Discuss the AI here!

[Asp Explorer]

I've had enough for one night already. My lulzbucket overfloweth.

 

[Darrett]

Can we at least have it so you don't come across npc's with modded stuff when you yourself don't own horizons?
Really annoying that even my A rated shield is worthless because modded guns rip through them and are causing insane heat damage and there's nothing I can do about it ... also doesn't help that you nerfed heat sinks ...

This is getting abit close to a paytowin-ish situation where I'm forced to buy horizons in order to fight on an even level again -_-'

We did look at heat sinks as a defense against thermal weaponry, it doesn't really help.

In reality though, you are forced to buy Horizons to continue without a disadvantage. It's a pay to play situation.

 

[JuicerPrime]

Awful damned shooty for a hospital ship!

I've seen an NPC T9 take on a Python in a HiRES and boil it up like an egg with beam lasers. Those things may be whales but they can put out a fair amount of heat from those forward guns.

 

[nathdixon92]

Hmmmm my only real gripe is that NPCs seem to have limitless shield cells, Chaff and ammo so it's really not a fair fight. Nor do they seem to heat themselves up or deploy heat sinks which is kind of cheating to be honest.

 

[SGTHACK]

I've had enough for one night already. My lulzbucket overfloweth.

Me too. It's up to Frontier now. I hope they can fix the problem without hurting anyone's game.....

 

[nathdixon92]

On the flipside, I managed an elite Anaconda on my own in my Corvette and managed to maul an elite FDL...although them things are savage now with the new Thrusters (1.6 player due to xbox)

 

[CMDR Sir Edison Trent]

My problem is ai with modded weapons should be rare.

Sounds like AI access to engineer mods should maybe have been phased in something like

Elite - Week 1
Deadly - Week 2
Dangerous - Week 3
Master - Week 4
Expert - Week 5
Competent - Week 6
Novice - Week 7
Mostly Harmless - Week 8
Harmless - Week 9

Again, i've not had a chance to play yet but if people are struggling due to improved AI + Mods that may have been the way to go.

 

[Yatcher]

As a new player of only 3 months playing with KB and Mouse, this Improved AI has greatly impacted my gaming experience. As I have slowly been building my money up from mostly mining and recently at Bounty Hunting, I have noticed the difference. I will say prior the AI was just to easy. I could easily take down many Dangerous pirates as they sat idle and I took free shots at them, this was just not right. Tonight, it has gone from one extreme to the other, I was completely out maneuvered by Expert and Master NPCs. First battle against a Master Diamond Back Explorer resulted in 8-10mins of utter frustration as I could not even get a single shot off as it effortlessly picked at me in my Vulture. I FS out at 50% as it was obvious I couldn't win. I tried again against a Expert Asp Explorer and same again, out maneuvered on all aspects. Third battle against a Master Imperial Eagle I actually hit and destroyed but only because after be out maneuvered for 10mins just flew backwards and traded blows. Now this is hardly a sound strategy and I now feel that for me to be competitive against the AI I will have to invest in a HOTAS and even then I have my doubts as it will surely take many hours of practice to a chance to even win a battle. I already went through a steep learning curve with the original AI destroyed effortlessly many times in my sidewinder before I got the hang of flying, hell what is a brand new player going to think? For now it is going to be Mining avoiding all combat - Elite:Runaway.

 

[CMDR SHMICKO]

summarising what i said before about what happened to me - how do you pick who interdicts you? a master rated viper interdicted me, demanded my cargo, the after a pause opened fire. i fired back but my shields went down and i had to start evasion because he had boosted behind me. my hull down to 74% and powerplant to 58% in 30 seconds.

im boosting away and my fsd is dropping on and offline and hes keeping pace and still hitting me when i have 5A thrusters and full pips eng. i couldnt flee and the fsd even if it wasnt dropping offline couldnt have charged quick enough for supercruise let alone jump anywhere before i was dead. i had military armour also. where di i choose the unwinnable unfleeable opponent to interdict me while supercruising in a safe high security system to a port? if not for the police jumping in around the 30 second mark i would been spending 1.5 million on rebuy. hard AI is only fun if you can do something to affect the outcome. when you meet an AI that can remove your shields in under 20 seconds and do that much damage in the next 10 seconds and you havent got its shields down yet, and you cannot flee because no time before your powerplant is dead please report back how much you enjoyed having no chance at all no matter what you do.

I see your point and wish to add that all my combat experiences so far (which have admittedly been limited) have been engagement I initiated and were very much of my own choosing.
The scenario you've outlined definitely doesnt sound fun or fair, or realistic insofar as how much bang for buck the AI seems to have now.
I should qualify my thoughts on the AI by saying I like how hard it is because of the way it flys. Not because they now have OP weapons and thier shield seem more powerful than ours etc etc.
I do see your point and agree with some of what I've read in regards to the one sided nature of some combat events.

 

[JuicerPrime]

On the flipside, I managed an elite Anaconda on my own in my Corvette and managed to maul an elite FDL...although them things are savage now with the new Thrusters (1.6 player due to xbox)

Do FdL's have access to the new thrusters? I thought they were only available up to Class 3 size. If so, time to break some speed limits once I get mine back >.>

 

[Asp Explorer]

Me too. It's up to Frontier now. I hope they can fix the problem without hurting anyone's game.....

Oh I meant the forums. Elite itself is still the nice, gentle, beautiful exploration trip I set myself. I hope that is not breaking anyone's game

 

[Soopyyy]

As a new player of only 3 months playing with KB and Mouse, this Improved AI has greatly impacted my gaming experience. As I have slowly been building my money up from mostly mining and recently at Bounty Hunting, I have noticed the difference. I will say prior the AI was just to easy. I could easily take down many Dangerous pirates as they sat idle and I took free shots at them, this was just not right. Tonight, it has gone from one extreme to the other, I was completely out maneuvered by Expert and Master NPCs. First battle against a Master Diamond Back Explorer resulted in 8-10mins of utter frustration as I could not even get a single shot off as it effortlessly picked at me in my Vulture. I FS out at 50% as it was obvious I couldn't win. I tried again against a Expert Asp Explorer and same again, out maneuvered on all aspects. Third battle against a Master Imperial Eagle I actually hit and destroyed but only because after be out maneuvered for 10mins just flew backwards and traded blows. Now this is hardly a sound strategy and I now feel that for me to be competitive against the AI I will have to invest in a HOTAS and even then I have my doubts as it will surely take many hours of practice to a chance to even win a battle. I already went through a steep learning curve with the original AI destroyed effortlessly many times in my sidewinder before I got the hang of flying, hell what is a brand new player going to think? For now it is going to be Mining avoiding all combat - Elite:Runaway.

Brand new player won't know any different.

 

[nathdixon92]

Sounds like AI access to engineer mods should maybe have been phased in something like

Elite - Week 1
Deadly - Week 2
Dangerous - Week 3
Master - Week 4
Expert - Week 5
Competent - Week 6
Novice - Week 7
Mostly Harmless - Week 8
Harmless - Week 9

Again, i've not had a chance to play yet but if people are struggling due to improved AI + Mods that may have been the way to go.

This. I do love the new challenge but not everyone is as good at adapting. I think this would have been a better way of upping the ante, or having them phased in over the next few updates.

 

[Nistevo]

I have played 5 hours today.

New NPC are just awesome, now a game is challenging! After playing almost 2 years a am feeling i got a NEW GAME. GOOD WORK JANE!

Believe you me, both sides of this fence feel they got a brand new game.

 

[nathdixon92]

Do FdL's have access to the new thrusters? I thought they were only available up to Class 3 size. If so, time to break some speed limits once I get mine back >.>

It was modded. Bad wording lol - I've never seen an FDL be so manoeuvrable in the hands of a player let alone NPC

 

[Pumabear8]

My problem is ai with modded weapons should be rare.

Yeah, took me a while to realize why that Conda wiped me out so fast, I was in a Python with 4 shield boosters stacked, but it was like those shield's didn't exist, actually they didn't after a couple of seconds!

 

[ilo]

my main concern about the new AI is.. give it up and put it easy again, and the next big dicussion on the forum will be: remove the requirements of the engineers for casual players.

 

[DukeIronHand]

Did someone here say that the AI skill level is scaled to your own? That if I have a high combat rating I will see more high ranked opponents instead of a nice mix? This thread had moved so fast I lost it.
And I really dislike scaling if true...

 

[SGTHACK]

Oh I meant the forums. Elite itself is still the nice, gentle, beautiful exploration trip I set myself. I hope that is not breaking anyone's game

Me too. I meant the forums LOL. Have safe trip Commander...

 

[Moonax IRL]

A grouping of posts with a common theme can sometimes provide a sounding of a situation, and multiple people have mentioned losing their ships very quickly to small vessels. That's all. The words "from what I hear" in my post should have given that position away - I make no claim to absolute evidence. All I'm saying is, when you hear something odd going on outside, even without immediate mk. I eyeball evidence and even if it may be nothing, sometimes it's worthwhile going and having a look at what's going on.

As for your own experiences, while I've no doubt they are absolutely as you say they are, a single data point isn't a good place to begin and end a debate on. With the people complaining here since 2.1, there's a hint of what might be case of smoke without the fire being seen - and the video suggests that, yes, something strange and untoward is going on somewhere in the ship mechanics.

The fact of the matter is you jumped on these experiences of other Cmdr`s to reinforce you view and argument against the AI as it now stands and ran with it. My view on this is you have no first hand experience of it, whereas I have so my point supersedes yours until you have a run out in your conda and give a first hand account of your exploits. Then you can make a valid contribution on the matter otherwise you are just regurgitating other peoples opinions.