News NPC AI update

[Tecker]

That is the problem.
There are two groups of players with mutually exclusive expectations.

One group wants to play space sim/flight game. With things like cockpit view only, realistic (or at least close to that) physics, logical limitation to cargo. And NPCs imitating real humans as close as possible.
Second group wants an MMO. With 3rd person combat, randomly-generated armor/weapon “enchantments”, grindable resources. And NPCs divided into “trash mobs”, “raid bosses” that need a party (“wing” in terms of this game) to defeat, and so on.

Looks like second group is winning.
At the beginning, the game was developed as “spiritual successor” to original Elite. But FD made a lot of steps lately to convert space flight game into MMO.


P.S. You said about “Progress of the Game” like it strictly defined and applicable to every player. But in fact definition of the “progress” and “goal” is a very subjective thing.
For one player it is to accumulate 100 billions of Cr and have the biggest and most expensive ship. For another – kill 1000 novice players in A-graded corvette “for the fun of it”. Someone wants to put his name on as many systems as possible. Someone is happy to care of his “pet faction” in God-forgotten system.

ED never becomes a real MMO and i don´t want a real MMO.
But what is the Finish of a Game like ED?
I think the goal is to realise your personal wishes.
For some Players the Goal is to have hard fights with a challaging AI.
For some Players its the Exploration.
Other Players want to trade and fly with Billions of Credits in the Pockets.
And some Players want to fly the biggest and best avaible Ships.
But at the Moment some of these Goals are nearly impossible to reach for some Players.
A trader is like a Truck Driver.
A Trucker must not be a good Soldier.
So why is the largest Tradeship (Type 9 Heavy) a easy Target for nearly every NPC?
And a Explorer is like a Scientist and not a Soldier.
Why a Explorer must live in Fear of losing all of his Data when he enters a System with a NPC in it?
The Game was designet to let the Player play in a gigantic Universe without Boarders.
He can chose his own Path of Gameplay.
Hard NPC´s forcing Players do be good in Combat and thats a Boarder for some Players.

 

[Mordhar]

ED never becomes a real MMO and i don´t want a real MMO.
But what is the Finish of a Game like ED?
I think the goal is to realise your personal wishes.
For some Players the Goal is to have hard fights with a challaging AI.
For some Players its the Exploration.
Other Players want to trade and fly with Billions of Credits in the Pockets.
And some Players want to fly the biggest and best avaible Ships.
But at the Moment some of these Goals are nearly impossible to reach for some Players.
A trader is like a Truck Driver.
A Trucker must not be a good Soldier.
So why is the largest Tradeship (Type 9 Heavy) a easy Target for nearly every NPC?
And a Explorer is like a Scientist and not a Soldier.
Why a Explorer must live in Fear of losing all of his Data when he enters a System with a NPC in it?
The Game was designet to let the Player play in a gigantic Universe without Boarders.
He can chose his own Path of Gameplay.
Hard NPC´s forcing Players do be good in Combat and thats a Boarder for some Players.

Very good point!
But I think problem is NOT in AI difficulty. It is in NPC’s rank distribution and extremely frequent combat.
There also a problem with how frequently players forced to participate in combat. When attacked you on your own even in high-security system. Even if local police forces drop at your location – they do NOTHING! Wing of three anacondas ram you and try to scan for illegal cargo, while completely ignoring that FDL who ripping apart last 10% of your hull. Familiar sight, is it not?

Rank distribution needs some revision. Logic suggests that not everyone should be great aces, one of few hundreds, not every third.
And those combat pilots should be military personnel (it is logical position for highly trained combatants), thus restricted mostly to CZs or high-value military convoys. If you attack one – it is obviously your choice and you should be prepared for the fight.
Or bounty hunters (another logical position for combat professional). And if you have few millions bounty on your head – you probably not a miner/trader/explorer.
Pirate lords with such skill are possible, but they should be rare, certainly not hundreds of them in single system.

In this case, players who chose roles of non-combatants will sometimes face some common robbers, without military training and on cheap ships. Exactly as pirates are expected to be.

And if you wish a career of combat pilot (bounty hunter, mercenary, pirate) and want to fight – be ready to face skilled and well-armed opponents. Risk is the part of the job, am I right?


In my opinion, current AI is well suited for medium range of NPCs. They imitate average human COMBAT pilots well. However, there should be non-combatants also, as well as “aces”.
NPCs with “harmless” and “mostly harmless” ranks obviously need nerf to pre-2.1 level. To make them “cannon fodder” which everyone, regardless of skill level, can effortlessly farm.
It is because these NPCs designed to “take role” of novices, non-combatants or extremely bad pilots.

On the other hand, high ranked NPCs (“deadly” and “elite”) need to be even harder. They are “best combat pilots in the galaxy”, veterans and aces with a lot of combat experience. And killing even single in one-on-one combat should be very difficult.

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

Very good point!
But I think problem is NOT in AI difficulty. It is in NPC’s rank distribution and extremely frequent combat.
There also a problem with how frequently players forced to participate in combat. When attacked you on your own even in high-security system. Even if local police forces drop at your location – they do NOTHING! Wing of three anacondas ram you and try to scan for illegal cargo, while completely ignoring that FDL who ripping apart last 10% of your hull. Familiar sight, is it not?

Rank distribution needs some revision. Logic suggests that not everyone should be great aces, one of few hundreds, not every third.
And those combat pilots should be military personnel (it is logical position for highly trained combatants), thus restricted mostly to CZs or high-value military convoys. If you attack one – it is obviously your choice and you should be prepared for the fight.
Or bounty hunters (another logical position for combat professional). And if you have few millions bounty on your head – you probably not a miner/trader/explorer.
Pirate lords with such skill are possible, but they should be rare, certainly not hundreds of them in single system.

In this case, players who chose roles of non-combatants will sometimes face some common robbers, without military training and on cheap ships. Exactly as pirates are expected to be.

And if you wish a career of combat pilot (bounty hunter, mercenary, pirate) and want to fight – be ready to face skilled and well-armed opponents. Risk is the part of the job, am I right?


In my opinion, current AI is well suited for medium range of NPCs. They imitate average human COMBAT pilots well. However, there should be non-combatants also, as well as “aces”.
NPCs with “harmless” and “mostly harmless” ranks obviously need nerf to pre-2.1 level. To make them “cannon fodder” which everyone, regardless of skill level, can effortlessly farm.
It is because these NPCs designed to “take role” of novices, non-combatants or extremely bad pilots.

On the other hand, high ranked NPCs (“deadly” and “elite”) need to be even harder. They are “best combat pilots in the galaxy”, veterans and aces with a lot of combat experience. And killing even single in one-on-one combat should be very difficult.

This I agree with. I think the AI is virtually dead on. It's just that it is mostly dangerous, deadly and elite ships that keep interdictions people. That needs work on, not the AI apart from some minor tweets.

Harmless ships are still very easy, half of them fly without shields etc.

 

[oranginam]

ED never becomes a real MMO and i don´t want a real MMO.
But what is the Finish of a Game like ED?
I think the goal is to realise your personal wishes.
For some Players the Goal is to have hard fights with a challaging AI.
For some Players its the Exploration.
Other Players want to trade and fly with Billions of Credits in the Pockets.
And some Players want to fly the biggest and best avaible Ships.
But at the Moment some of these Goals are nearly impossible to reach for some Players.
A trader is like a Truck Driver.
A Trucker must not be a good Soldier.
So why is the largest Tradeship (Type 9 Heavy) a easy Target for nearly every NPC?
And a Explorer is like a Scientist and not a Soldier.
Why a Explorer must live in Fear of losing all of his Data when he enters a System with a NPC in it?
The Game was designet to let the Player play in a gigantic Universe without Boarders.
He can chose his own Path of Gameplay.
Hard NPC´s forcing Players do be good in Combat and thats a Boarder for some Players.

i agree this.

Elite is a MMO only if playing in open mode.
But if play, like me and most other, is in single mode this not a MMO, or only in CG. Trade, mission, exploration, minning or NPC's Bounty is not MMO.
I repeat my think, Integrate choice of difficulty level in single mode or make an offline mode is the better solution for everyone.
later..

 

[relbourn]

I logged in again after a 2 week break from the game, and got attacked about 20 secs after leaving the station, I work for the Fed, I am allied to the empire in an empire system, and I get attacked by torvals shield. The station doesn't do anything to help, I get fined if I ram them. I simply dont get it. Is this the new game I need to adjust to or don't the elite development team know what they are doing?

 

[oranginam]

OK, that enough...
agian 4.5M insurance for my FDL.
FA off, boost, fa on, pipe system shoot, fa off, pipe engine, fa on, pipe system, shoot, bla bla bla bla bla bla.
I AM NOT A PRO FIGHTER !!!
game is for fun, game is for play.
all that are not fun.
hour and hour to minning, missions, trading, explore for finally buy the FDL full fitting of my dream, just 105M !!!
OK, it's just a game, it's not life, OK i a m a bad fighter, but i am customers too, i have pay for play, i have pay ED, i have pay horizon, i have pay paint...
I have pay for play, not for that...
Frontier is deaf at ours request, OK.. i just have make an origin account, i'll go to play at a real fun game !!!

By all
fly safe...
maybe later...

 

[manos70131]

Agreed. But no one can argue that the AI pre 2.1 was challenging. I buy the argument that the AI needs to be dialed down with lower ranks NPCs but that's it.

Well my friend I cannot know if the game was any challenge before 2.1 for many but do you believe that there were no ships destroyed before 2.1? I don't have the statisic but I was destroyed 6 times by the previous AI in the 4 months I was playing. Sure there were some dumb spinning NPCs. But there were some very strong Clippers too that once they put you in their line of fire, it was a quick death for some of us.
I'm not saying that to ask for the new AI to be removed. But the lower skilled in combat players would like to play the game too. I can say for myself that I cannot fight today any NPC I have met after 2.1 without sustaining hull damage and that I have fled from about half of the fights that were imposed on me (by interdictions). I used to go to RES sites but I dare not do that any more. Maybe I don't know the basics. Can't say. What I can say is that if this game remained as it is, it would better pass potential buyers from fighing tests and reject those that are not good enough to play. Make the game something like a Starfleet Academy.

 

[Manticore]

It's not a fair comment.... Solo mode isn't easy mode. NPCs are programmed to mimic humans. The new AI has done just that. I applaud FD.

No that wouldn't be fair. There are plenty that play solo but like the AI to be a challenge and not a walkover.

I said it's a fair comment. This is a forum.

If you don't understand the meaning, nature, context and etymology of the word "comment" there are plenty of online dictionaries and thesaurus you can find; they also contain the word "forum".

To say what you said just makes any opinion(s) you have here less valid. Obviously not everyone on these forums agree with your opinion(s). Does this trouble you greatly?

I'd say so by your reaction(s). Your opinion(s) are no more valid here than anyone elses'.

(I'm sorry; perhaps English isn't your native tongue. That's too bad as it's all over the internet these days).

 

[Ronin77]

So today's AI report.
Flying a type 7 transporter
B Class Shield with 4 x A class Booster's, armed with mines.

Interdiction, Asp Explorer
1st shot Shields Destroyed...Not just knocked out totally Destroyed.
2nd shot hull at 15%
3rd shot ..eject

Insurance cost approx 1.5 million plus 200+ cargo lost, cartographic info and any outstanding bounties lost.
Probably about 3 million overall.
Wasting my time trying to grind for credits to get into an Anaconda.
I cant see new player's making any head way with the game the way it is now.
Costing me too much in insurance claims. I wont try playing any more until i see a Major New Update.
Good luck to you all.

 

[Otherwhere]

So today's AI report.
Flying a type 7 transporter
B Class Shield with 4 x A class Booster's, armed with mines.

Interdiction, Asp Explorer
1st shot Shields Destroyed...Not just knocked out totally Destroyed.
2nd shot hull at 15%
3rd shot ..eject

Insurance cost approx 1.5 million plus 200+ cargo lost, cartographic info and any outstanding bounties lost.
Probably about 3 million overall.
Wasting my time trying to grind for credits to get into an Anaconda.
I cant see new player's making any head way with the game the way it is now.
Costing me too much in insurance claims. I wont try playing any more until i see a Major New Update.
Good luck to you all.

Thanks, Ronin!

I am a new player, and it is small comfort to hear about veterans having the same experience. I can't make any headway, and the game is not fun!

 

[CMDR Sheehy]

Well my friend I cannot know if the game was any challenge before 2.1 for many but do you believe that there were no ships destroyed before 2.1? I don't have the statisic but I was destroyed 6 times by the previous AI in the 4 months I was playing. Sure there were some dumb spinning NPCs. But there were some very strong Clippers too that once they put you in their line of fire, it was a quick death for some of us.
I'm not saying that to ask for the new AI to be removed. But the lower skilled in combat players would like to play the game too. I can say for myself that I cannot fight today any NPC I have met after 2.1 without sustaining hull damage and that I have fled from about half of the fights that were imposed on me (by interdictions). I used to go to RES sites but I dare not do that any more. Maybe I don't know the basics. Can't say. What I can say is that if this game remained as it is, it would better pass potential buyers from fighing tests and reject those that are not good enough to play. Make the game something like a Starfleet Academy.

Pre 2.1 - Died once from NPC in the early days during the Beta just before going live. Every other death was just stupidity (Boost in to the back of the station, anyone? Anyone who hasn't done that just hasn't lived Elite Dangerous...) Never met an NPC I could not either run from or kill.

Post 2.1.02 (even!!!) Helpless death in twice in four hours from un-fightable, un-run-away-able NPCs. Even had this super-douper new System Security AI jump in at the same time and... stand by an watch me die without firing a single shot.

What have I done? Shifted down a gear - bought a Keelback and can carry the same cargo. Put on turrets. I've never used turrets before - never had to!!!

 

[Mordhar]

Sorry if my ramblings will look like another “git gud” post to you.

I follow this tread for some time. Many people are complaining about how they were able to destroy every enemy before, and how it “not fun” now.
I think it is a bad habit acquired in pre-2.1 versions of the game. Some people are get used to win EVERY fight, regardless of difference in ship’s characteristics and/or enemy numbers.
It may be fun to slaughter hundreds of combat ships in your space truck and feel like almighty superhero. But it finally over (I hope forever).

I am not a very good combat pilot myself. I think I reached my limit and probably cannot play much better. There are others with better reflexes, faster reaction time, more precise control. They are just younger.
I still can take out enemy NPC’s ship of the same class or lower, with good chances of success. If I have no other choice, I can try to fight better-equipped enemy and hope to be lucky enough to survive. But if I interdicted by combat ship while in my exploration Asp, then I put max pips in shields/engines and repeatedly press boost button while my FSD charging.
These tactics will not make me a hero or combat ace, but will save me insurance cost and my exploration data.


Imagine you piloting boeing-747 and intercepted by fighter plane. The best course of action is to comply with his demands and hope he let you live. And if you have a chance to run away without too much damage then you incredibly lucky.
Another example: armed robber point a gun at you and asks classical question “your money or your life”. And you expect to beat him senseless, take HIS money (along with gun and shoes) and walk away without even breaking a sweat. Really?!
However, in similar situations in Elite people do not want to comply with demands or run. They want to turn around and fight. And expect to win!

Pirates demand you to drop cargo, threatening to kill you otherwise. They actually can do this now.
So drop part of your cargo, put 4 pips in shields and high-wake away while he is busy scooping. But if you too greedy, or want to play hero, or pirate just decide to kill you anyway, well… you should have your insurance money ready.

 

[Ronin77]

Sorry if my ramblings will look like another “git gud” post to you.

I follow this tread for some time. Many people are complaining about how they were able to destroy every enemy before, and how it “not fun” now.
I think it is a bad habit acquired in pre-2.1 versions of the game. Some people are get used to win EVERY fight, regardless of difference in ship’s characteristics and/or enemy numbers.
It may be fun to slaughter hundreds of combat ships in your space truck and feel like almighty superhero. But it finally over (I hope forever).

I am not a very good combat pilot myself. I think I reached my limit and probably cannot play much better. There are others with better reflexes, faster reaction time, more precise control. They are just younger.
I still can take out enemy NPC’s ship of the same class or lower, with good chances of success. If I have no other choice, I can try to fight better-equipped enemy and hope to be lucky enough to survive. But if I interdicted by combat ship while in my exploration Asp, then I put max pips in shields/engines and repeatedly press boost button while my FSD charging.
These tactics will not make me a hero or combat ace, but will save me insurance cost and my exploration data.


Imagine you piloting boeing-747 and intercepted by fighter plane. The best course of action is to comply with his demands and hope he let you live. And if you have a chance to run away without too much damage then you incredibly lucky.
Another example: armed robber point a gun at you and asks classical question “your money or your life”. And you expect to beat him senseless, take HIS money (along with gun and shoes) and walk away without even breaking a sweat. Really?!
However, in similar situations in Elite people do not want to comply with demands or run. They want to turn around and fight. And expect to win!

Pirates demand you to drop cargo, threatening to kill you otherwise. They actually can do this now.
So drop part of your cargo, put 4 pips in shields and high-wake away while he is busy scooping. But if you too greedy, or want to play hero, or pirate just decide to kill you anyway, well… you should have your insurance money ready.

I posted earlier about losing my Type 7 Transport, i have lost several ships recently. All seem to be random Interdictions by Super NPC's who never miss a shot.
They say the Engineer weapons upgrades have been removed form NPC's but would like to know if that also applies too Thrusters & Shield's.
Prior to losing that ship i was in a High Rez Zone with my Mk4 Viper, had no problem cleaning up over a Million credits in Bounties, but i dont want to only do combat in controlled area's with security forces there to bail me out if it gets tough going.
Also smaller ships are cheaper on insurance but again i don't want to fly only cheap ships.
What i do want is the whole experience , Trading ,Exploring & some Combat, not a badly balanced game where Super NPC's can turn up on occasion and you have no chance to fight them at all.
Oh and by the way , i havn't bought "The Horizon's DLC" so i shouldn't be seeing any stuff to do with Engineer's.
Most other Games that Have DLC the primary game is unaffected by DLC unless you purchase it first.
Once again this is looking like a case of Extortion, "BUY Horizons or your game will become unplayable"

Would like to see some comment from the Developers on this issue please.

 

[Manticore]

I wont try playing any more until i see a Major New Update.
Good luck to you all.

Fair enough.......... good luck to you too.

 

[CMDR Sheehy]

Sorry if my ramblings will look like another “git gud” post to you.

I follow this tread for some time. Many people are complaining about how they were able to destroy every enemy before, and how it “not fun” now.
I think it is a bad habit acquired in pre-2.1 versions of the game. Some people are get used to win EVERY fight, regardless of difference in ship’s characteristics and/or enemy numbers.
It may be fun to slaughter hundreds of combat ships in your space truck and feel like almighty superhero. But it finally over (I hope forever).

I am not a very good combat pilot myself. I think I reached my limit and probably cannot play much better. There are others with better reflexes, faster reaction time, more precise control. They are just younger.
I still can take out enemy NPC’s ship of the same class or lower, with good chances of success. If I have no other choice, I can try to fight better-equipped enemy and hope to be lucky enough to survive. But if I interdicted by combat ship while in my exploration Asp, then I put max pips in shields/engines and repeatedly press boost button while my FSD charging.
These tactics will not make me a hero or combat ace, but will save me insurance cost and my exploration data.


Imagine you piloting boeing-747 and intercepted by fighter plane. The best course of action is to comply with his demands and hope he let you live. And if you have a chance to run away without too much damage then you incredibly lucky.
Another example: armed robber point a gun at you and asks classical question “your money or your life”. And you expect to beat him senseless, take HIS money (along with gun and shoes) and walk away without even breaking a sweat. Really?!
However, in similar situations in Elite people do not want to comply with demands or run. They want to turn around and fight. And expect to win!

Pirates demand you to drop cargo, threatening to kill you otherwise. They actually can do this now.
So drop part of your cargo, put 4 pips in shields and high-wake away while he is busy scooping. But if you too greedy, or want to play hero, or pirate just decide to kill you anyway, well… you should have your insurance money ready.

Many of us with the "reaction time" problem are those who played the original Elite. Anyone who has remembers that if you tooled up sufficiently, you did not have to be the world's greatest combat pilot. Pre-2.1 was very reminiscent of those days, and it was only other human pilots that you had to worry about (something you could deal with by going Solo.)

With the sudden ramp up of the AI over a single update, the entire field has changed. So maybe this was the way it was originally envisaged. Well, Sarah-Jane, your day is here and your minions are evil.

But guess what - everyone has ranked up in combat based on pre-2.1 NPC now can't manage NPC of their rank. And seeing the ranking is based on "The only way is up" everyone except the fastest reacting and skilled pilots will eventually (sorry inevitably) reach a level where the NPCs are too overpowered (tactically) for the skill and reaction time. There is no balance to this - no way for the skill level to be dynamic according to the actual skill of the pilot.

Git Gud ignores the realities that some people simply cannot improve beyond a certain level and the only way out for these people is to reset save and start again, or reserve their play to the dark dank corners of safe space where, if they are lucky, SA vessels can turn up and watch them get destroyed by yet another overpowered (for their actual skill) NPC.

 

[InlineSix]

Ronin77, file a bug report.

Had a similar encounter yesterday.

Interdicted. Submitted. Submit failed. Tumbling with 360 degrees plus per second (!) whilst the interdictor was stable and shooting at me.

1st shot: Shields off
2nd shot: down to 70% hull
3rd shot: down to 45% hull

Tumbling stopped, managed to evade further attacks, cops helped out, survived.

Once got shot by 2 x c4 plasmas (player) in an asp. It was LESS damage back then.

- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -

Git Gud ignores the realities that some people simply cannot improve beyond a certain level and the only way out for these people is to reset save and start again, or reserve their play to the dark dank corners of safe space where, if they are lucky, SA vessels can turn up and watch them get destroyed by yet another overpowered (for their actual skill) NPC.

Hey, old man, another old man talking. With all given respect, the new AI is survivable without problems (as long as you don't meet the occasional 500MJ damage-in-one-shot-Viper). Seriously, I haven't had a single loss on NPC (only on a 4wing of idiots) since 2.1. dropped.

 

[CMDR Kantos Kan]

Sorry if my ramblings will look like another “git gud” post to you.

I follow this tread for some time. Many people are complaining about how they were able to destroy every enemy before, and how it “not fun” now.
I think it is a bad habit acquired in pre-2.1 versions of the game. Some people are get used to win EVERY fight, regardless of difference in ship’s characteristics and/or enemy numbers.
It may be fun to slaughter hundreds of combat ships in your space truck and feel like almighty superhero. But it finally over (I hope forever).

I am not a very good combat pilot myself. I think I reached my limit and probably cannot play much better. There are others with better reflexes, faster reaction time, more precise control. They are just younger.
I still can take out enemy NPC’s ship of the same class or lower, with good chances of success. If I have no other choice, I can try to fight better-equipped enemy and hope to be lucky enough to survive. But if I interdicted by combat ship while in my exploration Asp, then I put max pips in shields/engines and repeatedly press boost button while my FSD charging.
These tactics will not make me a hero or combat ace, but will save me insurance cost and my exploration data.


Imagine you piloting boeing-747 and intercepted by fighter plane. The best course of action is to comply with his demands and hope he let you live. And if you have a chance to run away without too much damage then you incredibly lucky.
Another example: armed robber point a gun at you and asks classical question “your money or your life”. And you expect to beat him senseless, take HIS money (along with gun and shoes) and walk away without even breaking a sweat. Really?!
However, in similar situations in Elite people do not want to comply with demands or run. They want to turn around and fight. And expect to win!

Pirates demand you to drop cargo, threatening to kill you otherwise. They actually can do this now.
So drop part of your cargo, put 4 pips in shields and high-wake away while he is busy scooping. But if you too greedy, or want to play hero, or pirate just decide to kill you anyway, well… you should have your insurance money ready.

Except that if you're piloting a Boeing 747, you're not intercepted by a fighter plane every 5 minutes. Or if you're quietly walking down the street, there isn't a bad guy pointing a gun at you and asking for your money every 5 minutes...

 

[Insomnia]

Except that if you're piloting a Boeing 747, you're not intercepted by a fighter plane every 5 minutes. Or if you're quietly walking down the street, there isn't a bad guy pointing a gun at you and asking for your money every 5 minutes...

Agreed. I feel there are more pirates in Elite than there are police and civilians... This is something that surely will be fixed in the future.

 

[Turjan]

It would be a good thing for Elite NPC pilots to behave like they're actually Elite - that is logical and no one would dispute that.

But the piece of logic everyone (traders, pew-pewers, and "git gud"ers alike) should be agreeing on is this :


It simply is not statistically credible to have so many high ranked NPCs in the galaxy.


The logic is the same, whether your leaning is towards Sims or Arcade or full-on MMORPG : low skilled opponents should be common, but highly skilled opponents should be rare.

Because that's how things work you see. If something is not common, it's exceptional. You have the rule, the 'norm'...and you have the 'exception'. By definition exceptional is not common.

If every other ship we encounter in Elite is ranked Dangerous, Deadly or Elite (which seems to be what a lot of Cmdrs are complaining about right now), then it makes a mockery of the fact exceptional skills are supposed to be exceptional. You may as just shift the skill descriptions to accommodate the disproportionate numbers by making "Competent" into "Harmless" and "Deadly" into "Competent" because they're so common.

THAT'S what's at the heart of the issue here - 90% of the NPCs we face should be ranked no higher than Expert, because even "Experts" in any field are rare. And anything higher than an expert should be incredibly rare.

 

[outbackjosiah]

As much as I hated the new AI at first, I would argue that it is not the biggest problem here. The biggest problem is the countless bugs with regards to AI ship and weapons capabilities that far out match player ships of equal class. I 100% agree that the pre-2.1 AI needed a fix. I don't know how many spinning anacondas I destroyed because the AI pilot forgot he was in combat. That being said, I still encounter similar bugs with the new AI not fighting back occasionally. However, I think Frontier dialed the AI from 1 straight to 100 overnight...a bit much, honestly. Regardless of AI capabilities, AI pythons and anacondas should not make sharper, quicker turns than eagles and vipers, but that is happening. Regardless AI capabilities, an AI cobra should not be able to punch through 60% of military composite haul on a python in less than 2 seconds with beams and multi-cannons, but that did happen to me. My other issue - somewhat related to this - is that sometimes I cannot distinguish between an actual update or a bug. In particular, is it now possible for AI to destroy ship modules while shields are still at 90%? This has happened to me more times than I can count since 2.1. I submitted this in a ticket 2 days ago, and while they graciously refunded my lost credits, they did not address this concern. I was basically told to choose my targets more carefully, so I'm still wondering what all is possible in Elite nowadays... I don't want Frontier to take the AI back to square one, but they obviously bit off more than they could chew with this last update. No one can truthfully disagree with that. I also don't think difficulty levels need to be implemented. I think common ground can easily be found. One last thing: As someone who bounty hunts for a living in Elite, I think with AI improvements should come increased bounties. It was a grind enough bounty hunting before 2.1 - albeit an easier grind, but a grind nonetheless. Now, I make 300,000 - 500,000 before heading back to reload/repair. That's 2-3 times as many trips from station to RES. I work every single day and don't have time to grind all week to make enough to buy a single module for my ship, but that does not mean my experience should be infringed in any way.