Engineers Sub-Targeting in NPC's

Soon(TM) · Jun 4, 2016

I think there is something wrong with the Sub-Targeting on NPC modules since 2.1 came out.

I was in a RES today, fighting NPC's, came up against a NPC Dangerous Anaconda.

Targeted his power plant, got him down to 0 on his power plant and he still had around 32% hull.

He continued firing at me, continued manouvering and even tried to Frame Shift away????

If the Authority vessels had not entered the fight he would have probably got away too.

This is kind of unfair considering if i get hit with 4 plasma accelerator shots all my modules start to malfunction and my HUD turns into the 4th of July fireworks show!

Why is it with every update to this game, theres 10 new good things and 20 new bad things!

RancidRance · Jun 4, 2016

0% power plant no longer means instant death for the NPC, it's 50/50 they blow up or lose half their power plant capacity.

Also the changes to power plant destruction happened ages ago, pre-horizons I think.

Soon(TM) · Jun 4, 2016

So with 0% power plant they can continue to fire, maneuver and charge FSD?

WHAT A JOKE

RancidRance · Jun 4, 2016

Well it's possible depending on their power plant and sub systems ect. If you think it's a bug please post a bug report instead of a rant.

Faded Glory · Jun 4, 2016

Soon(TM) said:
So with 0% power plant they can continue to fire, maneuver and charge FSD?

WHAT A JOKE

I would say no. Once the PP goes the NPC should be dead in space, not moving, not firing. They will nonetheless only blow up once the hull is taken to 0%. That is certainly how it was prior to 2.1, and I have not read of any changes to that mechanic.

Your experience sounds buggy, and I would submit a bug report.

PhanttoM · Jun 4, 2016

Soon(TM) said:
So with 0% power plant they can continue to fire, maneuver and charge FSD?

WHAT A JOKE

So can players, if your Power Plant is 0% and you have setup power priorities correctly.

My power priorities can use still use FSD, thrusters, life support, Power Distributor, sensors, chaff and 2x point defense, when my pp is at 0%

If I re-arrange some things I can have weapons still fire, but I prefer taking the defensive approach when my shields are down.
http://coriolis.io/outfit/imperial_...kB12b2b02v62i2f.Iw1-gDKQ.CwBj5AmSGYc8wCMpihEA

Andy_Pipkin · Jun 4, 2016

Soon(TM) said:
So with 0% power plant they can continue to fire, maneuver and charge FSD?

WHAT A JOKE

As long as they have some power remaining in those capaciters, maybe?

Soon(TM) · Jun 4, 2016

Surely not enough to keep boosting, shooting and charge the FSD too?

I agree they shouldn't instantly explode as before, but they should not be able to continue as normal with 0% power, it makes no sense.

I actually saw the same thing in a Vindicator Jones video the other day when he was against an Anaconda. Went to 0% power plant, anaconda kept fighting and moving...

PhanttoM · Jun 4, 2016

Soon(TM) said:
Surely not enough to keep boosting, shooting and charge the FSD too?

I agree they shouldn't instantly explode as before, but they should not be able to continue as normal with 0% power, it makes no sense.

I actually saw the same thing in a Vindicator Jones video the other day when he was against an Anaconda. Went to 0% power plant, anaconda kept fighting and moving...

Charging FSD AND shooting, no because weapons should be retracted.

But everything else it entirely depends on ship, loadout and weapons. An Anaconda can have a pretty powerful powerplant.

Minoo Minou · Jun 4, 2016

PhanttoM said:
Charging FSD AND shooting, no because weapons should be retracted.

But everything else it entirely depends on ship, loadout and weapons. An Anaconda can have a pretty powerful powerplant.

And as say above, with modules priority set accordingly you can go on with a PP down to 0%.

Genxav · Jun 4, 2016

RancidRance said:
0% power plant no longer means instant death for the NPC, it's 50/50 they blow up or lose half their power plant capacity.

Also the changes to power plant destruction happened ages ago, pre-horizons I think.

lol are you serious? It's been a while since NPCS don't blow up when the pp gets to 0. But they shutdown completely.

0 power plant means 0 POWER period.

RancidRance · Jun 4, 2016

Genxav said:
lol are you serious? It's been a while since NPCS don't blow up when the pp gets to 0. But they shutdown completely.

0 power plant means 0 POWER period.

Actually it means 50% power with a slight chance of explosions.

myrr mac · Jun 4, 2016

maybe they are switching the priorities on the fly, in microseconds.

need thrusters? set prio a.
need to shoot? set prio a, shut down otehr stuff.

I m sure you can get what I m suggestion. Still though.

PhanttoM · Jun 4, 2016

I tried to fiddle around with an Anaconda loadout on coriolis.io (quickly, it's not somethiing I'm gonna waste too much time on);
There are plenty of ways some (if not ALL) weapons can be operational along with engines.
Engines and shields use the most power, but it seems like weapons can only work if one or the other is offline.
http://coriolis.io/outfit/anaconda/...303----06044f055k------.AwRj4yo1Uo==.Aw18ZlA=

To find out whether or not it's a bug, one needs to state the EXACT combination of circumstances that happened, and then try to fiddle with power to see if there is something suspicious.
For example: Were it's shields not recharging? Are weapons mostly ammo based? Did some weapons appear to be offline? (more power for the working ones) What about utilities?

And that's without getting into whether a module is A, B, C, D or E (Higher rating uses more power), or what the actual priorities are set to.
We simply don't have access to any of this info.

YinYin · Jun 4, 2016

Genxav said:
lol are you serious? It's been a while since NPCS don't blow up when the pp gets to 0. But they shutdown completely.

0 power plant means 0 POWER period.

They used to shut down completely because NPCs didn't have any power priorities - thus the one group they had turned off all together at 50% output.

Now they have priorities so they can continue to use whatever still gets powered by 50% output.

jgm · Jun 4, 2016

YinYin said:
They used to shut down completely because NPCs didn't have any power priorities - thus the one group they had turned off all together at 50% output.

Now they have priorities so they can continue to use whatever still gets powered by 50% output.

I'm not sure that's true. The Anacondas I've taken down to 0% PP still grind to a halt.

OP: it might be that the reading was 0% but they had 0.2% or whatever left. I've seen fully functional Anacondas with 0% PP that stop after a few more hits.

PhanttoM · Jun 4, 2016

jgm said:
I'm not sure that's true. The Anacondas I've taken down to 0% PP still grind to a halt.

OP: it might be that the reading was 0% but they had 0.2% or whatever left. I've seen fully functional Anacondas with 0% PP that stop after a few more hits.

That's actually my experience as well. (Haven't seen an NPC behave the way OP describes)

Oh well, for a second I thought NPCs actually might have been put more in line with what players can/cannot do.

YinYin · Jun 4, 2016

They obviously don't all have the same priority groups set so some still shut down.

Pretty sure this is related to their rank.