Idea: mining AI reborn, and AI escorts

[TheGamingEnder]

at one point we had mining ai, and I just got an idea about re-adding it to the game. the miner will mine within a 1km radius, the working radius from a base, and to set it up, the base would need a miner controller, which can be set to get missing resources, mine, and return to base and be idle. the miner would need a mining receiver AI so it gets the commands to do so. the miner cannot fire at enemies, and that's where the other idea comes in, the Escort AI. the escort AI can be set using a escort setup, and there can be up to 4 escorts to one controller. the escorts will escort the AI controlled tech, and fight off enemies if they try to attack. Guard/Idle AI will still work with the player controlled tech, and not interfere with the escort.

 

[TheGamingEnder]

also I note: the miner controller itself is not the center point of the miner AI's range, the base it's connected to is the center point. Also, the miner controller only works if it's anchored.

 

[TheGamingEnder]

so, more AI items and an update for the current AI: along with our miner and escort, there can be an crafter AI module, which for me is a thing I would like to see, but won't need as much as escorts and miners. the miners, if built, Will have the sense to stop mining after all the silos are full, and return to base until it's needed again. the Escort AI also will return to base for further orders, and I think should patrol the borders of the base by 200 meters. if low on power, they will have the sense to return or head to the nearest charging station for a recharge, except in the heat of battle. note: the miner AI will actively AVOID enemies, as it's not programmed to fight.

 

[burger1113]

Yeah... And it would be nice to see some kind of AI pathing using hitboxes on both the techs and the terrain/obstacles. I've had a play with modding the pathing in some other games and... Shouldn't be THAT hard eh?

 

[TheGamingEnder]

well, not sure

 

[Wolfking99]

Really like this idea

 

[TheGamingEnder]

it's one I really want in

 

[harpo99999]

but does payload have ANY ai programmers???

 

[Menedude]

I legit wrote a suggestion about this

 

[minimic2002]

but does payload have ANY ai programmers???

Their programmer who was taking the lead on this subject has left the studio, they will need more time to adjust to staffing changes and also to understand the code written by said programmer.

 

[Menedude]

Their programmer who was taking the lead on this subject has left the studio, they will need more time to adjust to staffing changes and also to understand the code written by said programmer.

Ah man... That's actually a huge shame. Hope they find someone to fill in.

 

[TheGamingEnder]

same here

 

[GK vec]

I think new type AI will be in faraway future or never. I hope I'm wrong.

 

[GK vec]

There is an other way to get new AI. Perfecting the official mod support and letting modder to program it.

 

[burger1113]

I think new type AI will be in faraway future or never. I hope I'm wrong.

Yeah maybe what we have with the AI is just what Terratech is. Letting modders fiddle with everything sounds like the plan. That's kinda half of how bethesda and taleworlds got their success, anyways lol perhaps it's a prerequisite for indie games to have intensive mod support. Just look at Fallout 4. A crazy townbuilding mod just got released and a full game sized mod of New Vegas remaster is launching soon. And that game lauched in 2015.

 

[Nooboid]

I think (hope) that Legion will come with an AI overhaul, or at least a rework

 

[Geocorp Jumper]

I think (hope) that Legion will come with an AI overhaul, or at least a rework

It wouldn't shock me if the devs plan on an AI overhaul when they get to working on Legion. I think part of the reason the miner AI was removed was because if the player travelled too far away the AI techs would freeze (out of loading distance), so no mining would happen. If you were hoping to have a self-sufficient base that you could leave while you explored the world, you would be sadly disappointed.

A possible solution to this issue would be pre-loading certain areas based on the amount of recent player activity in the area. Areas with a lot of recent player activity could be kept loaded in for a little while or up to a certain distance.

However, I have very minimal knowledge with video game logic, so I cannot say that this is a viable solution.