Possible to have HARD elite NPCs at CNBs/HazRez/HighCZ/piratelords?

CaptainKremmen

CaptainKremmen
System Security Levels. Simple.

Low Security = Advanced NPC "pirate" AI, weak "security" ship AI.
Med Security = Moderate AI for both.
High Security = Weak NPC "pirate" AI, advanced "security" ship AI.

Populated anarchy = Top level advanced "pirate" AI, engineered ships. :)


Then players choose their own path... as it should be.

All the tools are in place for this already.
 

Stigbob

Stigbob
StiTch said:
Oh - and a lovely little quote, but a misquote.

If I remember correctly, while that misquote has been around some time, what Plutarch actually wrote had the polar opposite meaning. It read something like him being told about an infinite number of worlds out there, and Alexander wept "because he could not even master one".

Anyone able to correct me or elaborate, please do so.

In any case it doesn't really stand here. Saying "well once you're at end game that's that" is a pretty poor excuse for not even trying to provide worthy opponent. Give us opponents and combat content that actually means something, then we'll decide if the exercise is ultimately still meaningless.
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Thats the thing with historical quotes, they get adapted and mistranslated and altered to fit the currrent mood multiple times down the years. They can still contain wisdom, but not necessarily anything to do with the named source.

"outside of a book a mans best friend is a dog, inside of a dog it's too dark to read"
Who cares if Groucho Marx actually said it, it's still funny.
 

Morbad

Morbad
Alexander the Great still hadn't scratched the surface when he died.

Likewise, when all my vessels are as engineered as they can get, that won't be my 'end game', just the end of a tedious detour that derailed me from my pre-engineer goals.
 

IndigoWyrd

IndigoWyrd
IceFire122 said:
Okay, than used your billion Cr, engineered ship and the flying skills to survive with a couple of gold canisters in your hold in a pirate infested instance.
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Why? I do this regularly in far less expensive ships. Love pulling in to Compromised Nav Beacons with few microweave hoses or a couple canisters of platinum in my hold to wake everybody up and make me put down my coffee and fly.

Limoncello Lizard said:
Hopefully the Thargoids will be a challenge. But there is another solution, bring back systems like Riedquat used to be in the original Elite.
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I know not of this system, but here's something folks tend to forget fairly often:

The AI doesn't get worse. We get better.

I'm still leery about picking a fight with a full wing of Elite NPC's, but will gladly take them 1 or 2 at a time. What I don't miss, however, are the NPC 1-shot kills, though I have run in to a couple of those of late - most recently while goofing around in a Courier. Elite NPC gunship got me good, shields and hull all in one blast.

Fortunately it was a Courier, and the rebuy was lower than my average ammo cost.
 

Jason Lightning

Jason Lightning
ShimEnki said:
Agreed

Don't fix what isn't broken
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AI is broken though, they manuever like complete idiots right now. Making the AI that's supposed to be hard actually skilled will help fix concerns that the only actual challenge in the game is PvP.

And the proposal here is completely optional, don't like it just don't enter the dangerous areas such as Hazres, High CZ, CNB, etc. New players can learn in regular areas with no pressure.
 

Jmanis

Jmanis
CookieJarviz said:
I get wrecked by AI in my cutter above expert. Dont know why you would want them harder
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ShimEnki said:
Agreed

Don't fix what isn't broken
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Meanwhile my trade-fit cutter comfortably took out an Elite Anaconda, on multiple occasions.

So, in EVE (yes, that trope), if you go to belts, the difficulty of NPCs gets higher as the system's security status decreases. At the very least Elite could easily do this and kinda has with the Res levels, but could do the same with system security as an extra layer.

Meanwhile in EVE, those NPCs are still chump-change. There's other options.
- Go into Wormhole space, where the NPCs you fight are "sleepers". These require a broader range + variety of tactics to deal with (effectively) than your asteroid NPCs. Elite is probably doing this with Thargoids... maybe. We'll see I guess.
- Lastly, there's "Burner" missions. Entirely optional, no rep loss for rejecting it. You go to one and instead of a dozen chump NPCs, there's one, with about 10 times the bounty. It has high--tier player-comparable fittings and tactics, and basically can't be dealt with by your everyday player. This stuff is entirely optional. No reason in my mind why something similar couldn't be done again in ED.
 

Aashenfox

Aashenfox
Morbad said:
Maybe I misunderstood the tone of your initial response.

What was the point in wasting all these posts pointing out that we both agree that NPCs and CMDRs should be playing by the same rules?
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He's saying he thinks players shouldn't have engineering, not that NPCs should, that's where you differ.
 

Ddraig

Ddraig
I would love some places with nasty difficulty but you go there to be smashed. On your on volition. Never to be nerfed. No place for the weak or untrained.
 
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