Smarter Bridge Officers/Away team

grazyc2 · November 2013

Most episodes you are playing, Bridge Officers DIE because they do a frontal attack.
For example with the voth no matter how well their armor is and shields they die all the time no matter who you send down there. They just don't survive....

SO I thought maybe they could give BOFF an upgrade so there a bit smarter.

1. Run away for dropping shots the Dino shoots for example.
2. Let them calculate distance between their self and the enemy ( Attack Distance )
3. More Strategies

Also let them push buttons for a change and let's the commanders and captains worry about the fight if you know what I mean.
If they can do it in a SP game so they can also do it in a MMO....

Let us hear your thought about this ?

mirrorchaos · November 2013

kirk2390 wrote: »

Most episodes you are playing, Bridge Officers DIE because they do a frontal attack.
For example with the voth no matter how well their armor is and shields they die all the time no matter who you send down there. They just don't survive....

SO I thought maybe they could give BOFF an upgrade so there a bit smarter.

1. Run away for dropping shots the Dino shoots for example.
2. Let them calculate distance between their self and the enemy ( Attack Distance )
3. More Strategies

Also let them push buttons for a change and let's the commanders and captains worry about the fight if you know what I mean.
If they can do it in a SP game so they can also do it in a MMO....

Let us hear your thought about this ?

like a mass effect type AI? that follows you and stays out of trouble where ever they can and find cover and a chance to find a free shot between weapons fire.

jarfaru · November 2013

Lol they do seem stupid when they run right up to a rex.

futurepastnow · November 2013

Like the developers have said... AI is Hard. Hangar pets aren't any smarter, because it's hard to do.

Frankly, I'd like to see more missions like Cutting the Cord, or Sphere of Influence, that are just you and scaled for just you (also like Coliseum or Boldly They Rode, except not slooooow). I'm surprised Numbus and the Sphere don't work that way.

I just accept that I'm going to be separated from my boffs and plan accordingly. Take along some sort of self-heal so you don't have to rely on the boff.

grazyc2 · November 2013

They send with you your away team or boffs so I expect they think !!! Before they act.
Of Course It's hard to program them, they have to attack and they have to heal or not...
Just stay where you are and send your boffs in they will be dead because what they try to do is to try to revoke the enemy in following them back to you if they don't kill the enemy before. They should make independent boffs stand on their own some sort off survivor skill.
Hell i'm not a programmer but I know it is possible I seen it before in SWTOR and Mass Effect also.

Make boffs warriors, if the enemy can stand on their own to kill you why can't get a boff a skill to attack the enemy ?

Why can't they make boff's like the story with the enterprise C where you tell them what to do ?

If they can do that they can also make the boffs that way, and hey hangar pets are smarter than they were before the first time launched ...:cool:

adamkafei · November 2013

The way I see it they should revamp the AI, once it's done it's done and they can then use that as a pve resource to balance out power creep... it's a win, win...

mirrorchaos · November 2013

the big issue since i started playing sto and still exists with the ai is that the boffs follow you in a formation if i can be helped. you get too far ahead and the ai has to try pick the quickest route to your character even if it means aggroing a tonne of mobs including huge gorn and t-rex's with Lasers. or if you proceed through a small corridor sometimes your ai will get stuck due to a bad map design or an object in the way.

yes the AI needs to be completely redesigned from the ground up. but i doubt it will happen because the game logic and coding and all those resources and time needed would probably take too much. but it would still be nice to see something improved with the AI if it can be helped.

shadowfirefly00 · November 2013

Another obvious change - have them recognize which enemies are fliers (i.e. Swarmers) and know not to try and use grenades on them.

captinwh0 · November 2013

i dont mind so much the random weapon and buff drops, what i do mind is that they dont use them.

for example my engineer will make a cover shield and a shield generator and then runs out of her defences and gets killed, thats just insanely stupid.

also when i drop a millitry supplies chest, my boffs should use it too for healing and suchlike

grazyc2 · November 2013

shadowfirefly00 wrote: »

Another obvious change - have them recognize which enemies are fliers (i.e. Swarmers) and know not to try and use grenades on them.

Yeah noticed it to throwing grenades at swarmers haha
But thats also with that grenade launcher I suppose...

I heard yesterday on stoked they are want to revamp Fed missions, missions that are not story important to throw them out , well that would be the day, finally .

But drifting of course here, to get boffs smarter.

1. they take clearance when they are targeted
2. Seek the weak spots or as they call it in sto flank them.
3. Make them like the boffs as in the enterprise mission so you can command them
4. Let them have a kit so they have more powers

Let the boff live, let them decide in battle, let them improve themselves.
Darn I should go into politics... Naaah

lordcorrino · November 2013

Just give them red shirts.

zordar01 · November 2013

A little more granularity in the Boff controls interface would go a long way. Right now we have:

* Attack Normally
* Do Not Attack
* Attack Target X
* Rally Point

We need:

* Behavior - Aggressive (equal to current Attack Normally)
* Behavior - Passive (equal to current Do Not Attack)
* Behavior - Guarded (Do Not Attack Unless Attacked or Player Attacks [this really should be the default])
* Rally To Player (Get Your Boff A$$es Over Here!!)
* Rally (equal to Rally Point).

Those would be on the current away team window.

Added to that would be a new box of Boff behavior toggles that can help refine away team actions. Stuff like:

* The Best Defense Is A Good Offense - Boffs use most damaging attacks, show preference to power cells over other consumables, and attempt to flank opponents
* Fight Defensively - Boffs use CC/slow attacks first, crouch while firing unless in melee, prefer using shield charges and actively try to stay within health/shield fabrication radius.
* Supporting Fire - Boffs automatically focus fire on the Player's target (and switch targets when the Player does), but otherwise act as Fight Defensively
* Get 'Em! - equal to Boff tactics now. They run about pell-mell, each attacking targets seemingly at random, and act like 'dying in combat' is the last item on their bucket list.
* Hold The Line - Boffs stay withing a set area defined when this mode is activated but otherwise act as Fight Defensively

Boffs need some basic upgrades regardless, such as incoming grenade detection (and evasion), consumables discipline (or 'Why Using a Large Hypo to Heal 20 damage Is Bad'), and better pathing.

grazyc2 · November 2013

zordar01 wrote: »

A little more granularity in the Boff controls interface would go a long way. Right now we have:

* Attack Normally
* Do Not Attack
* Attack Target X
* Rally Point

We need:

* Behavior - Aggressive (equal to current Attack Normally)
* Behavior - Passive (equal to current Do Not Attack)
* Behavior - Guarded (Do Not Attack Unless Attacked or Player Attacks [this really should be the default])
* Rally To Player (Get Your Boff A$$es Over Here!!)
* Rally (equal to Rally Point).

Those would be on the current away team window.

Added to that would be a new box of Boff behavior toggles that can help refine away team actions. Stuff like:

* The Best Defense Is A Good Offense - Boffs use most damaging attacks, show preference to power cells over other consumables, and attempt to flank opponents
* Fight Defensively - Boffs use CC/slow attacks first, crouch while firing unless in melee, prefer using shield charges and actively try to stay within health/shield fabrication radius.
* Supporting Fire - Boffs automatically focus fire on the Player's target (and switch targets when the Player does), but otherwise act as Fight Defensively
* Get 'Em! - equal to Boff tactics now. They run about pell-mell, each attacking targets seemingly at random, and act like 'dying in combat' is the last item on their bucket list.
* Hold The Line - Boffs stay withing a set area defined when this mode is activated but otherwise act as Fight Defensively

Boffs need some basic upgrades regardless, such as incoming grenade detection (and evasion), consumables discipline (or 'Why Using a Large Hypo to Heal 20 damage Is Bad'), and better pathing.

Verry good sugestion I like it well lets hope the Devs like it and would consider it in there meetings but I guess we would need an bigger support to get there attention....

grazyc2 · November 2013

Behavior what you see in the post written by Zordar01 :

* Attack Normally
* Do Not Attack
* Attack Target X
* Rally Point

We need:

* Behavior - Aggressive (equal to current Attack Normally)
* Behavior - Passive (equal to current Do Not Attack)
* Behavior - Guarded (Do Not Attack Unless Attacked or Player Attacks [this really should be the default])
* Rally To Player (Get Your Boff A$$es Over Here!!)
* Rally (equal to Rally Point).

And not white, green, blue or purple Boff's just boff's and when you use the gear on them they become good or even better depends on the gear they using....

But they can't give us the option to climb or take cover so I doubt they implement this, or any other suggestion we made so far, unless the post is big enough with help from players who would support an upgrade to the Bridge Officer.

What I like about the suggestion of Zodar01 is the behavior sup routines there not so hard to make but would it be good enough for Cryptic because it is an non profit upgrade.
I really have no idea if that is true but it would help players better.

Also what I stated before is make us more captain and let BOFF do more for their Commanders, Captains and Admirals. Let me try to explain...
When the captain is busy shooting bad guys he can order his boff to heal someone, attack someone or use an console so the captain don't have to. Then we are bit closer to be an captain then we are now. If you have more Idea's please feel free to enter them here.

grazyc2 · November 2013

We need:

* Behavior - Aggressive (equal to current Attack Normally)
* Behavior - Passive (equal to current Do Not Attack)
* Behavior - Guarded (Do Not Attack Unless Attacked or Player Attacks [this really should be the default])
* Rally To Player (Get Your Boff A$$es Over Here!!)
* Rally (equal to Rally Point).

Then also add :

* Aid command ( Aid any captain (player ) who need support
* Set up Defensive ( thats a point where captains can heal, boff's will protect it.
* Use Console ( Use console closest to their captain
* Stealth Attack ( Only for Boffs that can cloak )
* Follow me ( follow the captain )
* Silence ( Boff will cloak until further notice )

And then :

* Fire at will ( Boff will pick their own targets )
* Heavy attack ( Boff uses heavy artillery only )
* Triage ( Boff will seek downed officers, captains and heal them )
* Support Attack ( Boff uses turrets, grenades, pets )

Thats my idea at least

grazyc2 · November 2013

O I forget this one, Bridge Officers need a kit just like us captains...

Smarter Bridge Officers/Away team

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