What just happened? O.o

[n4p0l3on]

Yeah those cobras are now a lot tougher

And generally even 3 competent eagles can give you troubles, unless you're in a vulture or better

Moreover I am excited about the prospect of hearing xbone noobs and reviewers are getting spanked in the game by the AI and crying over saying the game is not peasant friendly and make the xbone sales failed hard; thus hopefully FDev give up the console version of ED

 

[persephonius]

yea i think thats correct, i always assign my pips to engines when my capacitor is full, and only assign to shields when its about to get drained.


i think its the same there, they don't seem to come back faster whit more pips, but the capacitor needs to have power or it stops.

and good advice you gave about situational awareness, thats a key thing

4 Pips to systems also reduces the damage your shields take by a factor of about 2.5. This scale is non-linear, and scales with 1,2,3 and 4 pips to shields. But still really it is all or nothing for pips to shields. This is why multi-cannons can be a nuisance particularly in PvP. You can camp-up with 4 pips to shields, and maintain 4 or 5 multi-cannon hardpoints firing continuously with only 2 pips to weapons (depending on power distributor).
.
For example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCXi5xgLx04

 

[Mr_Blastman]

Yeah those cobras are now a lot tougher

And generally even 3 competent eagles can give you troubles, unless you're in a vulture or better

Moreover I am excited about the prospect of hearing xbone noobs and reviewers are getting spanked in the game by the AI and crying over saying the game is not peasant friendly and make the xbone sales failed hard; thus hopefully FDev give up the console version of ED

I dunno. It's pretty damn easy if you ask me. Well, at least until you fight humans.

 

[Cryptex]

The extremely high repair costs are a bug caused by them attempting to FIX repair costs in the previous update. They ended up causing massively increased costs instead. There are several threads about it if you look. The AI also got a major upgrade in 1.3, but the repair expenses are not intended. Sarah Avory, the developer who works on the AI, was joking about the strength of some of the new AI she has made - AKA she stated in her simulation, a Elite AI vulture took down a player Anaconda's powerplant with its hull still at 75%. (She stated that these AI have not been implemented though) A lower level version, albeit certainly more difficult than 1.2 AI has been added though. The scaling of AI rank also makes them far more 'intelligent' and have better loadouts too, so watch who you engage.

 

[Night Hawk]

RES hunting now is not what it used to be thats for sure - for the first time I actually saw mines dropped near an asteroid, not sure if it was Pirates or Authority ships, but I gave them a wide berth.

I also notice that the AI actually try to boost away and I have had plenty of missiles launched at me - might have to re-install the Point Defence again!!

It makes the old days working in RES look like a walk in the park - those multiple ship wings of Deadly and Dangerous small ships are exactly that.

Overall I think its great, you can make some good credits and also boost your combat rating.

 

[metatheurgist]

I've come to the understanding that Sys pips are set only to maintain/re-charge the capacitor depending on the situation, more for a faster re-charge rate when your shields are taking hits, and virtually no need for Sys pips if your capacitor is full and there's no drain being applied through combat at the moment.

Your shields take more damage when sys has pips, up to 150% IIRC. If you're doing defensive maneuvers you want pips to sys because that's better than having no shields.

 

[Cryptex]

Your shields take more damage when sys has pips, up to 150% IIRC. If you're doing defensive maneuvers you want pips to sys because that's better than having no shields.

Its my understanding that there is currently an exponetial effect to having pips in different settings. Sys is where it is most notable. Someone did a test a while back and found that at one pip, your shields took 8ish% less damage, at two it was somewhere around 15, at 3 it increased to 80% damage reduction, and at 4 it increased to over 150% damage reduction. Therefore, yes.. devoting power to Sys will reduce the damge you are taking, and therefore keep your shields on longer. Frontier responded to this as being unintentional. It was supposed to be a Linear model and I am unaware if it has been corrected yet.

 

[Sarah Jane Avory]

@OP

Do you remember what rank your three Cobras were? You need to take that into account now. The higher ranking ships are now much tougher, and additionally most of the NPCs now have stronger shields and even use shield cell banks. As to them cheating, it has been said by the AI developer that they don't, and there's no good reason to disbelieve her. NPCs have just become more than a walk over. By the way, I have no idea if they got 'upgraded' in the recent patches. I don't think so, although now you will meet more than just Mostly Harmless ones at RES and Nav Beacons.

No cheating, just heavily revised tactics and a few bug fixes to AI pip management (means their shields are stronger and they balance power distribution much better) and shooting accuracy. Makes them a little more capable, especially in the tactics. They now hound players a lot more than they used to.
More updates are already in the pipeline, as well as a little balancing...

 

[Zplintz]

I was interdicted by 3 cobras while in my trade equipped Anaconda.

I was far too blasé. As usuaI I submitted, deployed and attacked. Down to 80% hull with only 1 Cobra dead before I relealised how much tougher they were.

It's been a while since I have had to run ftom NPCs while trading. Apart from the 500k repair bill - I like it.

 

[DidierDrbois]

I like the 'new' repair bills. Was charged just short of 1M for a badly beaten up combat-fitted Python the other day. I find that absolutely adequate.
_
And yes, the AI folk is a little stronger now. But whenever they hand my thrusters to me, it's my own fault. One has to watch their surroundings carefully as one missed Elite Viper can make all the difference.
_
I love it.

 

[Mephane]

So I hopped into my Asp today and thought I'd go out to a nearby High Intensity Resource Extraction site and kill a few pirates. I'd only just discovered you could make alot of credits there. I've been mainly just bounty hunting since I bought the game. So I thought i'd go and give it another shot.

So I get there and theres a couple sidewinders. I take them out no problem. then i come across a wing of 3 cobras. So I'm bashing one of the cobras and the other 2 are bashing me. I look down and my shields are gone. I'm taking some severe damage. I'm thinking, 'Did i accidentally down grade my shields?'. And why is it taking so long to kill this cobra? This has never happened before. I'm flying a nearly completely upgraded Asp. I should be slaughtering these guys.

So anyway, I'm almost dead and decide its better to boost out of there, lick my wounds and try to figure out what just happened.

I finish docking and am about to click 'repair all' and what do i see? A repair bill for 168000 cr.
What? If i remember correctly my repair bill was usually somewhere in the neighborhood of 10000 cr.

I check the bounties i got for killing the few pirates i killed. 128000 cr. I actually lost money bounty hunting.

What happened??

2 weeks ago i was having a blast playing this game. Finally making some money for a change. Now i'm scarred to leave the station. I only have 2 million cr in the bank. I cant afford to loose my ship more than 3 times.

I'm thinking i might have to drop my bounty hunting job and take up mining. At least the limpets make mining a little more interesting now. And i can actually make some money. Not loose it.

And yes, I am aware that the AI got an upgrade. But I think they might be cheating. My shields popped like a bubble. 2 cobras, no matter what upgrades they had, shouldnt pop my A grade shields and a B grade shield booster like a soap bubble. And i was hitting that one cobra pretty good but his hull was going down alot slower than mine. i had 2 medium multi cannons, 2 small beam lasers and 2 small burst lasers. All gimbled. Hard to miss.

I know alot of people are loving the new AI. But i'm wondering if this latest patch today might have given them an even bigger boost. Or even a bit of a cheat of some kind. I mean before the AI patch i could handle an Anaconda. It wasnt easy and i've been killed before, but most of the time it was do able. Now 3 cobras just kicked my ass. Thats a bit too much of an upgrade I think.

And that repair bill. When did that happen?

1. An Asp should not be "slaughtering" a wing of 3 Cobras. It is good that these now present a serious challenge.
2. These massive repair costs have been confirmed to be a bug, introduced with 1.3.04.

 

[nosscar]

Although the AI is much better now, and tougher, i don't think they are "overpowered" in any way, i took out an Expert Imperial courier yesterday in my T9.

 

[Brownshortz]

Although the AI is much better now, and tougher, i don't think they are "overpowered" in any way, i took out an Expert Imperial courier yesterday in my T9.

I agree...haven't really noticed much change skill wise. Been doing RES's in my Scout for the last few nights and most of the opponents have been expert or better.....no problem at all. The only thing I have noticed is that their shields seem to be a lot stronger now....have to keep adjusting pips to weapons to take them down quicker with my beams. Other than that they don't really seem to be any tougher than before.

 

[lilikin]

No cheating, just heavily revised tactics and a few bug fixes to AI pip management (means their shields are stronger and they balance power distribution much better) and shooting accuracy. Makes them a little more capable, especially in the tactics. They now hound players a lot more than they used to.
More updates are already in the pipeline, as well as a little balancing...

Balancing? Surely the deadlier the better no?

 

[hoopy]

If we send you lots of cake/pizza/flowers/wine will you make the nasty NPCs stop shooting at us so much?


(Truth be told I'm out exploring so I'm safe for the moment)

 

[LeetNoob]

yea i think thats correct, i always assign my pips to engines when my capacitor is full, and only assign to shields when its about to get drained.

more pips to sys increase the damage resitence of your shields, in fact you will double your shield resistance with four pips. I would recommend, especially against multiple targets to have at least 2 pips in shields. You are right that it does not affect recharge rate.

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=127832&p=1960731&viewfull=1#post1960731

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=92286

 

[bamber]

No cheating, just heavily revised tactics and a few bug fixes to AI pip management (means their shields are stronger and they balance power distribution much better) and shooting accuracy. Makes them a little more capable, especially in the tactics. They now hound players a lot more than they used to.
More updates are already in the pipeline, as well as a little balancing...

Tell me about it - its all over the game
.
I had the same pirate interdict me 3 times from the sun and then got to the outpost with my <ahem> slightly illegal cargo though I was safe but - no - he dived in and started attacking me at the outpost
.
had to do a mad boost to the NFZ to escape - shields are going back on my transporter from now on!

 

[ToniB]

the problem is, it took sarah over 1 year to make the ai challenging, now people are suited to stomp over npcs and its a big surprise for them and im sure many are quitting now raging about a cheating ai without asking in the forum what happened like the op.

elite should have started with a strong AI, MANY MANY less problems that way. Im happy at least the xbone user will have a challenge right from the beginning.

 

[Sarah Jane Avory]

Balancing? Surely the deadlier the better no?

High ranks I want to boost loads (I'm just getting warmed up), low ranks made easier. I'd like a nice wide spread of abilities so that you'll definitely be able to tell the difference between a Harmless ship and an Elite.

 

[Zetta]

High ranks I want to boost loads (I'm just getting warmed up), low ranks made easier. I'd like a nice wide spread of abilities so that you'll definitely be able to tell the difference between a Harmless ship and an Elite.

Sounds great, looking forward to taking on an 4*Elite Anaconda wing.