A block used to incorparate AI into ships and turrets. There is an option menu to enable the AI and what it will target.
Ship or Turret Creation
SHIP
To make a ship, simply place a ship core with some weapons and power, somethrust and possibly some shields if you want and place the AI Module. Press 'r' when facing it to open the interface. Make sure it is set to <Ship> and <Any>. Also make sure 'Active' is checked. It will now seek out and attack any enemy vessels it encounters.
Tips and tricks:
- AI Ships can be used as decoys/swarm and attack drones.
- To do this, you will need a ship which can:
- fly on its own (enough thrusters)
- has adequate shields
- is able to produce enough energy to keep shooting and flying
- has enough lasers to be effective against your target
- has an active faction module
- When you have a ship which can do all of these things, you will now need a mothership:
- Motherships are used to transport drop ships and drones
- They do not need any armor or even cannons - ships with no armor are faster, more agile and more maneuverable. They also drop AI ships easier.
- They need shields, thrusters and adequate ship docks
- They need their own generators
- They need active faction modules
- When you dock an AI ship to your mothership, you will need to activate its faction module and set the AI to target <ANY> and <SHIP> mode. Activate straight away. Do this for every docked ship you have.
-Once you have all the ships set up, you need to enter your mothership and go to Weapons menu. There, you will need to assign numbers from 1 to 9 to your drop ships.
- If you have more than 9 AI ships, you will need to drop them in waves i.e. drop 9, fly away, set numbers for the other ships you have, fly back and drop them off. - When dropping ships, zoom out and make sure they are undocked. If some ships didnt undock, you will need to try and undock them again, untill they let go. Sometiems, server does not register undocking ships forcing you to try again.
- Once undocked, ships may bounce off and fly away but they will stop very quickly and target enemies in range.
- It's important to drop the AI ships very close to the enemies because of their limtied range. Within 500 meters should be fine, closer if the enemy has a large and slow ship and you want to annoy them. :)
- An advantage of dropping many small ships off is that base turrets and ship turrets will target them instead of targeting your faction ships. You can therefore use them both to attack and to act as counter measures or decoys for enemy turrets.
TURRET
To create a turret, you'll need a turret docking port . Place a ship core and put some power and weapons on, shields if you want. Place the AI Module and set it to <Turret> but keep active off for the moment. Now enter the ship and use the Ship Core docking feature (usually on 0) to connect it to the turret docking system. Now that it's docked, you can activate it(you can not set activate on as long as you are in the shipcore go out of the ship/turret and then set it on). Congratulations! You now have a docked turret ready to attack!
If your turret doesn't attack nearby enemys, make sure that your Bobby AI is online. If your Bobby is online, the problem come of the sided of your turret and a lack of thruster. Remember, a turret is just a ship docked on a special block. and to allow a ship to turn effectively, you need enough thrust power. Tips and tricks:
- Turrets do not need thrusters as far as my experience goes. This dramatically increases their usability, because you don't waste space on things you do not need. They will still turn around to face enemy ships and shoot them without any issues.
- Turrets take energy from the ship. They don't need any generators and tanks of their own but that will mean they will drain your ships power quicker.
- Turret energy bar will look depleted - not full capacity. This happens when the turret stores less energy than the ship. This is normal and your turret will work correctly even if the energy bar (on the turret) has become completely empty. When turrets have no more energy, they take it from the ship. - A good guideline to follow when making turrets is to make generators in proportion to the turret<->ship size ratio.
Example:
If your turret is about 10% of the mass of your ship, you only need between 5-10% energy storage on it.
If your turret is around 50% of the mass of your ship, make it store 50% of its own energy. Add more tanks and generators in case you are filling the entire turret with antimatter cannons.
- If you enter the turret ship core, it will disable the AI. You will need to set it up again.
Normally, turrets should be set to target <ANY> and <TURRET> mode. Faction blocks on turrets are important - if you don't have any active faction blocks on the turrets, they may start shooting allied ships.
- Turrets don't need to have a flat underside - it is possible to make a turret which covers up the docking area with a protective skirt. To do this, you need to dock the turret before it's complete and build around the docking area. A turret like this can be placed further away from the ship and stay fully protected from enemy fire.
- Always allow yourself access to the Ship Core, BOBBY AI and Faction Modules. You may need to reset the turrets from time to time and having easy access helps a lot.
- When you dock a turret, always check if it's activated. Remember that AI deactivates if you enter the turret core!
But they stay active if you are in your ship core, allowing you to fly a ship while the turrets target and destroy any enemies in range automatically.
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