Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Alex]

If they did, you'd want to run around with maximum AI cores in the cheapest frigates you could find to cheese the deployment points.

As for it being something the AI can do but you can't, there isn't (or, at least, shouldn't be) an expectation of mechanical parity between Remnant fleets and the player. For an in-fiction explanation in this case, consider that the AI cores are in charge of the fleet in their case, while in your fleet they're tightly constrained by automated limiters (likely with human overseers in the loop, too) to make sure they can't decide to start shooting you. Hardly someone you will take tactical advice from!

[Voyager I]

Speaking of which: is there any interest down the line in making the game world respond to you strolling around the core worlds with incredibly illegal ships that aren't supposed to exist anymore? It's probably hard to do it in a way that is convincing while also being reasonable (since the expected in-fiction response would presumably be much more drastic than is appropriate for gameplay), so maybe there's not a better way to handle it than to pretend that nobody noticed. Still, it does still feel a bit odd that you can just put a Radiant into orbit over Nachiketa while you're refueling without comment.

[Alex]

... pretty much what you said, yeah. It's also possible that the "not noticing" is either simple self-preservation or the result of you pulling some strings behind the scenes. Btw - once you recover the Ziggurat, there are a number of core world encounters that are basically what you describe - so I at least at this point, the Ziggurat is a bridge too far when it comes to being ignored, while the other stuff isn't.

[Hiruma Kai]

One possible reasoning is that AI cores are illegal, salvaged ships under human control are not.  Certainly the Hegemony doesn't seem to complain when you're flying around in irreplaceable Legion XIVs.

And it's much harder to tell if that Radiant or Glimmer has been refit for a human bridge crew (potentially a remote from different ship bridge crew like Neural Interface) or if it's actually being run by an illegal Alpha core without doing an in depth inspection.  Since it's possible to run the ships without any AI cores at all, that's presumably the standard assumption, in the same way planets are assumed not to have AI cores unless they find evidence.

Although a Hegemony AI inspection fleet for ships instead of planets, if you're running automated ships, might be a cool one off story encounter.  Just checking to make sure the main character isn't an Alpha core or some such.  I mean, they are a little too competent if you know what I mean?

The thing about the Ziggurat is it contains unique, alien and unknown tech.  From the descriptions it sounds like the Tri-tachyon scientists didn't really know what they were messing with.  Radiants however, are just known technology, scaled up a bit through clever engineering.  Phase skimmers are used by pirates even, just not on capitals.  And all the other automated ships use well understood technology, even if they might be a little bit better put together.  If Tri-tachyon came out and started selling <Redacted> looking ships with human crew accommodations, no one would care most likely.  It's like them selling Paragons, Hyperions, and Dooms.  High tech, sure, but start a fight randomly high enough tech? Not really.  If you want one, just buy it from Tri-tachyon.

And if a faction wants a Radiant to dissect, well they can hire an enterprising mercenary captain for half a million credits to go out and blow up a fleet for them via a contact, then swoop in later with a discrete and brave salvage crew.  I mean, why else are they hiring you to do that, when <Redacted> don't leave their star systems normally.

[Megas]

Ship captains are visible during the encounter menu.  I suppose this goes both ways, meaning NPC fleets should see core captains in your automated ships immediately.  The only way I can see player getting away with automated ships without hurting relations is to not have cores in them, in case of Neural Link shenanigans.

[JUDGE! slowpersun]

while in your fleet they're tightly constrained by automated limiters (likely with human overseers in the loop, too) to make sure they can't decide to start shooting you.

Yeah, if AI reward function isn't tightly tracked, things might get interesting... Case in point:

https://openai.com/blog/faulty-reward-functions/

And youtube video illustrating phenomenon in blog post:

[Fenrir]

The concept of "fly around with obviously illegal ships" in fact started to exist earlier than you expected, since long ago buying ships from black market triggers patrol fleet inspections where they find you having new ship(s) added to your fleet which(es) they are pretty much sure you didn't buy it from open market but decide to say "No suspicions found". Also it might, just might, make sense when it comes to drone ships ppl just think they are just "super-heavily modified ships" as there is no explicit sign of it being piloted by AIs and the general crowd doesn't even know drone ships exist. The authorities might as well pretend it they are just "custom ships" and cover it up FOR YOU to maintain the "AI ships don't exist anymore/at all" official history sayings.

By the way, can we have icons explicitly show gates you've discovered/activated in the champion map (probably after you've completed the story line). Looking up from intel panel every time kinda sucks when finding a way to outer sector for missions.

[Hiruma Kai]

Ship captains are visible during the encounter menu.  I suppose this goes both ways, meaning NPC fleets should see core captains in your automated ships immediately.  The only way I can see player getting away with automated ships without hurting relations is to not have cores in them, in case of Neural Link shenanigans.

I think that's more of a game balance know what you're getting into thing for the player.

Otherwise, fighting with your transponder off shouldn't have reduced relationship penalties, since if they clearly can see who is captaining they should know who to go hostile with.

Besides, somehow totally not Alpha AI cores seem to be able to convince people they are totally not running some Tri-tachyon planets.  If they can do that for a planetary administration interacting potentially hundreds of people daily, doing the same for a single, isolated ship that gets interacted with once in passing would seem even easier.

[Megas]

Besides, somehow totally not Alpha AI cores seem to be able to convince people they are totally not running some Tri-tachyon planets.  If they can do that for a planetary administration interacting potentially hundreds of people daily, doing the same for a single, isolated ship that gets interacted with once in passing would seem even easier.

The +10 to Pather interest is a dead giveaway Culann is run by an alpha core.  The zombie Pathers simply know and helpfully broadcast the knowledge to the player.  Of course, everyone else ignores the incontrovertible evidence staring right at the faces, even after Pathers try to wreck the blueprint factory over and over again.

[JUDGE! slowpersun]

Besides, somehow totally not Alpha AI cores seem to be able to convince people they are totally not running some Tri-tachyon planets.  If they can do that for a planetary administration interacting potentially hundreds of people daily, doing the same for a single, isolated ship that gets interacted with once in passing would seem even easier.

I had always assumed that video chat/calls and maybe something like a biorobot (https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Life-Model_Decoy) made this much easier.  Although it is interesting that player can just see the AI core in raid screen, one would think it would be kinda more hidden and then player finds it during raid instead...

[Fenrir]

The +10 to Pather interest is a dead giveaway Culann is run by an alpha core.

And the administrator has this told explicitly in his skill interface: "hypercognition". LMAO

[Histidine]

I think the Pather interest text was recently changed to "Suspected AI core admin", which is pretty funny next to the newly added Hypercognition skill.

[Alex]

Look, maybe the admin just takes study drugs to improve their focus, ok

[Megas]

I think the Pather interest text was recently changed to "Suspected AI core admin", which is pretty funny next to the newly added Hypercognition skill.

We all know that "suspected" really means "confirmed" if we only ever see that hint when said core admin is in use.

[SonnaBanana]

Look, maybe the admin just takes study drugs to improve their focus, ok

Speaking more about technology, what about Neural Link skill or Neural Interface hullmod granting a minor skeleton crew reduction? It's thematically appropriate and would grant a bonus for non-automated ships without the corresponding hullmod.
And NL is an ultimate skill so it wouldn't be OP anyway.