It's a lot of fun, and expensive. I like dropping into SSS with my Battle-Conda, but those multi-wing Vulture's, 8-12 ships, 2-3 wings, makes for some serious dancing, then running, then paying and sometimes some praying. I always go back though... I'll burn up 3 sets of 6A/5A SCB's in no time. This has me looking at mirrored surface composite, but holy crap, that stuff costs several fortunes, and lifetimes, to pay for.
Banged up by NPCs. Wow.
- Thread starter digitalscream
- Start date
I saw this great looking flock of fireflies going around the stars. Ratty sidewinders snd eagles, belonging to a local mafia. Most of them without shields. I was in my iron-ass Cobra, and decided to interdict one just to see if it really was a 9/9 wing. I pulled one of them out of warp, and started my k-scan. Before it was done, the other eight arrived on the scene, and opened up on me with small pulse lasers. I was laughing as I boosted out of there, triggering a shield cell. I tried to double back to see if I could claim a kill, but the swarm stayed together, and my shields melted too fast to even finish off a shieldless sidey.
That was great. I still dislike the existence of shieldless cannon-fodder NPCs, but the AI is coming along nicely
I'm just warming up...
Be careful how far you jack up the NPC difficulty. Personally, I play open because I'm not good enough any more to do PvP. Take away my pew pew in solo by jacking things up too hard and I'll go away. Probably won't be alone, either because I'm relatively certain I'm not the only person at this particular skill level(or lack thereof).
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Perhaps, instead of arbitrarily jacking up the difficulty for everyone, you should work on personal difficulty settings? Let US choose a challenge commiserate to our skills?
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Yup. I felt the NPC power yesterday:
I was returning from an exploration voyage (lots of data!) and was interdicted by an NPC Python almost as soon as I entered populated space.. I had been flying with most modules disabled whilst exploring (to reduce heat), so my shields were offline when I submitted. I decided to fight thinking I would be OK in my tough / silly Asp build. But no..
I managed to escape with only 29% Hull! My Thrusters cut out for a bit during the fight, as well as my Power Plant temporarily as well :-/
Whist in supercruise after escaping I checked my modules interface, and the NPC Python had taken my Power Plant down 6%!
I did not know that they did that. Very impressed / terrified
I was returning from an exploration voyage (lots of data!) and was interdicted by an NPC Python almost as soon as I entered populated space.. I had been flying with most modules disabled whilst exploring (to reduce heat), so my shields were offline when I submitted. I decided to fight thinking I would be OK in my tough / silly Asp build. But no..
I managed to escape with only 29% Hull! My Thrusters cut out for a bit during the fight, as well as my Power Plant temporarily as well :-/
Whist in supercruise after escaping I checked my modules interface, and the NPC Python had taken my Power Plant down 6%!
I did not know that they did that. Very impressed / terrified
I had to abandon an assassination mission last night (There's some other reasons, but this is the biggest one), jumped in, saw the target, thought "Federal Dropship, yeah, this is fine, oh, two wingmen? They're always sidewinders, they'll go down quickly"...
Nope.
2 Elite Cobras with an Elite Federal Dropship. Melted my shields in seconds, but managed to get out.
Nope.
2 Elite Cobras with an Elite Federal Dropship. Melted my shields in seconds, but managed to get out.
Dude... You have a choice in what you attack. Surely you aren't saying that deadly rated NPCs in powerful ships should be kept as something you can just farm? At least I hope not. The NPC skill levels are advertised. It's not like the mostly harmless Adder will rip your Asp to shreds suddenly.
Good. Hope to see many more improvements to the AI in the future.I'm just warming up...
It's currently way to easy to kill an elite anaconda using any ship vulture and above.Does the AI make use of new modules like shield boosters? Also, giving the larger ships mirrored armor and shield cells might not be a bad idea either.
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With the Conda, this is where I find the disconnect to be. Running mine at 1.21 gigawatts of power to weapons and shields, it should require multiple ships to her take down. The single small ships should be nothing but gnats, but in many situations, the smaller ships can run the exact same hardware/firepower (weapons) with multiple small/medium or medium/large hard-point loadouts. The Conda, with top-level shields, should be able to easily absorb this energy, for all but the most kitted med-large craft. That or add some class 4 hardware more befitting of the Conda. This comment was made thinking about other npc Conda's btw. I hunt them like I hunt for Cinnabon's.
No Elite pilot should be farmable. They should be very rare encounters, and near legendary. Not to mention if you do manage to take one out, that should just be the beginning of your troubles. These are the leaders of the Elite federation of pilots afterall.
Shield cell banks are a big part of the problem, as are the easy reactor kills. Lasers should not do deep componet damage. Want to hit an Anaconda's powerplant? You should bring a medium railgun or a large cannon. With smaller weapons (and any size of laser) you are just dumping energy on the surface.
Shield cell banks are a big part of the problem, as are the easy reactor kills. Lasers should not do deep componet damage. Want to hit an Anaconda's powerplant? You should bring a medium railgun or a large cannon. With smaller weapons (and any size of laser) you are just dumping energy on the surface.
i concur. They should respond according to your rank. You kill a lot of NPC's and make elite. Well the deal is off, they throw everything at you. Where as, you are a beginner on combat, but an elite trader, they interdict you more for your cargo. It should all be scalable to your ranks.
Im a master fighter in my Clipper. I expect them to come at me hard. Leave the sidewinders at home, unless it is 5 elites!
if you go looking for trouble, the IA should respond in kind
I got a Python. Took it to a combat zone. Have yet to die in the game. Was doing fine for 20 minutes then all the sudden my shields instantly hit 0 and my health dropped in increments of 18%.. I died in 5 seconds flat, or less. No idea why. I didn't even see anything shooting me.. :/
Either way the 2.8 million setback was enough that, even though I can afford to buy another Python (I already rebought once after I died), I'd be completely broke after that. I basically got it just on the edge of when I could afford it, not expecting to die. Guess that's my own hubris! Either way I've had to strip my python and am now making money in a cheaper ship. I'll come back for my Python but I can't afford to lose another, and don't have the money to trade with it.
I just have no idea what happened and that's what bothers me.
Either way the 2.8 million setback was enough that, even though I can afford to buy another Python (I already rebought once after I died), I'd be completely broke after that. I basically got it just on the edge of when I could afford it, not expecting to die. Guess that's my own hubris! Either way I've had to strip my python and am now making money in a cheaper ship. I'll come back for my Python but I can't afford to lose another, and don't have the money to trade with it.
I just have no idea what happened and that's what bothers me.
Deleted member 38366
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Ooooh! Just you wait.... Grrr... I found a bug today that meant AI pip management wasn't optimal (aka pretty rubbish) for high ranking AI ships. So you guys have had it far too easy so far... But next time...
I hope that means i would need something bigger than an Eagle to go after elite anacondas
I was interdicted by a viper in my vulture last night, thought no biggie...I had the sucker down to 29% hull when 4-5 of his buddies warped in out of no where...I escaped with my hull down to 49%, I didnt notice what was shooting at me...my sole objective after my shields dropped was to run and stay alive.
Very impressive NPC play...takes the game to a different level of risk...and I love it!
Very impressive NPC play...takes the game to a different level of risk...and I love it!
More recently I've had a few challenging moments in RES myself. Happened to pick on a Clipper in a Wing of three - or was it four? All of a sudden I'm being attacked by his buddies, my shields are about to go down and I'm getting missiled like crazy by a Cobra (I think). I was in my FDL at the time and had to do a runner.
Good times. Lots more of that please
Good times.
Lots more of that please
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5 eagles (ants*) are more than 4 anacondas (elefants*)
i had a wow moment in warzone: a pair of anacondas went down fast to my FDL.. but then i had some serious trouble when i got attacked by 4 very persistant eagles, they did to my poor ship what the anacondas could not (althou i did survive them all in the end, it was not very comfy)
* = well know swedish childrens tv show
i had a wow moment in warzone: a pair of anacondas went down fast to my FDL.. but then i had some serious trouble when i got attacked by 4 very persistant eagles, they did to my poor ship what the anacondas could not (althou i did survive them all in the end, it was not very comfy)
* = well know swedish childrens tv show
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All I can say, after taking on a nice juicy python that interdicted me, nicely done, I hit 4 pips to engine and ran screaming away..... I almost had my first insurance claim due to that. Was a lot of fun. So thank you...
Bullet
Bullet
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We need military grade thrusters please FD.
1.4 ?
P.S. Military Jump Drives too - would make my imperial rank worthwhile.
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