the tactical AI.

[Flef]

Is it possible to embetter a bit the tactical AI?

The corvettes, and others main ships are generally charging without any formation. Taking them out is really easy simply because they never really regroup In formation (I never seen it actually even with 20 ships in front). It could be an idea to force the AI to use formations. The AI ships are nicely placed at start of the battle then they scatter and charge without much cohesion.
It could be an idea too to force the player to use formation. That would simplify the work for the AI.


Other points the AI is trying to keep the ships at a "safe range" but
1- it is not safe when the ship is under fire and unable to fire back.
2-they are turning round constantly making them sometimes unable to fire at full capacity

the same applies at some extent to fighters. I never understood why they are charging a ship equipped with a boson gun and lasers while there is a lot of easier targets :/
Also the AI tends to keep fighters at the limit of the firing envelope of their opponent. Which makes them very vulnerable as their weapons fire generally at a shorter range. They should get out of the firing envelope if they can't reply. Or they should return to the carrier.

On the general use made of fighter.interceptors and heavy fighters by the AI, these light vessels are generally sent wildly to kill as much ships before the big ships do battle. Which does not work at all when the boson guns are in the place. They also tries to kill the military ships when there is a lot of freighters. They should target the freighters first (as the freighters are very slow and quite unable to defend themselves) and they should circle around the enemy capital ships to achieve this without getting hit.

I think that the AI would gain of using its fighters differently.

[von Runstedt]

believe me dude, I've complained about this very same problem here on the forums, idk what will be done about it but as it is the battle Ai is just laughably stupid

[TheFlemishDuck]

I agree that it deffinatly could use improvement, its a walk trough the park on hard. Also multiplayer would be nice.

[Flef]

believe me dude, I've complained about this very same problem here on the forums, idk what will be done about it but as it is the battle Ai is just laughably stupid

I believe you, dude

The AI could use formations I think, just like the fighters, for its main ships. It shouldn't be too hard after that to enhance the decision manager to decide accordingly to the strength of the formation.

[TheFlemishDuck]

Its not so much a surprize that the tactical AI is lacking given the feature's of the game. One has to wonder, what makes a good Ai, and how good an AI are you likely to get? The options in this game with all the module's and variations in which they might be used for battle in a 2 dimensional space allow for so much tactical possibilety's that it would require a rather serious AI to make the most of it in it's wish to defeat the human, or even a die hard strategy gamer who is rather talented/experienced as in game strategy.

Take chess for ex. What is a good Ai in chess? Basicly it's a database of "moves", a good chess computer knows loads of moves, a better chess computer might even learn new moves itself, knows a lot more moves still and probably would be heavy on youre hardware. Now a chess computer has fairly clear rules and space to work with, There is a limited amount of square's and pieces. If a chess board would be say 2 times bigger or have 2 times more pieces then the extra amount of extra moves possible and required to learn would probably be a multiple of 2, complexity would rise exponential so to say.

The amount of "moves" possible in this game is probably a vast multiple of the amount of moves a bulky pro chess computer could know. There are no defined pieces neither, the possible variations in ship design/function is difficult to calculate.
That doesn't mean you can't learn the AI some moves, however the caveat with Ai "moves" is that a crafty human might find a way to exploit that behaviour, so youre Ai must know when a move could be working to it's disadvantage. And even then you'd need loads of "moves" to make a unpredictable AI, besides that the AI would need to have a concept of the diffferent ways designs can play out on the battlefield both for it's own use as for countering the opponent.

The AI not only needs to work well on a tactical level, so must it be on the opperational and strategic level. The Ai would need to know when to spread or when to stack, know what targets of opportunity to have, know how to perhaps take a loss one one side to make a bigger gain on the other, basicly all sorts of moves that can have a function on the strategic or opperational level.

Now look at Polaris sector it's competitors, games alike it. How many games which offer you so much tactical space and options have really good Ai's? Shit the Civilization franchise after 5 installments still doesn't have a capable battlefield AI to speak off and that game is a lot more simple for the mechanics of warfare.


I still hope the game will eventually have multiplayer, the game looks fairly promising for that to me.

[freifrei]

Still, despite overall lacking tactical AI, I find fighter management part to be really good. And fighter battle mechanic in general is a highlight of this game, in my opinion.

As for bigger ships, there is pretty big challenge to position them properly while moving since ships cant stack one over another like the ones in stardrive 1.

Vladimir mentioned plans for proper big ship formations on more than one occasion, btw. So just gotta wait for future updates, i guess?

[Rosseau]

I was happy to see the Urgans overwhelm my technologically superior Cruisers and Destroyers with clouds of fighters, gunboats, etc. I have boson guns but now need to build some air superiority strength with carriers.

At least there is a semblance of strategy in a game that offers a lot more than tactical battles. Not that anything can't be made a little better.

Paradox's Stellaris better be pretty darn good for the hype and what they will be charging. GalCiv3 wasn't, but may finally be improving. Haven't played it much really.

[Firefox440]

Still, despite overall lacking tactical AI, I find fighter management part to be really good. And fighter battle mechanic in general is a highlight of this game, in my opinion.

As for bigger ships, there is pretty big challenge to position them properly while moving since ships cant stack one over another like the ones in stardrive 1.

Vladimir mentioned plans for proper big ship formations on more than one occasion, btw. So just gotta wait for future updates, i guess?

Yes. I am sure how there will be future updates with many things.

[RandomAttack]

I'm starting to get pretty pessimistic about future updates. I haven't seen anything from the developer that indicates there is anything forthcoming, or what the changes might be...

[Rosseau]

Matrix is better than most at upgrading. There are only a few games they have left hung to dry. So there is hope, as it really is one of the best 4x space games right now.