Ahh. This is your new trope?
Seen you wheeling this out a lot lately.
Are you saying that designing a game for the lowest common denominator leads to a great game?
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Ahh. This is your new trope?
Seen you wheeling this out a lot lately.
Are you saying that designing a game for the lowest common denominator leads to a great game?
Bob Lighthouse
Banned
And you would be affecting those players in solo too, sorry if that was clumsy.
Right now they have no opportunity to progress beyond a pretty low level.
Adding that would not stop someone from remaining on their own plateau, in any mode.
Much like the Thargoid content.
Robert Maynard
Volunteer Moderator
The galaxy is homogenous, it's not a tiered MMO map.
There have been suggestions in this thread, and others before it, for *optional* difficulty increases, i.e. Threat Level 6, 7, 8.... USSs, which would, I expect, be welcomed by some of those seeking more challenge and would be able to be avoided by those who aren't - what is proposed in the OP is to make the whole game, for everyone, more challenging.
I'm not against optional difficulty increase....
Probably had more to do with the unintended rapid-fire plasma accelerators etc, but I notice we are both leaning on "probably" here.
Robert Maynard
Volunteer Moderator
I'm suggesting that Frontier know a lot more about game balancing, for the health of their game, than we do.
What tripe, open pvp accomplishes those goals. Any player can seek out and find any difficulty level they could wish for. The opportunities to get better at combat are also already there to be sought out as desired. Your need to cram your views down the throats of other players is vile.
Robert Maynard
Volunteer Moderator
Of course - NPCs will be encountered in all game modes, unlike other CMDRs.
How so?
Bob Lighthouse
Banned
Because of the gap the OP addresses.
Robert Maynard
Volunteer Moderator
That there is an observed gap, in the game, implies that there is an opportunity, in the game, to progress - it exists in two of the three game modes and is offered by (some of) the other players.
IMO this argument does not hold any water.
Firstly, the only unavoidable PvE combat is NPC interdictions. Tasty cargo NPCs rank are tied to the player combat rank and ship.
This means that CMDR uninterested in combat (i.e. harmless) will not get interdicted by OP NPC's since no one is suggesting making
harmless NPC's OP.
Second, every other PvE combat is opt in. Be it RES, CZ's, combat missions, trade missions, etc... Let us assume that we keep anything bellow
Deadly ranked untouched. This means that most missions and NPC's are identical to now. In fact, it would leave 2/3 of NPC's as easy as they are now.
So, what about the Deadly+ ranked NPC's ?
Simple enough, let us say that for each rank from Deadly and above you get "regular" NPC and the "bolt" version. high ranked NPC's are already somewhat engineered.
- Deadly, full G1 mods, no specials on weapons
- Dangerous, full G2 mods, no specials on weapons
- Elite, full G3 mods, no specials on weapons
- Bolt Deadly, full G3 mods, specials on weapons
- Bolt Dangerous, full G4 mods, specials on weapons
- Bolt Elite, full G5 mods, specials on weapons
Have them use reasonnable fits and avoid more than 4 shield boosters ;O
Then it's all reather simple. Keep the regular Deadly/Dangerous/Elite NPC's for
interdictions, RES up to high and low CZ.
And use the "bolt" versions in missions, SS5-7, hazardous res and sprinkle a few of them in high CZ's. Maybe a few in CZ but never have them interdict the player (e.g. very high value targets for piracy)
- Players not interested in combat would never face engineered NPC's, or at most Deadly with G1 depending on their combat ranks
- Players interested in mild combat would have low to mid rank missions, low to high RES, SS1-4 and low CZ's plus all the regular SC stuff.
- Players with interest in challenging to highly challenging combat would have hazardous RES, high ranked combat missions, SS5-7 and high intensity CZ's plus a few very high value SC convoys.
In short it would change near to nothing to players not interested in combat and make life a lot better for those looking for challenging and very challenging missions.
The fact that combat rank means nothing because it can be farmed on pushovers NPC's are not an excuse to keep the high end NPC combat trivial.
Elite combat rank should mean that a player can hold it's ground and know his escape routines. Dangerous NPC's should be just that : dangerous.
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Bob Lighthouse
Banned
No, because there is no progression through the gap.
The gap is wide and represents a lack of progression.
Robert Maynard
Volunteer Moderator
Progression = skill in this case, yes?
I expect that soloing a Thargoid poses a challenge - if it doesn't then the attacking ship may need to be a little less Engineered.
Robert Maynard
Volunteer Moderator
It's in the post you quoted.
Too easy in what ship, performing what task?
I'm feeling the same.
I want areas of harder gameplay for both pve and PvP purposes.
It's not exactly vile unless you have a weak stomach.
The ships that frontier have given you the capability to engineer.
The 2.0 AI would be a start.
Are you seriously advocating downgrading as a way round it? Why engineer then?
I've always thought another problem with griefers is that they don't have much else to do.
Robert Maynard
Volunteer Moderator
This is the nerfed version - has been since I was asked to Moderate the forums.
My corvette spends most of it's time gathering dust, smaller weaker ships are just more challenging and fun.
Robert Maynard
Volunteer Moderator
Indeed they did - and players use Engineering to, among other things, reduce the risk posed by any attacker. Then complain that there isn't enough of a challenge....
However, not all players have access to Engineers as there's no requirement to own Horizons to be able to continue to play the base game. Therefore it cannot be assumed that players are in Engineered ships, indeed, new players who own Horizons will not have unlocked the Engineers required either.
The 2.1 AI was a non-starter for a significant proportion of the player-base, for several reasons. If the NPC outfitting bugs had not existed then maybe Frontier would not have largely reverted them. Similarly if NPC difficulty had been developed and set at a higher level than it is now when Frontier had carte blanche to do so, i.e. in Alpha, Premium Beta, Standard Beta....
Engineering is not just for combat - it's also helpful for those who wish to avoid combat (however not all players have access to Engineers).
Who knows why those players choose to play as they do....
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