Are there any good workarounds to the bad railjack crew ai?

[StanksMcGee]

I'm finally enjoying railjack, but I keep having to teleport back to my ship to deal with problems with my crew. The first is boarders which for some reason my defender and engineer cannot kill whatsoever (and Cy never tells me when we've been boarded when I'm off ship, nor when they plant a bomb), but maybe I'll get a dedicated lich some time instead.

The real issue is that the pilot often fails to make it to crewship objectives while I'm 'away'. I spectate the pilot if it's been a minute and it's not uncommon for them to be doing nothing. The moment I teleport back to the railjack, they immediately go complete the objective.
So I know the crew ai is terrible, but is there a way to force an update on the railjack? Like trick the ai into thinking I've come back on board so they do their jobs? Or anything that might make it less tedious.

It'd at least be interesting to know why they stop flying. Makes me think of unrendered minecraft chunks, which is kind of why I wondered if I could force update them.


EDIT: My typical crew is 2 gunners and an engineer, I just switch a gunner to pilot when I'm doing away-crew objectives

Edited August 6, 2023 by StanksMcGee

[PollexMessier]

The Pilot is little more intelligent than a roomba and I find them more detrimental than helpful as they seem to like to pilot the ship away from outside objectives and are just generally less competent than players that have never even played railjack before. I find it more convenient to put my ship where I want it and it still be there when I come back.

Gunners are genuinely broken, especially with the right turrets, and with two of them it's extremely rare for ramsleds to ever even reach your ship. Forgot what guns I'm using rn and it's too late at night to check but I'll let you know tomorrow if I can remember to. Bonus you only need to spec them into Gunnery so they're an easy crew to recruit. Tho I have one of my gunners also specd into piloting and Endurance just in case I really wanna put them in the cockpit in an emergency... Tho I have never done this. They wipe out fighters so fast it's not a big issue having your ship stationary when doing away objectives. If you're worried about it tho you can use the Void Cloak tactical mod to buy some time.

The Engineer doubles as a Defender so you don't really need a dedicated Defender... (And this is why everybody hates litch and sister crew mates cus they can ONLY be Defender). Tho it's hard to find a crew mate with a good stat distribution (and bonus effect if you have elite unlocked) To max the Repair, Combat, and Endurance stats on a single one. I think my engineer is a point or two under max on Endurance but still holds their own against boarders really well. I've only seen them die maybe 2 or 3 times, probably because they were too busy on repairs to defend themself. I've given them a Kuva Ogris with the napalm augment for their weapon and it's pretty ridiculous just how effective it is. The engineer should also be in your first crew slot cus that's the last slot to go when your crew are replaced by other players.

Edited August 6, 2023 by PollexMessier

[(PSN)Nierou]

They stop flying when near those asteroid cannons, the AI can't seem to deal with it. They will also essentially just drag the ship along the wall trying to get to the reactors on the other side.

The only "fix" is to set them to pilot when far away from the objective and then slingshot yourself forward, this doesn't work all the time especially if the 1st reactor is on the far side.

The real answer to soloing is to just bring the fluctus, you can just sprint to the exit and shoot from the door i use this method since I only run hildryn or lavos.

There is a technique that uses protea's 4th, the first way is to cast it when you enter and the other is to cast it, teleport to a crew mate in operator but you will need to have a certain intrinsic level

 

Credit to the guy or gal on reddit for discovering the operator method: Reddit link

[The_Royal_Elf_Mika]

i found its better to just never use a pilot an instead do 2 gunners and a engineer, though even with 2 engineers they can and will die to boarding parties.

idk if this was changed, but crew can run out of ammo (atleast they could when i did railjack a few months ago).

 

gunners can shoot down boarding parties though, which can help.

[taiiat]

i find the AI Crew to be fine enough. i don't like that Pilots will just randomly meander around, so i opt to not have a Pilot so my Ship stays where i put it (which will be more optimal).

but they do good as Gunners, and Engineers keep the Ship from blowing up.
seems like they're doing their job to me, idunno.

 

as a qualifier i suppose, i do have my roaming Crew (so not the Gunners, since they never get out of the Gun unless you yank them out) setup with the capability to self sustain. Weapons that are good at spreading Status, AoE, self Healing, or a mixture of those. that way they definitely will never die, since they can just self Heal over the Enemies just by shooting at them and eventually they'll die no matter what they are, if they theoretically were very high Level and so the full Mod Loadouts wouldn't just Kill Enemies in a Second or two.

[Symbiont]

My crew is top notch, it took a while to farm the right Lich for the crew.
I have two elite crew members and one Lich, Only one dedicated gunner, and the other is my engineer and acting pilot.
With my current setup, my crew never dies from boarding troops, ever. My engineer and my Lich has no problem clearing troops, even with two shuttles boarding. I'll spill the beans to what weapon my level 5 Lich is using, which is a Kuva Hek at 55% damage percentage. You still need to figure out the right type of damage resistance it needs and which damage element the weapon should be. XD

There is a trick to make your crew more responsive to do the objective as a pilot.

1. Never let your crew fly the ship without an objective to shoot at.
2. Only let them pilot the ship when an objective needs to be shot down. (or in quick succession)
3. Park your ship 3000m away from the objective.

Oh, and don't waste spending points into piloting your elite crew.

And if this tip was of any help for you, like my post.

Solo Void Storm with crew against 2 shuttles boarding troops:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MTlatsBUZdYLduHJ06N63CaBNyPzaten/view

Solo Void Storm with crew clearing objective:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NeCedPmeYInQt_JzTk8WuvpS9FL09C5b/view

Objective has to be between 2500 and 3000m and yes, sometimes the NPC is finicky.

DE no nerf.

Edited August 7, 2023 by Symbiont

[(XBOX)Player244024418]

I think i have one engineer, one gunner and one defender. I have a few liches but don't use them.

Their "skills" are something like:

Engineering and combat

Gunnery and pilot

Combat and engineering

Ill swap my gunner to pilot sometimes. Why? When Im doing an objective and want the ship to continue shooting fighters which usually takes the most time. I usually go straight for the mothership at max speed to activate the objectives and bail. After each objective step i will teleport back to the RJ to check for boarders (like when you have to leave to shoot a red gun outside). It's faster to teleport instantly, check the ship map, leave again and fly/shoot the red turret then reenter the objective for next one.

Ive never lost a RJ but i have lost a crew member here and there. 

[(PSN)slightconfuzzled]

For whatever reason, I seem to have lucked in, in that I have two Gunners and one Engineer. One of my Gunners also has Pilot stats, and I use her as a backup Pilot for when I am inside objectives. 9 times out of 10, she will target and destroy the outside objectives when I am inside. Its not that I don't believe anyone else whose account or experiences aren't the same... In fact, given Warframe and its AI, and how often I see this mentioned, I definitely do believe everyone else, and I can't really explain why my AI Crew Mate seems to be more competent. I also do occasionally experience them not shooting the external objective. Usually I will just use my Omni Tool to teleport back to Railjack, and then sometimes they will then try to target the objective, but sometimes I either have to assign them to gunner and then back to pilot for that to work, and or I just destroy the objective myself. 

I don't have any theories as to explain such behaviour. A few guesses, sometimes they seem to freeze if we have on board attackers, maybe it presents a conflict in their AI as to what to do? Maybe its distance based issue, not really sure. 

Aside from that though, another small tip I like to use, is to throw down a Spectre in the general area where my Engineer runs through. A Wisp and an Ancient Healer. Mostly for longer Railjack runs. Get them to stay in place, they will buff your Engineer as well as attack and distract enemy attackers. The buffs should keep your Engineer safe, and prevent them from doing too much damage to your ship etc Also remember that even though there is auto forging going on, manually forging can give you some nice bonuses, so in longer missions, that can nice. Increase your maximum Dome Charges for example, increase your Hull HP, so on. 

[RLanzinger]

To @StanksMcGee,

There separate problems and solutions.

1. Pilot issue : If you destroy all Ships and Crewship First, Pilot won't target objectives most of times. So you can do objectives first and ships last...
2. No Engineer issue : If you ship is not top level (like Zetki MKIII), most missiles will shoot it down fast. So Having an engineer is the best choice to do repair with tactical menu when you are far away because it prevent electrical problem that shutdown the menu.
3. No Defender issue : If you are without defender, just spawn specters inside the railjack on guard mode (One Suda shield Drone, a Tenno specter **, a Clem) and when you have boarders, use Intruder Stasis to buy time and switch Gunner+pilot to Defenders. They will clean the ship fast and heal the engineer...

My Elite crewmate are (Pilot/Gunner+ Gunner/Defender + Engineer/Defender) so

1. When I Pilot, they are : (Pilot/Gunner + Gunner/Defender + Engineer/Defender)
2. When I go away, they are : (Pilot/Gunner + Gunner/Defender + Engineer/Defender)
3. When RJ is boarded, they are switched to : (Pilot/Gunner + Gunner/Defender + Engineer/Defender) ... this way the weak pilot is protected inside the gunner post.

 

PS : The reasons why the crew go fly away is because without objective or enemies, they have nowhere to go...

• If When you are present aboard, they go to your active objective.
• If When you are in Archwing, they just follow you... sometimes.
• If When you are not present aboard, they don't know where you are (so they go in circle). Crewmate-roomba : where is our captain ? 🤔

Edited August 7, 2023 by RLanzinger
mispell :p

[BloodForCavalero]

On 2023-08-06 at 4:03 AM, StanksMcGee said:

I'm finally enjoying railjack, but I keep having to teleport back to my ship to deal with problems with my crew. The first is boarders which for some reason my defender and engineer cannot kill whatsoever (and Cy never tells me when we've been boarded when I'm off ship, nor when they plant a bomb), but maybe I'll get a dedicated lich some time instead.

The real issue is that the pilot often fails to make it to crewship objectives while I'm 'away'. I spectate the pilot if it's been a minute and it's not uncommon for them to be doing nothing. The moment I teleport back to the railjack, they immediately go complete the objective.
So I know the crew ai is terrible, but is there a way to force an update on the railjack? Like trick the ai into thinking I've come back on board so they do their jobs? Or anything that might make it less tedious.

It'd at least be interesting to know why they stop flying. Makes me think of unrendered minecraft chunks, which is kind of why I wondered if I could force update them.


EDIT: My typical crew is 2 gunners and an engineer, I just switch a gunner to pilot when I'm doing away-crew objectives

For the crew, you'll need a 5 in the stat they'll specialize in. Only the engineer or defender will defend the ship, so you'll need at least a 4 in combat and endurance. Elite crew will have a bonus, either general or House-based.

My ( elite ) crew


I won the lottery with my engineer, so I'll be using him for my examples.

Repair stat at 5 - 



With the points you're allowed, I was able to give him a combat and endurance stat of 5 -




Since he's elite, he came with a shield trait -



He's armed with my Ignis Wraith, which is built to take on mobs in most mission types. He's perfect for the "on call" role.


My Gunner has the Lavan turret bonus -


My Pilot has the Lavan engine bonus -



They're not perfect, since they're easily distracted by fighters/crewships/turrets/etc. You're better off completing the "to kill" objectives, before going for the main event.

You also have a 50/50 chance they'll shoot the targets in away missions, so you may have to pop in and out to complete those.


As for the defender and Lich, I would stay away from those. I believe they take away from an import crew member, and the Lich's damage is nil.

 

[Mieo_Mio]

Never use an AI pilot. They cause Far more problems than they solve. Not to mention they frequently screw up your capital ship big gun aimed shots.

My crew is elite, and the gunners are highly effective. I dare say better than most players.

"Intruder Stasis" is a highly desirable mod and very effective. It makes your defenders very likely to resolve the boarding parties. On their own.

I don't know where your intrinsics are but you might want to work them equally. A lot of players bemoan piloting, but I've found it useful. In increasing piloting  skill you move much faster / maneuverable. This is were AI gunners really start to show their teeth. (Better than players) the AI can cope with rapid movement. And even erratic flying really does not affect them much. 

Found it funny another user mentioned the Ogris... I have the same thing assigned as well, with napalm.

 

 

 

[Symbiont]

Elite crews can't soak much damage from boarding enemies, so consider a level 5 Lich.

How strong are Liches? Demonstrating my level 5 Lich vs 20 * level 190 Corrupted Bombard Eximus.
I'll set the bar with my level 5 lich vs 20 * level 190 Corrupted Bombard Eximus.
She killed 13 of them before getting killed.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1u5lUWzBP24Os49hDRw-ssLh0USZY1dhG/view