I'm not much of a combat pilot but I've made some adjustments based on the feedback from this forum and I'm doing ok.
Is this what David Braben envisioned for ED to be known for in the future war of the space sims? As ED being The Least Common Denominator of the Space Sims? I don't think it is. And if it is, then it's sad.
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Plus, the enemies who are interdicting you are way off for a normal player in the ship outfitted for trade (and I suppose also for mining for example. I did not tested mining). I was able to run every time, but I am a bit experienced player, with approx. 850 hours in ED, I am using X-52Pro HOTAS and in combat ship, I do not have any problems with AI in combat zones etc. But for average, non combat oriented player, it must be Hell on Earth.
I really think that AI is OK, it should stay where it is, but FD really needs to tame NPCs when it comes to unwanted combat and interdictions. For player (regardless of combat rank) doing trade/mining/exploration/non-combat missions etc. the unwanted close encouter with hostile NPC should be rare. Something they want to write home about, not something they must see ten times per hour.
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Soon we'll see the game nerfed back again into toddler difficulty, so that people who can't be bothered to learn how to play the game can be appeased, and go back to "click on braindead, parked in front of weapons NPCs to make them pop" and play while semi-afk.
Except you're eventually end up with mostly just the "old, inform, very young, those fitted with wooden legs, the blind, the deaf, and the terminally stupid", as a game which amount of challenge is tuned to toddler level will make everyone else feel unchallenged and lose interest over time. And you'll get stuck with the toddlers and push away the normal players (not just the "pros"). If FD wants to maximize sales, they have to aim for the "middle range players", the "average", the "normal" playes, not for the "top pros", but most certainly not for the least common denominator.
A lot of my friends purchased this game shortly after me. I am the only one still playing, mostly because the real (mostly) galaxy appeals to my inner armchair astronomer. The rest of them got bored and bolted before even the powerlay update dropped.
If you look at all these whinging threads about the AI, and look at the way these people are losing their ships, people unable to run away with Cobras, people unable to survive and escape an interdiction while flying anacondas, people who don't manage pips, who run in straight lines, that carry chaff but don't even have a key binded to launch it, who can't even dock their ships themselves, who find being unable to out turn eagles in a corvette "a bug", people who don't know nor care to know 10% of the game mechanics.
Completely clueless about the game they are playing, and completely unable to overcome any kind of tiny obstacle, actually even worse, they consider any kind of obstacle "a game breaking bug that needs to be fixed". And mostly completely unwilling to try to improve, or change their ways in order to overcome obstacles, they prefer to boo-hoo until FD bends over and re-enables trained chimp difficulty again. You've certainly seen all these theads over the past couple weeks, no point in going on further.
Soon we'll see the game nerfed back again into toddler difficulty, so that people who can't be bothered to learn how to play the game can be appeased, and go back to "click on braindead, parked in front of weapons NPCs to make them pop" and play while semi-afk.
Is this what David Braben envisioned for ED to be known for in the future war of the space sims? As ED being The Least Common Denominator of the Space Sims? I don't think it is. And if it is, then it's sad.
I don't imagine David Braben envisioned ED to be known for its toxic forums filled with bilious elitists either, but lo and behold if it hasn't come to passCoupled with "known for grind", "known for too much RNG", "known for resembling a Skinner box experiment", "known for taking the extreme long view" and "known for causing chaos with every major patch", I'd maybe even hazard to say that present circumstances are probably about as far from what was envisioned for Elite as it's possible to get.
Still reserving judgment on the AI. Some of it seems less bugged but ninja speed, excessive interdictions and ramming behaviour are all still there. Something doesn't feel quite "right" just yet either, hard to put a finger on.
As a matter of fact. IF THEY DO CRAP like this, THEY have to compensate our expenses!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
we spend millions and millions of credits to get the ships and their configuration and spend weeks months and more to find the besst combination of configuration.
if these apes then change EVERYTHING so the configuration is useless, the weapons are useless and even SAME ships can rotate faster then you although u got the same ship. they have to compensate.
OR they give every pilot 10mill credits compensation, apologize to us cmdrs and take back this useless crap. if they want "realistic" combats - ok - but THEN they have to give us better thrusters too. and y the f my weapons suddenly dont hurt the AI ship anymore--- i dont get it. really im so damn now.
im really close to uninstall the game because i really HATE being abused as a unpayed feature tester. ED may pay me for this stress. otherwise they need to apologize
f ... angry...
Ok, got back to a system to get myself a Sidewinder to try this out...
A big part of the problem with people saying that the AI is "just right" or "too easy" is that they aren't thinking from the perspective of everyone who plays this game. If they had started when the AI was like this, they probably wouldn't have gotten very far. Sure the AI can be defeated easily when you have the best combat ships with the best loadouts, with the best HOTAS setups, know all the tricks and have mastered FA off because you've been playing for over a year. I couldn't even suggest this game to anyone coming in fresh with the AI as it is now.
A big part of the problem with people saying that the AI is "just right" or "too easy" is that they aren't thinking from the perspective of everyone who plays this game. If they had started when the AI was like this, they probably wouldn't have gotten very far. Sure the AI can be defeated easily when you have the best combat ships with the best loadouts, with the best HOTAS setups, know all the tricks and have mastered FA off because you've been playing for over a year. I couldn't even suggest this game to anyone coming in fresh with the AI as it is now.