Newcomer / Intro NPCs: Once they retract their hardpoints they don't deploy them anymore?

Caty_Feila

Caty_Feila
I was bounty hunting and helping the police take down a wing of pirates.
While the Police was shooting at the primary, one of the wing companions decided to run away, retracted his hardpoints and started charging his FSD.
I went after him and shot at him.
He turned back against me. The police had finished with his colleagues and left the scene and I was like, Uh... guys!
So the bandit came after me on his Viper III. I started shooting at him but he just went through the motions of shooting at me, circling me and coming at me head-on several times with his weapons retracted, probably yelling "Pew Pew!" while pressing the inactive fire button.
It took me several minutes on my Cobra III with low grade lasers to shoot him but I did.

Is this normal behavior? Once they retract their weapons they don't deploy anymore?
 

Faded Glory

Faded Glory
Assuming the NPC was low ranked, they will indeed do dumb things, they are programmed to be as good as their rank.

So always worth being aware of the rank of the NPC you are dealing with, as you won't always have such ineptitude facing you... ;)
 

badibeat

badibeat
If you want to make your life easier then rank up combat after becoming Elite in the other disciplines. Your opponents get harder the higher your combat rank is.
 

Tyres O'Flaherty

Tyres O'Flaherty
Caty_Feila said:
Nooo, actually I want them to remain like this. It's the only chance I have to take down ships by myself :LOL:
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I know what you mean. The only chance I have is to use my steroid-enhanced Cutter with state of the art bang-bangs and enough other stuff to completely tank anything. If I use a smaller ship, I'll run out of ammo/heat dissipation/time (delete as appropriate).
 

Faded Glory

Faded Glory
badibeat said:
If you want to make your life easier then rank up combat after becoming Elite in the other disciplines. Your opponents get harder the higher your combat rank is.
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This is true to an extent, but it's not absolute. Your own combat ranking will determine the rank of random NPC pirates that occasionally interdict you, but that's not necessarily an every day occurrence, and unless you are a trader probably not much of an issue. If you are interdicted by a pirate with no cargo in your hold, they will scan you then leave (unless you decide to destroy them first).

If you do missions, the rank of the mission will determine the kind and rank of NPC opposition you will get. If you take Elite ranked delivery missions for example and get an incoming enemy alert then you will face four highly ranked Anacondas.

Edited to add that in any case, you are highly likely to reach trade and exploration Elite before combat as the credits that can be earned exploring or trading will get you to Elite in those disciplines very fast, a few weeks is all you'd need. Combat Elite, while it's not particularly difficult, still requires you to destroy a certain number of ships, and that still takes time, even if one tries to farm it.
 
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Faded Glory

Faded Glory
Tyres O'Flaherty said:
I know what you mean. The only chance I have is to use my steroid-enhanced Cutter with state of the art bang-bangs and enough other stuff to completely tank anything. If I use a smaller ship, I'll run out of ammo/heat dissipation/time (delete as appropriate).
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Well worth persisting with small / medium ships. Firstly, they are cheap both to buy and outfit, and also to get back with insurance. And certainly in my opinion they are much more fun to fly! :) And remember, small ships in particular are smaller targets as well as more agile, so less need to tank.

For sure, destroying larger ships with smaller ones is more challenging - as it should be - and often for the reasons you give. Smaller weapons do less damage to larger hulls (hint - hence why the Vulture is so powerful as a small ship) and thus it will take longer to destroy a large ship with a small ship. Heat dissipation can very much be eliminated as a problem with a bit of engineering, and running out of ammo... Well, depends a bit on what you are using, but the only time I sometimes find myself running low on ammo is when I take massacre missions for thirty targets, in which case the multi-canons on my Krait Mk II will generally run a bit low.
 

Caty_Feila

Caty_Feila
badibeat said:
If you want to make your life easier then rank up combat after becoming Elite in the other disciplines. Your opponents get harder the higher your combat rank is.
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I am Merchant in Trade and Mostly Aimless in Exploration but I am 2% away from Deadly in combat.
 

Caty_Feila

Caty_Feila
Tyres O'Flaherty said:
I know what you mean. The only chance I have is to use my steroid-enhanced Cutter with state of the art bang-bangs and enough other stuff to completely tank anything. If I use a smaller ship, I'll run out of ammo/heat dissipation/time (delete as appropriate).
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I'm still on my Cobra III with F and G rated weapons but I will get a Chieftain as soon as I find where I can get one.
 

Caty_Feila

Caty_Feila
Faded Glory said:
Edited to add that in any case, you are highly likely to reach trade and exploration Elite before combat as the credits that can be earned exploring or trading will get you to Elite in those disciplines very fast, a few weeks is all you'd need. Combat Elite, while it's not particularly difficult, still requires you to destroy a certain number of ships, and that still takes time, even if one tries to farm it.
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I took a liking to bounty hunting so I will reach Combat Elite before Trading and Exploration.
I am 2% away from Deadly now.
 

Faded Glory

Faded Glory
Caty_Feila said:
I took a liking to bounty hunting so I will reach Combat Elite before Trading and Exploration.
I am 2% away from Deadly now.
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That's good, do what you enjoy, but as aRJay says, you are nearly half way to Elite in Combat then.

Harmless to Deadly is 50%, Deadly to Elite is 50%. ;)

So believe me, still plenty of opportunity to get trade or exploration before combat - if you wanted to of course. :)
 

Caty_Feila

Caty_Feila
Faded Glory said:
That's good, do what you enjoy, but as aRJay says, you are nearly half way to Elite in Combat then.

Harmless to Deadly is 50%, Deadly to Elite is 50%. ;)

So believe me, still plenty of opportunity to get trade or exploration before combat - if you wanted to of course. :)
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Not sure if I want to go back to trading.
I even sold my cargo racks for hull reinforcements
But you never know.
Maybe if the climb from Deadly to Elite in combat gets too steep I may get bored and go back to trading or try some exploration :)
 
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