter posts a link to community discussion/approval. I personally do not approve of making miners smarter on their own, certainly not these sweeping game play changes and especially w/o community approval.

-- endorsed by Bard

Trac comment by Bard on 07-28-2010 at 22:56