Do you think Advanced Edition will have better AI?

General discussion about the game.
Kierany9

Do you think Advanced Edition will have better AI?

Postby Kierany9 » Thu Dec 19, 2013 10:05 pm

Let's face it: the AI in FTL really isn't smart. They have no sense of volley control, they never vent their ships to deal with boarders, they will try and send Zoltans and Engis onto enemy craft, they take forever to jump, and who the hell designs a ship with Life Support separated by a wall from the rest of the ship?

Personally, I would really like a decent AI, who could turn the tides with a trick up the sleeve. An all-out offensive AI that focused on wrecking your ship any way possible, even by killing its crew. Or a manipulative AI that lures your crew into its ship before it locks you in an airlock to suffocate in the depths of space and adds a couple of extra power bars to the weapons to take out your teleporter. I would also like to see power management to have a larger role in FTLAdv, such as momentarily disabling weapons to supercharge your engines and make a quick FTL jump. Back to AI. Also, what is with the AI scattering their shots across rooms. Systems never get badly damaged because their BL3 spread across 4 rooms. Ions are sometimes dropped into empty rooms. Ships have stupid weapon layouts(AKA 2 beam drones, pike beam and basic laser in sector 6) and their crew will abandon their station to fight 4 mantis mauling everyone else to death when they could've just opened the airlock and had blast doors.

So yeah, I love FTL but your AI is horrible. FTLAdv fix plz :(
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5thHorseman
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Re: Do you think Advanced Edition will have better AI?

Postby 5thHorseman » Fri Dec 20, 2013 12:38 am

If the AI was as good as a Human, the ships would have to be paper-thin, shieldless, weaponless bags filled with explosives if we're to beat 50+ of them in a row to meet the flagship that would then obliterate us when it fired its ions, followed by its lasers, followed by its beam. But only after sending all 3 missiles at our shields.
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Kierany9

Re: Do you think Advanced Edition will have better AI?

Postby Kierany9 » Fri Dec 20, 2013 2:06 pm

5thHorseman wrote:If the AI was as good as a Human, the ships would have to be paper-thin, shieldless, weaponless bags filled with explosives if we're to beat 50+ of them in a row to meet the flagship that would then obliterate us when it fired its ions, followed by its lasers, followed by its beam. But only after sending all 3 missiles at our shields.


Hey, hey, hey. I said good AI, not godly AI.
YumItsTasty
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Re: Do you think Advanced Edition will have better AI?

Postby YumItsTasty » Fri Dec 20, 2013 5:11 pm

You asked for synchronized volleys and "smart" targeting.
I think you underestimate how much harder the game would be, it would totally change the balancing of the game. Apart from that - it is very time consuming to program an AI like that.
The Enemy
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Re: Do you think Advanced Edition will have better AI?

Postby The Enemy » Sat Dec 21, 2013 3:27 pm

Kierany9 wrote:... and who the hell designs a ship with Life Support separated by a wall from the rest of the ship?


The only ship with life support blocked off from the rest of the ship is the smallest Slug ship. Can't remember where I originally read this, but someone once fanwanked that the Slug military might want to purposely wall off life support and engines in such a ship so that they could exert control over low-level Slug crew who otherwise might try to steal the ship. It doesn't exactly make a huge amount of sense, but I thought it was an interesting theory.
LastDay
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Re: Do you think Advanced Edition will have better AI?

Postby LastDay » Sun Dec 22, 2013 7:10 am

I think I read somewhere that the AI in FTL is purposely dumb what it comes to aiming weapons.

In Easy mode it's even more so.
In Normal it has a higher chance of targeting vital systems.

So if the devs wanted to be mean they could make the AI play extremely well.
It would just make the game impossible to beat.

It'd be interesting to have a Hard mode, though, I think.
But no, the AI isn't bad because of laziness, it was made kind of dumb on purpose.

I doubt that the boarding thing was intended, though.
Or how AI Rockmen treat fire...
I think that the crew AI could be made a bit better without making the game too hard.
Kierany9

Re: Do you think Advanced Edition will have better AI?

Postby Kierany9 » Sun Dec 22, 2013 10:31 am

LastDay wrote:I think I read somewhere that the AI in FTL is purposely dumb what it comes to aiming weapons.

In Easy mode it's even more so.
In Normal it has a higher chance of targeting vital systems.

So if the devs wanted to be mean they could make the AI play extremely well.
It would just make the game impossible to beat.

It'd be interesting to have a Hard mode, though, I think.
But no, the AI isn't bad because of laziness, it was made kind of dumb on purpose.

I doubt that the boarding thing was intended, though.
Or how AI Rockmen treat fire...
I think that the crew AI could be made a bit better without making the game too hard.


Yeah. The crew really needs better AI, especially when it comes to boarding. I swear, I've seen people try to board me in a breached airlock and get stuck on the blast doors. And another thing, could the AI even try to strike your doors before boarding. The AI should also be able to vent ships and target medbays when boarding. Just these little things could create a harder, albeit more enjoyable and less predicatabel experience. I also believe that AI should vary by craft. For example, the AI of a pirate ship should be dumber than that of a Rebel Elite.

Anyways, just my two cents again on this matter. And I'd love to see a Hard Mode with better AI.
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R4V3-0N
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Re: Do you think Advanced Edition will have better AI?

Postby R4V3-0N » Sun Dec 22, 2013 4:09 pm

The Enemy wrote:
Kierany9 wrote:... and who the hell designs a ship with Life Support separated by a wall from the rest of the ship?


The only ship with life support blocked off from the rest of the ship is the smallest Slug ship. Can't remember where I originally read this, but someone once fanwanked that the Slug military might want to purposely wall off life support and engines in such a ship so that they could exert control over low-level Slug crew who otherwise might try to steal the ship. It doesn't exactly make a huge amount of sense, but I thought it was an interesting theory.


I didn't guess to much why it was built like that, but I know why the slugs favorite tactic was to turn of peoples life support :lol:

Tons of practice on the Interceptors.
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wolfboyft
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Re: Do you think Advanced Edition will have better AI?

Postby wolfboyft » Mon Dec 23, 2013 12:28 pm

Life support and oxygen are different! :P

Also, I'm pretty sure there's another ship with blocked off Oxygen and... engines?

Was it the fed scout?
Kierany9

Re: Do you think Advanced Edition will have better AI?

Postby Kierany9 » Mon Dec 23, 2013 5:31 pm

wolfboyft wrote:Life support and oxygen are different! :P

Also, I'm pretty sure there's another ship with blocked off Oxygen and... engines?

Was it the fed scout?


No, that's the Slug Interceptor. Same ship as before. They have both systems blocked off.