Seekers performance in really BIG battles

CW · #1 October 8th, 2001, 03:17 PM

In a BIG battle, and I'm talking about 200 ships on each side, how smart is the AI at aiming seekers? I mean there are probably 70 DNs on my side armed with 11 seeking parasites each, and obviously if the AI is dumb enough to fire them all at one ship then I'm in for some real trouble!

geoschmo · #2 October 8th, 2001, 03:22 PM

I have seen smaller battles where seekers were aimed at different ships, but I can't say that they weren't aimed at the other ships because those were closer or some other factor. I know that in SEIII the AI handled this fairly well. I haven't heard any complaints of this type, so I would suprised if this is happening. It would be a very serious bug if it were. Sombody would have mentioned it by now.

Should be fairly easy to test though. Let us know what you find out.

Lerchey · #3 October 8th, 2001, 04:59 PM

CW,

That's what the simulator is for. Set one up in the sim, and use "automatic" mode. You'll see pretty quickly whether or not the AI allocates targets efficiently.

General John

Commander G2 · #4 October 8th, 2001, 06:29 PM

Try putting 'Nearest' highest in your target priority. That will prevent them from all aiming at the same ship. If you do 'Biggest' or 'Smallest', they could all go toward the same ship.

geoschmo · #5 October 8th, 2001, 06:47 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Commander G2:
Try putting 'Nearest' highest in your target priority. That will prevent them from all aiming at the same ship. If you do 'Biggest' or 'Smallest', they could all go toward the same ship.

If they do though that is still a bug IMHO.

I distinctly remember in SEIII that it would calculate the total damage a target could handle and only send that many seekers at each ship. Unless of course you had the enemy way out numbered. But even then it would spread out the missles more or less evenly. If SEIV isn't doing that, it should.

Geo

ZeroAdunn · #6 October 8th, 2001, 09:11 PM

From what I have seen:

The AI will not fire all its missiles at a target, it will fire a percentage (still don't know how this percentage is calculated although I do no it is % per ship not per fleet) at the target, and thats it. It will fire no other missiles that round. Then next round it selects a target again (could be the same one) and fire. I seem to recall the AI selecting multiple targets occasianally, but usually it only selects the closest. (I think it may come down to two ships being equadistant from the firing ship and thus it will fire missiles at each, but not all missiles)

Will · #7 October 9th, 2001, 04:50 AM

quote:
Originally posted by geoschmo:
I distinctly remember in SEIII that it would calculate the total damage a target could handle and only send that many seekers at each ship. Unless of course you had the enemy way out numbered. But even then it would spread out the missles more or less evenly. If SEIV isn't doing that, it should.

Geo

Actually it was a setting in the Combat Strategy window. You could set certain ships to only fire enough to do .5 (half) to I think 4 (quad) damage to the entire ship, in .5 increments (default if I remember is 1.5). Called the Kill Ratio, pretty useful. You could factor in your combat sensors with enemy ECM, to get the ideal amount fired at enemies.

[This message has been edited by Will (edited 09 October 2001).]

Noble713 · #8 October 9th, 2001, 08:13 PM

This feature is still there.

Empire Status --> Strategies --> Damage

------------------
L+ GdY $? Fr! C- SdS T!+ Sf+ Tcp A% M++ MpM R!- Pw+ Fq-- Nd-- RP+ G++

geoschmo · #9 October 9th, 2001, 09:01 PM

Hmmm, [sound of adding machine as geoschmo calculates number of hours playing SEIV without seeing that]....

rdouglass · #10 October 9th, 2001, 09:17 PM

quote:
Originally posted by geoschmo:
Hmmm, [sound of adding machine as geoschmo calculates number of hours playing SEIV without seeing that]....

You're not alone...I too thought that one was left out...(humbly asks SE Gods for forgiveness and mercy).....