Post by StormHunter on May 18, 2016 16:34:26 GMT
Due to a recent update, this guide is out of date with current AI commands which now allow you to directly select the type of missile you want! however this AI guide is still useful for reference. We'll update it later.
The Missile launcher can be a bit confusing to new players. Lets go over some basics about how it works, then review how to get your AI to fire them correctly.
First lets review some info about the missile launcher.
- It uses 3 power.
- You need to build missiles (before a battle) from the launcher's "build" menu in order for it fire anything.
- When your ship is defending, it fires missiles for free! but if you're the attacker, it uses up the ammunition.
- Missiles are not stopped by shields! The only defense vs missiles is for the enemy ship to have engines.
- You get your first missile launcher at ship level 4, and a second one at ship level 5.
- They share ammo! (so launcher 1 can use the missiles launcher 2 built)
So lets review what missiles you can build... pay special attention to their gas cost!
Rocket: Balanced missile, dose about equal system damage and crew damage. NO direct hull damage.. you have to destroy the system first! Then the system damage bleeds into hull damage!
Jungler: Anti-Crew missile, Will do roughly 2x crew damage but NO system and NO hull damage.. shooting this into an empty room or destroyed room will have no effect.
Penetrator: Anti-Ship missile, a bit of system damage and direct hull damage. NO crew damage!.. Shooting this into an enemy room with full life will damage the system a bit, and damage the enemy ships HP directly!.
(Pro Tip: Take over an enemy room with your teleporting crew... then shoot the penetrators into the room your crew are holding.. your boarding team takes no damage and the system AND hull damage hits the enemy ships HP!)
Did you notice the cost of the missiles in the image above are different? they shift around a bit depending on what level each missile is, so check your missile costs before programing your AI in the next section!
While you can build all 3 types of missiles, due to AI limitations you can only program your AI to swap and fire 2 types. (but you can manually fire all 3.. just keep in mind when you manually take control of any ship system you turn off its AI for the rest of the battle!)
There are 2 special AI commands that the missile rooms have to help you control which missile is loaded into the launcher!
Set Cheapest items: It will load the cheapest gas cost missile into the launch tube!
Set Dearest items: It will load the most expensive gas cost missile into the launch tube!
That's it! the rest is all about how you program your AI. Let me give you a basic list of commands..
in the example below my ship will have built Jungler and Penetrator missiles so..
Jungler = Dearest
Penetrator = Cheapest
So lets review that list of commands to see what happens during a battle... The first command i like to use is
Command 1 "None : Increase power by 1" this is to make sure my missile system powers up!
Commands 2-4 "Enemy ship HP <50%" so this is listed above because i want these commands to take over when the condition is met!
(So what i pretty much told the AI to do was.. if the enemy ships health falls under 50% swap to "Penetrator" missiles and fire at the reactors.. if the reactors are all destroyed, then just fire at any random room!)
Commands 5-8 "None" so this is listed at the end because i know the commands 2-4 will be skipped until the enemy ship is 50% life or lower!
(So what i pretty much told the AI to do was.. if the enemy ship isnt under 50% life, Load "Jungler" missiles and fire at the shields.. if the shields are destroyed, fire at the lasers.. if all the lasers are destroyed just fire at any random room! eventually my lasers will have done enough damage to the enemy ship to bring it under 50% life and commands 2-4 will take effect!)
This is mid-level AI commands, i hope it helped you understand how missiles and AI commands work a little bit better! I recommend you edit the AI commands to best fit your style of play! Good luck!
-StormHunter
The Missile launcher can be a bit confusing to new players. Lets go over some basics about how it works, then review how to get your AI to fire them correctly.
First lets review some info about the missile launcher.
- It uses 3 power.
- You need to build missiles (before a battle) from the launcher's "build" menu in order for it fire anything.
- When your ship is defending, it fires missiles for free! but if you're the attacker, it uses up the ammunition.
- Missiles are not stopped by shields! The only defense vs missiles is for the enemy ship to have engines.
- You get your first missile launcher at ship level 4, and a second one at ship level 5.
- They share ammo! (so launcher 1 can use the missiles launcher 2 built)
So lets review what missiles you can build... pay special attention to their gas cost!
Rocket: Balanced missile, dose about equal system damage and crew damage. NO direct hull damage.. you have to destroy the system first! Then the system damage bleeds into hull damage!
Jungler: Anti-Crew missile, Will do roughly 2x crew damage but NO system and NO hull damage.. shooting this into an empty room or destroyed room will have no effect.
Penetrator: Anti-Ship missile, a bit of system damage and direct hull damage. NO crew damage!.. Shooting this into an enemy room with full life will damage the system a bit, and damage the enemy ships HP directly!.
(Pro Tip: Take over an enemy room with your teleporting crew... then shoot the penetrators into the room your crew are holding.. your boarding team takes no damage and the system AND hull damage hits the enemy ships HP!)
Did you notice the cost of the missiles in the image above are different? they shift around a bit depending on what level each missile is, so check your missile costs before programing your AI in the next section!
While you can build all 3 types of missiles, due to AI limitations you can only program your AI to swap and fire 2 types. (but you can manually fire all 3.. just keep in mind when you manually take control of any ship system you turn off its AI for the rest of the battle!)
There are 2 special AI commands that the missile rooms have to help you control which missile is loaded into the launcher!
Set Cheapest items: It will load the cheapest gas cost missile into the launch tube!
Set Dearest items: It will load the most expensive gas cost missile into the launch tube!
That's it! the rest is all about how you program your AI. Let me give you a basic list of commands..
in the example below my ship will have built Jungler and Penetrator missiles so..
Jungler = Dearest
Penetrator = Cheapest
So lets review that list of commands to see what happens during a battle... The first command i like to use is
Command 1 "None : Increase power by 1" this is to make sure my missile system powers up!
Commands 2-4 "Enemy ship HP <50%" so this is listed above because i want these commands to take over when the condition is met!
(So what i pretty much told the AI to do was.. if the enemy ships health falls under 50% swap to "Penetrator" missiles and fire at the reactors.. if the reactors are all destroyed, then just fire at any random room!)
Commands 5-8 "None" so this is listed at the end because i know the commands 2-4 will be skipped until the enemy ship is 50% life or lower!
(So what i pretty much told the AI to do was.. if the enemy ship isnt under 50% life, Load "Jungler" missiles and fire at the shields.. if the shields are destroyed, fire at the lasers.. if all the lasers are destroyed just fire at any random room! eventually my lasers will have done enough damage to the enemy ship to bring it under 50% life and commands 2-4 will take effect!)
This is mid-level AI commands, i hope it helped you understand how missiles and AI commands work a little bit better! I recommend you edit the AI commands to best fit your style of play! Good luck!
-StormHunter