Injector use by AI

[Redspear]

The player is in trouble, they hit the injectors hoping to escape.

Their adversaries, in response, immediately inject after them if at all possible.

Cue tedious and costly injector race as combat turns into a masslock crawl-by.

How much sense does this make and further to what extent does it make for good gameplay (especially when their tanks are near invariably full)?

• Who should typically let the player escape without spending fuel?
  • traders
  • pirates
  • thargoids

This group have other fish to fry. The first two need their fuel to escape threats to themselves, whether by injector use or hyperdrive.

There's a strong case for Thargoids not to be on this list or to appear random in their use (if they even have them).

• Who should typically chase the player down even at the cost of fuel?
  • police
  • bounty hunters
  • assassins

They're not just after a profit, they're (potentially) after the player in particular.


I've already made an oxp that enforces some of this but it would be nice for it to work whereby non-player ships exhibit some discretion in their use of injectors rather than simply having them or not.

Having your adversary/target flee with injectors presents an interesting player choice (how much do you want that bounty/cargo/kill? ) whereas having them chase you with injectors I would suggest does not.