Why don't Pulse Disruptors work against NPC's?

Fendalton · Nov 1, 2017

Frontier, why Don't Pulse Disruptor lasers work against NPC's? Why are NPC's immune to having modules malfunction?

Having them to stop Elite NPC's shields from regenerating, by resetting their Shield Generators on hit is the goal, but this never works. Never.

Why are NPC's immune to these debuffs?

Chris Simon · Nov 1, 2017

Why do you think they are? I use the disruption on two of my burst lasers and it's fairly amusing to watch the malfunctions light up on the target.
I think the effect works quite well.

To be completely honest, I haven't tried fighting in 2.4, yet as I'm away from the bubble, but I think they haven't change anything on secondary effects.

Fendalton · Nov 1, 2017

Chris Simon said:
Why do you think they are? I use the disruption on two of my burst lasers and it's fairly amusing to watch the malfunctions light up on the target.
I think the effect works quite well.

To be completely honest, I haven't tried fighting in 2.4, yet as I'm away from the bubble, but I think they haven't change anything on secondary effects.

I have not once had a shield generator stop charing while firing Pulse Disruptors at the module. I'm talking about the Power Play weapon, not the Engineered Scramble Spectrum effect.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jc5zRSnEJ1o

RagingxPenguin · Nov 1, 2017

Because the NPCs cheat.

I've had pythons fire more SCBs than listed and suffer no heat damage with zero sinks.

My personal favorite is the high wake with no FSD

Ozram · Nov 1, 2017

RagingxPenguin said:
Because the NPCs cheat.

I've had pythons fire more SCBs than listed and suffer no heat damage with zero sinks.

My personal favorite is the high wake with no FSD

I can top that. On more than one ocasion I’ve had them wake out from within masslock zone.

Fendalton · Nov 1, 2017

Is this all intended behaviour? Or is it required so we don't exploit NPC's like the spinning days

RagingxPenguin · Nov 1, 2017

I'm not sure but it was pretty irritating to have my "crippled" bounty target jump away.

DoctorDanny · Nov 1, 2017

Because NPCs cheat. Infinite ammo, chaff. Not affected by heat mechanics. Can warp out with 0% thrusters/fsd. Genererate hull and shields upon entering SC, etc.

Ian Skippy · Nov 1, 2017

DoctorDanny said:
Because NPCs cheat. Infinite ammo, chaff. Not affected by heat mechanics. Can warp out with 0% thrusters/fsd. Genererate hull and shields upon entering SC, etc.

*sigh*

Other than mc they do have limited ammo and chaff and heatsinks, they do take heat damage. Just a myth spread by people looking for excuses or being ignorant. Scb heat damage is much less an issue for npcs because they have way weaker shields than cmdrs and as such need much smaller scbs. You can do the same if you want. Waking is poorly coded though and they have no limitations, as is spawning rules. Thats not AI though. They dont generate hull and shield, they are -persistent and respawn

Ian Skippy · Nov 1, 2017

Fendalton said:
Frontier, why Don't Pulse Disruptor lasers work against NPC's? Why are NPC's immune to having modules malfunction?

Having them to stop Elite NPC's shields from regenerating, by resetting their Shield Generators on hit is the goal, but this never works. Never.

Why are NPC's immune to these debuffs?

Are you sure the weapon doesnt work, or is it that just shields dont stop regenerating?

Fendalton · Nov 1, 2017

sleutelbos said:
Are you sure the weapon doesnt work, or is it that just shields dont stop regenerating?

The weapons are meant to cause a malfunction on the hit module, when a shield generator malfunctions, it loses its charge and resets.

Ian Skippy · Nov 1, 2017

Fendalton said:
The weapons are meant to cause a malfunction on the hit module, when a shield generator malfunctions, it loses its charge and resets.

I know, I asked if it works on other modules.

Rubbernuke · Nov 1, 2017

Really there needs to be more reaction from NPCs to malfunctions and heat so we know what state they are in- sort of 'burning up!' or 'x is failing'

Freelancer Knux · Nov 1, 2017

Rubbernuke said:
Really there needs to be more reaction from NPCs to malfunctions and heat so we know what state they are in- sort of 'burning up!' or 'x is failing'

An alert in that lovely ship voice we have would be awesome. "Target FSD malfunctioning"

Ozram · Nov 1, 2017

Freelancer Knux said:
An alert in that lovely ship voice we have would be awesome. "Target FSD malfunctioning"

Knowing which module is affected would be very useful.

yolomcbobbinz · Nov 1, 2017

I'm fine with NPCs having a slight advantage like infinite ammo (or heavily increased) and better aim but I don't like how they just jump out, makes pirating hard I can't jump for 45 seconds after an interdiction but for NPCs they're ready to jump out by the time I drop out of the interdiction and I don't like how they don't suffer from heat and malfunctions makes half the engineer special effects pointless

Fendalton · Nov 2, 2017

yolomcbobbinz said:
I'm fine with NPCs having a slight advantage like infinite ammo (or heavily increased) and better aim but I don't like how they just jump out, makes pirating hard I can't jump for 45 seconds after an interdiction but for NPCs they're ready to jump out by the time I drop out of the interdiction and I don't like how they don't suffer from heat and malfunctions makes half the engineer special effects pointless

If you submit to the interdiction, it's a 10 second cooldown. If you fight it and lose it's 60 seconds.

The 10 could be 15, I can't remember.

yolomcbobbinz · Nov 2, 2017

Fendalton said:
If you submit to the interdiction, it's a 10 second cooldown. If you fight it and lose it's 60 seconds.

The 10 could be 15, I can't remember.

From my experience, I haven't submitted to interdicions often they're easy to evade, even if I submit I still have to wait because I'm going too fast and still get the same cool down as if I Emergency dropped.