Launch & Return To Hanger AI Fighters - How To - Space Engineers 

i have to say, not only the video theme is very interesting but the angles and cinematics are great

I stopped playing space engineers years ago because it always lacked THIS (among other things). The ability to actually have fleets of ships/drones controlled by AI. While there are still changes to the core gameplay that I believe are needed for me to truly dive back into SE, I do love thinking about making flagships with AI frigates protecting them and launching small ship drones to fight enemies. Cinematic ship battles are finally conceivable without 10+ players or complicated scripting.

Aaron: 'Don't use subgrids with AI' Custom Turret Controller: *cries in subgrid*

I'm impressed that they handled the narrow entrance reasonably well, I expected them to have a lot less precision.

Now I not only want to build a whole homeworld armada in space engineers but also want to play homeworld 3 by this point

thanks for the tutorials! this new update has been great

Its hard to believe that this is the vanilla game now. This video represents the culmination of a well developed game and a well developed youtuber! Congrats on the brilliant content a well explained build process. These blocks as wonderful as they are at bypassing the need for scripting are still going to create something of a wall to new players and any video that helps to explain and simplify annd showcase the potential is going to be very important in continuing the success of the game.

I think it's probably better to set up a rendezvous GPS point if you want to conserve your fighters. That way, you won't have your fighters leading enemies back to your ship, and they won't be trying to dock to your ship while it's in motion.

So many RU-vidrs get popular through extreme luck and a few viral videos launching themselves further upwards algorithmically, but as somebody who has been subscribed for more than 6 years, I have watched you work tirelessly making content and experimenting with different styles gradually and organically, while still staying true to your sandbox/space engineers related content. You are an example of the truly hardworking and quality members of the youtube community that we all so dearly miss nowadays. Hats off to you, laststandgamers.

Strong Homeworld vibes and I’m totally here for it. Thanks for putting this video together. Very excited to try it out

I take back what I said about auto-docking scripts in a previous video, the recorders are a lot easier than I expected (I suck at flying, thus my aversion toward them initially.)

i love how this video is done using Hiigaran ships

This update is exactly what I needed to jump back into space engineers! thanks for the How-To!

ik this is 4 months old but ive just built this and its seriously the coolest thing ive ever seen in SE

I was about to abandon an old drone boat, but I decided to hang on until somebody figured this mess out. Thank you!

I really wanna make a 2 Story hangar flythrough carrier with 40 drones ready to spam my enemy to death 20 drones in each hangar and everything optimized for quick repairs and restocking

I love the little derpy starfighters, they do be trying thier best😂

I know this comment probably won't be seen, but just a tip for people following this guide: Make sure you place the recorder, and movement blocks directly above or next to the connector that will connect to a base or ship. Otherwise your waypoints will be off by quite a bit on direct landings.

nice gunboat design, looks like Homeworld style.

I think you should make the fighters a bit smaller so you can fit more fighters into your carrier. Also you should try to do a setup with a catapult/launch tube system like in Battlestar Galactica. 😅

Honestly great to see this fairly complex stuff be so straight forward to do these days! thanks for a interesting video

Just a heads up, event controllers on the drone that are searching for events on the carrier (EG a door being opened) will still work regardless of if they are docked or not. Use this to have a manual RTB switch rather than a timer if needed :D

Very handy to know, will have to try it out. Love the homeworld fighters

I’ve always loved making carriers but I have no friends to fly the fighters or bombers with so this is a great help for me thank you

0:54 oh... I made a weird missile then, it was a large grid drill attached to a small grid missile base Super effective The drill went straight through the hulls in some cases

lovin the homeworld 3 ship designs

my friend did this in a server and used his AIs to annoy some players in their base and it was amazing to see how the Ai docked back up after swarming like bees

Now to make it even more complicated! Thinking a fully pressurized hangar with airlock hangar doors. Fighter is stored in the main hangar deck. Fighter is moved to hangar airlock. Internal door closed, external opens, fighter launch.

This helps so much

I am loving the Homeworld themed ships

Absolutely mind blowing

I been seeing people using this to make Borg ships

I like those fighter designs nice and sleek

Great work on debug and showing how it works. I bet it a lot of testing which work or not.

Im gonna need this whole ship with drones i love the design

the dammaged fighter played its role quite well ngl haha

I see the epic battle of Red vs Blue, some Ai drones have the fight of their life, whereas others are trying to find a way to the war :D

What would be really cool is if you can have some AI drones that follow a remote control master drone in formation, and if you lose the master drone, they just go normal hit & run mode

You did it🎉😮🎉 you amazing mad man carrier commander is a go

Enclosed bays are for aesthetic purpose only. It would be more efficient to let the fighters attach to the external hull. You could protect them, from direct fire with an hammerhead shaped carrier.

ima going to have a star destroyer filled with ties now

I emotionally identify with the fourth drone at 4:12 🤣🤣🤣

I'd like to see if there's a way to have the Event controller make automated 3D Printers

I happened to think what's going on with space engineers and behold it happened to be update day and I said ah shit this looks great and I've hooked on playing space engineers again.

I'm reminded of the Symbiote Ship, now those interceptors can be sent out!

The DRF hive will rise again? Also Orby 2 when? Good job on the tutorial, nice to see it all put together like this.

13:44 these are the parts where the AI gets some personality, :D made me laugh, the bump

I havent played with the new update yet, bit im wondering if you could use the event controller (on a deployed drone) to detect another beacon on the ship that would recall the drone.

Does anyone remember that "virus torpedo" from YEARS ago in this game? I can't seem to find anything on it anymore. It took over the ship it pierced into. Like messed with engines, velocity, direction, life support.

Very good 👍 😊

i have an AMAZING idea, a mine layer! if you could print off AI blocks with a config that would be amazing.

I’ve been testing (before AI) with launch and recovery while carrier is in motion. Have you tested to see if AI will launch and recover on a moving carrier?

when setting up the take off and landing recorder sets, why not record both sets of points while taking off and then use the "reverse order" button on the landing block to put those waypoints in the correct direction?

Maybe you should build a projector in the fighter which contains its own blueprint. It will be easier to repair the fighters if they are damaged.

Can you save this to a blue print so you can use this with a projector and some welders, if so, making a few disposeble drones to send out and self destruct when they run out of fule and ammo would be awesome.

Can you please do a long range drone bomber? Especially in gravity

I wonder how viable small, one use disposable drone fighters would be. Like prioritize numbers over individual strength, and just disgorge a flood of stinging flies to harass and overwhelm the enemy while better armed, player controlled ships focus on damage? *Imperial march plays*

I think the internal hangar walls need some tires just for those occasional bumps.

Can you show an example of an automatic launch of missiles from a ship when enemies are detected , automaton

Hey Aaron i have to ask: did you setup the take off & landing sequence before or after pasting the ship into the world? I have a issue when i record the landing in my SP world. and then when i go to multiplayer (creative) then my recorded landing doent work 😮

I got this working in space (thanks) but found that in atmosphere, the ships turn around for the return trip. Because I don’t have the connector toward the back, the ship crashed into a wall trying to pull far enough forward. Perhaps this is an argument for rear connectors only in atmosphere?

Would this work with a ship that’s moving? Both with just flying a single direction and active movement. Because I know that if you are using your jet pack and “lock on” to a ship, your character keeps it’s distance as the ship turns. So it would be cool if the AI did the same.

Since it is possible to build automated mines, would it be possible to build a mine that gives resources to an automated drone factory?

if i was to blueprint this after setting up all the actions and then print it would it still work or would i have to set it all up again.

the fighters smashed to enemy grid because they switched to landing movement AI and had avoid collisions off

I'm really new to the game. Very neat design. Making me want to attempt building Drones of my own. Question. What exactly is a "Sub-Grid"? is it like a Custom Turret?

does the carrier need to stay in place or can you have this work while ur flying the carrier around ?

You probably want to avoid interior hangars. Or at least ones that are too small. The AI is barely able to land while the carrier is stationary. Unlikely it will manage in the middle of combat. If you are using a top deck, how about mounting them on a piston? - starting order makes the piston expand - when the piston is fully expanded, the mothership connector is released. Then the piston retracts. - when the fighter connector is released, the fighter AI turns on. Now having a piston of separation to the mothership - add 1 beacon to each piston/connector, so the fighters can find their way back to their landing spot

How did you get the ship to aim facing away from the mother ship and back in? When I try to do have my ship land a certain way it will not do this

Ok so I need to make a carrier. That is my SE goal

Not really practical if you have lots of small drones. is there a way to mass print drones that automatically fly from the printing station to their connector without needing a different blueprint for each individual drone and manually recorindg the path for every droine aswell?

So when the fighters return to there bays there can me an ai automated repair for any damages

How do you create the launch sequence to get them to leave in the first place?

How do you get them to land back on the carrier after you moved it?

u need one more waypoint right before the dock to prevent it get damaged I suppose

What are some tips to stop fighters from obliterating friendlies? Ive followed this tutorial, but have had to repair SO much damage from friendly fire. Is having multiple ammo types really causing that many issues?

Is it possible to have the recorder not kill off the craft's speed before reaching the final waypoint in the takeoff sequence

how does ur drone facing backwards on landing? my drone is facing always forward on landing

what will they do if no target is acquired?

I can't find how you made the points show as numbers because im on Xbox and can't make stuff work like you, like the ship just rotates to go back to the point and not go backwards

When i attempt this with a stic grid the ai will not back into the space. They will try to fly forward into it. I'm unsure if this is because its a static grid or not.

I think i need some help with this problem: I want to create a group of territory defense drones that automatically detects enemies, disconnects from their connectors, go attack, and when the threat is eliminated they turn back automatically So if i have them on the connector in defense mode and they detect an enemy they will activate the takeoff sequence, switch to combat and engage, eliminate the threat and then turn back to base and automatically reconnect But when the offensive takes over for the defensive, there is no way to have it turn itself back? The defensive block has "setup actions for when enemy is detected and for when enemy is no longer detected" But the offensive just turns itself off and gives way to the task block, with no "setup actions" function Any tips to work around this? or am i forced to have it on buttons or a timer block that automatically recalls the drone after a set amount of time? please let me know

how do you get it to back up like that? Mine won't turn around and back up, it just goes straight forward and crashes into the hangar

I have yet to get the new AI blocks to work for drones at all so far, every drone I've made when I start the landing recorder to test it, it will move towards waypoint zero and immediately get stuck at waypoint zero, looks like it is just hovering there but checking the block it is glitching between moving to index 0 and moving to index 1 like it just can't figure out how to move on to the next point, even if I just do a straight line it gets stuck at waypoint 0 every time.

Does all the setup get saved into bps so that if one is "printed" on the carrier it can just be instantly launched or does this require resetting up?

I have a hard time with the dock procedure. Any tips ?

Ah the Hiigaaran interceptors

You don't need to recover your fighters if your target is armed as they all would have been smoked as drones are easily dispatched by turrets when they fly straight at the target on approach to attack. The only viable AI grids are the smallest missiles possible (3x3 small block frontal area) on the intercept pattern and they are only good at stationary or lightly maneuvering or very big targets as their target prediction needs work. However, if you fire more than one, typically the first one gets smoked but the others get through as long as they don't out run or out maneuver them.

How did you get them to BACK in? My ships keeps going nose first!

I have a request i’ve always wanted to try and maybe you can try too! TL:DR, UNSC infinity! Long form! I wanna see a supercarrier carrying large grid destroyers or corvettes as well as a complement of different fighters with guns, rockets, each specialization, i wanna see a synchronized launch where each large grid ship, and small ship deploys after a short delay after each one. I love your vids and since automatons i’ve wondered a carrier carrying large grid and small grid fighters and destroyers!

So is it possible to make missile frigates now

Hmm maybe I'll give the game another shot. I was always frustrated how limited in functionality you were. This however changes things a bit

So it is now technically possible to build auto repair/build new ones drone assault carrier

Imagine if in space engineers game are using AI build units of both land, sky, and space, in warfare, such as space carriers are using AI operated fighters, bombers, and assault units, without a player or pilot to be with you in the carrier.

can your carrier be moving while the ships are disembarking and subsequently returning or does that mess with the AI too much?

Imagine launching a good 50 fighters like this. And blowing up your pc in the progress.

I would love to do this but my ship keeps turning around to dock. It doesn't back up like this shows. I found out it is because of the align with p-gravity option was on. Turning it off seemed to be the fix.

Carrier has arrive! I'm in the right studio?

Anyone have problems with collision avoidance? there is a chance that the drone justs rams your carrier if it's approaching from the other side of the hangar door. drones seem to just stop moving when collision avoidance is on

nice video, but you might want to correct your title, as shirts might find their place on a hanger, ships are more likely to fit on a hangar.