Ambitious Idea: Ship's AI

[Rese249er]

I've seen OXP's that advise you on trading and combat, but I have a more grandiose idea that I'll be working on when I have free time. I'd love suggestions and tips, as this will probably give me many headaches over months...

So far, here are the concepts I plan on adding to this Ship's AI project, in order of theoretical difficulty:
1. Immersive chatter, like an OXP I saw which has passengers you are carrying make various comments dependent on the situation.
2. Context-sensitive activation of OXP equipment, like Cargo Spotter activating when free cargopods are floating about.
3. Trade Advice, similar to Trading Assistant with the addition of predicting where cargo will sell for profit, using predictions based on economic level.

This is already giving me a headache just thinking about all the scripting that will likely be involved, so any suggestions would be appreciated. Would one single script or several modular scripts be better for this kind of project? How much should it cost? Should I limit the availabilty to TL15 planets or maybe a few levels lower?
Advice, collaboration, and bulk shipments of Aleve are appreciated!

[Lone_Wolf]

Would one single script or several modular scripts be better for this kind of project?

I'd say modular, else you'll prob get a lot of situations where you won't be able to see the forest through all the trees.

[Disembodied]

How much should it cost? Should I limit the availabilty to TL15 planets or maybe a few levels lower?

I think it depends on what you see as the main audience. This is something which a lot of experienced players might not need (although they might enjoy the immersive chatter), but which could be very useful for beginners coming in to the game cold. There's an argument, then, for not requiring any TL or price, or making it into a piece of equipment which has to be purchased at all: just make the AI assistant (or virtual crewmember/copilot/talking ship's cat, for that matter) automatically available to those who install the OXP.

[Potential Debris]

This is a nice idea, and yes, ambitious.

Suggestions:

- Store all the AI's speech in a user editable / swappable text file, so that people can easily write and share different AI personalities (or even translations). A bit like how you can change the voice on your satnav. For example
[Situation Combat_Shields Zero_Energy Low_Suggestion : Normal 1] "I don't think we can win this one. You should use the injectors."
[Situation Combat_Shields Zero_Energy Low_Suggestion : Normal 2] "Let's make a run for it, live to fight another day."
[Situation Combat_Shields Zero_Energy Low_Suggestion : Yoda 1] "Win this one we cannot. Use the injectors you must."
[Situation Combat_Shields Zero_Energy Low_Suggestion : Aggressive 1] "Keep fighting! Fight on to the death!"
[Situation Combat_Shields Zero_Energy Low_Suggestion : Nagging Spouse 1] "I told you not to pick a fight with those [hostile_type]s, and now look what's happened! Did you listen? No, of course not. You never do, do you?"

- AI should nag you if you leave a station without cargo (and you have >0 cargo space)*

- If you activate the hyperdrive, you have a cloud analyser and there are un-analysed clouds nearby, the AI could suggest that you take a look at them.*

- AI should watch your itinerary and remind you if you risk being late by going off-course. ("You have to deliver those documents to Riedquat in 3 days, are you sure you want to be heading east?")* Maybe this function should depend on having the advanced galactic route planner thingy installed.

- I don't know how the trading assistant OXP works, but I don't see the point of automating this part of the game. If I had this AI installed I want it to assist me in trading only by making suggestions (alloys are really cheap here) and only informing me about prices in other systems if I've already been to those systems. If it could remember good places to buy / sell the additional cargoes that would be nice, particularly ones that I tell it to keep an eye on, and ones that I have in my hold. ("Oh hey, you've just picked up some wooden furniture. We saw some good prices for that back in System X")

- If you fly close to a big rock at speed, AI should tell you the odds of successfully navigating an asteroid field (google it).

- Perhaps in dangerous situations it should sometimes offer you other odds as well: "I should warn you that the odds of a competent rated commander in a beat up Cobra Mk1 surviving combat with 4 GalCop Vipers is approximately 29,441.8 to one." (Numbers pulled spontaneously out of AI's RNG-hole)

- Situational Ordinance Selection: Thargoids on scanner? Bug bomb ready. Derelict ship and no hostiles? Salvage drone selected. Pirates inbound? Missiles / combat drone selected.

- When cargo hold is full and there are scoopables on the scanner, AI could automatically cycle cargoes so that the least valuable (excluding slaves + new cargoes) is next to be ejected.

- If ASC is installed, the AI could look at the available destinations and your cargo and suggest trades. "Those alien items will probably sell well at the Naval base" *

- I will kiss your AI (with tongue) if it reminds me to request docking permission when approaching places that fine you for docking without.

- If I scratch the paintwork in a scrap and it could remind me to repair my ironhide armour, that would be cool. *

- AI should sometimes refuse to open the pod bay doors.

- For repairs that require a high tech level, it might be nice if it could suggest the nearest appropriate system.

- AI should remind me to take evasive action there's an incoming missile, I hit "E" and for whatever reason the missile keeps coming.

* If you consistently ignore AI nagging, it should eventually learn that you don't want to be reminded about that particular thing, and stop bugging you/ bug you less often.

[ralph_hh]

You are not married or have kids, do you?
Whenever I play Oolite, I enjoy the peacefull silence with no one commenting.

I always imagined passsengers as being locked up in some sort of comfortable cargo container. With NO chance to interfere with me flying. Just think of a passenger objecting that you kill one of his fellows and distracting you by yelling at you...

[Rese249er]

Debris, I love all of those! Even though it'll be a pain to script... No pain, no gain!

Disembodied, you make a few excellent points. On further thought, I've decided to go with the free install option.

Lone_Wolf, I kinda figured as much. Thank you for solidifying my decision!

ralph_hh, nope!

EDIT: Please suggest any other OXPs which should interface with Ship's AI (working title: Navi - cause I'm a huge LoZ fan) or have features or useful script examples to include with Navi. For example, Galactic SatNav.

[spud42]

the Jeeves OXZ... lol




P.S. NASA think C3PO is wrong.... but it depends on the asteroid field..... lol

[ffutures]

If it could solve the travelling salesman problem and come up with optimum routes so that packages and cargo for multiple destinations all arrive in good time I would be very interested.

[Rese249er]

If it could solve the travelling salesman problem and come up with optimum routes so that packages and cargo for multiple destinations all arrive in good time I would be very interested.

I don't know how I would go about that...