Custom faction's ships aren't moving to engage.

[DaveAshton]

I've added a few custom factions into GC (they're there to occupy the "empty" planets, in the same way as Pirate fleets. I'm using a kind of loyalist-Republic that branched away from the Empire after Order 66, CIS remnants and a couple of others), and they work as well as I want them to except for one thing: They just sit around during the space battles, and won't move to attack / flank my attacking fleet. They don't even circle their own space station, they stay completely still. They shoot back if I get close to them, spawn fighters etc... but that's it.

I tried giving them a full AI suite (the Rebel one... BasicRebel I think it's called?) but then they just started rampaging 'round the GC map and taking planets from each other (which is good, but not what I'm looking for at the moment).

What do I need to change so they'll defend properly (such as how the Rebels will send Corelllian Corvettes and the like to kill your bombers before they get close to the space station)? It's far too easy just picking off hostile capital ships one at a time and staying away from the rest of the defending fleet.

[evilbobthebob]

Very simple. Use the BasicRebelNoGalacticAI set 

[DaveAshton]

Very simple. Use the BasicRebelNoGalacticAI set 

Not sure that'd solve the problem. It'll stop them taking each other's planets (I assume that's what the No Galactic bit's for... not doing stuff on a galactic scale) but not make them more inclined to engage ship-to-ship instead of sitting around and watching their fleet slowly get blasted to bits.

I'm now tinkering in the OffensiveSpaceEquations.XML, adding the custom space stations to it as parameters to see if that makes a difference...

[evilbobthebob]

Just because they have no galactic level AI doesn't mean they won't engage at a tactical level...in fact, that's precisely what that AI set is for, it includes Rebel space tactical AI. You'd probably have to make a duplicate of all the files referenced in it, rename them, and reference all the ships your custom factions use; but it should work. The odd thing is that in vanilla EaW, pirates don't actually have an AI set assigned (they just get 'none'). That suggests that the AI is just not using your units. You should probably check the SpaceMode AI LUA files out, see if you need to add your units (or possibly factions) to the files.

Adding your custom space stations to the perceptual equations will certainly help, too.

[DaveAshton]

You'd probably have to make a duplicate of all the files referenced in it, rename them, and reference all the ships your custom factions use; but it should work.

Stupid question, but where's the file located I'd need to copy and edit? I've looked in Data\Scripts\AI and the PerceptualEquations folder, and not found anything I've not already either edited (the InfoGalEq* and OffSpEq* files) or ruled out (OffLandEq*).

*Names abbreviated.

 You should probably check the SpaceMode AI LUA files out, see if you need to add your units (or possibly factions) to the files.

The only file I've got in SpaceMode (assuming you mean the Data\Scripts\AI one) is something called TacticalMultiplayerBuildSpaceUnitsGeneric. which as far as I can tell just says what the AI can and can't build in Skirmish scraps.

[evilbobthebob]

I had a look at all the LUAs that I suspected were relevant, and none of them really reference specific units or factions. You should be able to just use the BasicRebelNoGalacticAI set without problems, the only thing you need to do is add the custom faction's starbases to OffensiveSpaceEquations.xml.

[DaveAshton]

Just a quick message to say it's all working now

Thanks for the help, Bob.