Fix the AI constantly targeting the celestras

[Sabaithal]

Developers, if you are reading this: I beg of you, for love of god, fix the AI constantly and fanatically targeting nothing but celestra support ships. Since the last major update they AI has been doing this nonstop in almost every. single. battle.

I already protect the support ships fine now, the problem is the battles are getting really really BORING because I automatically know that the AI are for sure going to target this one ship, so I just focus all the missile defense on one spot and let everything else do the ship-to-ship equivalent of mooning the enemy while making taunting noises.

Its also aggrivating early game, because the celestra is the one ship with no ability to defend or repair itself, and is pretty much made of paper.

[Black Lab Games]

Yeah, that doesn't sound ideal. Are you playing through a campaign, or is this in skirmish battles? If campaign, which one, which difficulty?

We'll investigate.

[Sabaithal]

Originally posted by Black Lab Games:

Yeah, that doesn't sound ideal. Are you playing through a campaign, or is this in skirmish battles? If campaign, which one, which difficulty?

We'll investigate.

Campaign, the lowest difficulty at the moment. Persistent damage is on.

I've done further testing and Celestras that are positioned in the back, and I mean WAY in the back (using the initial placement grid, the celestras are positioned more than half of the entire grid behind everything else) will only be targeted half the time. The other half of the time enemy ships will target the ships nearest the front as intended.

[Black Lab Games]

Cool, thanks for the info. We'll look into this.

[Sabaithal]

It seems to happen less often with late-game ships for some reason, if that helps. Its mostly early-game.

[Spartan Delta 27]

Originally posted by Sabaithal:

It seems to happen less often with late-game ships for some reason, if that helps. Its mostly early-game.

It definitely sounds like fleet composition is a big factor. I have heard that the AI enjoys targeting certain vessels and will often prioritize hardcore fleet killers and support ships.

The Celestra is a tempting target because it can effectively reinforce the fleet's hitpoints and then send them back out to fight some more. However, seeing a Janus closing distance with a ridiculous number of munitions and armor can prove to be a more immediate danger.

My guess is that whatever ships were being fielded before most likely did not register as nearly significant a threat. As a result, the support ship with the ability to effectively rebuild an entire fleet took priority. Now there are likely some heavy hitters on the field that demand greater attention.

That is my thought anyway.

[House of Dust]

So there seems to be two different things going on.

One is the AI switching targets - I believe this is intended behaviour, although it's making some quirky decisions currently, but not a major issue.

The other is the AI appearing to focus exclusively on a celestra on turn 1, and staying locked into it through the rest of the battle. It's pretty jarring if / when it happens, as well as being easily exploitable.

Not everyone seems to be experiencing it, so maybe it's hardware related? <shrugs>

[LewdestRoadCone]

im playing on commander and we were discussing this in another thread too. its so funny/dumb because it basically makes it world of warcraft with 100% controllable aggro tables by parking it with a battlestar in the way of line of sight.

the cheese mechanic works great until you forget to check once and they lob torpedos between the cracks rofl https://i.imgur.com/ErRBEec.png

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekdWdVniRk8&hd=1

[Sabaithal]

Originally posted by darkconsole:

im playing on commander and we were discussing this in another thread too. its so funny/dumb because it basically makes it world of warcraft with 100% controllable aggro tables by parking it with a battlestar in the way of line of sight.

the cheese mechanic works great until you forget to check once and they lob torpedos between the cracks rofl https://i.imgur.com/ErRBEec.png

Solution: Sweepers defending the celestra.

[LewdestRoadCone]

Originally posted by Sabaithal:

Solution: Sweepers defending the celestra.

that was round 2 the sweeper wouldn't have even been in a position. real battlestarmen use flak anyway XD