So... the AI ships cheat?

blaze53

blaze53
How exactly can an Eagle repeatedly fire two railguns (and mount seeker missiles) at regular intervals? Why do distributors not apply to the AI ships? Doing the CG in Gandii is getting irritating because I keep running into scores of Eagles that annihilate the friendly forces due to this massive imbalance.

Speaking of seeker missiles... do I not understand how they work? I've been having ships with seeker missiles fire when I'm well past their front quadrant, and I've even had a Vulture fire a plasma accelerator shot when the angle, 180 degrees being behind, was approximately 140-150 degrees. Ships also don't seem to suffer range drawbacks because I will repeatedly be shot 2.5km away by lasers, railguns, plasma accelerators, seeker missiles, the like, and I STILL take damage.

Kind of a ranty post, I know, but I'm curious as to whether I'm just bad or others have the same experiences.
 

Ian Skippy

Ian Skippy
blaze53 said:
How exactly can an Eagle repeatedly fire two railguns (and mount seeker missiles) at regular intervals? Why do distributors not apply to the AI ships? Doing the CG in Gandii is getting irritating because I keep running into scores of Eagles that annihilate the friendly forces due to this massive imbalance.

Speaking of seeker missiles... do I not understand how they work? I've been having ships with seeker missiles fire when I'm well past their front quadrant, and I've even had a Vulture fire a plasma accelerator shot when the angle, 180 degrees being behind, was approximately 140-150 degrees. Ships also don't seem to suffer range drawbacks because I will repeatedly be shot 2.5km away by lasers, railguns, plasma accelerators, seeker missiles, the like, and I STILL take damage.

Kind of a ranty post, I know, but I'm curious as to whether I'm just bad or others have the same experiences.
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1) Railgun sniping is actually easier at long ranges due to the tiny auto-correct fixed weapons have. Seeker missiles have no damage drop-off at all, AFAIK, most other weapons do damage to some extent up to 3k away, with kinetics often up to 4k away. This without using mods. LR mods can see the falloff range be effectively removed altogether.
2) NPCs use heatsinks, and generally have less rails than human-railships.
3) During a pass missiles keep lock for a bit, I often shoot missiles at targets that are already behind me. The missiles go straight ahead then curve towards the target
4) PAs shooting at odd angles is weird, I've seen it too. Attributed it to lag, but not sure.

Also, be warned that this topic will be swarmed by people who will say NPCs always cheat in every form and such and so on, these are generally people who;ve been complaining about ED for a very long time and just enjoy whining. I suggest you give more creedance to posts who provide actual info. :)
 
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IndigoWyrd

IndigoWyrd
Eagles? Those little squishy things that go poof before my mutlicannons even spin up?

Do you know the last thing that goes through an Eagle when rammed by an Anaconda? It's pilot.

But I will join in and voice my dislike of NPC Rail Guns.. the noise they make.. it sounds like someone farted through a straw.
 

EaterOfShoes

E
They do certainly take heat damage if their weapon loadout is insane, I've seen some railgun fortresses bleed their modules away. No idea about distributor use, though.
 

Imo

Imo
Also quite annoying are these endless chaff launching Vultures. As mentioned before, hit or miss the target should always be in your own hands, not in the hands of enemies technologies that drive your personal abilities ad absurdum.
 

rrobes

R
NPC's are weak, they need to cheat to be marginally competitive against players w/ some experience, proper ships and equipment.

The issue is that NPC's aren't one size fits all. FD can't make separate environments based on player ability/equipment.

Even the ranked NPC response is not ideal, an Elite NPC whatever doesn't stand a chance 1v1 against my MC/only Python, no rails, no plasma, no missiles. They don't last but a minute or so.

I'm hoping when the Thargoids arrive they come to kick a** and take names (Duke Nukem style). I'm building my war chest for re-buys and alien tech for when it is reverse-engineered by the Engineers.
 
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Ouberos

Ouberos
NPc Diamond Miners cheat twice.

First they find hundreds of tons of Diamonds when no one else can and second they can FSD jump as soon as they are pulled out of SC. No cool down required.

But if you are reading this FDev team, please don't rush to fix the first issue. I can deal with the second so in all fairness, I'm happy that they cheat.

Cheat away miners. Cheat away.
 

blaze53

blaze53
IndigoWyrd said:
Eagles? Those little squishy things that go poof before my mutlicannons even spin up?
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Unless you get the ones in a CZ that jump in, and by random chance (which actually happens a lot for me :V) all go straight for you, all firing railguns and seekers and taking out your guns and canopy while you try to get away from the nasty sounds. Ever since I upgraded from a Vulture to a FAS I've had less of a problem getting my engines shot out and whatnot, but my canopy still shatters the moment someone sneezes on it...

Honestly though, in my experience I've just seen a lot of , both from my ship (FAS gimballing is broken as all hell, for instance) and from the AI... just more from the AI because they seem to have no issues with ammo, power distribution unless you snipe the plant, or from heat from what I personally have observed.
 
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IndigoWyrd

IndigoWyrd
blaze53 said:
Unless you get the ones in a CZ that jump in, and by random chance (which actually happens a lot for me :V) all go straight for you, all firing railguns and seekers and taking out your guns and canopy while you try to get away from the nasty sounds.
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Clearly we've never been in a CZ wing together. I say "bring on the eagles and their fart guns".
 

Ian Skippy

Ian Skippy
blaze53 said:
Unless you get the ones in a CZ that jump in, and by random chance (which actually happens a lot for me :V) all go straight for you, all firing railguns and seekers and taking out your guns and canopy while you try to get away from the nasty sounds.
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Some people have posted extensively on what makes ships in a CZ attack you. Its not random. People here who say its random and that AI cheats with heat management are just trying to say they dont quite understand how it all works. :) Anyway, I'm off to an engineer. My HazRes-clearing Fer-de-explorer is about to be pushed above 26LY range. :)
 
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rrobes

R
blaze53 said:
Unless you get the ones in a CZ that jump in, and by random chance (which actually happens a lot for me :V) all go straight for you, all firing railguns and seekers and taking out your guns and canopy while you try to get away from the nasty sounds.
Click to expand...

If you go in a CZ in a small or medium ship, you have to nibble away at the edges and on the ones that stray form the herd. If you don't use SCB's, the instant they all turn on you, you have to bug out, and if you are in the rim of the scrum, a safe exit is possible.

If you go in w/ a Corvette, it is a feast of NPC's. I stacked 3 missions last night and made 40 mill CR in a couple of hours. These hi-pay missions are getting scarce, they used to be common, RNG gods smiled on me;).

Here is another NPC "cheat" in a CZ. Sometimes, when attacking a less than elite NPC, it will start behaving like an elite-ranked NPC (hard to kill), and any number of surrounding NPC's will them simultaneously start attacking you while you try to kill your original target, you can shoot that thing and it won't pop (well, it does eventually after absorbing an inordinate amount of fire). Once you kill the original target, the other NPC's stop firing on you.
 
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