scanForNonThargoid not working

[Thargoid]

Hmm, semi-appropriate that I find this one I guess. The AI command scanForNonThargoid doesn't seem to be working on my machine (WinXP, 1.73.4 test).

If I spawn an "oolite-thargoid" and a "police", the thargoid warship just sits in "LOOK_FOR_TARGETS" until it gets shot, then goes into "ATTACK_SHIP" for a few seconds, then back to "LOOK_FOR_TARGETS" again merrily a-tumbling (the command is also in the update of ATTACK_SHIP). It's using the thargoidAI.plist from the trunk AI's (although has been retextured by OSE).

From what I can see scanForNonThargoid doesn't seem to be reporting back, unless I've broken something locally.

[Eric Walch]

If I spawn an "oolite-thargoid" and a "police", the thargoid warship just sits in "LOOK_FOR_TARGETS" until it gets shot, then goes into "ATTACK_SHIP" for a few seconds, then back to "LOOK_FOR_TARGETS" again merrily a-tumbling (the command is also in the update of ATTACK_SHIP). It's using the thargoidAI.plist from the trunk AI's (although has been retextured by OSE).

How did you test? You made sure you were at least 60 000 meter away while testing, as thargoids constantly change targets. And when you examine him cloaked he will constantly also find you and loose you again.

When I make sure I am not near the AI log is as follow:

Code: Select all

[ai.takeAction] AI.m:419: Thargoid 260 to take action scanForNonThargoid
[ai.takeAction] AI.m:419: Thargoid 260 to take action pauseAI: 5.0
[ai.message.receive] AI.m:361: AI thargoidAI.plist for Thargoid 260 in state 'LOOK_FOR_TARGETS' receives message 'TARGET_FOUND'
[ai.takeAction] AI.m:419: Thargoid 260 to take action setTargetToFoundTarget
[ai.takeAction] AI.m:419: Thargoid 260 to take action deployEscorts
[ai.takeAction] AI.m:419: Thargoid 260 to take action setStateTo: ATTACK_SHIP
  [ai.message.receive] AI.m:361: AI thargoidAI.plist for Thargoid 260 in state 'LOOK_FOR_TARGETS' receives message 'EXIT'
  [ai.message.receive] AI.m:361: AI thargoidAI.plist for Thargoid 260 in state 'ATTACK_SHIP' receives message 'ENTER'
  [ai.takeAction] AI.m:419: Thargoid 260 to take action performAttack
[ai.message.receive] AI.m:361: AI thargoidAI.plist for Thargoid 260 in state 'ATTACK_SHIP' receives message 'FRUSTRATED'
[ai.takeAction] AI.m:419: Thargoid 260 to take action scanForNonThargoid
[ai.takeAction] AI.m:419: Thargoid 260 to take action pauseAI: 15.0
[ai.message.receive] AI.m:361: AI thargoidAI.plist for Thargoid 260 in state 'ATTACK_SHIP' receives message 'TARGET_FOUND'
[ai.takeAction] AI.m:419: Thargoid 260 to take action setTargetToFoundTarget
[ai.takeAction] AI.m:419: Thargoid 260 to take action setStateTo: ATTACK_SHIP
  [ai.message.receive] AI.m:361: AI thargoidAI.plist for Thargoid 260 in state 'ATTACK_SHIP' receives message 'EXIT'
  [ai.message.receive] AI.m:361: AI thargoidAI.plist for Thargoid 260 in state 'ATTACK_SHIP' receives message 'ENTER'
  [ai.takeAction] AI.m:419: Thargoid 260 to take action performAttack
[ai.message.receive] AI.m:361: AI thargoidAI.plist for Thargoid 260 in state 'ATTACK_SHIP' receives message 'ATTACKED'
[ai.takeAction] AI.m:419: Thargoid 260 to take action setTargetToPrimaryAggressor
[ai.takeAction] AI.m:419: Thargoid 260 to take action setStateTo: ATTACK_SHIP
  [ai.message.receive] AI.m:361: AI thargoidAI.plist for Thargoid 260 in state 'ATTACK_SHIP' receives message 'EXIT'
  [ai.message.receive] AI.m:361: AI thargoidAI.plist for Thargoid 260 in state 'ATTACK_SHIP' receives message 'ENTER'
  [ai.takeAction] AI.m:419: Thargoid 260 to take action performAttack
[ai.takeAction] AI.m:419: Thargoid 260 to take action scanForNonThargoid
[ai.takeAction] AI.m:419: Thargoid 260 to take action pauseAI: 15.0
[ai.message.receive] AI.m:361: AI thargoidAI.plist for Thargoid 260 in state 'ATTACK_SHIP' receives message 'ENERGY_FULL'
[ai.message.receive] AI.m:361: AI thargoidAI.plist for Thargoid 260 in state 'ATTACK_SHIP' receives message 'TARGET_FOUND'
[ai.takeAction] AI.m:419: Thargoid 260 to take action setTargetToFoundTarget
[ai.takeAction] AI.m:419: Thargoid 260 to take action setStateTo: ATTACK_SHIP
  [ai.message.receive] AI.m:361: AI thargoidAI.plist for Thargoid 260 in state 'ATTACK_SHIP' receives message 'EXIT'
  [ai.message.receive] AI.m:361: AI thargoidAI.plist for Thargoid 260 in state 'ATTACK_SHIP' receives message 'ENTER'
  [ai.takeAction] AI.m:419: Thargoid 260 to take action performAttack
[ai.takeAction] AI.m:419: Thargoid 260 to take action scanForNonThargoid
[ai.takeAction] AI.m:419: Thargoid 260 to take action pauseAI: 15.0
[ai.message.receive] AI.m:361: AI thargoidAI.plist for Thargoid 260 in state 'ATTACK_SHIP' receives message 'TARGET_FOUND'
[ai.takeAction] AI.m:419: Thargoid 260 to take action setTargetToFoundTarget
[ai.takeAction] AI.m:419: Thargoid 260 to take action setStateTo: ATTACK_SHIP
  [ai.message.receive] AI.m:361: AI thargoidAI.plist for Thargoid 260 in state 'ATTACK_SHIP' receives message 'EXIT'
  [ai.message.receive] AI.m:361: AI thargoidAI.plist for Thargoid 260 in state 'ATTACK_SHIP' receives message 'ENTER'
  [ai.takeAction] AI.m:419: Thargoid 260 to take action performAttack

or an uninterrupted attack. Only when I approach it will regularly find me. And when I cloak it will loose me.

[Thargoid]

Special test ship that I often use for such purposes (increased energy recharge rate, so I can sit cloaked continually). Fly out to a nice patch of quiet space, cloak, then spawn a thargoid warship (oolite-thargoid) and a police ship (police) and then sit back and watch.

The warship for me just sits and tumbles until the police ship shoots it. Then it moves and begins attacking, but after a few seconds goes back to tumbling (due to the scanForNonThargoid in the update of ATTACK_SHIP presumably).

If I use an uncloaked ship I get attacked properly, so my question would then resolve into should my cloaked ship be basically blocking the thargoidAI from attacking anything when there are all sorts of other targets around to be attacked? That seems like buggy behaviour to me, as the police ship can shoot the Thargoid one, but as it's trying to target my cloaked ship then it can't shoot back. The preference for the player ship in the scan seems to be working wrong when said ship is cloaked.

[Eric Walch]

If I use an uncloaked ship I get attacked properly, so my question would then resolve into should my cloaked ship be basically blocking the thargoidAI from attacking anything when there are all sorts of other targets around to be attacked? That seems like buggy behaviour to me, as the police ship can shoot the Thargoid one, but as it's trying to target my cloaked ship then it can't shoot back. The preference for the player ship in the scan seems to be working wrong when said ship is cloaked.

Cloaked ships are never fully invisible, only the radar signal disappears fully. Otherwise a mission like the cloaking mission would be almost impossible. But generally I still manage to kill cloaked ships. Same for npc ships. they know something is out there but can't pinpoint it.

[Thargoid]

Players can easily attack cloaked ships, but as NPCs loose target automatically then they can't (or so it seems empirically to me, does the code tell a different story?). So for me it would make most sense that:

a) rather than NPCs always losing target immediately against a cloaked ship, they only have a chance to do so (if that's not already the case).

b) scanForNonThargoid only has this chance to detect/target the player when cloaked, and if not then the next (non-Thargoid NPC) around is chosen, or if not available then no target is found.

In the current set-up if I happened to be sitting cloaked in the middle of a Navy vs Thargoid mega-battle basically I'm going to disrupt the whole thing as suddenly the Thargoid ships cannot target anything any more for more than a few seconds.

[Eric Walch]

In the current set-up if I happened to be sitting cloaked in the middle of a Navy vs Thargoid mega-battle basically I'm going to disrupt the whole thing as suddenly the Thargoid ships cannot target anything any more for more than a few seconds.

But when you de-cloak you get the thagoid battle fleet on your tail because they are now waiting for you. With normal ships you can only cloak for a short time.

Ships that can cloak forever are uber ships and to my believe wrong as they already allow you to kill without consequences. In this case it does not matter if that police is killing the thargoid or you do it. Changing cloak behaviour does not change this. As it is now, you can wait until the target de-cloaks.

[Thargoid]

A valid point, but even a Cobbie3 can cloak for a fair while (albeit almost a dead duck when it stops), during that period it's the Thargoid fleet that's a sitting duck ready to be picked off by anyone else who is around.

I'm still not at all comfortable with the concept that the cloak has a secondary role of effectively disarming Thargoid ships.

[Eric Walch]

Hmm, semi-appropriate that I find this one I guess. The AI command scanForNonThargoid doesn't seem to be working on my machine (WinXP, 1.73.4 test).

Since revision 2685 scanForNonThargoid will no longer find cloaked ships.