More AI ships?

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mr555
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun Jun 14, 2015 9:51 pm

More AI ships?

Post by mr555 »

With just a couple ships per system, the universe feels empty: meeting someone is a really rare occasion and most starports have no life going on. This change is what I was making over and over until I set up git; and it doesn't actually produce very bad lags for me. I suspect that I don't know something, because it looks like an obvious enhancement to me.
impaktor
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Re: More AI ships?

Post by impaktor »

Hi and welcome to the forum.

Are you sure you want to increase max_pirates to 16, and not just increase chance of spawning a pirate instead? They're overlapping, but not identical things.

One potential issue with many trade ships is there needs to be some que system. We have bugs regarding tradeships that can't land when all ports are full (more likely to happen on surface starports). I'm not sure how your change would expose those bugs more.

Maybe we could have a slider in the options menu setting "space loneliness"?
mr555
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun Jun 14, 2015 9:51 pm

Re: More AI ships?

Post by mr555 »

impaktor wrote:Hi and welcome to the forum.

Are you sure you want to increase max_pirates to 16, and not just increase chance of spawning a pirate instead? They're overlapping, but not identical things.

One potential issue with many trade ships is there needs to be some que system. We have bugs regarding tradeships that can't land when all ports are full (more likely to happen on surface starports). I'm not sure how your change would expose those bugs more.

Maybe we could have a slider in the options menu setting "space loneliness"?
Having a slider looks like a good idea.
I haven't seen pirates ingame yet, so I thought number describes pirates that spawn everywhere in the system, patroling space in search for bounty. If it describes a pack that spawns near the player, then increasing max_pirates to 16 actually sounds like bad decision. Chance of spawning a pirate is currently marked as wip
-- XXX number should be some combination of population, lawlessness,
-- proximity to shipping lanes, etc
so I believe it will be tweaked.
About tradeships that can't land, my current change makes it about 2-4 ships per spaceport so there's enough space.
impaktor
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Joined: Fri Dec 20, 2013 9:54 am
Location: Tellus
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Re: More AI ships?

Post by impaktor »

If it describes a pack that spawns near the player, then increasing max_pirates to 16 actually sounds like bad decision
Hm, looking at the code, it actually places the pirate ships relative the system centre, and not relative to the player. I assumed it used SpawnShipNear, and not SpawnShip. Thus 16 pirates isn't such a bad idea.
http://eatenbyagrue.org/f/pioneer/coded ... .SpawnShip

However, I doubt any pirates can actually intercept the player, unless player is travelling in a slow ship, and that is why you're never attacked.
About tradeships that can't land, my current change makes it about 2-4 ships per spaceport so there's enough space.
Well, with our current settings it triggers the bug sometimes, so it's bound to happen more with more ships, I expect, even if it on average will not fill all landing pads.
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