After playing a few days now I'm seeing a bothersome trend. The AI is well...its not an AI, its something. Combat is mindless in this game. The root of this, is the only reason people go out, is for combat XP and some missions. Money is so easily mined and traded for right at all space stations without any fear of death. There is no reason hardly ever to mine in a hostile filled sector. The monetary system needs to be tightened down quite a bit, especially at low levels and astroids in space station areas need to only contain VERY low value ores. The higher ores should all be in enemy areas. Now that you ahve a reason to go out there and mine, something still has to be done about that AI. Its just not fun to constantly be attacked by a set limit of robots constantly. Sure, its faster to get those combat XP's, but xp values can easily be adjusted. The AI needs to be sneaky and it shouldn't attack just because you are on the scanner, I think as per other posts....astroids should block targets from scanners and the AI should try to sneak up on you. In later levels, they could even try to sneak up on you in groups, warp away or hide behind an astroid for cover if yer about to kill them. I would also have other sectors that are VERY combative so people who just want to go blow stuff up can have their fun too. Just a thought.

Go to Sedina B8.

Wrong answer imho. This is about PvE, not PvP. Look at the design wiki, ommy. They'll change the bots' behavior if I understand it well; or rather different bots will have more different behaviors.

Sure theres ores at stations you can mine, lets say 5 or 6 moderately good roids. You make a rather good living off it according to our current expenses. That's just about what everyone is used to. But theres 9 or 10 times that amount sitting in bot guarded sectors almost, considering all the sectors. Now wouldn't mining that entire amount be a much more impressive amount?

Anyway, about the AI, heres the ones I can name. Roaming, Travelling, Collector, and SF. One to patrol a sector, one to go from system to system, one that jumps in mines and "jumps out" to queen, and one to follow you relentlessly. The seeker is not very different from SF, it's just that it's firing range is like, 5m. It would be nice if we hid from radar by being 5m or closer to a roid. Then you could add some more AI's that take advantage of that.

Ommy, the only people that I know of that mine in station sectors for the most part are new players, Most vets or hardcore miners look for the thrill of mining in botted sectors, at least I do, and you can find much larger roids that heat up much slower if you leave station sectors. It sounds to me that you simply need more time in-game.

I agree completely with you on the current state of the AI, but lets wait and see what the new Hive looks like once it's all updates as Sun Tzu pointed out. Combat XP is the biggest problem in the game right now IMO, but the devs are aware and trying to solve it.

Good suggestions, ommy

How about....

Bots that swarm you, and try to maintain a spherical "net" around you. They would do this by trying to stay a certain distance away from you and then as far apart from each other as possible. Once this net is in place, the bots would dive bomb you one at a time, swooping in close and then taking their place back in the net.

Hey, just like Galaga!

haha, great, galaga 3D

That's ok I guess,

I think the devs are more likely to implement MY cool idea though:

http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/3/1892
(Sinistar Sector)

Heh, that threads almost exactly 2 years old.

One thing I'd like to see improved, is the clustering together that it's easy to get the bots to do. Get them all clustered up, and one or two shots from your rocket rag will kill several.

Phaserlight's suggestion addresses that, have them stay as far as possible from each other. Heh, I'd love to see Phaserlight's suggestion.

It would be nice to see bots that fly FA-only, and then just try to keep from hitting you by dodging in a random direction. I think a lot of the boredom of fighting bots is that they do so much distance control. Get them to get up close and fight.

I don't know if any of the devs remember, but for a brief time there were 250-bots in sector 8 (around VT 3.3.0 I think) that did this. They had cent models but 5 or 6 would all engage you at once and it was like being in the middle of a shark feeding frenzy. They would always come straight at you and swoop past, flying so close you couldn't even turn fast enough to get your weapons on them.

Bots don't actually appear to do ANYTHING randomly, which is kinda boring. Just a little bit of randomness can go a long way. Of course, I'm still in support of my "bot AI evolves via a genetic algorithm based on how long the bot remains alive and by learning from who it fights" plan. :?

rogue, your plan would end up with a bunch of lazy bots who found out they have the longest lifespan by sitting absolutely still until someone warps in, and then running for thier little bot lives. It would need to be based off of more than just lifespan. Although perhaps you could have several different sets, one that aims to stay alive, one that aims to inflict damage, one that aims to be able to avoid damage, so on and so forth.

Think of how the hive should be. Not every bot is a learning AI. You would have not of different objectives for each bot type. Collectors to mine, guards to guard them, and assaults to assault you o.O transports to move cargo, etc. etc. Any sort of bot group or collective type idea usually ends up being like ants. drones, nurses, queens, soldiers, blah d b blah and whatever. maybe if they learn how to do their own specific job better after age and experience, but thats it. I wonder if bots have stats like us, or just placeholder numbers. If collectors beams got upgraded as they level, that might be interesting, especially if upgraded beams means better cargoes.