Discuss the AI here!
- Thread starter Agony_Aunt
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We dont always agree on everything ED but this is perfect. +rep
Indeed
I didn't come across anything like this in the couple of weeks I was playing in beta, so starting the game up last night/this morning it came as something of a shock for my previously decent python to be taken down by a cobra and to be constantly interdicted for no particularly good reason. Perhaps the game just hates me? 
Here is my issue:
Elite players (no pun intended...ok maybe there was) shouldn't be catered to at the expense of everyone else.
People keep talking about a "never lose" attitude. OK, fine. But I feel like NPCs are just about "never win" at this point. I've been interdicted 4 times so far (I'm in a trading Anaconda):
1. Anaconda interdicted me. Tried to high wake. Shields gone before I could even select a system. FSD was gone before it was done charging. Destroyed.
2. Dropship interdicted me. Failed interdiction before I could submit. Thrusters/FSD destroyed before the cooldown was complete.
3. Viper interdicted me. Got away relatively unscathed, but still took away a whole ring of shields before jumping out, and that was with properly submitting.
4. Gunship interdicted me. Able to submit, but shields were basically gone before I could jump.
OK, maybe not never win, but I haven't really tried actually fighting them yet. (My conda is pretty lightly armed). I know a lot of people who considered themselves skilled pilots suddenly getting their butts handed to them. I'll admit I'm not the best combat. I don't necessarily do this game for combat. I'm sad that I feel like that I need to be good at combat just to survive, however.
I'd hate to know what people flying ships less beefier than an Anaconda are having to deal with. I couldn't imagine flying around in a ship actually meant for trading like a T7 or T9 now. It'd have to be a tank, which makes them worthless as ships. As someone who spends most of my time hauling PP merits, this is obviously rather problematic. I actually haven't been interdicted by a PP ship, but by pirates (who for some reason want my merit papers?).
I think upgrading the systems on my conda is going to be a minimal must. I'll probably survive, but given interdictions that are (still) virtually unwinnable and now ships that rip anacondas up as if they are sidewinders, playing this game has gone from fun (or maybe monotonous with transporting merits) to just plain stressful.
Elite players (no pun intended...ok maybe there was) shouldn't be catered to at the expense of everyone else.
People keep talking about a "never lose" attitude. OK, fine. But I feel like NPCs are just about "never win" at this point. I've been interdicted 4 times so far (I'm in a trading Anaconda):
1. Anaconda interdicted me. Tried to high wake. Shields gone before I could even select a system. FSD was gone before it was done charging. Destroyed.
2. Dropship interdicted me. Failed interdiction before I could submit. Thrusters/FSD destroyed before the cooldown was complete.
3. Viper interdicted me. Got away relatively unscathed, but still took away a whole ring of shields before jumping out, and that was with properly submitting.
4. Gunship interdicted me. Able to submit, but shields were basically gone before I could jump.
OK, maybe not never win, but I haven't really tried actually fighting them yet. (My conda is pretty lightly armed). I know a lot of people who considered themselves skilled pilots suddenly getting their butts handed to them. I'll admit I'm not the best combat. I don't necessarily do this game for combat. I'm sad that I feel like that I need to be good at combat just to survive, however.
I'd hate to know what people flying ships less beefier than an Anaconda are having to deal with. I couldn't imagine flying around in a ship actually meant for trading like a T7 or T9 now. It'd have to be a tank, which makes them worthless as ships. As someone who spends most of my time hauling PP merits, this is obviously rather problematic. I actually haven't been interdicted by a PP ship, but by pirates (who for some reason want my merit papers?).
I think upgrading the systems on my conda is going to be a minimal must. I'll probably survive, but given interdictions that are (still) virtually unwinnable and now ships that rip anacondas up as if they are sidewinders, playing this game has gone from fun (or maybe monotonous with transporting merits) to just plain stressful.
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If you think this game has been "smooth runnings" I just don't know what to say.
You've constructed your own reality.
This history of Elite is one of Frontier making terrible, terrible choices and the players forcing them change.
Remember when the max bounty was 1000 CR? Vultures were 25M and FDLs were 100M? And the grind for non-traders to any of these ships was years or months?
Because you can get a lot of money not doing bounty hunting as well. why you need a big ship? why should you quicly have the same ship that someone playing everyday when you only play once in a .. I dont get it.
The engineers update is exciting and such, but honestly it's the AI improvements of this new patch that have excited me the most.
In the past, killing NPCs was just a joke, it was not even fun, it was just a grind to the point of a tired trigger finger.
I think the most game-improving update here IS the improved AI, especially since PvP is overall just a bunch of waiting and hunting to even find a fight that doesn't instant run.
Beyond that, building on combat, it's now a valid way to make money to fight in conflict zones...where before it was mostly a waste of money vs something like Bounty Hunting, especially considering how much harder it is to kill the ships in the conflict zones.
AI improvements have quite literally blown a little more life into the game. Can't believe people are not welcoming it, but it's impossible to please everyone.
In the past, killing NPCs was just a joke, it was not even fun, it was just a grind to the point of a tired trigger finger.
I think the most game-improving update here IS the improved AI, especially since PvP is overall just a bunch of waiting and hunting to even find a fight that doesn't instant run.
Beyond that, building on combat, it's now a valid way to make money to fight in conflict zones...where before it was mostly a waste of money vs something like Bounty Hunting, especially considering how much harder it is to kill the ships in the conflict zones.
AI improvements have quite literally blown a little more life into the game. Can't believe people are not welcoming it, but it's impossible to please everyone.
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Strong ? At least on Steam charts, it seems that your definition of "strong" is quite different from mine.
http://steamcharts.com/app/359320#All
The low-level AI's I dusted in my Imperial Eagle lastt night did not impress me. I couldn't find a Low RES to rest, but I found some Novice Vipers at a Nav Beacon, and they were very quick kills.
Now, the trio of Dangerous Vipers that I jumped while they were ganging up on an Authority Conda... those were much tougher. And they were cutting up that Conda before I jumped in, too.
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I can't, but what we have are financial results who so far since ED has been released and people called doom again and again always looked very good.
Last one should be this: http://www.londonstockexchange.com/exchange/news/market-news/market-news-detail/FDEV/12692904.html
steam is incomplete information, wait at least for the company to actualy have bad numbers before call it dead.Strong ? At least on Steam charts, it seems that your definition of "strong" is quite different from mine.
http://steamcharts.com/app/359320#All
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Gonna have to run bigger shields and actually manage pips now. Oh noes.
They aren't I am far from Elite - and I love the changes.
1) I do manage pips
2) turning your ship into a battleship kinda makes it difficult to do trading
Some of us pay mortgages by spending a large portion of the day at work, with (for me especially) tiring and draining occupations.
ED is recreation! It will always be recreation, and definitely not a second job. Getting frustrated with crazy AI is one thing, but being handed an incentive you cannot refuse is a reason to do it ! and stops it feeling like another job. If there's no incentive, the 'fun' will quickly lose its appeal as, still, other professions are far superior to earn those credits to upgrade your tools.
Like everything in life when a bar is moved those above agree with it those below it are p**sed.
In this case AI difficulty has been increased. I get that Haz-RES and CZ's should not be too easy and perhaps they were.
My input is as follows.
Me and my son have both been playing Elite for about a month on seperate PC'c. I have clocked up 150 hours. We found it hard going at first in general and reached out to places like this to understand how to find our way. We found our way to RES's and CZ's and also found 'homes' based around this area of play and was enjoying our life as bounty hunters, me in imperial space and him in federal. We are both experienced gamer's and choose to play in solo or Mobius to avoid the kind of stuff that made us avoid other MMOG's. We have done OK and loved every minute of our play. We have dabbled with other ways of making a living and its not about progression or grind WE ENJOYED IT!!!!!!!!!!!! I have an A rated ASP and Vulture, my son still only has a B rated ASP. We have joined in with CG's and PP's its been a blast.
We are also casual gamer's in so much as the time we have to play. There are way more of us out there than you serious guys and girls. Save the sarcastic come backs and asking me for proof of numbers it's a fact and you know it.
Last night I updated and I also bought Horizons to really kick things up. I am really disappointed. We have both been unable to play the game we love without dying repeatably. Not sometimes. Repeatably. Its not fun, its not challenging, its too much. I guess our combat ranks have gone up too much. I wonder if enough thought has been given to those of us that have been playing this way and have 'inflated' combat ranks as a result. Now that rank is taken into consideration on missions we are screwed and that's hardly fair IMHO.
I thought this was a game I could play the way I wanted, when I wanted. Some people like punishingly hard games. I do not and rarely turn up the difficulty above standard on most games. That's my choice. I know you can't have a difficulty setting in a game like elite. It's why I don't play in open as I accept I am average vs others but still want to fly a space ship god damn it. AI difficulty needs to scale and there is way too much modded equipment on NPC's. CMDR's should not be playing catch up with all NPC's surely!!!!!!!
Frontier are going to loose a lot of players both existing and future. Not us yet but we are on the fence and will see. Maybe like some say it's a learning curve but my instinct is that's not the case. High level players will no doubt love this and those that like to take a beating. I have a several friends that love really hard games. I don't. If you step outside of this forum various sites are already reporting that a game infamous for being difficult to get into just got a lot harder. Clap clap.
Either way what needs addressing is the fact that since yesterday the way WE played the game is impossible. Yeah we can go off an try other stuff, we did anyway but do you really think new players will want to play for 200 hours plus of trading and exploring just to get to the point they can go fighting.
And finally to all of you high level players trolling the get good comment here. Just consider the fact that without continued new CASUAL players joining you, the game you love WILL end.
Just though someone should represent the 'been playing for bit' players.
In this case AI difficulty has been increased. I get that Haz-RES and CZ's should not be too easy and perhaps they were.
My input is as follows.
Me and my son have both been playing Elite for about a month on seperate PC'c. I have clocked up 150 hours. We found it hard going at first in general and reached out to places like this to understand how to find our way. We found our way to RES's and CZ's and also found 'homes' based around this area of play and was enjoying our life as bounty hunters, me in imperial space and him in federal. We are both experienced gamer's and choose to play in solo or Mobius to avoid the kind of stuff that made us avoid other MMOG's. We have done OK and loved every minute of our play. We have dabbled with other ways of making a living and its not about progression or grind WE ENJOYED IT!!!!!!!!!!!! I have an A rated ASP and Vulture, my son still only has a B rated ASP. We have joined in with CG's and PP's its been a blast.
We are also casual gamer's in so much as the time we have to play. There are way more of us out there than you serious guys and girls. Save the sarcastic come backs and asking me for proof of numbers it's a fact and you know it.
Last night I updated and I also bought Horizons to really kick things up. I am really disappointed. We have both been unable to play the game we love without dying repeatably. Not sometimes. Repeatably. Its not fun, its not challenging, its too much. I guess our combat ranks have gone up too much. I wonder if enough thought has been given to those of us that have been playing this way and have 'inflated' combat ranks as a result. Now that rank is taken into consideration on missions we are screwed and that's hardly fair IMHO.
I thought this was a game I could play the way I wanted, when I wanted. Some people like punishingly hard games. I do not and rarely turn up the difficulty above standard on most games. That's my choice. I know you can't have a difficulty setting in a game like elite. It's why I don't play in open as I accept I am average vs others but still want to fly a space ship god damn it. AI difficulty needs to scale and there is way too much modded equipment on NPC's. CMDR's should not be playing catch up with all NPC's surely!!!!!!!
Frontier are going to loose a lot of players both existing and future. Not us yet but we are on the fence and will see. Maybe like some say it's a learning curve but my instinct is that's not the case. High level players will no doubt love this and those that like to take a beating. I have a several friends that love really hard games. I don't. If you step outside of this forum various sites are already reporting that a game infamous for being difficult to get into just got a lot harder. Clap clap.
Either way what needs addressing is the fact that since yesterday the way WE played the game is impossible. Yeah we can go off an try other stuff, we did anyway but do you really think new players will want to play for 200 hours plus of trading and exploring just to get to the point they can go fighting.
And finally to all of you high level players trolling the get good comment here. Just consider the fact that without continued new CASUAL players joining you, the game you love WILL end.
Just though someone should represent the 'been playing for bit' players.
after an run with an dangerous vulture in my A fitted clipper "the imp cargo ship". it handed my clipper to me in just 2 passes. i feel sorry for anyone that flys an T6,7,9 keelback.
but back on topic after getting my clipper handed to me i went about selling all my cargo ships looks like it going to be combat ships acting as 2/4 ton cargo ships. RIP traders
but back on topic after getting my clipper handed to me i went about selling all my cargo ships looks like it going to be combat ships acting as 2/4 ton cargo ships. RIP traders
In your link, it is a state of company in November 2015. Active player base is going down since those times to maybe 1/3 or 1/4, at least on Steam, according the link I posted couple of messages ago.
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