Damn stupid and unfair NPCs!

[WeavingBird1917]

I was at a high intensity combat zone in my FDL comfortably earning combat bonds. There was this annoying elite Viper MK IV which kept turning around me and firing his "gimballed" railguns from a distance of 800m to 1500m at me (he kept hitting me even though I had FA off, spiralling all around the place and at a distance). I went towards a group of green players, hoping they would take care of him (as I was attacking another ship), but they seemed content just turning in circles.

So eventually I got annoyed and engaged him. I thought Viper MK IVs had bad maneuvreability, but I guess I was wrong. He was able to fire his OP "gimballed" railguns while he probably had FA off at a great distance. Sometimes I saw him shoot his railguns at me even though his nose was rougly 15 degrees away.

What made me furious is this: By now we were about 20 km from the centre of the conflict zone. It was just the Viper, me and a friendly elite Corvette! The friendly elite Corvette seem totally oblivious to the Viper. I had gotten his shields down easily, so I thought the friendly elite Corvette would easily finish him off (since viper was hull tanker). However, the stupid friendly elite Corvette just kept firing idk what (cannons?), and the viper's hull didn't even go down 1% in 2 minutes. The Corvette just kept circling him, but didn't even do any damage.

By now I was furious at the Corvette. I scanned him, realised he had 2 burst lasers, a missile rack, and he wasn't even using it. And the viper was in his sights the whole time, because the viper was attacking me. Friendly elite NPCs = noobs, enemy elite NPCs = aimbot? (jk)

 

[JiminyWicket]

In CZ's you shouldn't really rely on friendly NPC's to do much protecting or finishing off opponents as they are always just going elsewhere even during mid fight. Best to just get the kill as quick as possible yourself and move on to next target.

NPC's have always had incredible rail gun aim, just part of the package and to me personally makes things a bit more interesting during combat.

 

[Morbad]

I was at a high intensity combat zone in my FDL comfortably earning combat bonds. There was this annoying elite Viper MK IV which kept turning around me and firing his "gimballed" railguns from a distance of 800m to 1500m at me (he kept hitting me even though I had FA off, spiralling all around the place and at a distance). I went towards a group of green players, hoping they would take care of him (as I was attacking another ship), but they seemed content just turning in circles.

So eventually I got annoyed and engaged him. I thought Viper MK IVs had bad maneuvreability, but I guess I was wrong. He was able to fire his OP "gimballed" railguns while he probably had FA off at a great distance. Sometimes I saw him shoot his railguns at me even though his nose was rougly 15 degrees away.

NPCs don't have gimbaled railguns and cannot use FA off.

Distance is the last thing you want when trying to evade fire from hitscan weapons, unless you can stay far enough away for damage falloff to be a major factor. In general, you want to get as close as you can if you are trying to evade rail fire.

 

[ebbrell]

And you was in a high intensity cZ
They can change quickly, I have seen green npcs reduce to one, and all reds turn on you.

 

[WeavingBird1917]

NPCs don't have gimbaled railguns and cannot use FA off.

Distance is the last thing you want when trying to evade fire from hitscan weapons, unless you can stay far enough away for damage falloff to be a major factor. In general, you want to get as close as you can if you are trying to evade rail fire.

I know they don't have gimballed railguns, but they seem that way . Oh that's interesting, they don't have FA off. I always see that the aiming reticule for NPC ships do not align with their nose positions, perhaps they are simply drifting.

I am usually not far from them, since I myself use one plasma accelerator on my ship. However this time I observing how they fired their railguns and I was also circling around the friendly NPC, amused by his idleness. I'm still confused about the friendly elite NPC Corvette. He was just totally useless and didn't even care about firing his weapons. Was it an enemy Corvette I'm sure it would have been shooting me to death.

 

[FrogsFriend]

Just a note on NPC missiles. They usually fire them off like they're going out of fashion at the start of the engagement and soon run out. The reinforcements that spawn, as their numbers are depleted, have full loads and so you'll notice more being fired when they arrive.