Fix broken PvE AI to make it an enjoyable challenge, and not CHEAP

Cugastratos

C
Seriously, it's ridiculously imbalanced. And cheats like nothing else... And by cheating I mean IT'S OBVIOUS it's CHEATING. It does whatever it wants, negates whatever damage it wants, ignores whatever it module damage wants because it doesn't seem to have effective parameters telling the AI "You can't go above this level" so it can straight up HACK to get what it wants. That is how Skynet is born....

Why does the AI have unlimited access to the Cobra mk IV? Something that is not available to anyone except the fortunate(?) few who even knew about this game in that limited time frame? Even some earlier buyers couldn't get it because it was so exclusive.

Why does the AI with fully destroyed power plant module fly around and continue on like absolutely NOTHING happened?. Or (Most recently) can boost away from a player with fully destroyed drives (BOTH OF THEM), and put a ridiculous amount of distance between them and the players? Or the crazy (my favorite) sidewinder/eagles that have the ability to shield tank a well built and fully engineered Anaconda/Corvette because of magic infini-shield boost/charges? I'm serious, I'd get an enemy PvE ship shield down to the last ring in a decent amount of time, only to see that last ring stay there for minutes and even sometimes boosting back up to 2-3 full rings just because why not? It doesn't have any limiters in it's programming..
There have been times I couldn't get a PVE ships shields down from the last ring until system security shows up (with their own special brand of hax weapons) to finally knock it off.
Oh, and can the AI finally be affected by OVERHEATING and RELOAD times? It might actually make certain engineering mods USEFUL in PvE.

This game would be perfect if you'd actually take some time to FIX and BALANCE what you already HAVE and then create new things from there, instead of having to go backtrack through even more to rebalance EVERYTHING ELSE you've ADDED. You can't build and improve a home that has a poorly built foundation without tearing down the whole house and fixing the foundation FIRST.
 

Cugastratos

C
That reminds me of the chaff heatsink alternating combo the AI loves to use so you can never target their ship with anything for minutes on end. I'm currently sitting on 71% Dangerous combat rank, so I've seen more than my share of PvE hax. PS4 player here.
 

Cugastratos

C
@Factabulous, if I was a big streamer I'd have no issue putting up a video. Not that tech savvy with gamer streaming and posting videos of my gameplay yet. Eventually when I get the chance to capture it I will. Also it wasn't about the NPC running away, it was the fact it was running away with NO DRIVES... I mean 0% drives on all of it's thrusters, and it still boosted away. I also have drag drives on my missiles too. I'm no lying when I can say "I've seen THINGS" in this game lol
It won't die... it won't die... I'm shooting at it, but IT JUST WON'T DIE!!!!!
 
Last edited:

CMDR X

CMDR X
Typical NPC engagement:

NPC comes around to sniff your butt.
NPC turns away grumbling about starving to death.
Ping NPC with a shot to get him all the more angry.
NPC face tanks you and spams Chaff, Point Defense and SCB's.
Continue pressing fire until one of you blows up.

Exciting, rewarding game play! Just like in those Elite teaser videos.
 

Cugastratos

C
X2611 said:
Typical NPC engagement:

NPC comes around to sniff your butt.
NPC turns away grumbling about starving to death.
Ping NPC with a shot to get him all the more angry.
NPC face tanks you and spams Chaff, Point Defense and SCB's.
Continue pressing fire until one of you blows up.

Exciting, rewarding game play! Just like in those Elite teaser videos.
Click to expand...
I might enjoy it more if I could use my PSVR headset on my PS4 pro (that visual head tracking can't be beat). To be honest, dogfights in Ace Combat 7 (especially the VR missions) is much more exciting than in this game. Hard to use the machine guns though, but at least you can have an easier time maneuvering around your opponent.
This game all I see is the AI jousting or face tanking. I've gotten better at knocking it out when it tries to start a jousting match.
 

Jmanis

Jmanis
Cugastratos said:
Why does the AI with fully destroyed power plant module fly around and continue on like absolutely NOTHING happened?.
Click to expand...
This is incorrect.

AI does react to powerplant knocks. Thing is, it's incredibly easy to configure your power so that a powerplant knock does pretty much nothing.

Refer the below video which I made to prove this the last time this got mentioned.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKJii-lo6aM

...and here's the power settings post-knock from that video... noting SBs, SCB, SG and FSDI are all offline as a result
1559220675410-png.133102

When the powerplant knocks (which can realistically only happen with no shields), all shield-supporting systems are shut down. This affords enough power for the ship to continue business as usual.

tl;dr AI just manages it's power settings better than your average player, which isn't a very high bar. Coincidentally, this increases the challenge, which is the point of your suggestion, no?

Edit: Also...
Or (Most recently) can boost away from a player with fully destroyed drives (BOTH OF THEM), and put a ridiculous amount of distance between them and the players?
Click to expand...
With drives knocked, ships continue in the direction they were going with almost no slowdown... if that was during a boost, good luck keeping up with them.
 
Last edited:

Northpin

Northpin
Yes, as Factabulous said you should post your ship build and the location where this is happening.
There are spots where NPC are flying heavily engineered ships and even if your ship is as engineered, you will still need some time to kill the NPC
Otherwise, no i dont think they are cheating. Yes, they have unlimited multi-cannon ammo and some experimental effects does not seem to affect them, but that's basically all


IF you are really into NPC killing, outfit your ship accordingly.
Make sure you use seekers or have other means to fast kill their drives/fsd or directly their powerplants and fly a fast ship that can keep up with a drifting NPC.
 

Aashenfox

Aashenfox
Cugastratos said:
@Factabulous, if I was a big streamer I'd have no issue putting up a video. Not that tech savvy with gamer streaming and posting videos of my gameplay yet. Eventually when I get the chance to capture it I will. Also it wasn't about the NPC running away, it was the fact it was running away with NO DRIVES... I mean 0% drives on all of it's thrusters, and it still boosted away. I also have drag drives on my missiles too. I'm no lying when I can say "I've seen THINGS" in this game lol
It won't die... it won't die... I'm shooting at it, but IT JUST WON'T DIE!!!!!
Click to expand...
This is because things don't stop in space without thrust to do so. FD has acknowledged this is undesired and will bring them to a stop in future.
 

Cugastratos

C
Jmanis said:
This is incorrect.

AI does react to powerplant knocks. Thing is, it's incredibly easy to configure your power so that a powerplant knock does pretty much nothing.

Refer the below video which I made to prove this the last time this got mentioned.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKJii-lo6aM


When the powerplant knocks (which can realistically only happen with no shields), all shield-supporting systems are shut down. This affords enough power for the ship to continue business as usual.

tl;dr AI just manages it's power settings better than your average player, which isn't a very high bar. Coincidentally, this increases the challenge, which is the point of your suggestion, no?
Click to expand...
It is because the AI has INSTANT PIP management. This is well beyond natural human capabilities. If it is shooting at you, it has INSTANT MAX PIPS to weapons, if it is turning away to run, INSTANT MAX PIP engines. It most likely can instant max PIP systems for every single individual round you fire at while switching between SYS and WEP max.
I like ENJOYABLE challenges that allow you to use varying methods to succeed, not cheap poor programming cheese "challenge" that pretty much allows the AI to exploit well beyond average human capabilities and sticks you into a single repetitive pattern/build to win. Reminds me of various fighting games where you have all these moves available but end up using only one surefire combo pattern because its the only one that works on the AI. Computer chess anyone?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom