I played for a long time as pve only (though in open). Pvp builds confounded me as they didn’t seem to work as well in pve builds as the pve builds themselves. Then, at some point, MOM was let loose and suddenly NPCs demanded respect. I was on a little break from the game and had only read about the uproar on these here forums but it was enough to get me to log on and see what the fuss was about. Turned out I was in my Python at the time. Back then that was an achievement all on its own. I was also in deep space. Turned out when I’d logged off a month or so before was mid play. “Meh,” I thought, “let me make it back to my home system and regroup from there”. Tuned out ai had some cargo in the hold and an elite Cobra4 NPC (ooh, new ship type) was gunning for it. While aim admiring the new ship and wondering if zi should get one, he opens fire. I’m in a Python with some pve loadout had worked well up until then. What do ai have to worry about? I unload a distro’s worth of indiscriminate red, neon death. The NPC releases a chaff, squares down in fron to me and unloads a volley all its own. From memory it was a multicannon, a rail and dumbfires. “Sure, buddy... lets duke it out”.... My shields are slowly eroding and he’s not taking all that much damage thanks to his slim profile and that dirty chaff. I figuire I need to just fire more so I put full power to weapons (beams, remember). My shields pop because the other pips were on engines (he was circling and I had to keep up while not knowing much about that illusive fa off thing). My shields break. Suddenly those three dumbfires start to really hurt. End result, I lost a Python back when I barely (but at least I did) had the Rebuy for it. It was eye opening. Suddenly I had to completely rethink my build. I couldn’t just take every available bit of space for cargo. Weapons couldn’t be just set to never run out of ammo. I needed stopping power and zi needed resilience and I needed time on target. Ammo based weapons began to make sense. Alpha damage began to make sense. Pip management, timed boosts, compromises, adjustments, strategies. It all made sense and my brain lit up and the game was Alive! When i saw an NPC I had to check what it’s rank was because an elite eagle was more dangerous than a harmless Conda. I planned and worked for those weeks, altering all my builds for survival and then I ran into a hostile player.... and I won, because my builds and strategies were set with all that in mind. If we want people to get acquainted with the dangers of Elite Dangerous, then we need those NPCs back.
