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[Schwartz]

I had a very frustrating combat encounter the other day where I sent a 2xGrav 1xHIL Sunder (Steady officer, AI mode) in to deal with 3 automated frigates (the shieldless kind) and assumed everything would be gravy.

I then watched in horror as the Sunder could not decide on a target to pick long enough for the 3 frigates to close into hugging range and proceed to spike the Sunder's shields and nibble at its armor with PD weapons from 3 sides. The Sunder then began to turn to and fro slowly(!), again not able to decide who to actually engage when a decision would have erased a frigate within seconds and improved its own flux troubles and its odds immediately.

Basically this highlighted one of the blind spots of the AI. It shouldn't slowly turn and squirm when surrounded while having overwhelmingly powerful weaponry vs. shieldless enemies. That's just a silly combination of things to happen.

I don't know how you would go about implementing this, but some awareness of the efficiency of its weapons vs. chosen enemies that inspired a bit of "dogged determination" to stay on target and kill it. That would be nice. And it can all be done in maths, not much guesswork required.

[Alex]

Hmm. I just tried it against 3 Wardens - the ones that generally have the Thumper - and it has absolutely zero problem, but then those aren't too fast. Then I tried it against 3 Pickets - the fastest Derelict drones - and sometimes it gets them, sometimes it doesn't. The thing is, once they get close, it's hard to get the beams on target with manual control, too - they do a good job of strafing away, and the Sunder's angular momentum/relatively poor angular acceleration make it near impossible to keep up and stay on target.

When it's *not* difficult - i.e. when the drones are on the initial approach - I didn't see it having any trouble; it'd consistently nail one of them without any waffling. But once they get close... I mean, a Picket could basically just stay behind it 100% of the time if it really wanted to.

[Schwartz]

I think the difficulty vs. fast frigates is not an issue, that's by design. What really bothered me was that once the Sunder was surrounded, it kept going clockwise and counter-clockwise without deciding on a target -basically not firing at all for quite a long time while I hammered the reinforcements button - and getting chewed up vs. opponents that it could beat handily otherwise.

[SafariJohn]

Can even a player handle 3 Pickets with such a Sunder once the drones get close?

[Alex]

In the admittedly brief test I did, I couldn't even handle two (after taking one out on the approach). It's all trying to turn back and forth and just when you think it's lined up the Picket strafes the other way and you overshoot and turn the other way etc etc. Basically pretty much what the AI was observed doing. I'm sure it's *doable* - and luck about what exactly the Pickets decide to do plays a role - but it's not easy by any means.

[Schwartz]

I'll have to do some testing myself. In the battle I witnessed, the Sunder also kept its guns off even when its reticule was sliding across one of the enemies. I'm sure this is not an ideal set of preconditions, but you could see the AI getting in its own way.