AI scripting

I don't believe so, but I'd wait to hear from someone from Ironclad to be sure.

Well, the upcoming features we've been promised would help reduce the need to babysit, if used (I'm thinking specifically of the "fleets" feature here -- combine that with attack range orders and poof! It should work very nicely if you use it).

That was what I was thinking Ron. I figured you would know for sure already however.

I'm not sure what you mean by scripting but there won't be any python type scripting of AI from outside the game. Nonetheless Sins offers a lot of options to help prevent ship babysitting (probably more than any game I've ever played)

Here is some of the stuff you can already do:

-set infinite movement and attack orders.

-set autocast for all abilities

-set auto upgrade capitalships

-set capitalship auto build strike craft ratios

-set auto attack on / off

-tell units to follow / guard other units

-put ships into fleets which behave as units (this one is HUGE and encompasses a large number of smaller special AI stuff which I'm too tired to type right now. See my most recent dev blog for some of the details)

-have ships auto join fleets

-have ships auto return to fleets after being given user orders

-set fixed and dynamic rally points

-set ships ungrouped / grouped jump status

-set ships auto attack ranges

-auto planet defense

-auto target prioritization (based on various factors including weapon type, armor, position, focus fire etc)

-auto over kill prevention (don't continue to fire at a ship if its would be more than enough to kill the ship)

-auto planet bombing

-auto position return

-special retreat button

-and more... etc etc etc

W00t! I spy a "special retreat button" I hope it is the concept we were pushing for in the other thread.

You should read the devs Blog
Blair mentioned it there some while ago

I was and it was in that thread I commented about a need for a retreat option.

Thanks for all of the feedback.

I've been following this game for a while now and I really like what I see. I haven't pre-ordered yet, but I will purchase this game in the near future after it comes out.

Hopefully it will play like the books that I have read from the following authors.
David Weber, Steve White (Starfire series)
Jack Campbell (The lost Fleet series)

If so, I will definately be recommending this game to people.

I haven't jones'd like this for a game in a long time.

Alas, not really. There are some similarities, but we lack:

"jumping missile pods" -- can't remember the name
Blind Spots -- capitals are the only ships with rearward weapons, and even they usually aren't very well defended to the rear, but actual blind spots don't exist.
Stealth -- no go, I'm afraid.
Jump Points -- While we have phase lines, ships can jump in or out inside of a large area to either side of the "central" jump point, which leads to
No mines -- the fixed defenses aren't set up anything like the starfire series.

But hey, its a really good game -- and if you want to play starfire, you can either track down that game yourself, or wait for someone to figure out how to mod it into existance (some Space Empires people have been working on it on and off, don't know if they ever did it).