Author Topic: Auto-fire, ships coming into range, and identical ships behaving differently  (Read 1565 times)

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Offline Deoxy (OP)

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I have 3 of this ship:

Code: [Select]
AAPD I class Cruiser     15000 tons     1249 Crew     2564.2 BP      TCS 300  TH 1200  EM 0
4000 km/s     Armour 5-54     Shields 0-0     Sensors 40/40/0/0     Damage Control 28     PPV 150
Annual Failure Rate: 45%    IFR: 0.6%    Maintenance Capacity 2991 MSP

Magneto-plasma Drive E5 (15)    Power 80    Fuel Use 50%    Armour 0    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 220,000 Litres    Range 52.8 billion km   (152 days at full power)

Twin Gauss Cannon R3-100 Turret (10x8)    Range 24,000km     TS: 20000 km/s     Power 0-0     RM 3    ROF 5        1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Fire Control S02 12-20000 (1)    Max Range: 24,000 km   TS: 20000 km/s     58 17 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Thermal Sensor TH5-40 (1)     Sensitivity 40     Detect Signature 1000: 40m km
Active Search Sensor MR3-R1 (1)     GPS 28     Range 3.1m km     Resolution 1
Active Search Sensor MR19-R40 (1)     GPS 1120     Range 19.5m km     Resolution 40
EM Detection Sensor EM5-40 (1)     Sensitivity 40     Detect Strength 1000: 40m km

This design is classed as a military vessel for maintenance purposes

I like to toss them in whichever group will lead an engagement for extra point defense (or just lead with them alone, though I have a Brick class that I usually use for that - civilian, LOTS of armor, LOTS of CIWS).

They are all set to "Point Blank PD Mode 2", Auto fire, NOT synch fire.  I've checked these settings several different times.

They all seem to fire fine at missiles targeting their TG.  Yay.

If something other than a missile comes into range (or comes through a jump point they are guarding - had that happen a couple of times, too), two of them fire at it automatically, but the other one doesn't - it has to be managed manually.

Any thoughts on this?  I even opened the database and looked at several different tables to see if I could find a reason, but the settings are all IDENTICAL.  Oddly enough, it's the ship in the middle on Grade Points that's not firing, so I don't think it's that... The officer initiative of the non-firing ship is also the middle value of the three, so that doesn't make sense, either.

Any other thoughts?  This is driving me nuts.

 

Offline Charlie Beeler

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Forget the Autofire and stick with manual override of the PD firecontrol.  The reason being that the AI is not sophisticated enough(at present) for the level of control you appear to be looking for.  If and when Steve builds a means of assigning player controlled decision tree protocols for autofire then you may get the control your looking for. 

This is not a ding on Steve,  AI coding is very difficult, and throwing in user controlled protocols is an invitation to conflicting criteria.

design critique:
The fire control has way too short a range.  Yes it covers the weapons range, but a 4x range version will provided significantly better to-hit chances.  You want your range percentage in the 90's not the 50's.

Range(velocity) modifiers for Gauss Cannon are next to useless, especially range 2.  If your using a disbursed fleet laser or meson turrets are better choice. 

Drop the R40 active sensor and both passives, this design is not a good candidate for independent operations.

Drop Maintenance to twice (or a little higher) than the largest item repair cost.  Fleet combat ships should rely on the fleet train for extended operations.

Set the PD mode to final defense (not self) range 1 and stack with ship(s) it's assigned to protect.  Only override the PD assignment when the added firepower is really needed. 
Amateurs study tactics, Professionals study logistics - paraphrase attributed to Gen Omar Bradley
 

Offline Deoxy (OP)

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Thanks for the feedback on the ship - some of that I knew and made sub-optimal choices for flexibility reasons, but it was still very useful.  The fire control point in particular is something I will be changing in future designs (for several different ships, actually).

Forget the Autofire and stick with manual override of the PD firecontrol.  The reason being that the AI is not sophisticated enough(at present) for the level of control you appear to be looking for.  If and when Steve builds a means of assigning player controlled decision tree protocols for autofire then you may get the control your looking for.

AI coding is indeed very difficult (I'm a programmer) - I'm just trying to understand why the ships are behaving differently.  I actually WANT them to autofire on stuff (guarding a jump point), since that's faster than trying to get them to fire manually (low training) and their range is so lousy.

Anybody have any ideas what else could be differentiating the ships??
 

Offline Charlie Beeler

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What you seem to be asking for is something I don't think Steve has published,  the AI/autofire offensive weapons decision tree protocols.  There are more than likely some board members that have had indepth discussions with Steve on the subject, but I'm not one of them.
Amateurs study tactics, Professionals study logistics - paraphrase attributed to Gen Omar Bradley
 

Offline Father Tim

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The thing to keep in mind is that the Autofire system is designed for the NPRs to use to fight their ships.  For all we know it includes the line 'when three identical ships are present, hold #2 in reserve.'

What we do know is that Autofire and automated PD fire don't mesh well.  The Autofire should override and fire all teh weapons in offensive mode, leaving nothing with which to shoot down enemy missiles.
 

Offline chrislocke2000

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I might be wrong here but as far as I'm aware setting a ship to autofire will not make any difference to an untrained crews reaction time when compared to manual fire.
 

Offline ZimRathbone

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I might be wrong here but as far as I'm aware setting a ship to autofire will not make any difference to an untrained crews reaction time when compared to manual fire.

Thats correct - Autofire is actually Auto-Target (ie it automatically sets targeting priorities)
Slàinte,

Mike