Since the NPR AI code is getting updated to accommodate fighters and carriers, have you considered giving the AI a touch up in other areas?
From my observation, NPRs suffer from several operational group-related issues. My understanding of how this system works is rudimentary at best, but I've done my best to guess what's going on. I should note that I only experienced protracted warfare against one (missile-focused) major NPR so far, with a home system invasion currently in progress, so some of these might only affect that particular type:
- First of all, it only uses escorts in Troop Transport Groups and Orbital Miner Groups that belong to the group itself. There are no corresponding Beam Escort operational groups in existence for that NPR in my DB, although other (presumably beam-based) races have them. In practice, this means the NPR's beam escorts never leave the group even when fired upon, unless it slows down to below the group's speed, so any ship fast enough to catch up with the lumbering commercial ships of the group and long-ranged enough to outrange the escort's puny point defence railguns can take it apart with impunity. Perhaps missile-based races do not have access to Escort operational groups and should be granted it?
- Similarly, said NPR's biggest surviving fleet is currently stranded deep within another race's territory, transitting a stabilized JP back and forth every few 3h+ increments (I noticed that's the minimum increment length for a standing order to activate) and according to DB it did so 8000+ times already. It's completely out of fuel, there's no stabilized link between its position and its race's homeworld and the fleet possesses no jump-capable ships despite being classified as a FAC Hunter Squadron - Jump. I noticed Beam Jump CA is a 100% chance guaranteed(?), but not a key element of said operational group (I'm honestly not sure what's the difference here), so it must've had one at some point to get there but then lost it.
The NPR has many such cruisers currently assigned to Troop Transport Group - Jump operational groups in its territory (incidentally, all their dropships are too big for the cruiser's jump drives to make those groups actually jump-capable and none of the groups have any jump tenders, I guess that's why I never saw it attempt to invade me or any other race?). Is NPR AI incapable of detaching a jump-capable ship from an idle operational group and attaching it to another group with a higher priority task (1+ Mt of military ships being stranded while their home system is being invaded) or is there something else going on here? Could danger rating in the systems between somehow be preventing them from doing so despite all ships involved being military?
- Additionally, I saw several fleets gimp themselves by including an older-generation ship or two and bringing the fleet's speed way, way down. Maybe give NPRs a rule where they will create separate operational groups for ships that differ significantly in speed, or assign heavily obsolete ships to more stationary duties?
On a strategic level, I also observed some very questionable decisions. I blockaded one of the two JP's leading to their home system for several months prior to invasion and over that time saw a couple dozen lone, brand-new combat ships, as well as a couple Troop Transport Group - Jump groups, perform standard transit through the JP only to be destroyed instantly. The only few squadron transits were performed by unarmed scout ships, and their second home system jump point where I had buoy coverage saw next to no military traffic, despite leading to an uncontested, populated system that offered a slightly longer alternate route to the system where my blockade was stationed. I'm not sure how to explain this behavior, but it feels like they were unable to comprehend the danger of taking the shorter route and made no attempt at assembling a jump-capable task force to break the blockade, despite technically having plenty of suitable ships, which crippled them massively.
When I invaded their home system and defeated their JP guard and a first response fleet, I observed the rest of their (still sizeable) fleets move towards the JP into the aforementioned populated system, leaving nothing but static orbital defenses to protect their homeworld. I also saw, thanks to my buoy in that system, that the fleeing fleets rallied at a tiny colony around an asteroid instead of their populated worlds. This seems very weird to me as despite their percieved danger of my significantly faster ships, I would expect them to try and protect their homeworld to the very end. Perhaps NPR's danger evaluation should be altered in cases where their home is under attack.
Also, after poking around the DB I was frustrated to learn that the few ~10m populated colonies I've encountered were in fact the biggest NPR colonies around and the rest of their population still inhabited their homeworlds, but I hope the upcoming multi-system NPR feature will take care of that.
As always, thank you.
