Great advice, thank you
I like the Taipans anyway and the one with AX MCs also seems to be viable for both AX & non-AX combat 
Will Fighter Crew competence ever be restored?
- Thread starter Scoob
- Start date
Great advice, thank you
I like the Taipans anyway and the one with AX MCs also seems to be viable for both AX & non-AX combat 
I wasn't aware that some suspected older crew had the issue, but newer recruits did not. However, even if that guaranteed me someone who could actually fly and shoot again, I'm not training up another crew member.
As it's been what, a couple of years at this point that our Crew have been useless flying any of the SLFs, well, it's evidently far from a priority to fix, or it's deliberate as I speculated.
It used to be such fun letting her loose in an SLF, she was so good at using it. A crack shot with fixed weapons, be they insta-hit beams, or the likes of Multi-Cannons and Plasma. She was also super hard to hit. So good. She never got good vs. Thargoids. She'd shoot at the enemy, perhaps land the odd hit, but she'd then park in a caustic cloud and die. I thing the devs forgot to program caustic cloud awareness into their AI.
So, all she's done for ages now is take 10% of every bit of profit I earn.
The LEAST FDev can do is STOP Crew taking ANY money from us when they're drinking at the bar. She's earnt BILLIONS doing nothing, because she can't do what she used to be able to. Who do I write to to claim her unearned salary back? I could do with a couple of billion credits! lol.
As it's been what, a couple of years at this point that our Crew have been useless flying any of the SLFs, well, it's evidently far from a priority to fix, or it's deliberate as I speculated.
It used to be such fun letting her loose in an SLF, she was so good at using it. A crack shot with fixed weapons, be they insta-hit beams, or the likes of Multi-Cannons and Plasma. She was also super hard to hit. So good. She never got good vs. Thargoids. She'd shoot at the enemy, perhaps land the odd hit, but she'd then park in a caustic cloud and die. I thing the devs forgot to program caustic cloud awareness into their AI.
So, all she's done for ages now is take 10% of every bit of profit I earn.
The LEAST FDev can do is STOP Crew taking ANY money from us when they're drinking at the bar. She's earnt BILLIONS doing nothing, because she can't do what she used to be able to. Who do I write to to claim her unearned salary back? I could do with a couple of billion credits! lol.
I re-ranked mine. She's Deadly and not useless. If you put in the effort to retrain an NPC then you'll get a better result versus doing nothing about it.
It's kind of like putting in the effort to search for the answer to a question before posting the question. You'll get better information and have a better understanding of the situation.
It's kind of like putting in the effort to search for the answer to a question before posting the question. You'll get better information and have a better understanding of the situation.
Another thing I found was that it really depends a lot what fighter you put them in. I have 2 crew members.
I usually have in the bays a Taipan Gelid F and a GU-97 Gelid F.
One of the crew does really well in the Taipan but always has to retire if he is in the GU-97 Gelid F, from taking too much damage.
The other crew member makes mincemeat out of her targets in the GU-97 Gelid F. She just does OK in the Taipan.
Both pilots are ranked Dangerous.
You would think there would be no difference from one crew member to another, and it could just be my bias., but it is really weird to me how different they seem to perform.
I usually have in the bays a Taipan Gelid F and a GU-97 Gelid F.
One of the crew does really well in the Taipan but always has to retire if he is in the GU-97 Gelid F, from taking too much damage.
The other crew member makes mincemeat out of her targets in the GU-97 Gelid F. She just does OK in the Taipan.
Both pilots are ranked Dangerous.
You would think there would be no difference from one crew member to another, and it could just be my bias., but it is really weird to me how different they seem to perform.
In their mugshots in the pilots lounge what are the fighters in the background?
There was a rumour on the forums not long after our little friends were introduced that pilots did better in the fighter shown in the background.
Glad it worked for you, though it looks like it made no difference for others. I might do it if the whim takes me.
When I first decided to stick with one Crew member and train her up, it was a fun goal to set myself. Seeing her improve was very satisfying. Having to do it again because of a bug, or perhaps design choice, isn't going to be the same. Plus it may or may not help. Even if it does, without whatever the underlying issue - or design choice - being fixed, who's to say it won't happen again.
Ive tried using crew a few times. For me they just dont offer enough to deserve the cost.
If they flew one of my ships doing trade, then yer sure.
if they manned the guns in my ship so that my missiles could lock behind me, sure.
If they sat in the seats next to me, maybe.
Or if I could have a 4 ship Squad in solo made up of Captains and crew Double sure !!
But have some muppet who flys a paper drone baddly ... no thanks.
If they flew one of my ships doing trade, then yer sure.
if they manned the guns in my ship so that my missiles could lock behind me, sure.
If they sat in the seats next to me, maybe.
Or if I could have a 4 ship Squad in solo made up of Captains and crew Double sure !!
But have some muppet who flys a paper drone baddly ... no thanks.
FDEV did a fantastic job crafting the Guardian SLFs, and truly the whole SLF system. The visuals and sounds are amazing, the experience in the cockpit of the SLF is terrifying fun. I have an Elite I slf pilot that I have paid more than a billion to, and raised up from Harmless. I truly want the NPC / partner seed to grow in this game, and reluctant to offer any criticism at all other than to say thanks, and I hope FDEV builds on it more.
Elite combat NPCs and The Advanced Tactical Cops seem to manage OK, so I predict the issue is somewhere with the command and task interpretation. Given the war, the new ships, the colonization stuff, I'm sure this isn't a top priority. I'm still willing to shell out big cash to my little NPC SLF pilot just to hold out hope that they will improve the current AI issues.
Elite combat NPCs and The Advanced Tactical Cops seem to manage OK, so I predict the issue is somewhere with the command and task interpretation. Given the war, the new ships, the colonization stuff, I'm sure this isn't a top priority. I'm still willing to shell out big cash to my little NPC SLF pilot just to hold out hope that they will improve the current AI issues.
Mines pretty but useless ATM so only one well placed backhand for her.
I decided to pop in on the forums and see if anybody was still talking about this issue. Glad to see I'm not alone.
I'm quite surprised that this issue has gone on since 2023. SLFs are a pretty core gameplay mechanic, especially when you consider Multicrew & Telepresence. I'm on the fence deciding if its worth it to retire my old Elite crewmate simply due to this bug. I enjoy her comms, name and enjoy her portrait... but paying 10% for her, plus the % I'm giving to my Expert fighter I hired (who's actually capable of hitting things), makes it difficult to want to keep dumping money into an element of the game I can't use. Especially since I want to save up for the colonization stuff up ahead.
Just wanted to throw my two cents in and make some noise here, in hopes that attention gets thrown back to this issue. I even heard of reports that it was even affecting the Stronghold Carrier Elite NPC fighters' aim lol.
I'm quite surprised that this issue has gone on since 2023. SLFs are a pretty core gameplay mechanic, especially when you consider Multicrew & Telepresence. I'm on the fence deciding if its worth it to retire my old Elite crewmate simply due to this bug. I enjoy her comms, name and enjoy her portrait... but paying 10% for her, plus the % I'm giving to my Expert fighter I hired (who's actually capable of hitting things), makes it difficult to want to keep dumping money into an element of the game I can't use. Especially since I want to save up for the colonization stuff up ahead.
Just wanted to throw my two cents in and make some noise here, in hopes that attention gets thrown back to this issue. I even heard of reports that it was even affecting the Stronghold Carrier Elite NPC fighters' aim lol.
So, will the fix come before or after GRRM releases Winds of Winter?
For those who are saying training a new one up can fix it, don't believe it. Suspect some perception/confirmation bias going on with that.
From a technical perspective, the avatars, names, bios, etc., are just text/images, the underlying code should not be different regardless of when you hired them. The only (known) variable is the rank. If FD have hidden variables, that can affect the SLF pilots, it would be strange to say the least, and FD have never gave any indication such exists. They should all be using the same AI routines, even if for some reason those routines are different from other NPCs.
(Looks at list of Acknowledged VR issue reports)
Hmmm…which is it? “Hope springs eternal” or “Hope dies last”?
It's notable that this same issue also impacts other NPCs, including thargoids. For example, if you're flying a small ship like a fighter or sidewinder, and you move even moderately sideways, interceptors literally cannot target you. You can orbit indefinitely, even with 100% heat, and they'll never even fire.
The NPC crew has been wierd ever since Odyssey was released, with a number of different issues.
The missing is doubly annoying, as they seem to miss by the same distance. So either they hit were they aim, or they miss by, let's say, 50 meters; there's no natural spread. And them missing a lot more than they used to isn't helping... this mean they not only do less dmg than they should/used to, but they don't draw the agro as well either.
They're still usefull, but I really wish Fdev would return them to their pre Odyssey abilities.
The missing is doubly annoying, as they seem to miss by the same distance. So either they hit were they aim, or they miss by, let's say, 50 meters; there's no natural spread. And them missing a lot more than they used to isn't helping... this mean they not only do less dmg than they should/used to, but they don't draw the agro as well either.
They're still usefull, but I really wish Fdev would return them to their pre Odyssey abilities.
This is what makes me think they somehow screwed up in where they placed the 0,0,0 point on ships.
I assume that NPCs are coded to aim at a certain point, not at the ship itself. Then, that's further modified by their skill rating, so higher ranking NPCs don't actually have better aim, they just only are allowed to fire when their aim is on target, while lower ranking NPCs have more leeway in when they fire.
That's why elite NPCs seem to have become useless; because when they rebuilt the ship models for Odyssey, they accidentally misplaced that target point, apparently somewhere OUTSIDE the ship model in most cases. Meanwhile, lower-ranked NPCs can fire far more freely, THINKING they are going to miss, but incidentally hitting at least some of the time. That's also why thargoids flat-out won't fire at small ships at all; they aren't allowed to fire if they're going to miss, and they always think they're going to miss because the target point is completely outside the model!
This also leads to some really weird things with stuff like the gunner seat in multicrew, where sometimes you can 'lose connection' (like you're trying to look through a solid object) even when you're out in empty space.
Unfortunately, I suspect this problem is very difficult to fix, as it likely requires going through every single ship and fixing them one at a time, and who knows what other bugs might spring up as a result.
This is all hypothetical, of course, but it would explain a lot.
So far it seems like you’re making stuff up and promoting it as fact without any backing whatsoever, while dismissing the reports of everyone else in the thread as well as the bug report about this issue.
It’s mostly the absence of official statements or even acknowledgements from Frontier that is the ongoing issue of issues; they could do a lot to cut down the maddening signal to noise ratio that happens in these forums if they wanted to.
Still, we could all be a little better about this on our own, too.