Ok, I've got a new idea for a plugin and a few unconventional ideas. Already I've run into a few oddities, which are the subjects of my questions.

1. Most weapons use fuel. I've already attributed the AI's lack of firing to afterburner use, so I've disabled them. However, is there any way to make the AI use weapons a little more sensibly than "fire everything as fast as possible and then each time a little fuel regenerates"?

2. The AI (skill adjust set to 0) seems to fire weapons at a slower rate than I do, whether they use fuel or not. Is it just me, or is this happening and why?

3. A ship has (1ary) energy turrets, (2ndary) guided missiles, (2ndary) heavy rockets and a (2ndary) fuel-based energy cannon. It fires turrets (an example of problem #2), the energy cannon (another problem weapon), and periodically a guided missile. It never fires it's rockets. The cannon causes more damage per second against shields, but I heard that it doesn't matter with cannons. Even so, the rockets are better vs. armor. Why won't it fire rockets (very similar to EVO's standard rockets)?

4. The autopilot doesn't work precisely. For example, if I'm sitting nearly still and so is my target, shots fired while using autopilot go slightly to the side of the target. This is very annoying...why is it happening?

5. The fuel regen. values aren't quite right. They seem to regenerate a good deal faster than I was thinking they would. Is this true, or is my computer just too darn fast? (G4/450)

6. The fuel-based energy cannon has a very good range, yet the computer won't use either it or it's turrets until I'm well withing range...sort of defeating a main purpose of the long-range cannon. What's up with that?

7. A slow computer ship will stop like it's supposed to, to prevent Monty Python maneuvers...however even when I'm far away and moving very slowly it refuses to follow me until I practically stop! (same question, why...)

8. Damage values seem really weird...a heavy rocket in EVO seems like it should be able to destroy a UE Fighter instantly but instead only disables it. A crescent fighter should go down with only a few Phase Shots...that is if 1 point of weapon damage = 1 point of armor/shields, where the in-resource value for shields is divided by 10 for the in-game value. Is there some sort of modifier placed on weapons (I know about the +1/4 other value rule, but I've heard even that isn't right)?

Thanks in advance for the help...

Apologies if I was running on incoherently at times.

(This message has been edited by Weepul 884 (edited 07-10-2000).)

I think I can answer most of these.

--1. Most weapons use fuel. I've already attributed the AI's lack of firing to afterburner use, so I've disabled them. However, is there any way to make the AI use weapons a little more sensibly than "fire everything as fast as possible and then each time a little fuel regenerates"?

Not really, an idea might be increasing the reload value, so they fire the shots less often.

--2. The AI (skill adjust set to 0) seems to fire weapons at a slower rate than I do, whether they use fuel or not. Is it just me, or is this happening and why?

Just the way the AI is I guess.

--3. A ship has (1ary) energy turrets, (2ndary) guided missiles, (2ndary) heavy rockets and a (2ndary) fuel-based energy cannon. It fires turrets (an example of problem #2), the energy cannon (another problem weapon), and periodically a guided missile. It never fires it's rockets. The cannon causes more damage per second against shields, but I heard that it doesn't matter with cannons. Even so, the rockets are better vs. armor. Why won't it fire rockets (very similar to EVO's standard rockets)?

Try switching the energy cannon and the rockets weapon id's, EV uses the first ones more often.

4. The autopilot doesn't work precisely. For example, if I'm sitting nearly still and so is my target, shots fired while using autopilot go slightly to the side of the target. This is very annoying...why is it happening?

Bug I guess.

5. The fuel regen. values aren't quite right. They seem to regenerate a good deal faster than I was thinking they would. Is this true, or is my computer just too darn fast? (G4/450)

could be, but EV splits up the second into 30 parts, and thats what the fuel regen is based on, (and other things) after x number of parts then you gain a point of fuel.

6. The fuel-based energy cannon has a very good range, yet the computer won't use either it or it's turrets until I'm well withing range...sort of defeating a main purpose of the long-range cannon. What's up with that?

Its a known bug that cannons don't work after a certain range.

7. A slow computer ship will stop like it's supposed to, to prevent Monty Python maneuvers...however even when I'm far away and moving very slowly it refuses to follow me until I practically stop! (same question, why...)

AI - needs to be fixed

8. Damage values seem really weird...a heavy rocket in EVO seems like it should be able to destroy a UE Fighter instantly but instead only disables it. A crescent fighter should go down with only a few Phase Shots...that is if 1 point of weapon damage = 1 point of armor/shields, where the in-resource value for shields is divided by 10 for the in-game value. Is there some sort of modifier placed on weapons (I know about the +1/4 other value rule, but I've heard even that isn't right)?

what you should do is not worry about the values. Just spend some time balancing the game, increase the power of weapons that don't seem to be doing enough damage etc...

Thanks in advance for the help...
np

Chamrin

(This message has been edited by Chamrin (edited 07-10-2000).)

Many problems solved. Here's what happened, to be added to the board's collective knowledge:

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--2. The AI (skill adjust set to 0) seems to fire weapons at a slower rate than I do, whether they use fuel or not. Is it just me, or is this happening and why?

Just the way the AI is I guess.

Problem, eh, understood? Even with skill adjust set to 0 (which only affects speed and turning, I think) the AI gains some flying skills and, yes, fires faster the higher your combat rating.

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--3. A ship has (1ary) energy turrets, (2ndary) guided missiles, (2ndary) heavy rockets and a (2ndary) fuel-based energy cannon. It fires turrets (an example of problem #2), the energy cannon (another problem weapon), and periodically a guided missile. It never fires it's rockets. The cannon causes more damage per second against shields, but I heard that it doesn't matter with cannons. Even so, the rockets are better vs. armor. Why won't it fire rockets (very similar to EVO's standard rockets)?

Try switching the energy cannon and the rockets weapon id's, EV uses the first ones more often.

Problem solved! It now uses all weapons in proper amounts. I moved the cannon to an ID after all the other weapons.

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4. The autopilot doesn't work precisely. For example, if I'm sitting nearly still and so is my target, shots fired while using autopilot go slightly to the side of the target. This is very annoying...why is it happening?

Bug I guess.

It works if I stand absolutely still...I think my slight movement might have been enough for the shot to move to the side.

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5. The fuel regen. values aren't quite right. They seem to regenerate a good deal faster than I was thinking they would. Is this true, or is my computer just too darn fast? (G4/450)

could be, but EV splits up the second into 30 parts, and thats what the fuel regen is based on, (and other things) after x number of parts then you gain a point of fuel.

Yes, I know. It still seems faster. Actually, that's a good thing for me...I just have to compensate with testing.

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6. The fuel-based energy cannon has a very good range, yet the computer won't use either it or it's turrets until I'm well withing range...sort of defeating a main purpose of the long-range cannon. What's up with that?

Its a known bug that cannons don't work after a certain range.

The AI attacks at a slightly longer range as your combat rating increases.

I hope these observations can help others as well!

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One more question:
You said there is a known bug that ships only use cannons up to a certain distance. This also seems to apply to front-quadrant swivelers...really annoying! It really defeats the purpose of one of the weapons (except for the player, of course)....what's kind of funny though is that I had to remove it's blast radius - the computer's fighters were blowing themselves up!

Is there absolutely no way to fix this except wait for EV3?? I was hoping for this to be a before-ev3-work-on-it-during-summer-vacation plug...

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nope sorry, no fix, just guess you'll have to wait for EV3 or use a shorter range cannon.

Chamrin

DISCLAIMER: This post degenerates into irrelevancy after the first paragraph, but the first paragraph's information is impeccable. It comes from the keyboard of Syntax.

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Originally posted by Weepul 884:
**One more question:
You said there is a known bug that ships only use cannons up to a certain distance. This also seems to apply to front-quadrant swivelers...really annoying! It really defeats the purpose of one of the weapons (except for the player, of course)....what's kind of funny though is that I had to remove it's blast radius - the computer's fighters were blowing themselves up!

Is there absolutely no way to fix this except wait for EV3?? I was hoping for this to be a before-ev3-work-on-it-during-summer-vacation plug...
**

Weepul... Cham.. it's not a bug. It's the basis that EV's weapon-selecting system works on. Guidance types -1 (Unguided forward-firing non-accelerating projectile), 0 (Forward-firing beam), 3 (Turreted Beam), 4 (Unguided turreted non-accelerating projectile), 6 (Unguided forward-firing accelerating projectile), 7 (Unguided front-quadrant firing non-accelerating projectile) and 8 (Unguided rear-quadrant firing non-accelerating projectile) are all considered "close-range weaponry" due to their general inability to strike acuratly after a certain range. EV's AI is aware of this, and will only fire the afforementioned guidance types when the target is within one screen-width (presumedly a 640x480 screen) of the AI. When the target is outside said range, the AI will only utilise guided weaponry, types 1 (smart/custom homing) (and in EV, 2 (dumb homing)).

Just for the record, Guidance type 5 (freefall bombs) will never be utilised by an AI, and type 99 (carried ships) will be fired at every available opportunity regardless of the situation.

Also, it should be noted that with the introduction of EVO 1.0.2, Guidance types 7 and 8 are now more or less superfluous. They should be able to be emulated by the inclusion of flag 0x6000 and 0x3000 respectivly, as can side-firing behavior (0x5000). I must admit that I havn't tested these, and I also don't know whether they work in conjunction with guidance type 3 in addition to type 4.

It shoulda' been version 1.1.0 at the least...

-reg

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"Now, Mr. Mirnas... start at the beginning."

-The Interrogator