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Forums > Home› Star Trek Online General Discussion

Now Would Be A Great Time To Update Hangar Pet AI!

alphahydrialphahydri Member Posts: 391 Arc User
in Star Trek Online General Discussion
Title says it all. For a long time now hangar pets have been slow, unresponsive, and rather ineffective in combat scenarios. They are given cool abilities like Lock Trajectory, but they don't really know how to use them properly and therefore it goes to waste. They die much too quickly and don't deal much damage, which is especially troublesome for ships that strongly depend on hangar pets in combat like Carriers/Dreadnought Carriers.

With the launch of the new Jupiter-class Carrier, it would be a wise investment to upgrade hangar pet AI and overall combat performance. For starters, giving every existing hangar pet Scratch the Paint would increase their survivability greatly. Making them faster and more responsive would also be nice, especially for Frigate pets which are way too slow and don't turn nearly fast enough considering that they're really just AI-controlled Escorts/Raiders. Allowing hangar pets to use different attack strategies based on weapons, such as having cannon-equipped pets perform strafing runs while beam-equipped pets just circle their targets. Buffing the base shield/hull strength on all hangar pets, specifically smaller fighters, would greatly increase their survivability and make them more than just a mere distraction for enemies to fire on.

At this point, really anything would help make hangar pets more viable in combat scenarios.

Comments

  • thenoname711thenoname711 Member Posts: 204 Arc User
    Not only hangar pets, entire game's AI needs a serious overhaul. Should the AI be smarter hangar pets would be better in combat and NPCs would not have to be just damage sponges.
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  • captaintroikacaptaintroika Member Posts: 210 Arc User
    The Qulash frigate especially has bad AI and all too often just sits there.
  • asuran14asuran14 Member Posts: 2,335 Arc User
    I agree this could have been done in such a wide and quite balancing manner, giving players more ways of playing, while also getting alot of input on issues that carrier/hanger-using ships have with thier hanger-pets or separation pets too. There are alot of things people have suggested, even some of which i have as well suggested, and i would hope they are being heard with some dev responses possible.

    I am haoping we might get afew of these fallowing changes to improve the pets's and making them more viable, and giving us more options for play outside the existing ones. I have always liked the micro-managing aspect to some pet-using classes/characters as it adds complexity to the game that can be fun, but also such complexity should be rewarding if used effectively, yet this added layer of complexity should be optional with the difference between using either method being noticeable yet not so much so that it is seen as a handicap not to do so.
    • I would not mind having more of a micro-managing aspect too my hanger/separation pet UI that allows me to set my pet's general power-levels, what abilities they will use automatically or which i would manually input their usage myself. Kinda like how the Boffs work in ground missions.
    • I like the idea even suggested it myself a few times that either based on the hanger/separation pet's equipped weapons, or just as a command you can click (like the cruiser commands) that would determine which attack pattern/strategies your pets would use for their attack runs on their target.
    • I personally love the idea of either having our main-ship/mother-ship giving the hanger/separation pet a boost to their own power-levels based on what the main-ship has, or based off how high you keep your aux power-level. this could help them be more effective, and also survive better.
    • Then you have also the AI that does need to be updated, and improved on overall, not merely the hanger/separation pets but all the AIs. Now this might sound weird to say yet if you give the players more control of the hanger/separation pets than they can compensate for the bad AI, while they can work on improving the AI over time making it even better than a rush job would bring about.

    To be honest i think a rework an update to the hanger/separation pet system would overall bring up sales, as well as improving player's enjoyment of the game by giving players that are kinda sick of the same old styles that are so common now a new play-style that is not going to make them feel gimped (which the current state of hanger/separation pets makes many feel.).
  • drakethewhitedrakethewhite Member Posts: 1,240 Arc User
    It appears that Cryptic has not interest at all in fixing pets. Lost cause, and why I will never invest in them.
  • dreoledreole Member Posts: 4 Arc User
    The new Carrier is nice and all... but the pet AI makes the Jupiter an oversized sci ship without SA or a secondary deflector. The pets are hardly ever actually in combat. They're usually 20km+ behind me... doing nothing. Or doing circles so only the turret is hitting the target. Please please please fix the AI.
  • stuntpilotstuntpilot Member Posts: 76 Arc User
    They clearly aren't interested in fixing them. Been this way since launch.

    I was hopeful that the new carrier release would come with an update on hangar pet behavior, but I'm not surprised that nothing's been done. It just isn't a priority/they don't care.
  • megraemegrae Member Posts: 58 Arc User
    Some day I hope they fix pet AI, but... I'm not going to bet on it.

    I also find the new trait from the Fed Carrier is broken. They don't transport the torpedoes except in rare cases, and then only a couple of the pets, not all of them. And no, its was not because of Insult to Injury - Lockout causing it.
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  • samt1996samt1996 Member Posts: 2,856 Arc User
    They should expand upon carrier combat with more advanced and intuitive controls and modifications like those suggested above. Perhaps take some pointers from World of warships allowing manual control and targeting.
  • banatinebanatine Member Posts: 250 Arc User
    Y'know, before DR happened they actually DID fix pet AI, and they worked fantastically again, making carriers competetive again. They kept their weapons in arc, they avoided core breaches like the plague, it was awesome.

    But then, for some reason, shortly adter the Tau Dewa incedent, they reversed the changes because pets were then 'too powerful'...
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  • omega6theta1omega6theta1 Member Posts: 130 Arc User
    I second..... or more like thousandth this, pet AI definately needs to be fixed, from getting clear of a warp breach to docking back to the carrier the whole thing needs to be overhauled.
  • chastity1337chastity1337 Member Posts: 1,608 Arc User
    Every time the new Jupiter, (frankly, Mila Kunis looked better with that name), is mentioned, I point out that there is NO point in buying a carrier with hangar pets so heavily nerfed.

    That said, the Elite Scorpions I use with my Vesta t5-u consistently show well in CLR with their heavy plasma torps.
  • talonxvtalonxv Member Posts: 4,257 Arc User
    Personally, the AI in this game could take a page out of WG's WoWS fighter AI. Way better.
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