Did some testing on a 100% clean vanilla X3AP install. Only has CODEA (and its library file) and cheat package running on it. It seems the "sitting at max range and firing at a reduced ROF" is the default behavior for CODEA fighters (doesn't matter the pilot's rank).
Here you can see 10x Thor(with EMPC) stops at max weapon range and firing at 6x enemy barracuda(4 of Thor moved because their shot connected and the spawned enemy fighter started to move, if they don't move, the CODEA fighters won't move):
https://i.imgur.com/ji7PaXD.png
And here you can see that because they are sitting at the maximum range, 50% of the shot won't even hit before it disappeared on a stopped target:
https://i.imgur.com/crq2KeF.png
I'm still trying to find the part of code/script in CODEA that handles the fighter behavior so I can at least migrate this (up their ROF, lower their stop distance, etc.). Really hate this kind of "tactics". I almost lose fighter left and right because the one that stopped would just get destroyed by other enemy.
edit: some discovery, In plugin.codea.ship.order.wing script, there's a pointer to another script called "plugin.codea.signal.fighter.attacked" when attacking a target. However, the script been called is missing from both CODEA and the required library file and is totally absent from my game script folder. I'm not sure whether this missing script might has something to do with the weird fighter behavior on attack run?
edit2: another interesting discover about CODEA. I found out that the reason my fighters are firing at a slow ROF even when the weapon is 400 rounds/mins, is that the weapon in the fighter is a custom laser that I made. And when I made that laser, I copied the EMPC tbullet data and made a new entry in Tbullet for the custom laser(let's call this EMPC_2). And somehow, even when the custom laser has a new 400 rounds/mins firing rate (in Tlaser), CODEA still firing the weapon at the default EMPC's firing rate which is 90 rounds/min. Completely disregard the ROF data in the EMPC_2. And when I use the IRE tbullet data as a base for the EMPC_2, now CODEA fighter firing at 400 rounds/min. This is some... interesting behavior with how CODEA pulls weapon data.