Cons/ICminers ripping to death taking the "shortest" route

parcival · Post by **parcival** » Thu Jul 23, 2009 9:22 am

Scenario: e.g. map HighHigher. You have a TP low next to their home. You order a con/ICminer that is currently in your home to mine/build to the sector low next to your home. The con/miner decides that the way to go is to rip to the TP next to the enemy and then drive back to the destination sector.

My guess is that AI calculates the shortest route and follows it. I also guess that the ripping time isn't taken into account so e.g. to save 500m it spends 30secs ripping...

This is frustrating especially if I am out of base and I chat/order the ICminer/con so I cannot see that it starts to rip.

Could we add a rule that if the con/ICminer has to travel only one sector away then it should avoid ripping (unless of course there is a TP INSIDE the target sector)?

Edit: I am not sure its just the distance. Maybe enemies are taken into account.

Zapper · Post by **Zapper** » Thu Jul 23, 2009 10:47 am

Yeah.. we need more miner AI test in Allied games.

Imago · Post by **Imago** » Thu Jul 23, 2009 11:20 pm

what parcival is saying has nothing to do with allied games, however, it does apply to them as well.

parcival, IIRC, making the miners smarter is something 1/2 the community wants and the other 1/2 does not want.

RohanRider · Post by **RohanRider** » Mon Jul 27, 2009 10:59 pm

As a commander: everyone would want smarter AI Miners/Cons. It saves us time, energy, effort.

As a player/fighter/pilot: half the thrill of Miner D is continually monitoring your target Miner, around its stupid AI, and around the inteligence of the enemy. Half the thrill of Miner O is chasing down the Miner not based on its AI, but on the inteligence of the enemy team/commander.

Besides, the reason they are Miners and not Pilots is cause they were cheap ignoramous poverty class backwater Nerf herders who couldn't afford to go to Flight School, and as such, have been militaristically drafted into the workforce of the aforenamed Faction.

EDIT: But Miner AI could be updated SLIGHTLY in response to allies. Such as with Teleport ability, docking for repairs, etc.

Imago · Post by **Imago** » Mon Jul 27, 2009 11:24 pm

RohanRider wrote:QUOTE (RohanRider @ Jul 27 2009, 05:59 PM) EDIT: But Miner AI could be updated SLIGHTLY in response to allies. Such as with Teleport ability, docking for repairs, etc.

they have. examples: Miners will run to allied bases for shelter/repairs, miners will auto. offload at allied refs. they are still kept stupid in most other senses. they are drones. drones are dumb.

Zero_Falcon · Post by **Zero_Falcon** » Sun Aug 02, 2009 4:21 am

In other news: in one game, an enemy scout entered our mining sector and the miners fled on their own to our home sector. The moment they entered the home sector, they idiotically go back to the mining sector, see the scout, re-enter home sector, re-enter mining sector, sees scout...

Miner and con AIs cant read minimaps or what?

deathgoat · Post by **deathgoat** » Sun Aug 02, 2009 2:20 pm

maybe try an easier faction? (without ripping miners)

really 30% of the comms job is to control miners .. its not that hard

Makida · Post by **Makida** » Sun Aug 02, 2009 3:03 pm

In a game yesterday, the enemy built a tech base in our back-sector. A moment later, a miner enters from our home, and proceeds to plod through the sector to the nearest He rock. I order it back through the aleph. Meanwhile I'm kind of busy failing at not dying (I wasn't on miner D anyway). Soon I pod to our home sector just to see the miner - and it brought a friend this time - go past me right back *into* that back-sector, with the enemy base in it. All on its own. Both miners die. >_<