It's a miracle! NPC instantly gains 100% health AND shields after waking away 10 seconds earlier!

[Stealthie]

You're lucky he was still in a 'Conda. I've seen them magically switch ships in the middle of deep space.

One that I have quite regularly is that I'll be doing a mission, get the "incoming hostiles" message and then I'll get an "I've travelled a long way for what's in your hold" message.
I'll flip through my list of contacts and it'll turn out that the message came from, say, a Cobra or an Adder and I think "Well, it's your funeral".

I'll then allow myself to get interdicted, drop out of SC and... the Cobra/Adder has magically transformed itself into a Clipper or an Annie.

*le sigh* [sad]

 

[Aashenfox]

Yep.

I've had it work properly on one memorable occasion.

I was doing some mission (possibly a "recover the doodads from a planet surface" mission) in my iCourier and a Deadly Annie was sent after me.
For the yucks, I fought it until it's shield dropped and I did a bit of hull damage but then my shield went down so I jumped out.
Saw it again in SC with no shield and hull at 89%.
I dodged it until my shield recharged then allowed myself to be interdicted again and then had another go.
Repeated the same thing about 5 or 6 times (my iCourier just has a single beam laser) until I eventually destroyed the Annie.

Was definitely the best bit of PvE combat I've ever had in ED.
Happened about a year ago and I was really impressed at the idea that persistent NPCs were now a thing.
Alas, it's never happened like that any time since - although it did prove that the game can do it, somehow. [where is it]

1 case is the bug. The other cases are the norm.

 

[Hullreaver]

That's another excuse that's often made for NPC's magical properties; "They might've gone to a station for repairs".

Cobblers.

If I see an NPC in a damaged ship fleeing to a station in SC and then coming after me again, I'll buy it - and I'll be impressed - but when they just jump out with ~20% hull, aren't visible anywhere in SC and then interdict me again with 100% hull, I call bullpoop.

No doubt. I started playing on my 2nd account, finally got my Cobra and stacked some missions. The same NPC interdicted me 8 TIMES, jumping out when down to 20% hull, then as soon as I enter SC, he respawns and, viola, 100%. Finally killed him, but if I was a new player, I think I would have just been done with the game at that point as this is really stupid.

 

[Han Zulu]

No doubt. I started playing on my 2nd account, finally got my Cobra and stacked some missions. The same NPC interdicted me 8 TIMES, jumping out when down to 20% hull, then as soon as I enter SC, he respawns and, viola, 100%. Finally killed him, but if I was a new player, I think I would have just been done with the game at that point as this is really stupid.

That's what happened to me multiple times when I first started playing in 2016. And the interdictions were near impossible to break. You had to give up. The ships had long range weapons. And as a newbie, you're still trying to figure out how to fly, and have no clue to what weapons to use, how to fight, or anything, and yet, after you get his hull down and your own is badly damaged, they come back and back and back. Oh, and what was even worse was that each interdiction pushed you away from the station, and they interdicted me just before I could reach it, so it was like a yoyo interdiction. Couldn't get to the station. So I ended up flying in normal space for an hour or two. After that, if a mission had these guys, I dropped it and took any penalty. No reason to be frustrated with cheating NPCs.

 

[Han Zulu]

AAAArgh! So irritating.

Have a mission to take out a pirate. Every time I get him down to 30%, he manages to jump out. Then when I find him again (within a very short time, 1-2 min), he has 100% hull again. That's not right.

I'm totally fine with him jumping out, but him having time to use a non-existent FMU or dock-repair-take-off within that time, that's just not right.

Bleh. This should be fixed. I'm reporting it as an bug now.

 

[60mm]

AAAArgh! So irritating.

Have a mission to take out a pirate. Every time I get him down to 30%, he manages to jump out. Then when I find him again (within a very short time, 1-2 min), he has 100% hull again. That's not right.

I'm totally fine with him jumping out, but him having time to use a non-existent FMU or dock-repair-take-off within that time, that's just not right.

Bleh. This should be fixed. I'm reporting it as an bug now.

FSD Interrupt Missile. Works!

 

[Han Zulu]

FSD Interrupt Missile. Works!

It's a new account. Don't have engineering access yet. Don't have materials even. Have a few million in credits. Only fly a cobra at the moment. No guardian tech either. It's only a few weeks old, and these silly targets are seriously annoying.

And it's still not right to have to over-engineer your ship to overcome a bug in the game.

--edit

Oh, well, I managed to use some other loadout that I could afford to take him out before he low waked. Still...

 

[Ignition]

This is what you should expect of a game which was designed so horrible bad.

 

[Han Zulu]

This is what you should expect of a game which was designed so horrible bad.

Not sure I personally want to go that far, there's a lot of good stuff, but a lot of moving parts. Having been in software development in the past myself, I know how bugs can creep in and some very hard to fix. On the other hand, some bugs shouldn't really be allowed to survive for this long. This NPC-insta-heal has been around for years now. And since they've managed to make the mission board and USSes more permanent, it shouldn't be much different to make a mission target to maintain it's health stats between supercruise switches. It's after all on my local computer the objects are created and maintained during combat. It can't be impossible.

 

[Kellan Fell]

Tried cleaning your router yet?

It's probably full of eels.

That would be his hovercraft...
Ah, my nipples explode with delight.

 

[evanevery]

THIS thread again?

 

[Para Handy]

... however, as we are repeatedly assured, NPCs do not cheat. Yeah, right.

 

[60mm]

THIS poor game design again?

Yups. Again.

 

[Sapyx]

The core problem seems to me to be this: the only way to (permanently) deal with a mission-generated NPC is if you kill them, personally. No other removal - eg. if the station guns blow them up, or they high-wake to another system - is acceptable. So while the mission is still active (and yes there are/were some bugs where missions refused to "de-activate") the game has no choice but to continually regenerate/clone them.

Now that NPCs are much less suicidal, what we need is "mission progress" without killing. When they get damaged and high-wake, you should get a mission update message: "OK, you scared that guy off, but he's still got some more friends incoming. Prepare for hostile number 2 of 4." You'd lose the opportunity to claim the bonus payment for that kill, but on the plus side, you'll never see them again.

 

[60mm]

Now that NPCs are much less suicidal, what we need is "mission progress" without killing. When they get damaged and high-wake, you should get a mission update message: "OK, you scared that guy off, but he's still got some more friends incoming. Prepare for hostile number 2 of 4." You'd lose the opportunity to claim the bonus payment for that kill, but on the plus side, you'll never see them again.

Or persistent Mission NPCs so players can complete the contract they were given instead of being dumped extra targets that will pull the same escape and pull the player into an endless loop.

 

[Gully Foyle]

No they do have enough memory because if I had had a wake scanner and gone wherever the NPC went, I'd see him with ~23% hull and no shields. It's just lazy programming on FD's part that respawns the NPC in the same system fully healed. It's not the end of the world though because there are lots of games any of us could be playing that have ironed out the bugs after 4+ years.

I think the bigger issue is FD not hiring top programming talent. The issues in the game are intern-level mistakes (and I've seen lots of intern-level IT configuration errors so I'm pretty sure game development is no different).

It's wayyy different. Apples to Jellyfish

 

[Han Zulu]

Or persistent Mission NPCs so players can complete the contract they were given instead of being dumped extra targets that will pull the same escape and pull the player into an endless loop.

And I wouldn't mind if they're gone for 5 minutes, they can be repaired, so there's a challenge to catch them before.

 

[MickyG1982]

They don't even get such simple things right like a 'clean kill bonus'. Promised was 720,000 cr but I actually got 529,000 cr.

You have crew don't you...

Seriously though it's not always obvious but they always take their cut of any money you receive, whether on your ship or kicking it up in the lounge...

 

[MoonRacer]

Doesn't work with assassination missions. The mission won't count if you kill your mission target in another system. It's a few weeks ago but I would be very surprised if that's been fixed in the meantime.

Meanwhile the game is so full of bugs that it feels like only the most obvious show stoppers are cared about. Bugs are so plenty by now that most of us have stopped to care as well. Just play a little with the message filter for instance: total bonkers. They don't even get such simple things right like a 'clean kill bonus'. Promised was 720,000 cr but I actually got 529,000 cr. Guess you can understand why I really can't bother with filing bug reports anymore, it's just way too much by now. And these 2 examples were just the tip of a stinking giant iceberg. Not funny, really. [mad]

I too avoid taking on missions at this time, except the simplest missions like data courier. I am busy with the awful material grind anyway...

But you should really post bug reports or add to one of the many threads on the bug report forum. If we stop to report bugs, they never will be fixed, but a lot of people who have the same issues will hopefully generate a bit of pressure. If we stop doing that it will look as if the bug were accepted somehow...

 

[xondk]

eeealy getting tired of the all the lousy coding in this game. NPC returns to continue his attack on me after losing most its hull and high-waking, but now totally healed and shields recharged after......oh about 15 seconds.

1: that is not the same NPC though, it is the same spawned npc for your mission. (name ship and such is the same, but it is not the same entity)
2: your initial target high waked, he's in another system, if you scan the wake and follow, you will find that npc. (this is what is the game wants you to do in these cases)
3: when you just jump out like that, and your target is no longer in the system, the game will spawn a new mission target. (or so it seems, since i've experienced similar behaviour)



So yeah, this is not a bug, in this case, it is intended behaviour, and spawning a new was something that was implemented last I checked, because mission targets would vanish if you didn't follow their high wake within x time (emulating they got away). Rendering the mission unable to be completed, and people were less then happy.