Minor Bug

[zenopath]

THis is pretty minor, but it bugs me a bit.

Ships armed only with Pulson Launchers (the presence of PD doesn't matter) do not know their own range. Autocombat them against fixed targets like planets, they will sit outside of combat range and cause a draw. Hit the little gear icon during manual combat, same story, they will not approach to the point where they can fire. It seems the AI thinks they have more range than they do, and doesn't know what to do when the enemy stubbornly stays at that fake max range by *GASP* not moving closer. If an enemy does come in range, the AI remembers how to shoot, but if it doesn't then the AI sits idle turn after turn letting enemies with longer range continue to shoot at them without fear of retaliation.

[turallybuzzard]

Yep — it’s an AI range-evaluation bug.

Ships with only Pulson Launchers think their weapons have longer range than they actually do, so the combat AI believes it’s already at the right distance. Because of that, it never closes in and just sits there while enemies (or planets) remain outside the real firing range. If something moves close enough, the AI starts shooting, but if not, it stalls and you get a draw.

Workarounds:

- Add any longer-range weapon, even a weak one, so the AI is forced to move properly

- Manually move ships into range when you can

- Avoid pure Pulson-only designs for AI-controlled combat

So yeah — not user error, just the AI misjudging engagement distance.