Ship Combat Observations and General Comments
Feb 5, 2018 13:48:58 GMT -5
LordofSyn, MintDragon, and 1 more like this
Post by spithas on Feb 5, 2018 13:48:58 GMT -5
These are my findings based on what i experienced in ship combat.
The majority of my testing was done at:
Captain lvl: 19 to 23.
Game Difficulty: Hard.
Ships Used: Interceptor and Vengeance with a high Pilot / Electronics pool loadout 35+ and 50+ on average respectively. Weapons and Modules were all max level possible.
(I am also doing a run on Impossible with a Juror (lvl 1 to 7 atm) utilizing a similar loadout in terms of approach (dodge) to see if combat AI uses talents differently.)
The average rounds for the battles was 6 rounds. (I did have to only use 1 weapon at times to give the enemy more time to go through his talents and not land too many cripple effects)
Observations:
1) Pilot Talents
In all the battles which i recorded the talent use at each round i saw 0 use of any Pilot job Talents (Evasive Manuevers, Twitch Surge, Sharp Steering etc)
After discussing with Cory and understanding the 2 different AI (ship build - Ship Combat) i conscripted several pilots to check their talent pools. Everything looked normal, most ships check had on average 2-3 Evasive Manuevers
2) Cripple Effect Management
The AI makes frequent use of Cripple Remove Talents (Steady Hands, Solace in Battle, Safety Protocols etc) However these talents are used very inefficiently as illustrated by the points below:
a) It's a very common scenario for the AI to ignore Cripples until they have more than 2.
b) Also common is the use of cripple removal talents like Steady Hands when there is no crew effects but 2 or even more ship effects. (To my understanding the AI is doing this to buff his defence and Crew Morale but it's not efficient when it's losing morale and performance due to ship cripples)
Also common to see the use of Unrivaled Patch with no ship effects on at the time (Yes the talent heals component damage but that damage could have been mitigated with instant use of the talent when ship effects happened in the previous rounds)
The use of cripple effect removal talents when the ship has no effects at all or effects of the different type leads me to assume that the AI is prioritizing the talent use based on it's current module/crew health and morale which is inefficient as dealing with the source of the effect sooner and better would be much better.
The situation is compounded when the effects are strong like Cripple effects that cause accuracy and defense debuffs but no morale / health / comp. health damage. So the AI commonly leaves 1 or 2 to run their course.
c) There were situation on long lasting battles 8+ rounds where the AI made use of simple effect removing talents like Safety Protocol when no effect was active.
Example Screen shots:
3) Defense and self Buffing
From my data i noticed extremely limited use of Defence increasing Talents. The most commonly used Talent that had Defense buff was Steady Hands and much rarely Overiding Discipline. Aim Buffing was also rarely noticed with the exception of Pirates using Acrobatic Dive, however no use of Barrel Roll was recorded.
In over 40 battles Vigilant Scanners was only seen been used twice and both of them in battles that went over the 8 round mark.
The AI did actively try to debuff with Bombardment.
The low focus on Defence Buffing was made more apparent to me when i noticed that i made use of my +Accuracy Talents extremely rarely as i was hitting effectively with weapons even outside their optimal range. (No +Accurady upgrade was used only top lvl weapons)
4) Behaviour of AI that wanted to avoid the fight at the encounter screen
It was noted that all ships engaged by me that had low hostility (i had the depart option) regardless of class (even Pirates for example) performed in the same way on the first round.
No weapons use, No talent use, Escape move.
This is true for all my encounters that i recorded down as (Victim) AI that wasn't inclined to attack me first not one exception to that rule. Beyond round 1 they performed normally making use of Guns, Talents and Range change.
Also the Fleeing AI was never recorded making use of +Escape Talents. They frequently used +Range Change Talents but not Escape Talents.
5) Behaviour of AI that wanted to fight me
Captains that wanted to fight performed more reasonably in their first round making use of their guns, always using -Escape Talents, and moving or not (depending on their loadout i guess).
However it was noted that occasionaly the AI would attempt stacking up additional -Escape Talents neglecting their cripples or defence/aim buffing. (However due to the high dodge probabilities of my build i could not confirm if this was common or not as beyond the 1st round enemies would rarely hit me, what can be deduced is that no self buffing talents were using but i had no way of knowing what Talents that activate upon hit were used if any)
Blood Game and Boarding Assault were used as expected (though Boarding Assault more rarely for reason exlpained below).
7) Moves
Aggressive AI did try to move at the initial (1-3) rounds but the vast majority of the fights were fought between ranges 4-5 and a very small ammount reaching range 3. In the test sample the AI was never noticed trying to close in past range 3, Not even Xenos or BH. (in my test fights unless trying to keep a fleeing AI from escape i rarely tried moving)
Never saw the AI try to use Twitch Surge (ties in with point 1). Perfected Approach was used with good frequency (even 2 stacked on occasion) however it was very rarely followed by more than 1 close rage attempts.
General Comments:
So with this data i concluded that a combination of Good Defence + High Cripple Chance weapons is currently too hard for the AI to handle because of his reluctance to self buff and frequent but inefficient use of effect removing Talents. There is also definately amiss with Pilot talent use.
The current run on impossible confirmed the issue with pilot talents (none used there as well) and also cripple management (loadout is 4 x Torps for Cripples). Though the sample size is still extremely small for the impossible run so far it confirms what i saw on my main run.
As it stands now ship combat is initially a good challenge but once high level weapons are installed and Pilot / Electronics pools adequately increased it becomes easier and easier until i arrived at a point (around Captain lvl 17 unfortunately i didnt record the Game Turn) where it becomes almost impossible to lose a ship fight.
P.S. Both save files will be sent to Cory's Dropbox.
The majority of my testing was done at:
Captain lvl: 19 to 23.
Game Difficulty: Hard.
Ships Used: Interceptor and Vengeance with a high Pilot / Electronics pool loadout 35+ and 50+ on average respectively. Weapons and Modules were all max level possible.
(I am also doing a run on Impossible with a Juror (lvl 1 to 7 atm) utilizing a similar loadout in terms of approach (dodge) to see if combat AI uses talents differently.)
The average rounds for the battles was 6 rounds. (I did have to only use 1 weapon at times to give the enemy more time to go through his talents and not land too many cripple effects)
Observations:
1) Pilot Talents
In all the battles which i recorded the talent use at each round i saw 0 use of any Pilot job Talents (Evasive Manuevers, Twitch Surge, Sharp Steering etc)
After discussing with Cory and understanding the 2 different AI (ship build - Ship Combat) i conscripted several pilots to check their talent pools. Everything looked normal, most ships check had on average 2-3 Evasive Manuevers
2) Cripple Effect Management
The AI makes frequent use of Cripple Remove Talents (Steady Hands, Solace in Battle, Safety Protocols etc) However these talents are used very inefficiently as illustrated by the points below:
a) It's a very common scenario for the AI to ignore Cripples until they have more than 2.
b) Also common is the use of cripple removal talents like Steady Hands when there is no crew effects but 2 or even more ship effects. (To my understanding the AI is doing this to buff his defence and Crew Morale but it's not efficient when it's losing morale and performance due to ship cripples)
Also common to see the use of Unrivaled Patch with no ship effects on at the time (Yes the talent heals component damage but that damage could have been mitigated with instant use of the talent when ship effects happened in the previous rounds)
The use of cripple effect removal talents when the ship has no effects at all or effects of the different type leads me to assume that the AI is prioritizing the talent use based on it's current module/crew health and morale which is inefficient as dealing with the source of the effect sooner and better would be much better.
The situation is compounded when the effects are strong like Cripple effects that cause accuracy and defense debuffs but no morale / health / comp. health damage. So the AI commonly leaves 1 or 2 to run their course.
c) There were situation on long lasting battles 8+ rounds where the AI made use of simple effect removing talents like Safety Protocol when no effect was active.
Example Screen shots:
3) Defense and self Buffing
From my data i noticed extremely limited use of Defence increasing Talents. The most commonly used Talent that had Defense buff was Steady Hands and much rarely Overiding Discipline. Aim Buffing was also rarely noticed with the exception of Pirates using Acrobatic Dive, however no use of Barrel Roll was recorded.
In over 40 battles Vigilant Scanners was only seen been used twice and both of them in battles that went over the 8 round mark.
The AI did actively try to debuff with Bombardment.
The low focus on Defence Buffing was made more apparent to me when i noticed that i made use of my +Accuracy Talents extremely rarely as i was hitting effectively with weapons even outside their optimal range. (No +Accurady upgrade was used only top lvl weapons)
4) Behaviour of AI that wanted to avoid the fight at the encounter screen
It was noted that all ships engaged by me that had low hostility (i had the depart option) regardless of class (even Pirates for example) performed in the same way on the first round.
No weapons use, No talent use, Escape move.
This is true for all my encounters that i recorded down as (Victim) AI that wasn't inclined to attack me first not one exception to that rule. Beyond round 1 they performed normally making use of Guns, Talents and Range change.
Also the Fleeing AI was never recorded making use of +Escape Talents. They frequently used +Range Change Talents but not Escape Talents.
5) Behaviour of AI that wanted to fight me
Captains that wanted to fight performed more reasonably in their first round making use of their guns, always using -Escape Talents, and moving or not (depending on their loadout i guess).
However it was noted that occasionaly the AI would attempt stacking up additional -Escape Talents neglecting their cripples or defence/aim buffing. (However due to the high dodge probabilities of my build i could not confirm if this was common or not as beyond the 1st round enemies would rarely hit me, what can be deduced is that no self buffing talents were using but i had no way of knowing what Talents that activate upon hit were used if any)
Blood Game and Boarding Assault were used as expected (though Boarding Assault more rarely for reason exlpained below).
7) Moves
Aggressive AI did try to move at the initial (1-3) rounds but the vast majority of the fights were fought between ranges 4-5 and a very small ammount reaching range 3. In the test sample the AI was never noticed trying to close in past range 3, Not even Xenos or BH. (in my test fights unless trying to keep a fleeing AI from escape i rarely tried moving)
Never saw the AI try to use Twitch Surge (ties in with point 1). Perfected Approach was used with good frequency (even 2 stacked on occasion) however it was very rarely followed by more than 1 close rage attempts.
General Comments:
So with this data i concluded that a combination of Good Defence + High Cripple Chance weapons is currently too hard for the AI to handle because of his reluctance to self buff and frequent but inefficient use of effect removing Talents. There is also definately amiss with Pilot talent use.
The current run on impossible confirmed the issue with pilot talents (none used there as well) and also cripple management (loadout is 4 x Torps for Cripples). Though the sample size is still extremely small for the impossible run so far it confirms what i saw on my main run.
As it stands now ship combat is initially a good challenge but once high level weapons are installed and Pilot / Electronics pools adequately increased it becomes easier and easier until i arrived at a point (around Captain lvl 17 unfortunately i didnt record the Game Turn) where it becomes almost impossible to lose a ship fight.
P.S. Both save files will be sent to Cory's Dropbox.
