solo captins guide to bot settings

this guide list some goals of setting up your AI and some ways to get there. note this will not explain the mechanics of AI settings for that look at the guide "you robot"

basics

the first thing you need to know is that no 2 captains will have the same settings, unless they are the default ones :), and quite often you will need to change the settings just because you got a new reactor. as such i will not be listing any exact settings. instead i will be guiding you to find settings that work for your ship and your playstyle. i will start with class specific advise and move forward to case specific. also note that i am a total noob at making guides so i will listen to any advise given please give it generously i need it :)

the first person you need to set up is the captain :). you need to always know what you are telling your crew to do. it is simple when you have the defaults however it gets complicated when you start meddeling. here are some general tips. first when ever you fire or are fired on you automaticly go to red alert. use that so battle settings are set quicker. also if one of the default commands dosen't seem to fit your goal you can create several custom ones.

lets start with the AI i feel needs the most attention. the engineer

engineer

if you play solo you may notice that your engineer never uses coolant, and more importantly never uses the full power of your reactor! the first thing i suggest is change this. one of the unique things with engineer settings is that under behavior tweaks it does not change what he does but how. this is where most engineer specific settings need changed.

whenever he is manning his station the power levels listed there are the exact percentage of power he limits the system to. i highly sugest for all play styles to set the base priority of "minimize power usage" to zero. that way when no special conditions are met there is no limit to total usage. you would want to change this if doing a stealth run however. word of warning never have minimize consumption on 0 and keep coolant at 5. that is a sure fire way to overheat the reactor. also worth noting at the default "reactor saftey" level i have never seen the stability go down.

all the other settings are play style specific. if you know how to play as an engineer you should have little difficulty. this is also the area that needs to be checked most often. for instance you start with a stock reactor that can't power everything. so you chose to limit power to a system. then you get a better reactor and change that limit. or as happened to me recently you set everthing to max power to take advantage of your new super reactor. then you install thrusters that use 6 times the power and have to add a limit.

a general suggestion is to always have shields and weapons maxed since they only use power when needed. and when they are needed they are of extreme importance. also depending on play style you can severly limit science lab power when at red alert as it is almost impossible to not see someone when they are firing on you, however it needs to be raised if you give the order for a quick escape.

engineering power settings are extremely variable. depending on the ship, equipped engines, and play style. if you manage to get super engines that are more than you need there is no reason not to lower it's power, however if you are playing with a live pilot he may be a little mad if you have a bot lower his power :). but some ships such as the roland need that power. my main tip here is to experiment.

as for the other settings while they do have a large importance at the defaults your bot will be a good engineer, boarding and such will be covered later.

pilot

the pilot has in my oppinon very little that needs done to him. note that none of the settings will effect how well he actually flies the ship, he will ram things no matter what you do :). on my game i created an escape command that required changes to the pilot. i have it when that custom order is active he will always line up for warp. otherwise there is little special to do to him. at least that i know of.

scientist

scientist is unique in that every time you get a new program you need to sett when he uses it. these settings are under class specific.

the higher the priority the more likely he is to use it. and some programs have defaults that are a little strange. for instance detection and block long range comms are always run the moment they are charged! you need to adjust the settings for most of your programms. for instance most programs run the moment you enter combat. however emergency sheild boosting is useless until your shields are hit. i don't have enough experiance as a scientist to give advise on how to use these. on this matter i am VERY open to advise.

the behavior tweaks settings change how likely he is to use viruses/programs at all. also there you can change whether he defaults to static or modulate shields. all of these change depending on your play style.

weapon specalist

this guy is easy! his only class specific options are how often he uses missles and what system he targets the missles at. simply pick what suits you best.

repel invaders

this command is one that needs some work. infact it does nothing at all by default. you will want to set "defend self(ship)" to higher when this command is active. however it may be an even better idea to simmply set that to a high setting any time there are any intruders. there are some settings already in place for this but you may want to alter them.

boarding

this is a more complicated one for starters all AI have a base of priority 2 and no special conditions on when to board which is compleatly worthless. you will want to set all the bots you want to board to react strongly to the board enemy ship command. however i highly suggest you never leave your ship without a pilot.

now that you have some bots going there what do they do there? you choose. by default they will attack enemies on sight but won't seek them out. and they will capture screens if there is nothing else for them to do. a possible setting is to have the 2 with the best weapons neutralize crew while you and the other capture screens. you could also set it up so that they will stay near you unless there is an enemy in sight. infact i was able to capture a ship with the "stay close to captin command", but that is not the ideal way.

hide from sensors

this command has some good defaults. but they can use some improvement. for instance you may want to stop the weap.bot from attacking, have the engineer minimize power everywhere, unless you have a cloak wich will activate on this command.

escape!

this is a custom command i have set up myself. i feel it is usefull. it is also a way to show what else you can get your crew to do.

by default the engineer charges the jump drive on exiting warp but if you changed that you should be certain he does it now. also set the pilot to align to warp above all other settings. and be certain that the engineer jumps when aligned.

this is a simple command but if not set up you may be forced to do a blind jump that will almost certainly kill you. but once set you just target a system on the map and fly away safely. considering that bots will never blind warp this way is almost just as fast, and a lot safer.

conclusion

these are just a few tips on how you can improve your bots AI. i hope this helped. if you have any suggestions PLEASE don't hesitate to tell me.

[harrymcb]

I'm glad. I am glad this guide is actually looked at. Even though i threw it together years ago.

[Tabby]

nvm I think I got it working

[Tabby]

hello pulsar player from 2024 here I actually have a question since no other guides seem to cover it as far as I'm aware but i've noticed my ship tends to catch fire quite often so is there an efficient way I can get my bots to put out fires? I've tried tinkering with it but I'm not nearly as bright as some other players are so I'm looking for wisdom on the problem

[harrymcb]

thanks. im actually surprised any of it is still relevant since it is so old

[NovaGamingBird]

Had a quick skim over this and alot of it appears to be generaly things i have already done by sheer experience but based on that fact this is a pretty good guide for people that dosent know what to do with their ai and such.

[harrymcb]

thanks

[Bullethead]

This is some good general advice. It would be nice if you used capital letters at the start of scentences, though ;).

Anyway, I'm slogging my way through all this. It doesn't help that I'm completely new to the game so don't have much knowledge of how to play any of the positions myself.