Does AI ignore this?

Does the AI ignore the can't fire if ionized flag?

Because this is the behavior that I'm seeing. Well, more accurately, the AI fires these weapons less often when ionized.

Can someone confirm this? Or maybe something else is happening here.

I shall look into it. I have a scenario in mind where ionization comes into play quite heavily, and if what you say is true it could put a damper on my idea. Meanwhile, I'll make wild shots in the dark.

Is it possible that at zero ionization such a weapon fires at normal rate, at max ionization it doesn't fire at all, and in between the rate of fire scales down linearly?

You know, it's hard to tell. In my scenario, ionization is supposed to render PD weapons inoperable (scrambles their special targeting systems)

I don't think I've seen a rate change. It just appears that sometimes the PD decides to fire and sometimes it doesn't. Then again, I think I've seen ionization work as it should, but maybe this is combining with another problem.

Possibly related, is that sometimes ships seem to act as if they have "run away if out of ammo" flagged when they don't. And when they are running, they don't seem to fire. This seems to happen more often if the ship doesn't have powerful enough weaponry to defeat the player. (I didn't think Nova checked for stuff like that, but...)

I was attacking a ship that had light weapons, and it would not stay hostile (it would revert back to yellow instantly) and try to run. Which also meant that its PD would not fire. However, as soon as I gave it a missile launcher, it would then fight back - until it was out of missiles.

Any ship that can't fight at all, might that ship always run? So if its only weapon uses ammo, then once it's gone it has nothing and flees maybe?

And don't forget about Strength and cowardice. Also, a bay-launched fighter from an AI ship, once launched, if it fires all its missiles and is recalled to the bay, then if you attack it it won't stay hostile.

As for the missiles making it not run away...your guess is as good as mine.

Ships that can't fight do seem to run away. It's strange, cause it did have some weapons, just not very powerful ones. Also, I don't think PD weapons count towards "weapons" in this sense.

I'm pretty sure the ship strengths were the same, number-wise. And it was a warship AI...

At any rate, I look forward to your ionizing tests.

Ok, I think I found the problem.

I forgot that the "can't fire if ionized" is under the Seeker flags. So I guess this can't be used unless the weapon is a homing weapon.

No, it works for the player regardless of guidance type. I have not tested on AI ships though.