Conflict Zones - Difficulty Changing?

CubicCode

C
In the last days I tried getting into conflict zones. Low-intensity to try first. I joined the system's leading faction side and fought with my Combat Viper until my ammo was gone. No problem. Sometimes my shields got down to almost 0% but my hull NEVER got damaged. I did this several times combined with missions ranked "almost-harmless" or "harmless".

Today I flew to the same low-intensity conflict zone. Joined the same side and got wrecked in about 5s.. I thought this was a bug so I chose a different low-intensity CZ in that system. I entered it, joined my side and was blown away in seconds again.

Where does the difficulty in conflict zones come from? Can it vary (in the same type like low-intensity) and if so based on what? Or were my first experiences a bug? I don't get why it was really easy (almost too easy) before and now it is incredibly hard..
 

yolomcbobbinz

Y
High intensity is easier, with low intensity there's less ships to shoot at. So you get targeted more

Just watch out for capital ships they have invisible collision walls that will annihilate you
 
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Limoncello Lizard

Limoncello Lizard
Low CZ can be pretty risky at times. There's usually few ships on both sides, so a slight imbalance can quickly turn into one side dominating the CZ. The same can happen in a High CZ, but usually takes a little effort from CMDRs present.

In any CZ you have to be ready to run for it if things turn bad. In a smaller ship, it's worth having a jump plotted to a nearby system so you don't get mass locked.
 

duckofdeath

duckofdeath
I don't think there's a big difference in difficulty level between low and high intensity. I've spent days in them over the years, well over 8,000 kills in total. Low intensity has smaller ship types. The problem a small ship like a Viper has in a CZ is the times you get targeted by a ship launched fighter. Those ships will take a Viper shield down in a matter of seconds if it gets a clean shot at you.
If you're in a small ship, keeping an eye on your surroundings is a lot more important than if you're in a big engineered ship. That goes both for the low and high intensity kinds.
I did a couple hours in a CZ in an engineered Cobra Mk III and a Viper Mk III a couple weeks ago, on a new account, and it was all fun and pew pew every time until I got an Imperial Fighter on my tail. :D
 

Quantis Trap

Quantis Trap
Rule number one in conflict zones: Don't be the last green in an area. Constantly watch who is around you. If you find yourself surrounded by an increasing number of reds (enemies) and not too many greens, boost toward some greens. If you don't and you're the last green in that area, you'll be swarmed.

Control the conflict zone at all times or it will control you!

The second rule for when things go wrong (especially if your flying a small ship) is to have a high wake target system ready. You can jump to another system even when mass locked and can't supercruise. If you get mass locked in a swarm and don't have a high wake target at the ready, you're probably toast.
 
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Jaiotu

Jaiotu
CMDR QUANTIS TRAP said:
Rule number one in conflict zones: Don't be the last green in an area. Constantly watch who is around you. If you find yourself surrounded by an increasing number of reds (enemies) and not too many greens, boost toward some greens. If you don't and you're the last green in that area, you'll be swarmed.

Control the conflict zone at all times or it will control you!

The second rule for when things go wrong (especially if your flying a small ship) is to have a high wake target system ready. If you get mass locked in a swarm and don't have a high wake ready, you're probably toast.
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Actually ... that's rule #2. Rule #1 is never select sides until you've put some distance between yourself and the majority of the combatants. Nothing can ruin your day more than dropping into a CZ and selecting sides only to discover that you are the only "green" ship in the zone and you've suddenly got the entire armada on your tail.
 

Quantis Trap

Quantis Trap
Jaiotu said:
Actually ... that's rule #2. Rule #1 is never select sides until you've put some distance between yourself and the majority of the combatants. Nothing can ruin your day more than dropping into a CZ and selecting sides only to discover that you are the only "green" ship in the zone and you've suddenly got the entire armada on your tail.
Click to expand...

Agreed. Always do that. It's second nature now so I forgot it.
 
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duckofdeath

duckofdeath
Jaiotu said:
Actually ... that's rule #2. Rule #1 is never select sides until you've put some distance between yourself and the majority of the combatants. Nothing can ruin your day more than dropping into a CZ and selecting sides only to discover that you are the only "green" ship in the zone and you've suddenly got the entire armada on your tail.
Click to expand...
Personally, I think that's a bad suggestion. Be prepared before you arrive, deploy weapons fast and pick the side you intend to fight for as fast as you can. Find your first target fast. You're generally better off in a CZ if you maintain a high kill rate, as that means it's less likely that the randomness messes the balance up. One other reason to make sure to always fire at someone is that it seems like the hostile NPC's are programmed to ignore your as far as possible if you're fighting another one and that hostile has an alternative to you nearby.
Of course, there are things you need to check before picking sides. If there are other CMDR's in there before you, you don't get a clean started CZ and you should obviously make sure it's safe to engage.
 

Jmanis

Jmanis
Best bet when getting to a CZ is to wait a minute, let everything engage targets, then select a side.

The only problem is if a side gets the upper hand in that short time, which can happen purely on the RNG nature of ship generation. Not a complaint, but I find the Federation to be pretty OP compared to an Imperial opponent (especially where capital ships are involved... observed a Fed vs Imp capship fight once, and the imp capship got trounced hard).

CZ's in general could do with a complete rework, so you know what you're getting into. Rather than structure it like the RES sites are, site spawns should really be something like this:
- Skirmish (Contains ships from both sides)
- <faction> Outpost (Contains a destructible outpost belonging to the faction like the ones from CQC and a small defence fleet, and also spawns opposed ships, so you can choose to attack or defend)
- <faction> Capital ship (Typical one-capship encounter, belonging to that faction)
- Capital Skirmish (Opposed capship spawn)
- Variations of the above in asteroid belts
- Surface Outpost Assault (Skimmers, turrets and the current procgen outposts. Scanning things like InfoHubs could provide warbonds via intelligence. This would be the main source of warbonds, to mitigate the ease of just peppering these with missiles from above, thought judicious use of turrets would fix that.)
 

Schmack

Schmack
Limoncello Lizard said:
Knowing what factions are combatting from a scan would be handy. Last weekend I dropped into seven CZ in a system before I found the factions I wanted.
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It's always seemed to me that the CZ closest to the paying station (paying for massacres) contains the ones you want.
 

CMDR Cosmic Spacehead

CMDR Cosmic Spacehead
Jmanis said:
Best bet when getting to a CZ is to wait a minute, let everything engage targets, then select a side.

The only problem is if a side gets the upper hand in that short time, which can happen purely on the RNG nature of ship generation. Not a complaint, but I find the Federation to be pretty OP compared to an Imperial opponent (especially where capital ships are involved... observed a Fed vs Imp capship fight once, and the imp capship got trounced hard).
Click to expand...
That's because Imperial ships suck. :p


CZ's in general could do with a complete rework, so you know what you're getting into. Rather than structure it like the RES sites are, site spawns should really be something like this:
- Skirmish (Contains ships from both sides)
- <faction> Outpost (Contains a destructible outpost belonging to the faction like the ones from CQC and a small defence fleet, and also spawns opposed ships, so you can choose to attack or defend)
- <faction> Capital ship (Typical one-capship encounter, belonging to that faction)
- Capital Skirmish (Opposed capship spawn)
- Variations of the above in asteroid belts
- Surface Outpost Assault (Skimmers, turrets and the current procgen outposts. Scanning things like InfoHubs could provide warbonds via intelligence. This would be the main source of warbonds, to mitigate the ease of just peppering these with missiles from above, thought judicious use of turrets would fix that.)
Click to expand...

That's a pretty excellent idea, even just the basic "skirmish" or "capital ship skirmish" would work well. It'd make CZs feel more like war zones than just pop up murder holes. Lol
And I'd love them to be in more places.
CQC assets, rings, very low orbit, etc.

CMDR Cosmic Spacehead
 

Witcher 7

Witcher 7
I winged up with couple of friends in a High CZ couple nights ago in a Clipper first time, and found it more challenging than a high RES but lower payouts.

Last night I went back alone in a Cutter and lost my shields 3 times, twice with hull damage. I find the CZ ships are tougher and flies past me faster as they don't have to avoid rocks in a RES.
 
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