I don't care how you head canon it, it's time the NPCs in high conflict zones gave us a reason to wing up, rather than just go solo and clear the instance each on his own. Way to go mom! I also noticed a minor AI tweak, I believe. Higher level NPCs make a lot more erratic movements when in front of your guns in order to be unpredictable. Nice.
MoM? Seriously?
- Thread starter Lucius-Darcia
- Start date
I'm afraid that would result in even crappier NPCs, considering that about 90% of the CMDRs are flying utterly pvp-incapable loadouts
Really? I'm finding it yawn inducing at this stage. They either fly out to 3k (in which care I pump their buttt with MC) or they're doing this zig-zag movements in which case I wait and nail them. Then we have the ram-bots. Let them ram and die, saves me ammo. Then comes the nose to nose dopes, again, just blast away at them.
As for the 'wing-required', Are you trying to kill the game entirely?
ATR use prismatics, why not all other high end killers?
PowerPlay is such a joke that even the NPC's are just farming modules.
I'm fine with that, as long as I can also steal or salvage one and not have to endure four weeks of PP grind.
It wasnt a grind. I just pledged and did naff all for 2wks. Then one evening I just headbutted Federal Couriers in T6's etc for 750 merits. Was fairly easy tbh. Handy too as I scavenged mats from them. Its really no grind at all. I was surprised as I thought the same as you until I did it. The T6's just melted after a couple of PA salvos. Got quite a number of chem manips out of it, which was nice.
Bunda is an anarchy system pledged to Winters, so no hassle at all.
Bunda is an anarchy system pledged to Winters, so no hassle at all.
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Where's your joy man?
It's a lot better than before (horrendous bugs aside). I still don't need to wing up either, but quite a few of my commanders would. The game isn't just for people with years in the game like us, ya know. 
Than why even bothering doing a progress? If i have the same experience with E-class shields than with prismatics, than why even doing the job? :rolleyes
This is what i'm talking about!!!
The problem is not, that the shields are strong. It's the fact, that they are imperial shields.
Next time we see a Cutter fighting for a federal faction
IMO imperials factions should use imperial assets, federal ones federal assets, independent one the whole bunch of other stuff.
I have no problem with strong NPC's, it's the lazy way how it is done that doesn't sound right here. It feels like "hey what about ingame lore and such? Blah....we never had really a lore so just scrap it and get over it. Give federals those imperial shields and everything will be good
And let us don't forget, that this is not an MMO which is supposed to be played as 1x tank, 2x damage dealer, 1x heal
This is just not fitting for spaceships^^ especially since we can't hire npc followers to wing up if there are no friends available
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We had them already when engineers first launched - the SkyNet revolution, stuff like turreted PAs with multicannon fire rates - yes, lots of fun.
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Uh, no. There's a difference. What you describe was a bug. Which had to be squished and should never return.
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Well geared and fully engineered NPCs, on the other hand, is a very logical thing to have. I mean, why would only we players gear up to the limit? But if NPCs would suddenly also fly well geared up and fully engineered ships, all combat would take ages. NPCs would suddenly be the same bullet sponges which player ships already are.
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And actually, i am all for bringing NPC ships on mostly equal footing again, albeit with one big condition: Crack down on engineering. It's far over the top. The game for example never needed like +700% shields. Combat worked fine before any engineer was around. In many eyes, it actually was the best time for combat. Some people still demand engineers to be removed. That's not a viable option for the game. But some huge rebalancing (which would in the end be quite some nerf on a lot of engineering options) would be in order.
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The problem is that FD would never manage to pull through. Even attempts of rather limited nerfs were loudly cried away by the community in the past. FD didn't have the balls to pull through, although those people who actually were in the beta and did testing were mostly happy. Real nerfs of engineering blueprints, while being very healthy for the game, would affect almost all players. And many of them would complain. I don't really see how FD could do that without a massive outcry of the community and thus doubt that it'll actually ever happen.
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But there's one way to perhaps achieve that: bring NPCs to the level of players. Let the players experience, how tough these ships really are. Give players a while to soak that in. It might be that in time, they will agree that defensive levels are too high and would need to be adjusted.
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Most CMDRs I see with prismatic shields aren't Imperials.
Which has an accuracy and responsiveness well within the bounds of whats humanly possible, in almost all cases.
They steal whole Farragut battlecrusiers and have since 2.1.
I'm afraid that would result in even crappier NPCs, considering that about 90% of the CMDRs are flying utterly pvp-incapable loadouts
"Crappier" how?
Personally, I'm in the "NPCs need to be tougher" camp.
Course, there'd need to be scaling involved too, so NPCs start off puny when you're Harmless and gradually improve until they match our loadouts by the time you're Elite.
I suspect that might help resolve the disconnect between PvE and PvP too.
Right now you can build a Corvette that can whup any NPC in the game but which'll be minced in PvP in 20 seconds - thus leading to wailing about PvP being "unfair".
Tougher NPCs (at the top end) would teach players to build better combat ships.
And it'd have the side-effect of making the ED Galaxy a consistently dangerous place because flying around in a "beer can" T9 would be just as dangerous in PvE as it is in PvP.
Not necessarily saying NPCs should just "mirror" player loadouts but that it might be interesting if FDev gathered stat's about player loadouts and then used them to "tune" what NPCs fly.
Course, at the same time, it might be nice if NPCs started to display more "dynamic" behaviour too.
Last time I did any PvE combat in ED (last week) it seemed like the "go to" tactic for NPCs was to try and land on the bow of my Corvette and just sit there, for reasons. [where is it]
Yes, those CZ Challengers do find my Corvette bow very attractive.:S
NPCs can do things the players can't. We can't get out if our ships but NPCs roam about stations and run the Empire etc. Of course they can salvage parts of ships that the player can't.
Can we play as Thargoids? No, so by your logic they can't exist.
Did I not start my earlier post with "lore-wise"? Yup. Wasn't referring to game mechanics to begin with.
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The game design should reflect and reinforce the lore, and vice versa. Instead the lore is used as an excuse for inconsistencies and weak or contradictory elements of the game's presentation.
Right now Elite the game would be better without the lore, and Elite the fictional universe would be better without the game. This is a bad bad thing.
I faced a couple of pythons today in medium czs with player level resilience of shield and hull. They are not common, but they are out there and salt will flow, soon. They fly well too These guys will kill a lot of novice pilots. CZs aren't for the faint of heart any more and I like that.
currently only the Spec Ops have phasing sequence laser, if more NPC have those, things get very interesting
I feel confident they have engineering on their optionals including shields, HRPs, as well as use MRPs. I was shooting the pp of an anaconda with a single small super pen and it was going down 1.x% per hit, lol. Wouldn't have had enough ammo. Definitely armored, possibly B rated and armored and with an MRP. Not sure about weapons, though I think I had a corrosive MC used on me at one point, I could be wrong.
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