Engineers 3.0: Welcome to ATR Farming

[Dommarraa]

SJA does not need to cheat, for you are but a puny human.
The ATR will have chosen their target, rejigged their Module Priority, altered their Firegroups, selected optimum Pip configuration for the current clock cycle, and engaged 4 different thrusters before you can say "A". If you manage to get out "TR" before you are in a poor strategic position, you are a ninja

 

[UmbraRex]

Hehe, SJA is in her element right now.

I can only imagine the grin on her face as she was told to have fun with them.

I wasn't around in 2.1, but I'm thinking this will be spectacular.

 

[Crank Larson]

With all due respect to SJA, MoM, I don't see how AI can beat a reasonable human pilot - especially as long as NPCs get utterly confused by pilots flying FA Off.

AI could easily beat any human in a game such as this. That it doesn't is simply so that we can actually enjoy the game.

Of course, we can test this out tomorrow... As I'm fairly confident that a certain portion of the playerbase are intending to do.

 

[Shanaeri]

Simple fix, fit ATR ships with uniquely overpowered weapon and special effects combinations.

Efficient Rapid Fire Long Range Corrosive Reverberating Cascade Railguns will ruin most peoples day rather quickly. Lol

NPCs rarely miss with railguns.

CMDR Cosmic Spacehead

In the interview I did with Sandro for Lave Radio he made reference to this. Feedback cascade beam weapons, plasma weapons that fire at the rate of multicannons etc. If you remember back to 2.1 when the NPC we're bugged that's the sort of thing he was talking about.

Basically. I don't think they can be farmed for long.

 

[bigity]

I can only imagine the grin on her face as she was told to have fun with them.

I wasn't around in 2.1, but I'm thinking this will be spectacular.

The only real problem with 2.1 was the broken weapons. They weren't that hard other than that. Harder than NPCs are now, but nothing unstoppable or unkillable.

Turns out a MC firing railgun rounds is pretty lethal with that inflated NPC aim

 

[Conch]

Rapid Fire Advanced Plasma Accelerator with Plasma Slug?

nonono.. no plasma slug on APAs. They allready come with 300 rounds.
TLB on all APAs.. for that extra cheese!

 

[Crank Larson]

http://www.reactiongifs.com/r/2013/11/yump.gif

lol. Very apt, as it was Anakin who underestimated.

 

[BDelacroix]

I will take you are new here and don't remember 2.1.

If you don't, well, all due respect to you, but you don't know subject matter very well.

OOh, machine gun no heat generation plasma accelerators.

 

[Shadowdancer]

In the interview I did with Sandro for Lave Radio he made reference to this. Feedback cascade beam weapons, plasma weapons that fire at the rate of multicannons etc. If you remember back to 2.1 when the NPC we're bugged that's the sort of thing he was talking about.

He was more talking about those NPCs having access to those pesky top G5 rolls on everything, special effects, and in the other thread SJA giggled about those minions having swapped the gloves for gauntlets and not even obeying the artificial constraints that Elite opponents are currently facing to not completely curbstomp commanders.

That, and some "special" tools that may or may not keep your FSD from cooperating with user input.

I'd laugh my pants (BE) off if she also re-enabled the retreat behaviour that everyone was so salty mad about

Surprise beam (as in "fires every frame") PA to the face would be cool though.

 

[Mangal Oemie]

In the interview I did with Sandro for Lave Radio he made reference to this. Feedback cascade beam weapons, plasma weapons that fire at the rate of multicannons etc. If you remember back to 2.1 when the NPC we're bugged that's the sort of thing he was talking about.

Basically. I don't think they can be farmed for long.

That is deeply disappointing. If the solution is essentially miracle weapons unavailable in the game to CMDRs, well....

... that might make me check out Star Citizen.

 

[Crank Larson]

Can we stop referencing that awful (movie) scene?

That film is the best out of the set!

 

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

That is deeply disappointing. If the solution is essentially miracle weapons unavailable in the game to CMDRs, well....

... that might make me check out Star Citizen.

Already walking back on promise heh? So much for though talk.

As far as I understood devs, not exactly miracle weapons, but best of the best Engineer tools and might be some extras.

ATR goal is not to play around. Their goal is make you leave.

 

[Crank Larson]

... that might make me check out Star Citizen.

Enjoy that...

 

[Rubbernuke]

Already walking back on promise heh? So much for though talk.

As far as I understood devs, not exactly miracle weapons, but best of the best Engineer tools and might be some extras.

ATR goal is not to play around. Their goal is make you leave.

ATR will most likely use the shield killing lasers stations have.

 

[S3B4ST13N]

Rapid Fire Advanced Plasma Accelerator with Plasma Slug?

Yes.

 

[DaveB]

Please proceed, Cmdr....

(shamelessly steals GluttonyFang's trademark and chuckles quietly in the background)

 

[Jack Schitt]

That is deeply disappointing. If the solution is essentially miracle weapons unavailable in the game to CMDRs...

Like the ones fitted to space stations since day one?

These arguments are always the same. "No NPC can stop us!" Until the NPCs are programmed to win, at which point it's "But they're cheating and it's ruining the believability and I want access to those weapons and..."

Believe it or not, these arguments about all-powerful NPC's being "a cheat" pre-date the alpha.

Make no mistake: if FD decides that godlike NPCs are the only answer to some of this game's problems, then godlike NPCs are what we'll get. There is aboslutely nothing in programming terms to prevent it, so all these arguments like "even 2.1 was easy" are ridiculous. Hell, FD could make it so your ship self-destructs from a single hit if they wanted to.

There is law in parts of this galaxy, but almost zero enforcement. If people won't toe the line you either walk away, ignore the laws and let anarchy rule, or you enforce them. Much as some would like FD to do the former, it looks as though they're more keen on the latter. Finally.

If it turns out that "cheating" NPCs are the only solution, and some players feel the need to gripe about it, they should also ask themselves why they were necessary at all.

 

[UmbraRex]

8<snip>8
If it turns out that "cheating" NPCs are the only solution, and some players feel the need to gripe about it, they should also ask themselves why they were necessary at all.

Yeah, This.

 

[DaveB]

Like the ones fitted to space stations since day one?

These arguments are always the same. "No NPC can stop us!" Until the NPCs are programmed to win, at which point it's "But they're cheating and it's ruining the believability and I want access to those weapons and..."

And the best part of it all? The station weapons are just the same as the largest guns we can fit on our ships - or at least they used to be last time I flew up close and looked at the actual models. It's just that there's a LOT of them and they don't overheat (reasonable given the entire mass of the station as a heat sink) run out of ammo (magazines the size of a T9) or have to worry about WEP cap (power resources of a station to draw on not the comparatively puny power capacity of a mobile plant) and above all else, they don't miss.

 

[NascentChemist]

OP, please make sure to play the Beta and prove your point. FDev needs the input to balance the game.