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Add some variety to bots' reactions to mines

May 15, 2022 IonicPaulTheSecond link
Inspired by another thread about adjusting AI reactions to mines.

I understand the purpose of AI targeting mines - it's a hell of a lot better than them ignoring them and stupidly being farmed over and over - but I think some variation would be nice. Currently they all turn around as a hive mind and target any mine within a few thousand meters. My suggestion is:

Give any active mine a value that increases slowly over time. Every AI will then, at some relatively short interval, "roll" to notice the mine. As the value increases, their odds of turning to fire on the mine increase. Proximity could also play a role in increasing this value (maybe factored into the final "roll" to notice the mine?). This serves to keep you from farming a sector, because relatively quickly the AI will catch onto the mines and start firing on them. Done correctly, though, a mine dropped in front of a chasing enemy will have more chance of hitting him. The randomness serves to increase the odds that not every enemy in a swarm of ships chasing you (see: unrats) will ignore the mine, giving a sort of built in sanity check.

All together, this has the effect of increasing diversity in AI behavior, as well as having them react more realistically. I'll often notice a mine only after some times passes. You'd have more believable groups of AI, where a few peel off to blast mines, and others stay on target. It also has the added benefit of stopping players from abusing mines to take AI focus off of other ships.
May 15, 2022 greenwall link
+1

Also make value more likely near stations, and less likely further out.
May 15, 2022 Sid123 link
+1. But the value inside NFZ of any station should always be full, to prevent any chance of laying traps outside the undock ports
May 16, 2022 notcreativenickname link
+1