enemy ship improvements

[Betelgeuse]

The enemies need some improvements and here are some ideas.

All enemy ship weapons swivel 18 degrees. (would stop the player from exploiting blind spots)
Avoid going in front of the player ship. (why would you intentionally go into the line of fire)
Formations, Have some weaker ships around the cap ship to defend it with icx fire and fire support. (might be hard to put in)

any other ideas?

[Blinzler]

They should group like it's standart in a modern army, trying to weed out weaknesses by having specialised ships for specialised tasks.

The player, being a sentient being, would still be better, since he just needs to think for a second and figure out which enemy to crack first so he has an opening for the rest.

I remember when I was playing Anarchy Online and they introduced the Temple of the Three Winds how a couple of friends & me played a couple of hours in there, getting wiped several times until we figured out the correct strategy and then it was no problem at all.
I guess the hardest part is going to figure the narrow margin between frustration, interesting task and too easy.

Given that the player can have immunities or high resistances to certain damage types the enemies should have a way to figure this and use an alternative weapon system.

I don't know hoch much logic is in there yet, but when new ships enter the system they could form up until they are a group of a certain size and then go for the player instead of rushing straight on.

They could try to trap the player, using of decoy ship to pull him/her in and then suddenly arriving from all angles around him to circle him in.

Concentrated coordinated fire.

Using cover fire to prevent the player from going certain ways, fleeing...

[OddBob]

How can you hide in the enemies blind spots, when you have the same blind spots? If you point your ships at 18 degrees from 0 to fire at the enemy, he can point his ship at 198 degrees to hit you.

[Betelgeuse]

omni weapons and spread, dual, partical weapons allow you to hit them even when they can't hit you and they don't know better.

[Sponge]

They don't need better ships, they need better AI. They need to know when they're firing, but not hitting, and they need to know when they're shields get weak they need to start playing more defensively. Make a few changes like that, and you'll have MUCH smarter enemies. It's almost the kind of thing you can make difficulty settings for. Not to mention, the community would go nuts modding AIs if it were possible.

[Blitz]

They don't need better ships, they need better AI. They need to know when they're firing, but not hitting, and they need to know when they're shields get weak they need to start playing more defensively. Make a few changes like that, and you'll have MUCH smarter enemies. It's almost the kind of thing you can make difficulty settings for. Not to mention, the community would go nuts modding AIs if it were possible.

They definitely need better AI. Squadrons need to work together as squadrons. Have you ever noticed how you can draw enemy ships one by one from stations as long as you dont hit the station itself and only the ship? You can try it in Eridani itself. Just pick a freighter and make sure you get a targeting ROM.

All enemy ship weapons swivel 18 degrees. (would stop the player from exploiting blind spots)

I made a mod which overrides the weapons. Not enemy ships individually. I posted it on the UTF. Heres the link
http://z8.invisionfree.com/Transcendenc ... topic=1986