NPCS using mods?

[Ian Doncaster]

I may have to go back to Bounty Hunting some day when hearing this. I haven't done that for so long I think they were still doing their spin-of-death when I did it last

They've certainly toughened them up a bit in 3.0 even compared with 2.4, at the high-end. Better shields, better use of SCBs, what feels like higher-grade engineering mods on the top-ranked ones.

Went to do a bit of bounty hunting for materials at the local installation ... after 9 NPCs I was out of ammo. (Still got about the same number of credits from the ammo reserve as I would have in 2.4, because the payouts seem to have increased too, but they've definitely got a bit more interesting. Still no challenge individually for an engineered ship, but much better than they were)

 

[Arguendo]

No it isn't!

Irony and/or sarcasm is hard enough when actually talking to a person. In written form it gets even harder to detect. If you disregard the video in question, there aren't really any clear indications that it's ironic/sarcastic as it looks just like every other post you'll find in these forums. I think it's because I am not too familiar with Troy's writing style and/or posting history, that I missed it as sarcasm.
Either way, I am glad he actually didn't mean it. Let's leave it at that

 

[GiovanniofTheRed]

Yeah. Going into HazRes yields multiple highly-engineered Federal Assault ships for me.

 

[777Driver]

We should get some clarification on the engineered weapon past, let's put aside the nonsense about NPC's being immune to chaff/having unlimited ammo (only MC's) and not being affected by silent running.

My understanding was that after the Private/open mode AI skynet incident (merged weapons) All engineered weapons where removed from NPC's, only low level module engineering for Dangerous or higher NPC's. However, after having a discussion with someone here I did some research and it seems only the Special effects where removed. So An Elite NPC for example could have a G3 overcharged Mod on it's MC's, what it can't have is things like corrosive shell.

It also makes me wonder if NPC's are capable of fitting things like long range sensor mods, could explain why in some cases the NPC silent running resolve distance is not always the same.

 

[Muetdhiver]

I do think that having beefed up NPCs like the ones in the new wing assassination missions in hazardous RES would be a positive change.

Mind you not all of them. Maybe just the wing leaders. And only hazardous RES so that it stays optional.

 

[Arguendo]

We should get some clarification on the engineered weapon past, let's put aside the nonsense about NPC's being immune to chaff/having unlimited ammo (only MC's) and not being affected by silent running.

My understanding was that after the Private/open mode AI skynet incident (merged weapons) All engineered weapons where removed from NPC's, only low level module engineering for Dangerous or higher NPC's. However, after having a discussion with someone here I did some research and it seems only the Special effects where removed. So An Elite NPC for example could have a G3 overcharged Mod on it's MC's, what it can't have is things like corrosive shell.

I have not found anything about NPCs having engineered weapons until the recent Assassination Mission update. After 2.1 was released I've been able to find two notes from FDev about NPCs and engineering.
The first was on May 31, 2016 by Zac:

The first change is that we will be removing almost all Engineers upgrades from the NPCs in game. There are a very few select upgrades that will remain for coding reasons but they will be low level and not combat specific upgrades.

This was followed up by Michael on June 22, 2016:

Reduced the number of engineer mods on AI ships substantially, now only Deadly & Elite rank ships are guaranteed to have mods and any below Master are guaranteed to have none

The latter seems to be the patch for the changes the former talks about, with a few tweaks.

If anyone can find any documentation on NPCs having engineered modules, including weapons with experimental effects, other than what's described above I'd be interested to see it.

 

[the source 0179]

Please elaborate on the term "all the time".
The only "cheat" that is programmed into NPCs is the unlimited Multicannon ammunition. If they didn't have that, they would run away alot!
Other than that, NPCs should not do anything players can't do in their ships. So, please explain what you mean by cheating. I see plenty of people claiming that NPCs cheat, but I have yet to see hard evidence in the form of a video etc that confirms this, and the NPC programmer has expressively stated that they do not cheat.

The devs have admitted that sometimes the npc do act, do or have things they shouldn't. And have said put a bug report in.
But I have personally experienced npcs with unlimited distance interdictors. I've been interdicted from across a system on multiple times, from the side no ships behind me just to the side. and from ghost ships. No ships on radar or contacts. Interdiction starts. Submit look at radar and contacts still no ships. Then 30 seconds or more later a ship appears but still not in contacts. Have to manually target them then appears in contacts.
Also on very rare occasions i have been 2 shot killed 1 shot shields down 1 shot blown up. Fyi in my python.

 

[Arguendo]

The devs have admitted that sometimes the npc do act, do or have things they shouldn't. And have said put a bug report in.
But I have personally experienced npcs with unlimited distance interdictors. I've been interdicted from across a system on multiple times, from the side no ships behind me just to the side. and from ghost ships. No ships on radar or contacts. Interdiction starts. Submit look at radar and contacts still no ships. Then 30 seconds or more later a ship appears but still not in contacts. Have to manually target them then appears in contacts.
Also on very rare occasions i have been 2 shot killed 1 shot shields down 1 shot blown up. Fyi in my python.

I was not claiming that NPCs aren't bugged, just that they aren't intentionally cheating. They aren't programmed to cheat, and shouldn't. If they do, the bolded part in your post above has been my point all along.

 

[WreckWren]

I love it when people start a post with 'please educate yourself...' then show their own lack thereof.

They do not have unlimited chaff, ARE affected by SR (but are uncannily good at aiming without a target), can NOT scan through SR (unless inside 600m), do NOT have unlimited ammo except MCs, do NOT have unlimited SCBs and are NOT immune to chaff.

All of your points are either incorrect or given with a qualifier. Pathetic.

I was not claiming that NPCs aren't bugged, just that they aren't intentionally cheating. They aren't programmed to cheat, and shouldn't. If they do, the bolded part in your post above has been my point all along.

They are not programmed to cheat, but they are allowed to.