The ridiculous case of the unfathamble AI

[RockApe]

Right ho, so, it has come to the attention of this salty sea dog, that the AI is a bit .....How shall I say.......Dense, or maybe insensible, now I do not know if this applies to ai bigger than a Brig or snow, as I have not yet had the pleasure of engaging anything larger than this yet, but I hjave had countless firefights with Cutters, Brigs, Snows and Lynx. and they all act in a most peculiar fashion, firstly, any honest trader worth his salt, and not wishing to incur the wrath of Lloyds of London, or his supplier of cargo, would seek to flee post haste from any engagement, especially as traders Lynx and cutters are not armed at all, and must rely upon speed to avoid being boarded or sunk, so, my question is this, why in the name of all the unholy sea monsters , would they sail either straight at you, or not bear off in an effective manner ? Secondly, why on earth do they immediately set a course for the nearest beach, then on reaching said beach, either sit there like a complete lemon, whilst you pound them to death with your mighty 6 pounder, or, the sail in ever decreasing circles, eventually dying in a most horrible and painful manner, courtesy of the afore mentioned mighty hammers of hell the 6 pounder !! Today, I followed a Cutter, and due to my own silly mistake, I ended up on the beach, stuck fast, which is good, as I beached myself, my bad, no complaints there, however, the cutter I was chasing, proceeded to sit on my stern, sailing in the ever decreasing circle that I mentioned beforehand, this make  very little sense to me at all, surely the Captain of said vessel would laugh mockingly at me, thumb his nose, and sling his hook off into the sunset, never to return....but no....this never happens. It is also frustrating, because when this happens with an opponent who has guns, it is difficult to avoid incoming fire from him once he has ensconced himself at the shore line, as you can no longer manoeuvre in a respectable manner , and basically all you can do is either come to a dead stop, and stonk him, or sail at dead slow, in your own circle of stupidity, trading shots with him.......So, it is really quite important for the Dev team to sort the AI out, because they are stupid, you would think also that a higher ranked captain of an AI vessel would have a bit more experience and be harder to kill or capture....But NO....he is just as thick as a fresh out of Portsmouth Snotty..........Please, please, please sort the AI out, maybe not so important on the PVP servers, but certainly on the PVE it is !!!

[Fluffy Fishy]

Traders are set to take the fastest course away from the fight, usually that means taking a bit of gunfire, they don't seem to quite cope with the coast yet. The dev team have done wonders for the AI, believe me it used to be a lot lot worse, but its still something that needs a bit more work. Remember this is alpha and the team are working hard. The game still has a long way to go, but its mostly going in what the majority of players would describe as the right direction.

[RockApe]

yes I have found that as I have now gone up a peg into a snow, they don't seem to do it often, or at least not as often, it just makes me giggle when they do head for shore and circle......the post wasn't really meant as a whine, more tongue in cheek really