Tips for keeping AI from dying while I'm gone?

[Gabagooligan]

I just lost a mission after almost an hour of several tense enemy encounters. I toddled off to mine some ore, and 2 mudraptors demolished my AI while I was deep in a cave. 6 crewmembers armed with revolvers and a harpoon gun couldn't kill 2 mudraptors without getting destroyed.

Does anyone have suggestions for what tasks / equipment to give AI so they can do anything without my help? I'm at a loss.

[DuckieMcduck]

I do, actually.

When going out of the sub, place Glowsticks around the submarine, in view of ship weapons.

This provokes most creatures to prioritize the attack on glowsticks instead of the hull; even if they come from a blindside. Bots can then shoot them up without issue. This is also useful for swarm missions. Glowsticks last a long time.

[Gabagooligan]

Creatures attack *glowsticks*? Holy crap, that's awesome. Thanks!

[pks]

Sonar Beacons also work as bait.
Unlike glowsticks, they sink. They also provide more detailed picture for handheld sonar in passive mode - so may be even better for clearing downward caves than glowsticks.

[Kraehe]

Originally posted by UnluckyDuckie:

I do, actually.

When going out of the sub, place Glowsticks around the submarine, in view of ship weapons.

This provokes most creatures to prioritize the attack on glowsticks instead of the hull; even if they come from a blindside. Bots can then shoot them up without issue. This is also useful for swarm missions. Glowsticks last a long time.

Yea that is beyond usefull information. Thanks

[Gabagooligan]

Originally posted by pks:

Sonar Beacons also work as bait.
Unlike glowsticks, they sink. They also provide more detailed picture for handheld sonar in passive mode - so may be even better for clearing downward caves than glowsticks.

Ooh, I really need to start using more equipment. Anything that boosts handheld sonar is gonna be my best friend. Thank you!

[DuckieMcduck]

Originally posted by シ Dawn of the Dunk ツ:

Originally posted by pks:

Sonar Beacons also work as bait.
Unlike glowsticks, they sink. They also provide more detailed picture for handheld sonar in passive mode - so may be even better for clearing downward caves than glowsticks.

Ooh, I really need to start using more equipment. Anything that boosts handheld sonar is gonna be my best friend. Thank you!

Sonar Beacon in particular is one of my favorites, you can basically "defeat" Abyss monsters with it by activating it and jettisoning it out the airlock, or putting it in a railgun shell and firing away from the ship. I've never bothered with killing Abyss creatures.

Early Molochs will also be completely defeated by Sonar Beacons as they will start attacking it relentlessly, as they use sound to make things out and are effectively blind. This lets you attack their brain for free, and they won't even retaliate.

I do say however, that you should never share space with any decoy (flares/glowsticks/beacons). If you are sharing the visual, creatures will often prefer you instead.

[Gabagooligan]

Originally posted by UnluckyDuckie:

Originally posted by シ Dawn of the Dunk ツ:

Ooh, I really need to start using more equipment. Anything that boosts handheld sonar is gonna be my best friend. Thank you!

Sonar Beacon in particular is one of my favorites, you can basically "defeat" Abyss monsters with it by activating it and jettisoning it out the airlock, or putting it in a railgun shell and firing away from the ship. I've never bothered with killing Abyss creatures.

Early Molochs will also be completely defeated by Sonar Beacons as they will start attacking it relentlessly, as they use sound to make things out and are effectively blind. This lets you attack their brain for free, and they won't even retaliate.

I do say however, that you should never share space with any decoy (flares/glowsticks/beacons). If you are sharing the visual, creatures will often prefer you instead.

Yeah, I'm going to need to look at sonar beacons. Latchers have utterly tarnished my early-game enthusiasm with some really unfortunate RNG in my map generation. I think I'd rather ritualistically fall down some stairs rather than deal with a Latcher in my Dugong one more time.

I might prioritize getting the Orca next time so I have that Depth Charge Tube.

[Robo]

Have bots man the guns 24/7 at highest priority without other tasks to repair leaks or fight invaders. Do not take missions that require EVA if you're critically understaffed, this can be either in the beginning of the game or in a period where most of your bots are dead.

Using this approach, I never lost a submarine in EVA 99.9% of the time. Each time you hear a "Target spotted" while away means that your bots likely dealt with the threat before it even breaches the hull and wipe out the entire crew.

[Gabagooligan]

Originally posted by Robo7988143:

Have bots man the guns 24/7 at highest priority without other tasks to repair leaks or fight invaders. Do not take missions that require EVA if you're critically understaffed, this can be either in the beginning of the game or in a period where most of your bots are dead.

Using this approach, I never lost a submarine in EVA 99.9% of the time. Each time you hear a "Target spotted" while away means that your bots likely dealt with the threat before it even breaches the hull and wipe out the entire crew.

Gotcha, thank you! Would you recommend assistants or security officers for manning the guns? I read that it's better to have assistants man the guns and security officers standby for possible boarding, but that's just one voice of many.

[Robo]

Originally posted by シ Dawn of the Dunk ツ:

Originally posted by Robo7988143:

Have bots man the guns 24/7 at highest priority without other tasks to repair leaks or fight invaders. Do not take missions that require EVA if you're critically understaffed, this can be either in the beginning of the game or in a period where most of your bots are dead.

Using this approach, I never lost a submarine in EVA 99.9% of the time. Each time you hear a "Target spotted" while away means that your bots likely dealt with the threat before it even breaches the hull and wipe out the entire crew.

Gotcha, thank you! Would you recommend assistants or security officers for manning the guns? I read that it's better to have assistants man the guns and security officers standby for possible boarding, but that's just one voice of many.

It depends on what you want out of your crew. Security guards would theoretically use less ammo because they have better weapons skill and can therefore better aim turrets, but having assistants man the guns and level their weapons skill would mean that you have proper backups in case your main gunner gets incapacitated.

In general, I suggest having security guards man the guns as the assistants can on average repair hulls faster than their combat focused counterpart.

You can also switch to your security guard in singleplayer if an enemy breaches the hull which the command GUI should say through the "Fighting invaders" task flashing.

[CryonicSuspension]

You have to pre-queue their orders ( select crew, then left click on each character ):

Mechanic: Fix leaks / Fix mechanical.
Electrician: Power on reactor / Fix electrical.
Security: Man guns / Counter invasion.
Medics: Just leave blank because they are mostly brain dead ( if you set them to emergency rescue, they will burn through your entire med cabinet. They will actually take the expensive meds ( like Deusizine - that you spent forever crafting ) out of an auto-injector headset and use them when not needed. Totally braindead. ).

[sokolov]

Originally posted by CryonicSuspension:

Electrician: Power on reactor / Fix electrical.

I dont recommend doing this because "Power up reactor" order is for starting up the reactor, not maintaining it.
You'll have to use multiple fuel rods (at least 2 or 3) throughout the game and the order causes the bot to throw them out and use only a single one, which doesn't generate enough power for most submarines.

[CryonicSuspension]

Oh... I was wondering why it kept throwing out the fuel rods. So strange.

[DeathSpectrum]

Originally posted by Sokolov:

I dont recommend doing this because "Power up reactor" order is for starting up the reactor, not maintaining it.
You'll have to use multiple fuel rods (at least 2 or 3) throughout the game and the order causes the bot to throw them out and use only a single one, which doesn't generate enough power for most submarines.

So how would you get them to maintain the reactor? i noticed the bot was only using one at a time but i thought that was cool cause i picked a starter sub lol.

So yeah is it better to just load the reactor myself and leave it on auto pilot?

[CryonicSuspension]

I'm guessing that I need to ask the electrical engineer to power up the reactor but once the reactor is powered, I need to delete that command from the queue and the engineer will take care of power consumption.

I'll have to trial and error it. I got around travelling on one fuel rod by maximizing reactor efficiency with the submarine upgrades ( +3% power, less fuel rod consumption, weapons using less power etc. )