Does the enemy cheat

[r543]

I've recently watched a FTL video of one of the C Ships(wanted to see how other people play it) and noticed that the enemy burst laser 2 hit 3 different rooms in one charge(first shot hit a systemless room, second the clone bay and 3rd a systemless room), this isn't possible and I'd like to know if this is hard difficulty only of if this can happen on any difficulty.

Are there any other enemies that "cheat"(I don't think it's bad but I'd like to know the other things), so far I only know about this:

AI Drones can have 5 Shields in the last few sectors on normal(rare) and hard.

The Rebel Flagship gets different Drones that use less power and probably has a way bigger reactor, which might be the reason why level 3 sensors no longer work ?

[spacecadet13]

The enemy doesn't cheat as such, but there are a few things that work differently to how they work for players - the B Laser II shots 'scattering' is one such example, and I'm pretty sure all multi-shot weapons on an enemy ship scatter their rounds into random rooms on your ship, whereas when you equip and fire them they all go to the single room you target. I think I read that the game designers set it up to work this way because it was just too damn hard for the players to have the AI using these weapons as they do: do you really want every round from that B Laser III hitting the same room on your ship?

5 shield ships and the Flagship's weapons(unlimited missles), drones, power etc aren't cheats exactly, more like stacking the odds in the game's favour, which given how the AI behaves in most cases is necessary; damage/defeats occur because you got unlucky (that breach missile hit your shield room instead of hitting an empty room or missing altogether)not the AI exploiting any advantage it has.

And besides, the Flagship HAS to be OP, it would be a lame ending to the game if it wasn't.

[Artror]

No. They dont cheat. I could write all about why but spacecadet13 explained it perfectly

[r543]

I guess that I didn't pick the right Title for this post. What I wanted to know is what works different for the enemy than the player, and no I don't think that the differences are "bad" or the enemy "cheats".

[Leylite]

I guess that I didn't pick the right Title for this post. What I wanted to know is what works different for the enemy than the player, and no I don't think that the differences are "bad" or the enemy "cheats".

The weapons spread is the main one, but there's a few other differences too - for example, all enemy ships with Mind Control have the Lifeform Scanners augment, so they don't need sensors to be able to see any of your crew.

There's also an asymmetry with how shots still in the air after a surrender work - if the enemy ship surrenders, all of your inbound shots will automatically miss the ship (so you don't accidentally blow up your boarding crew), whereas all of the enemy's inbound shots still have their normal chance of hitting your own ship (so that you don't accept an enemy surrender in the hopes of "causing" their breach missile to miss. That said, you can sometimes proceed to jump out before the missile actually reaches your ship.)

One more thing that I think needs some experimenting on is that I think enemy boarding drone targetting is affected by the difficulty: in Normal and Hard Modes, I've almost always seen enemy boarding drones land in my system rooms, whereas for the player, boarding drones always hit a random room (which could be empty).

[r543]

I guess that I didn't pick the right Title for this post. What I wanted to know is what works different for the enemy than the player, and no I don't think that the differences are "bad" or the enemy "cheats".

The weapons spread is the main one, but there's a few other differences too - for example, all enemy ships with Mind Control have the Lifeform Scanners augment, so they don't need sensors to be able to see any of your crew.

There's also an asymmetry with how shots still in the air after a surrender work - if the enemy ship surrenders, all of your inbound shots will automatically miss the ship (so you don't accidentally blow up your boarding crew), whereas all of the enemy's inbound shots still have their normal chance of hitting your own ship (so that you don't accept an enemy surrender in the hopes of "causing" their breach missile to miss. That said, you can sometimes proceed to jump out before the missile actually reaches your ship.)

One more thing that I think needs some experimenting on is that I think enemy boarding drone targetting is affected by the difficulty: in Normal and Hard Modes, I've almost always seen enemy boarding drones land in my system rooms, whereas for the player, boarding drones always hit a random room (which could be empty).

That's true, they also never have any sensors but still know where you are.(The Rebel Flagship used to have Sensors but they got removed in AE . )
I got attacked by 2 Ion Intruders and 2 or 3 Boarding Drones in my last 2 runs(on easy) and they always hit a system room.
Now if only the player could tell the Ion/Boarding or System/Anti-Personnel Drone where to go/land, they would be so much more useful.