Why is it that you and others belittle and insult someone for their post? That is his/her experience, same as you or anyone else's and entitled to post it. This so lame, "git gud", "you can't fly". Everyone can't be as talented as you may possibly be, if you are, congratulations! Now it is up to FD to decide where to strike a balance for all players, because if they made the game only for aces such as you, the game WOULD NOT EXIST.
I just took on an elite Cobra that interdicted me for some worthless cargo I had on board. I decided I wasn't going to run and I ended up taking it out. However, this Cobra had uncanny marksmanship and managed to take all four of my FAS weapons, 2 3Cg lasers and 2 2Ft MC to less than 30% and also 76% hull. It also expended CONTINUOUS CHAFF, until the very end. Worst of all, he was lawless and no bounty to offset 88K of repairs. This is why my A-Class Python sits in spaceport, it can't dogfight well enough and damage is expensive, for little return.
In case you haven't read the posts, there many players that are losing multiple expensive ships under the same circumstances as the OP. BTW if you are sitting on pile of CR's you made while the game was easier, think how newbies will feel if tried to amass a similar amount today.
"Starship Troopers"
Robert Heinlein
in fairness, what was being said is true, could maybe just have been put in a better way..
yes many of us levelled under easier ai pre 2.1, the intention was always to have the ai being more player like in terms of the way it behaves, it just took time and lots of data in order to model it correctly. as for new players.. they are learning the game with the new ai, and start at low ranks so will be dealing with lower ranked npc's with less effective equipment. the issue isn't with the ai in itself, it is in our understanding of it, and our inexperience of dealing with it.
my 1st day back in game after 2.1 was released, i had 2 very costly visits to the rebuy screen for my trader/mining python. at that point i realised things had changed, so looked through the patch notes, beta threads an on reddit. there were quite a few upset posts and git gud posts.. however, there were also a lot of detailed posts, explaining how the ai were working, what kind of builds they were using (not all of them were using mods incorrectly) and how best to deal with them depending on what you were flying.
im a carebear solo trader, that enjoys the occasional trip to a ring system for some mining. im not all that great at combat.. i have a persistent head tremor, and periodic hand spasms amongst a few other things, so control can sometimes be, well things can get suddenly very interesting around stations. but i am willing to try new things and listen to the advice of others. so i parked up the python.. got myself a
DBScout took on board the advice of others, then immediately set off to take part in a Bounty Hunting CG, just normal navs and normal res's.
it is surprising how much you can pick up without even firing a shot off.. didn't even get my weapons out, just scanned npc's and followed anything wanted until they were attacked by the authority vessels, and then i just practiced maneuvering and sticking to their rear arc as they were in combat. after i got a feel for the ship, i would scan and follow till it was attacked, or look for combat already going on, and then wait till shields were down and join in. learnt loads, discovered a great little ship.. you can do anything with it, even dipped my toe in smuggling. and now i am back in my python.. with a little less cargo space than before.. but better shields.. better engines.. and a better idea of what i am doing.
overall i managed to get comfortable with the way things were prior to them removing the mods from npc's , well, excluding rapid fire plasma ofc, no 1 could get used to that lol.. but even with the mods removed, and bugs being patched the ai will still be a challenge, more so for those who levelled pre 2.1 and never really learned much in the way of tactics and maneuvering. im still not great.. never will be lol, but i know when to run and when to fight, and more importantly ..how!
we can continue to blame the game, and try and force frontier to dumb the ai back down and make it like it was.. but that wouldn't be fair to new players, experienced combatant players, or the many in between who have taken the time to learn new skills and adjust to the ai.