Devs - It's Not Me, It's YOU.
- Thread starter shadragon
- Start date
I mainly run at Interdictions, unless the ranking is pretty low if I'm in a Python. I'm not a great combat pilot, my ships are always built for a middle ground between range, speed, and attack, so with little armour they're not really, well built for attack. 
So post 2.1 I run. I've got good dirty thrusters now which helps, but if I've wanted to run at an interdiction I've never failed providing I submit and keep true to my decision to flee.
It is different now, but consider this - if Elite worked like old fashioned gaming and did levels, and after year one we were on level two and after year three, level three etc, would we be so cagey about difficulty? Wouldn't we expect to have to be more thoughtful and strategic when we attacked and when we ran?
To me that's how I see it. I don't coast HasRes in an A-Grade Exploring Asp anymore. This is level 3. That would be mad unless your ship was built for combat and you were a good pilot, that would be insane at level 3!
You adapt, as you would any video game. Things get difficult, or different, you change tact.
So post 2.1 I run. I've got good dirty thrusters now which helps, but if I've wanted to run at an interdiction I've never failed providing I submit and keep true to my decision to flee.It is different now, but consider this - if Elite worked like old fashioned gaming and did levels, and after year one we were on level two and after year three, level three etc, would we be so cagey about difficulty? Wouldn't we expect to have to be more thoughtful and strategic when we attacked and when we ran?
To me that's how I see it. I don't coast HasRes in an A-Grade Exploring Asp anymore. This is level 3. That would be mad unless your ship was built for combat and you were a good pilot, that would be insane at level 3!
You adapt, as you would any video game. Things get difficult, or different, you change tact.
You need a lot of rep for this post. Those are mostly my sentiments too, although not as badly as I almost always fly in Wing these days.
Cheers Cmdr's
I have to agree with OP. The Ai is joke. The Ai dificulty is okey if you are in ship that is fitted for combat. Tho even then npc are boring because all of them have same one strategy and do same stuff no variations at all. When you want to fly low end ships or trading/mining builds then the ai is too harsh. I like to fly other ships that aren't optimal for combat like type 6, keelback etc. And when i am doing that it isn't fun to get interdicted by elite fdls and anacondas because i have one ton of some engineer commodity in my cargo hold.
The mechanic that npc difficulty is based on players combat or any other rating is bad and stupid. The npc difficulty should only depend on the area/system you are in or/and your reputation with local factions. Friendly or allied with pirate faction? Good no pirates will interdict you in that system because you are one of them. You are hostile or unfriendly with pirate faction because you farm them at nav beacon or res site? Bad for you because they are after you and send better npcs after you.
There should be ways to choose the what "level" of npc you want to meat and you should be able to effect to how often and where you get interdicted.
The mechanic that npc difficulty is based on players combat or any other rating is bad and stupid. The npc difficulty should only depend on the area/system you are in or/and your reputation with local factions. Friendly or allied with pirate faction? Good no pirates will interdict you in that system because you are one of them. You are hostile or unfriendly with pirate faction because you farm them at nav beacon or res site? Bad for you because they are after you and send better npcs after you.
There should be ways to choose the what "level" of npc you want to meat and you should be able to effect to how often and where you get interdicted.
Its a rather vague OP. The Tl;dr seems to be:
"Hello, I've spend large amounts of money and time on this game. Now I havent played it in a week. Fighting is really difficult in this game, I dont like that. Its not that I mind being killed, I like that in many other games. I dont like it in ED. Patches are cool, but I didnt like everything. I dont like powerplay for example. The ship transfer thing is stupid too, so the devs are shortsighted and stupid. But I like them and their vision a lot. Im looking forward to the new patch, but I hope they only add good stuff and not bad stuff I dont like. And you really shouldnt just use mines in combat. I dont use any mines myself. But if you do and they change it, you wont be able to use your mines as well anymore."
As for the combat, you've posted about this for quite some time, and all possible advice has been given by now. Not sure what can be added at this point...
"Hello, I've spend large amounts of money and time on this game. Now I havent played it in a week. Fighting is really difficult in this game, I dont like that. Its not that I mind being killed, I like that in many other games. I dont like it in ED. Patches are cool, but I didnt like everything. I dont like powerplay for example. The ship transfer thing is stupid too, so the devs are shortsighted and stupid. But I like them and their vision a lot. Im looking forward to the new patch, but I hope they only add good stuff and not bad stuff I dont like. And you really shouldnt just use mines in combat. I dont use any mines myself. But if you do and they change it, you wont be able to use your mines as well anymore."
As for the combat, you've posted about this for quite some time, and all possible advice has been given by now. Not sure what can be added at this point...
Mm, yeah...
I don't think I am that great a pilot either and honestly I am not finding NPCs horribly difficult. My combat rank is Deadly so I get high-rank NPCs as well.
Never used mines either. I usually fly a 'bomber' kind of Asp or an iCourier. FDL only when I head out to farm in HiRes/HazRes.
Try not flying a Python? So many people seem to be suffering flying that ship. It is a great ship, but the mobility drawback needs to be worked around. Use drag turrets like someone recommended.
I don't think I am that great a pilot either and honestly I am not finding NPCs horribly difficult. My combat rank is Deadly so I get high-rank NPCs as well.
Never used mines either. I usually fly a 'bomber' kind of Asp or an iCourier. FDL only when I head out to farm in HiRes/HazRes.
Try not flying a Python? So many people seem to be suffering flying that ship. It is a great ship, but the mobility drawback needs to be worked around. Use drag turrets like someone recommended.
Last edited:
That's a little on the uncharitable side, I think, in this situation - it's not as if Shadragon is a serial whiner for months and months.
There is something about the Python - almost like its stated armour rating is not really correct. For instance, I got killed last night by a deadly NPC bounty-hunter in an assault ship. The second my shields went down, I went for the low-wake - boosting as I went for maximum distance (I have grade 3 dirty drive mods, and boost to 407 with no cargo.) Before my FSD had time to charge (15 seconds) the FAS took out my entire hull. It wasn't armoured, so that's 460 hit points in less than 15 seconds. I know the NPC had a plasma accelerator, a burst laser and a multicannon, so that limits the possible permutations of the weapons loadout. The highest DPS I could get from those hardpoints (all fixed) was 17, which works out at 27 seconds TTK. Without engineer mods on the NPC's weapons that effectively doubled its DPS, it's basically impossible to die in the Python in that manner in that timescale. It's like the game decided that it was time for me to die, and there was sod-all I could do about it.
Last edited:
It's not the ships that determine one's survival in ED it's the pilot. I can run from every NPC in this game in a Sidewinder, and using FDL to travel to Engineers is silly, use other ships and swap modules.
Last edited:
Have you tried dropping cargo?
I just use my combat capable exploration Vulture to do pretty much everything, except for CG cargo hauling. It's relatively cheap, it's fun, and is reasonably capable.
Have around 19,500 LY on my way back from Jaques in my cargothon still though... With all this talk of instant ship transfers, it kind of makes the trip back feel meaningless. Haven't been able to bring myself to log back in after that announcement by Sandy at Gamescom. [blah]
This was a problem for many, but either FD changed something or we got knowledge of how to combat the interdictions. Haven't been able to win one, or even know if you can anymore. Keeping the crosshairs locked in the center seems to have no effect on you winning or not. My first 2 jumps back into the game after engineers where meet with unwarranted interdictions carrying no cargo, and instakilled after loosing the mini-game I thought I was winning. They still apparently haven't fixed these issues, but now instead of the outnumbered NPC against me, or the much larger vessel attacking I get a local pirate trying to make a few, and I always get away, but still don't even bother with the mini-game. It appears broken. Was once chain interdicted about 8 times in a row about 1.5km away from the station, and each time the NPC would pull me out 23ls away, then interdict me again right before I could safely exist SC. Talk about making you want to run and never touch the game again, I almost did.
You habe to throttle down to 0 if an NPC interdicts you. This will prevent your ship from turning in circles like hell after the interdiction. You then should immediately boost in 1 direction away from the NPC. Jump as soon as your FSD is back (which is quick as you did not twist before due to 0 throttle).
I realy realy am trying to understand your problem, you don't like to combat but keep on getting interdicted, just boost and run and ALWAYS submit !!! you do not have to engage ANY npc you just have to submit boost and jump !!!
The biggest mistake FD keeps making is being tight-lipped and letting peoples' imaginations run wild before showing or saying anything concrete.
With games that have a scope/scale as large as this, you can't do that - it's too open ended. Especially with season passes/crowdfunding, you can't treat the player base like that.
You'd end up with heaps of dissatisfied posters on the forums all the time, people arguing over inane things that don't change anything cause FDev gonna FDev... Oh wait.
With games that have a scope/scale as large as this, you can't do that - it's too open ended. Especially with season passes/crowdfunding, you can't treat the player base like that.
You'd end up with heaps of dissatisfied posters on the forums all the time, people arguing over inane things that don't change anything cause FDev gonna FDev... Oh wait.
I guess the problem is the way players approach the game - not saying that one way or the other is better or the right one, just different.
Players have different goals in this game, different motivations.
Recent changes to the game made it harder for some players to play the game the way they want. It changed the feeling of the game. Being able to run from every NPC in this game in a Sidewinder is different to liking that the player has to run from every NPC in this game.
It doesn't matter to players who want to do things in the best possible way - avoid NPC interdictions or run away or fly combat ships.
Maybe it's more about "playing the game" vs. "winning the game"?
Even with instant ship transfers the player still has to go to Jaques and back. It's still an epic journey (I spend most of the time hating and cursing to my self of using a combat ready Corvette - just for the "fun" of it).
Interdictions can still be won. I think there are some bugs that make interdictions impossible to win, but overall the interdictions just work. But the best strategy is not to get interdicted at all. NPCs are very polite and announce their plans most of the time a long time before they actually interdict you, enough time to do something about it.
Using an FDL to mat gather/run missions close to an engineer is not silly though..... especially when it's your FDL your tweaking.
I have indeed switched down to a cobra....and it's miles easier, and not because it's easier to run I'm getting interdicted by easy ships now because I'm flying a cheaper one.........which as I said....is silly.
To be fair Mr Fang you've always been a pirate and uber pro-combat. If you had your way interdictions would trigger a real life knife fight ...say it ain't so
Last edited:
The thing is, if a player isn't combat focused nor wants to do combat, then simply escape from NPCs which is very very simplistic.
If a player wishes to engage in combat, then pick the appropriate target and have the appropriate skill to do so.
I don't understand where all these complaints are coming from other than either out of ignorance or/and indolence.
- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -
I've been a pirate, yes. "Uber pro-combat," on the other hand, I wish I am but I'm probably sitting somewhere in the top 15%-20% out of all combat pilots, so definitely not a pro or a top gun/ace combat pilot.
Last edited:
It's still pretty good isn't it. What about the poor sods in the bottom 15-20%.
Anyway it's enough for me that you didn't make a denial about the knife fighting.... fair play to you sir.