Ben Singely (author of Pale) figured this one out a while ago. I later contacted mcb and he fleshed out my understanding of the AI. It's quite simple.
The EV/O AI will only fire one primary weapon and one secondary weapon at a time. It switches through secondary weapons with the following priority:
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Fighters launch first
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Homing weapons launch when the ship is more than approx. 480 pixels away. They launch in descending damage levels, but will not fire a particular weapon if your ship is out of range.
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Non-homing weapons launch when the ship is within the 480 pixel range. They launch again, in descending levels of damage with certain overrides for range.
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Freeflight bombs (Space Bombs, Decoy Flares, Voinian Space Mines) never launch.
Primary weapons, however, are your concern in this case, and they follow a different set of rules.
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Only one primary weapon will ever fire at a time.
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The most damaging primary whose range will accommodate the attacker will be chosen.
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Primaries will fire based on linear range. For example, if I have two cannons, one powerful and short range, one weak and long range, the long range cannon will be used only until the enemy ship is within range of the more powerful canon, at which point the AI will switch.
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Primaries also fire based on radial range. For example, if I have a weak 360° turret and a powerful front-quadrant turret, the weak turret will be used while the enemy ship is behind and to the sides, while the powerful turret will be used while the ship is to the front.
The essential thing to remember is that the AI, unlike the human, is only capable of firing a single type of primary at a time. Multiple instances of the same type are accounted for, but not distinct weapons each flagged primary. This is, incidentally, the reason that in EVO you can't simultaneously max out both turrets and canons - it gives the human an unfair advantage over the AI.
-reg
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"Oh crap. I'm going to hell - I put the Bible next to Mein Kampf again."
-Her Holiness, Pope Jenne "Kirby" Hubbs
(This message has been edited by Regulus (edited 07-31-2002).)