Currently, no hive bots use any kind of ordinance (flares, missiles, etc). I often find that, when newbies first encounter them, they are truly confused about the whole "flare" concept (what they think would miss by a mile appears to hit them every time and tends to piss them off) and it would help if they encountered some flares early on. And, in the long term, some guardians that throw flares might add more interest and difficulty to "large" hive skirmishes.

The flare AI is already there, in fact I would say that the NPC WTDs (not the wimpy-ass ice flare versions encountered in BS missions) with the sunflares are probably the most deadly non-shielded npc ships in the game next to pissed off Behemoth Heavies, border turrets, or Aerna Seekers. I would put a few limitations on the flares the hive get, I.E. put a longer delay on them since hive bots would need to conserve ammo and the flare AI tends to like to spam (which might be a bit too overwhelming for people only looking to mindlessly shoot hive).

I'm thinking maybe a Fennus-type bot with dual Gauss and a mini-Jack with lower damage, lots more ammo, and an uber long delay. There could also be a training mission that introduces players to the flare concept by having a training bot that sits at a safe distance and fires occasional "training flares" that only have slight concussive force and no damage. Of course, it will still be much better for newbies to find a mentor to teach them advanced evasion and counter-attack maneuvers against flares (dropped "training flares" might help with that), but a combat mission that would just show them what they're up against would be helpful.

I don't think the devs need to worry about the mission, just design the bot, throw it in the PCC, and the community has the potential to work out the rest.

Edit: also, using more gat/sun WTDs in the universe (I.E. Strike Force, Unrats, and NPC Bounty Hunters) would be cool, too. :D

Edit edit: also forgot, missiles... yeah... just put some Yellowjacket turrets on Leviathans.

Yes. I would like to see that.

They can reload at Queens if necessary. The greatest thing would be if you could only discern flare-wielding bot variants from energy-using bot variants by a slight difference in coloration, or until they let loose upon you.

Make them have launchers that have merit as PvP weapons (if possible), that way it might be interesting to farm vanilla hive bots, as well.

This suggestion would round out things a bit. Would probably also push newbies to try out flares and the like more often than not. I'll throw my support here.

However, wouldn't rails fall under the same category? Granted, I don't think there's any AI for that currently.

Atice: Rails might be pretty overpowered on bots, I think... also, it's a pretty obvious concept. Just a really fast gun.

Tosh: we can just make another bot variant. Like Dentek Guardian or something. I don't think reloading at queens is necessary given that the bots would more often than not have both energy and flares in their arsenal (much like any other npc that uses flares)

Cool ShankTank. Nevermind my objections then.

I like this idea. It'd be nice to see the AI for flares updated a little so they don't spam like madmen tho. The valks in Border Skirmish tend to hold back on there flare use, so it must be possible for other NPC's to do this

Actually they don't they just fire flares inside a certain range, what you see as "ammo conservation" is actually them just going in and out of that range, I suspect. Also, who was the idiot who gave the BS proms agt/neuts?

meh, as long as they dont just spam like hell it could be interesting.

"Also, who was the idiot who gave the BS proms agt/neuts?"

Damm, I didn't realise the Sercan Admirals would take my BS suggestions of AGT + Neuts to heart. I really gotta stop wasting my plot points on stupid crap.

Also, +Internets

Quote from Willis:
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It'd be nice to see the AI for flares updated a little so they don't spam like madmen tho.
"

Well, actually, given that Hive bots are replaceable, and act with the power of numbers rather than tactical cunning, it would make more sense for them to try to bring as much ordinance to bear (approximately) in as little time as possible and that would mean spamming.

I wouldn't say that, tosh, the hive bot gank AI is very good... to the point of it being the main reason why Hive Skirmishes are so damned fun.

And I said that the flares the hive bots use should have, like, a 5 second delay on them simply to bypass the spamming problem. Occam's razor.

Hm, point taken. It would make them basically useless as drops, however.

It would make them basically useless as drops, however.

That would depend on what their ammo capacity was.

With a 5 second delay, you can't do quick follow-up shots. Granted, it might work for fun, but they would probably still not see much use. But yeah, that doesn't matter much anyway.

Not the weapons themselves, tosh, but the bot AI would have a 5 sec delay.

Well, yes the weapon itself. If you really want to make it a viable drop we can bump up the ammo to make it a sort of endurance weapon in pvp.