This is exactly what I'm attempting to get them to do.
1) Make attack run
2) When too close, cloak and disengage
3) When at optimum range, reorient on target, decloak and make another attack run
4) Return to step 2, repeat.
When you figured that out, move on to MOgai Escorts and teach them to fire Cannon Rapid Fire with their D(H?)Cs instead of their Turrets.
Also, any knowledge about the mysterious D'deridex Defender that's popping up in Romulan missions and surprises players with his healing and resilience capabilities?
When you figured that out, move on to MOgai Escorts and teach them to fire Cannon Rapid Fire with their D(H?)Cs instead of their Turrets.
Also, any knowledge about the mysterious D'deridex Defender that's popping up in Romulan missions and surprises players with his healing and resilience capabilities?
yes, the npc bops and every other npc with a narrow arc duel cannons, like the Mogai, federation and klingon escorts.
and i hope that D'deridex Defender is the first of many npc's like it! make that saucer sep galaxy class npc as resilient next.
I highly disagree with having the BoP's cloak only when exiting an attack run. The BoP's canon role and biggest advantage is that it is an ambush craft. A strike infiltrator. The BoP in this game needs to be the pet that you can use to attack targets that would likely shoot it down before it gets into effective weapon range or that can react to the BoP's presence if it sees it coming from afar.
For example, in STF's where you have to shoot nanite probes/spheres coming out of the gate.. pre-patch I could send my BoP's in and they would fly to target cloaked and deliver the damage quickly. Post patch, with the current no-cloak behavior, I lose one or two BoP's to the gate's weapons. There is nothing I can do about it. Therefore I do not use BoPs anymore since the ToDuj can afford to lose 2 or so fighters and still deliver a powerful punch per pass.
By making them cloak only on their egress makes no difference to their survival (in fact it worsens it because torpedoes fired at your pet will still track it even if cloaked..and hit it with shields down) and having them shoot from 10km does not in any way or form increase their combat performance since the guns do such weak damage plus cannons at long range have a really bad damage decrease effect and they only fire the torpedo once per pass.
In short.. you'd be turning the BoP's into fatter, less effective versions of the ToDujs. This is why the BoP after the no-cloak patch is significantly less effective than using the ToDuj fighters.
I think the BoP's would be perfect if:
0- When receiving new order from carrier BoP should slow do 1/4th speed for 4 seconds then resume observing the behaviors below.
1- If target between 5 to 10km the BoP should cloak.
2- If target is 5km to 0.5km range the BoP should decloak.
3- If target is 0.1 to 0.5km range the BoP should stop any turn (aka fly straight) and fly full speed out to 8km (observing #1).
4- If BoP is decloaked it flies at half speed.
5- If BoP is cloaked it flies at full speed.
The result of this would be that when you give the BoPs an order they will slow down to 1/4th for 4 seconds...be them cloaked or uncloaked. This is enough time for them to orient themselves to the new target and prevent the current behavior of BoP's flying in all directions at max speed while trying to turn nose to target which results in BoPs spreading all over the place, having very little firing time on their run and worse yet, attacking from different directions (different shields and this make the entire BoP wing ineffective).
Once they've oriented themselves they fly to new target either under cloak at full speed (not full impulse) if between 10 to 5km or at half speed and uncloaked if under 5km. What this does is it allows the BoP to approach target under cloak until it reaches the best effective cannon range (5km) and then it drops speed to half, decloaks and starts its attack run.
The half speed means it can keep nose aimed at target and has twice the firing time (cannons) than it does now...which effectively increases the BoP's per-attack-run damage. It also be more visually appealing and trek-like...and it does give a chance for players and AI to react to the BoP attack in some way. BoPs would be most vulnerable when FIRING at a target.
BoPs close in at half speed firing until they reach 0.5km. That is when they will slam throttle to full and fly in a straight line away from the target. Upon crossing the 5km threshold they will cloak and keep flying cloaked out to 8km range from target.
Then they slow to 1/4th speed for 4 seconds again so they can re-orient their noses back to target and the cycle repeats itself.
This results not in a circle but in a long ellipse where the bops are constantly ambushing the target. Its their role. If the player wants pets that stay on top of target shooting it they should use ToDujs (thats THEIR role).
(If there is any way to code the BoPs to stay together..within 2km of each other it would be even better since that will prevent them from getting scattered all over the place)
The behavior listed above bring the BoP into its canon trek-ness. It gives the BoP pets their unique role and functionality and it fixes all the issues with the BoP's attack run pattern.
Plus, if we can order our BoPs to attack from 20kms out and change the 'Escort' to be 'Assist' (pet targets the friendly player's target) the carrier itself would be completely fixed in functionality. It can support friends from a distance effectively. Of course, to prevent beyond-retaliation range attack abuses the NPC AI should be told that if a carrier pet is shooting them they should switch to targeting that pet as priority.
This is really well thought out and would be quite nice if Cryptic would be able to implement it.
Even with the BOP responding to Carrier commands now I still prefer using the ToDuj Fighters, they get the job done much more efficiently than the BOP.
A question for a Cryptic Dev:
Do you have copies of old STO versions and would it be possible to pull up older builds so that you can review them internally?
The reason that I as the above is because the 1st couple of weeks that season 5 was being tested on Tribble is when IMO the BOP along with the Carriers other Deployable seemed to function the best but that functionality was broken after a series of patches before the build when live.
No idea how 'integrated' the ground-space games are, but....
Would deployed assets not attacking gates/transformers be related to the way my away team reacts to orders telling them to attack doors, etc.
That is.. they run up to the object and bash thier heads into it, jump up and down on it, etc.
Has there been any updates on the 10k issue? That is that aside from randomly attacking whatever, way over there, BoP are useless unless the carrier is within 10k of the target?
"Just hang on teamate, I'll save you .... just er... give me about 30 seconds to turn around ... then 10 seconds to speed up ... then ...sure wish I could use full impulse like any normal ship.. awe heck, I'll just send my pets to help...(click attack)...(pets fly off in random directions attacking all the wrong targets) .... ok, sorry man, you're just screwed."
Well I got a chance to play on the test server this morning and play through the Deferi dailies.
I did like the AI formation change and the new text added to the carrier commands.
Issues found:
BoP attack runs still does not make the dive bomb attack run but turn and run around the target. We all know the issues with this and with the limited ark of the duable cannons the dps is reduced by a large amount.
- I did not see this corrected in the patch notes but I wanted to type it out anyways.
BoP goes to max speed after they make the attack run & cloak.
- Well I did not see a difference in the speeds but Im going to try this again. Maybe this is hard to see visually and its more on the math/mechanics and evasion side of things.
BoP when they are following along out of combat full impulse would not engage and when it does the BoP full impulse was much slower than the carriers speed.
- I was having a major issue with on the test server over what is currently on the live server. The live build can have issues with this from time to time and carrier pilots have a work around but the test build is rough right now.
BoP Intercept command I tested on two the Deferi missions.
- Mission one was the repair satellites with the five or so mines around it. The BoP did not attack them until one of the mines hit my ship.
- Mission two was the daily that has the Breen ambush with the mines in the circle around you. I though this was another great chance to try out this command. Well at that point I discovered that my BoP pilots were 15-year-old Klingons learning how to drive stick for the first time. The BoP would move for about two seconds and then stop for two seconds and then repeat this process.
Suggestions:
- Is it possible to have the BoPs stay cloaked when out of combat and then de-cloak when they enter red alert?
- How plausible would it be to add to the UI for ships that have an AI companion?
- Example: When you launch AI ship a small UI window or icon with ships name and two bars one for ships shield and one for hull will appear. For the carriers two windows open showing the currently active ships from each hanger and current health levels. Also add an option in the UI section to turn this on and off for those that would like to use this or not.
Well I got a chance to play on the test server this morning and play through the Deferi dailies.
I did like the AI formation change and the new text added to the carrier commands.
Issues found:
BoP attack runs still does not make the dive bomb attack run but turn and run around the target. We all know the issues with this and with the limited ark of the duable cannons the dps is reduced by a large amount.
- I did not see this corrected in the patch notes but I wanted to type it out anyways.
BoP goes to max speed after they make the attack run & cloak.
- Well I did not see a difference in the speeds but Im going to try this again. Maybe this is hard to see visually and its more on the math/mechanics and evasion side of things.
BoP when they are following along out of combat full impulse would not engage and when it does the BoP full impulse was much slower than the carriers speed.
- I was having a major issue with on the test server over what is currently on the live server. The live build can have issues with this from time to time and carrier pilots have a work around but the test build is rough right now.
BoP Intercept command I tested on two the Deferi missions.
- Mission one was the repair satellites with the five or so mines around it. The BoP did not attack them until one of the mines hit my ship.
- Mission two was the daily that has the Breen ambush with the mines in the circle around you. I though this was another great chance to try out this command. Well at that point I discovered that my BoP pilots were 15-year-old Klingons learning how to drive stick for the first time. The BoP would move for about two seconds and then stop for two seconds and then repeat this process.
Suggestions:
- Is it possible to have the BoPs stay cloaked when out of combat and then de-cloak when they enter red alert?
- How plausible would it be to add to the UI for ships that have an AI companion?
- Example: When you launch AI ship a small UI window or icon with ships name and two bars one for ships shield and one for hull will appear. For the carriers two windows open showing the currently active ships from each hanger and current health levels. Also add an option in the UI section to turn this on and off for those that would like to use this or not.
Intercept mode can't attack mines until the mines activate, because the interceptors essentially don't know that the mines are there. At present there isn't a way for the AI subsystem to address this.
Intercept mode can't attack mines until the mines activate, because the interceptors essentially don't know that the mines are there. At present there isn't a way for the AI subsystem to address this.
Thanks, Jheinig for clearing that up and that does make sense on how it is coded.
Tested the BoP's in Tribble.
"Space pet AI updates:
Pets that are following will now fly in formation.
Pets on attack mode will move into a wedge formation in front of the player until an enemy target is found.
Updated text descriptions of the carrier command powers so that they explain about the toggle functionality.
Updated Bird-of-Prey carrier AI so that Birds-of-Prey retreating under cloak will move at maximum throttle."
I'm sorry to say but they are now even glitchier and worse off than they are currently in holodeck.
This is true but we are in testing and they can work out the bugs.
Issues found:
1- If attack order is given inside 10km and carrier has not fired a shot at a target (any target) the BoP's will power up weapons and fly 10m wherever the noses are pointing ...then stop. Then 10m more meters..then stop. This will happen until the carrier is fired upon or fires upon something. The moment that happens the BoP's take off and attack.
Note: I confirmed this by firing a bioneural torpedo at 12km range which put me in red alert. BoPs were in Recall mode. I sped up past the torpedo and got inside 10km range of target and sat there without firing any beam or other weapon. THEN I ordered the BoP's to attack. They did their 10m drift-stop routine.
The instant the bioneural torpedo fired its turret at the target the BoP's snapped out of it and started their attack run. This means its not a RED ALERT issue.. the BoP's are actively requiring the carrier to be fired upon or firing upon something.
My guess: Just like in holodeck now, the BoP's may be picking up 'team-mate' damage and reacting upon it. Bioneural was fired by me so I guess it links it to my ship as a team-mate or something. The BoP's pick that up and trigger.
This is a MAJOR glitch if its allowed to go to holodeck as the BoPs do not do this in holodeck now.
Maybe I do not understand this issue because I have now tried it both ways of coming into 10km range and having the attack command turned on and going from the follow to the attack command. Both times they attacked just fine but they did buff themselves before moving forward to attack.
2- BoP's STOP when given recall order then take a second and then they start flying back to your ship. They dont do this in holodeck. Another major glitch for if you recall them and the BoP is near something that is exploding (which is when I recall them, after they've killed the target) they will die with it.
Yes, I can also confirm this issue as the BoPs just did this on my screen.
4- Attack run behavior:
As I stated in my large post in this page: The BoPs spend more time trying to turn to face the target at top speed than they do firing at a target. I have a video of this that I'll be posting soon.
The BoP's from 10km range fly off in a wide arc and do not manage to fire torpedo or dual cannon until they are nearly at 3km range..because thats the time when they actually get to aim their damn nose AT the target. By then its too late to do any damage with dual cannon and the torpedo is the only source of damage.
Oh yes..the very torpedo damage that was nerfed. :rolleyes:
The whole problem of this is simply the fact that the BoP's are accelerating to top speed BEFORE they turn to target. Thats IT.
PLEASE make them fly 1/4th speed the first 4 second after being given an attack order.. thats ALL they need to aim their noses at target and have an awesome attack run firing dual cannon and torpedo.
Even better, make them fly at HALF speed when firing dual cannon. that way their cannon damage adds up to compensate for the damage nerfed out of the torpedo.
For attack behavior, they do kick into top speed when wanting to make a turn and it does put them at very strange angles. Most of the time in a poor ark or range. As for the torps they seem to do fine damage for me but Im guessing I missed a joke.
5 - Egress behavior:
"Updated Bird-of-Prey carrier AI so that Birds-of-Prey retreating under cloak will move at maximum throttle"
I do not see at all the BoP's increasing speed when they disengage from doing the attack run. This is perhaps because they were already flying at full speed to begin with. See #4 *hint* *hint*.
I looked out for 'ship is exploding lets get out of here' behavior ... they dont.
The BoPs do not cloak when egressing from an attack run. **** they also do this on holodeck. The cloak behavior is just random.
What I did notice was the BoPs breaking off from their attack run 3 to 4km from target and turning away to start circling target. They do not do this in holodeck..in holodeck they fly right up to near collision range and then they break off.
This seems to be totally random Im having some doing a complete fly by but very rarely and most just circling or breaking off between 5k and 7k at times. I think the turn rate might need to be increased on them a little.
All in all I appreciate the effort being put into trying to fix the carrier pets but I will honestly say every change so far (except for the 2-carriers=pets glitch out fix-- Borticus earned his angel wings that day ) have been in the wrong direction.
The technical glitch issues are being fixed which is great but when it comes to the gameplay aspect of the pet behaviors it seems the feedback provided is being heard but not listened to. As far as I can tell I've been the only one posting multiple pages worth of feedback backed with testing time of the pets and aside from the technical glitching aspect of it it has been completely ignored and things done which exacerbate the very issues with the pet behavior I've been posting as being *THE* cause for the pets being so darn near useless.
I log on today in tribble and see the BoPs being unable to damage a sphere 6 levels below me with 1 pass...their alpha strike pass. I see that sphere kill two of my BoPs because they just stop when I recall them.. I see them do near zero damage because they keep orbiting with that mk1 turret doing no damage. I see them go from near useless in holodeck to completely useless in tribble.
Im not sure what your BoPs are doing but the ones I have the Dev gods most have blessed as I just watched one BoP kill a cube.
Also major note to dev team currenlty on this test run my BoPs would get 0% health and NOT die.
There's currently a weird condition where carrier pets that are targeting the carrier's target think that they are not, and thus they wind up trying to reacquire target. I'm working with a programmer on figuring out why they are misbehaving, but I put in some extra bulletproofing that is going through QA right now.
There's currently a weird condition where carrier pets that are targeting the carrier's target think that they are not, and thus they wind up trying to reacquire target. I'm working with a programmer on figuring out why they are misbehaving, but I put in some extra bulletproofing that is going through QA right now.
Finally tracked down one last bit of code that was causing hitching when initially setting fighters to Attack mode. Also figured out a tricky way to get them to recognize mines that are not activated. Hopefully that should be out quickly!
Finally tracked down one last bit of code that was causing hitching when initially setting fighters to Attack mode. Also figured out a tricky way to get them to recognize mines that are not activated. Hopefully that should be out quickly!
Very cool, Thanks Jheinig!
Were you able to reproduce the 0% heath and not dying BoPs?
This is true but we are in testing and they can work out the bugs.
Look at Holodeck now.
-BoPs at 0% HP and not dying.
-BoPs stop for a few seconds when you give them recall command
-BoPs now do 50% less damage than before this patch thanks to this new idiotic attack run behavior: They peel off from their attack runs at 5km ..and since they STILL spend 10->5km distance TURNING towards target at max speed they dont fire nothing but turret and barely a torpedo (and thats a big IF).
-BoPs do not destroy their assigned targets because the $#@ instant I target a team-mate to heal, extend shields or any other support ability the BoPs break off and attack that player's target.
-BoPs glitch when trying to enter this ridiculous (and pointless) 'formation' in front of your ship because if something happens to fly into range and your carrier has not targeted it, the BoPs will and just fly off and wont obey another order until you recall them. Of course, that means they stop dead in space and get shot to pieces. If it wasnt for the 0HP bug they'd be dead.
These are very same issues reported by you and me when it was in Tribble. They're on the live server now. What does that tell you?
I've had it. I'm not going to bother posting or testing anything anymore as feedback is clearly being ignored and they just keep adding things that only cause more issues BEFORE fixing the already game-breaking issues. The only things they seem to want to fix are those that completely break the functionality of the item... seems to me that keeping the game on life support is the focus here.
=> Zombie Mode: Pets stay at 0% health and are invincible
=> Pets sometimes wont follow
=> Pets sometimes decide to follow your ship, but do not use full impulse
=> All stop attacking after a few minutes (and decide to fly formation with the enemy), commands are useless - but after a few minutes they randomly start attacking again..
=> After launching pets from your hangar, they sit around for like 3 seconds and do nothing
=> Zombie Mode: Pets stay at 0% health and are invincible
=> Pets sometimes wont follow
=> Pets sometimes decide to follow your ship, but do not use full impulse
=> All stop attacking after a few minutes (and decide to fly formation with the enemy), commands are useless - but after a few minutes they randomly start attacking again..
=> After launching pets from your hangar, they sit around for like 3 seconds and do nothing
But hey... formations are nice!
I can confirm all the above, after todays patch my carrier is reduced to being a liability, i can honestly say i am getting real tired of having my pets rendered usueless on a regular basis..there is somthing SERIOUSLY wrong with cryptics internal testing procedures if things like this can be missed, i saw the problems withing 5 mins of starting my first STF today so i really cannot understand how they can miss such glaring problems.
Are you guys serious? Did they completely mess up the bop?
Are the other pets effected?
From what ive seen myself both BoP's amd To'duj fighters are affected by this. A friend reported similar problems with the Karfi pets but ive not tried those yet myself.
the only useful thing on a carrier now is siphon drones. everything else just sucks. the current ai seems to be on a coffee break. fighters do almost nothing bops are two steps above that
What is going on here is the same as if I went to a store to complain that the toilet I had just purchased there was taking too long to flush.
They replace it with one that still takes too long to flush and that vibrates to let your butt know it is flushing.
I take it back. Tell them the issue I took it in originally for is not addressed and that the vibration is not doing my hemorrhoids any favors.
They replace it with one that finally flushes right... but it also vibrates and hums the national anthem to you.
I take it back. Tell them the thing flushes good now but that the vibrating and humming is ruining my defecation experience.
They replace it with one that flushes right and this time it doesn't vibrate while flushing but rather it vibrates every time it detects a TRIBBLE dropping. It doesn't hum anymore.
I take it back. Tell them the thing flushes good and it doesn't hum anymore but the whole vibrating thing really has to go!
They replace it with one that takes too long to flush, vibrates, hums and flings your turds right back up at you.
Fighters not dying at 0 health looks like some issue that went in a code change -- nothing in the AI updates ever puts the fighters into an unkillable state. Tracking that down may take some time, since it will require programmer assistance.
Note that fighters that are far out of range may not be responsive to commands; I am looking into ways to ameliorate this.
Also remember that unless you order your fighters onto Recall mode, they will continue to fight against other entities that have attacked you or your other fighters. Fighters on Attack, Escort, or Intercept mode will definitely shoot back if someone has fired upon their team.
Fighters not dying at 0 health looks like some issue that went in a code change -- nothing in the AI updates ever puts the fighters into an unkillable state. Tracking that down may take some time, since it will require programmer assistance.
Note that fighters that are far out of range may not be responsive to commands; I am looking into ways to ameliorate this.
Also remember that unless you order your fighters onto Recall mode, they will continue to fight against other entities that have attacked you or your other fighters. Fighters on Attack, Escort, or Intercept mode will definitely shoot back if someone has fired upon their team.
The thing is though that after todays patch the pets often do nothing, i had at different times fighters either just following me doing nothing, or just stopping dead in space and refusing to follow ANY orders or even fire at anything, sometimes after a couple of mins they would start to attack again other times they wouldnt, also the fighters at 0 health often refuse to de summon if new pets are attempted to be summoned ( i even de equiped my hangers at one point and the 0 health fighters stayed around doing nothing).
Non of this behaviour was happening yesterday before the patch so somthing was broken in the pet AI with this patch and while the pets remain like this it makes carriers a liability and basically worthless.
Comments
Also, any knowledge about the mysterious D'deridex Defender that's popping up in Romulan missions and surprises players with his healing and resilience capabilities?
yes, the npc bops and every other npc with a narrow arc duel cannons, like the Mogai, federation and klingon escorts.
and i hope that D'deridex Defender is the first of many npc's like it! make that saucer sep galaxy class npc as resilient next.
This is really well thought out and would be quite nice if Cryptic would be able to implement it.
Even with the BOP responding to Carrier commands now I still prefer using the ToDuj Fighters, they get the job done much more efficiently than the BOP.
A question for a Cryptic Dev:
Do you have copies of old STO versions and would it be possible to pull up older builds so that you can review them internally?
The reason that I as the above is because the 1st couple of weeks that season 5 was being tested on Tribble is when IMO the BOP along with the Carriers other Deployable seemed to function the best but that functionality was broken after a series of patches before the build when live.
Would deployed assets not attacking gates/transformers be related to the way my away team reacts to orders telling them to attack doors, etc.
That is.. they run up to the object and bash thier heads into it, jump up and down on it, etc.
Has there been any updates on the 10k issue? That is that aside from randomly attacking whatever, way over there, BoP are useless unless the carrier is within 10k of the target?
"Just hang on teamate, I'll save you .... just er... give me about 30 seconds to turn around ... then 10 seconds to speed up ... then ...sure wish I could use full impulse like any normal ship.. awe heck, I'll just send my pets to help...(click attack)...(pets fly off in random directions attacking all the wrong targets) .... ok, sorry man, you're just screwed."
I did like the AI formation change and the new text added to the carrier commands.
Issues found:
BoP attack runs still does not make the dive bomb attack run but turn and run around the target. We all know the issues with this and with the limited ark of the duable cannons the dps is reduced by a large amount.
- I did not see this corrected in the patch notes but I wanted to type it out anyways.
BoP goes to max speed after they make the attack run & cloak.
- Well I did not see a difference in the speeds but Im going to try this again. Maybe this is hard to see visually and its more on the math/mechanics and evasion side of things.
BoP when they are following along out of combat full impulse would not engage and when it does the BoP full impulse was much slower than the carriers speed.
- I was having a major issue with on the test server over what is currently on the live server. The live build can have issues with this from time to time and carrier pilots have a work around but the test build is rough right now.
BoP Intercept command I tested on two the Deferi missions.
- Mission one was the repair satellites with the five or so mines around it. The BoP did not attack them until one of the mines hit my ship.
- Mission two was the daily that has the Breen ambush with the mines in the circle around you. I though this was another great chance to try out this command. Well at that point I discovered that my BoP pilots were 15-year-old Klingons learning how to drive stick for the first time. The BoP would move for about two seconds and then stop for two seconds and then repeat this process.
Suggestions:
- Is it possible to have the BoPs stay cloaked when out of combat and then de-cloak when they enter red alert?
- How plausible would it be to add to the UI for ships that have an AI companion?
- Example: When you launch AI ship a small UI window or icon with ships name and two bars one for ships shield and one for hull will appear. For the carriers two windows open showing the currently active ships from each hanger and current health levels. Also add an option in the UI section to turn this on and off for those that would like to use this or not.
Intercept mode can't attack mines until the mines activate, because the interceptors essentially don't know that the mines are there. At present there isn't a way for the AI subsystem to address this.
Thanks, Jheinig for clearing that up and that does make sense on how it is coded.
This is true but we are in testing and they can work out the bugs.
Maybe I do not understand this issue because I have now tried it both ways of coming into 10km range and having the attack command turned on and going from the follow to the attack command. Both times they attacked just fine but they did buff themselves before moving forward to attack. Yes, I can also confirm this issue as the BoPs just did this on my screen.
For attack behavior, they do kick into top speed when wanting to make a turn and it does put them at very strange angles. Most of the time in a poor ark or range. As for the torps they seem to do fine damage for me but Im guessing I missed a joke. This seems to be totally random Im having some doing a complete fly by but very rarely and most just circling or breaking off between 5k and 7k at times. I think the turn rate might need to be increased on them a little.
Im not sure what your BoPs are doing but the ones I have the Dev gods most have blessed as I just watched one BoP kill a cube.
Also major note to dev team currenlty on this test run my BoPs would get 0% health and NOT die.
Oh, so the have Unruly Pilots!! That explains it.
Finally tracked down one last bit of code that was causing hitching when initially setting fighters to Attack mode. Also figured out a tricky way to get them to recognize mines that are not activated. Hopefully that should be out quickly!
Very cool, Thanks Jheinig!
Were you able to reproduce the 0% heath and not dying BoPs?
No, and I just watched a couple of my BoPs get pasted by a gravity well over here, so that is certainly odd.
Look at Holodeck now.
-BoPs at 0% HP and not dying.
-BoPs stop for a few seconds when you give them recall command
-BoPs now do 50% less damage than before this patch thanks to this new idiotic attack run behavior: They peel off from their attack runs at 5km ..and since they STILL spend 10->5km distance TURNING towards target at max speed they dont fire nothing but turret and barely a torpedo (and thats a big IF).
-BoPs do not destroy their assigned targets because the $#@ instant I target a team-mate to heal, extend shields or any other support ability the BoPs break off and attack that player's target.
-BoPs glitch when trying to enter this ridiculous (and pointless) 'formation' in front of your ship because if something happens to fly into range and your carrier has not targeted it, the BoPs will and just fly off and wont obey another order until you recall them. Of course, that means they stop dead in space and get shot to pieces. If it wasnt for the 0HP bug they'd be dead.
These are very same issues reported by you and me when it was in Tribble. They're on the live server now. What does that tell you?
I've had it. I'm not going to bother posting or testing anything anymore as feedback is clearly being ignored and they just keep adding things that only cause more issues BEFORE fixing the already game-breaking issues. The only things they seem to want to fix are those that completely break the functionality of the item... seems to me that keeping the game on life support is the focus here.
ALL Carrier pets:
=> Zombie Mode: Pets stay at 0% health and are invincible
=> Pets sometimes wont follow
=> Pets sometimes decide to follow your ship, but do not use full impulse
=> All stop attacking after a few minutes (and decide to fly formation with the enemy), commands are useless - but after a few minutes they randomly start attacking again..
=> After launching pets from your hangar, they sit around for like 3 seconds and do nothing
But hey... formations are nice!
...and useless.
I can confirm all the above, after todays patch my carrier is reduced to being a liability, i can honestly say i am getting real tired of having my pets rendered usueless on a regular basis..there is somthing SERIOUSLY wrong with cryptics internal testing procedures if things like this can be missed, i saw the problems withing 5 mins of starting my first STF today so i really cannot understand how they can miss such glaring problems.
Are the other pets effected?
From what ive seen myself both BoP's amd To'duj fighters are affected by this. A friend reported similar problems with the Karfi pets but ive not tried those yet myself.
They replace it with one that still takes too long to flush and that vibrates to let your butt know it is flushing.
I take it back. Tell them the issue I took it in originally for is not addressed and that the vibration is not doing my hemorrhoids any favors.
They replace it with one that finally flushes right... but it also vibrates and hums the national anthem to you.
I take it back. Tell them the thing flushes good now but that the vibrating and humming is ruining my defecation experience.
They replace it with one that flushes right and this time it doesn't vibrate while flushing but rather it vibrates every time it detects a TRIBBLE dropping. It doesn't hum anymore.
I take it back. Tell them the thing flushes good and it doesn't hum anymore but the whole vibrating thing really has to go!
They replace it with one that takes too long to flush, vibrates, hums and flings your turds right back up at you.
I take it back....
/ sigh
Note that fighters that are far out of range may not be responsive to commands; I am looking into ways to ameliorate this.
Also remember that unless you order your fighters onto Recall mode, they will continue to fight against other entities that have attacked you or your other fighters. Fighters on Attack, Escort, or Intercept mode will definitely shoot back if someone has fired upon their team.
Tachyon Drones don't use the same AI as other fighters (obviously, it doesn't make much sense for them to try to intercept mines or torpedoes).
The thing is though that after todays patch the pets often do nothing, i had at different times fighters either just following me doing nothing, or just stopping dead in space and refusing to follow ANY orders or even fire at anything, sometimes after a couple of mins they would start to attack again other times they wouldnt, also the fighters at 0 health often refuse to de summon if new pets are attempted to be summoned ( i even de equiped my hangers at one point and the 0 health fighters stayed around doing nothing).
Non of this behaviour was happening yesterday before the patch so somthing was broken in the pet AI with this patch and while the pets remain like this it makes carriers a liability and basically worthless.