Am I the only one who thinks the AI is challenging?

[Deleted member 110222]

Guess it's because I'm just a pretty average pilot. Probably a bit less. I'm better dealing with cargo, running, and passengers. [yesnod]

I'm making this thread after getting my proverbial handed to me in a compromised nav' beacon today. I barely took out an Elite Eagle, and that Asp Scout was just too much. [blah]

Am I giving up? No... Nor am I complaining; actually I think it's awesome. No, I'm just going to re-outfit my brig to be a bit more passive. [up]

Let me tell you, I find trading in this game more enjoyable than looking for fights, personally. Of course, I can defend myself, and it wasn't like the Asp one-shot me, in fact he didn't even drop me below 90%. But I think it's suffice to say that I'm not one of these ace CMDR's who perform feats of godliness in their vessels, because whilst I survived, I couldn't scratch the Asp either. :|

So what do you think? Do you think some people complain about the AI because they're simply that good a pilot? This is meant as a compliment by the way. [cool]

Discuss.

 

[CMDRvenerian]

I have a T9 for trading équipes with 6A shields and 3 shield boosters. Got interdicted by an NPC python and he killed me with almost 6M in cargo. So I agree NPCs can be challenging for non combat builds and I am over all satisfied with their current state.

 

[Darkfyre99]

You're not the only one. Every time I fight an NPC that is at least a novice, or higher, I thank my lucky stars if I win. This is probably because I don't enjoy fighting games in general. For most first-person shooter games, if there isn't a stealth route, I usually don't play it. Don't even get me started on multi-player first person shooters. I generally prefer strategy games, building games, and non-combat flight sims.

I also don't play this game to fight NPCs. I prefer to play the BGS, to go exploring, and to have fun in races.

 

[robbyp]

Yes they can be challenging. For any normal ship, especially if they start to gang up on you. My mission Asp only just escaped on Friday from an NPC encounter with 6% hull

 

[Red Anders]

I have a T9 for trading équipes with 6A shields and 3 shield boosters. Got interdicted by an NPC python and he killed me with almost 6M in cargo. So I agree NPCs can be challenging for non combat builds and I am over all satisfied with their current state.

Did you try to fight it or were you attempting to flee? I'm asking because I run a class 5 shield on my T9 (it's only there to stop hull damage when the docking computer boosts it into the side of a station) and I've only ever had it dropped once by an npc, I've never even come close to losing the ship to one but that's because I don't try to fight them in a fat heavy trade ship with low-rent gear.

 

[Cupsuki]

Indeed they can be quite challenging, I personally fly 90% of the time inside my engineered corvette so NPCS aren't really a challenge for me so I sometimes let my shields go down, look for a bigger fight, etc. Just to have a bit of thrill every now and then. Or I just switch to another ship and go do random stuff.

NPCs are OK against non engineered ships. Unfortunately when FD introduced engineers they didn't introduced something to match the power of an engineered ship.

Definitely looking forward for 2.4

 

[Frank]

I'm glad I'm not the only one. I think they've spiced up the NPCs a little. But it's difficult for me to tell. I've just recently dropped back down to a Python to do some mission running. I usually just laugh at elite NPC Pythons as I rip them to shreds. The one who caught me today got my shields of my Python down.

 

[CMDR Cosmic Spacehead]

99.9% of the time I find the AI to be a bit "meh".

I get Elite Anacondas parking directly in front of my, trying to hump my Anaconda's deck. (I assume it's mating season!) They die incredibly quick, as do Elite Clippers, which also seem to want to mate.
Smaller ships are generally vapourised before they can become annoying.
All in all they don't put up a challenge these days. I've learned all their patterns.
I took out a wing of 3 Elite Clippers without even using an SCB, or FA-OFF.

Then the 0.1% of the time, some random pair of ships will give me a real run for my money.
I dropped in to a threat 2 Distress signal USS.
Just 1 Competent Anaconda and a 1 Competent Vulture. Easy, I thought!

Was it hell! I dunno what they were firing, but it was doing a fine job on my shields, which normally just tank entire CNBs. I still won. But I have no idea how 2 low skill ships can be more dangerous than 3 Elites. Lol

More like that please.
I thoroughly enjoyed it.

CMDR Cosmic Spacehead

 

[metascrawl]

I'm kind of in between. I'm not a good combat pilot so I wouldn't do well taking on larger targets in a Cobra or anything. But my Python is now engineered enough to take on any NPC and win even if I fly badly and make lots of mistakes. Especially so with the use of SCBs. At the very worst I'll low wake out - I am pretty good at running if it comes to that. I've had my Python for a while now and I haven't lost it yet, despite spending quite a lot of time bounty hunting in a nearby HazRes (which is in an anarchy system so no help from security).

But as I say, I'm relying on the fact that my ship is kind of OP against NPCs. In a lesser ship I'd have a much harder time with them. I definitely want to work on my combat skills more. Next time I play I'm going to try out some of the tips in the video posted here: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...ing-Having-problems-in-combat-This-might-help

 

[Kaocraft]

Guess it's because I'm just a pretty average pilot. Probably a bit less. I'm better dealing with cargo, running, and passengers. [yesnod]

I'm making this thread after getting my proverbial handed to me in a compromised nav' beacon today. I barely took out an Elite Eagle, and that Asp Scout was just too much. [blah]

Am I giving up? No... Nor am I complaining; actually I think it's awesome. No, I'm just going to re-outfit my brig to be a bit more passive. [up]

Let me tell you, I find trading in this game more enjoyable than looking for fights, personally. Of course, I can defend myself, and it wasn't like the Asp one-shot me, in fact he didn't even drop me below 90%. But I think it's suffice to say that I'm not one of these ace CMDR's who perform feats of godliness in their vessels, because whilst I survived, I couldn't scratch the Asp either. :|

So what do you think? Do you think some people complain about the AI because they're simply that good a pilot? This is meant as a compliment by the way. [cool]

Discuss.

People complain about the AI because there isn't (and never will be) one singe across-the-board difficulty setting which is a good fit for all players or even the majority of players. If certain regions and situations were more difficult than others, and the dangers were signposted in a reasonably legible way, people could rise to or shrink from the different challenges and find something which suits them. But instead we have everything distributed evenly everywhere all the time, and nothing (and nowhere) is meaningfully different from anything else.

Of course any particular challenge level is going to be appropriate to some peoples' skills at some point in time. Right now that's you - someday you'll be better skilled or better informed or better equipped, and at that point there will be NOTHING for you.

Meanwhile there are people at a lower skill/knowledge/talent level than you, who are equally hosed, because the AI will forever outmatch and frustrate them.

The AI has some across-the-board problems which are worth complaining about; but the larger issue is that the AI is homogenous across all locations and situations. Until this is addressed there will always be a thread complaining about the AI.

 

[yolomcbobbinz]

I do lots of bounty hunting and I can say the ai is challenging anyone saying it's not is just using a super engineered ship that's impossible to be destroyed its impossible to out maneuver most ships because they just use reverse thrusters to stay in front forcing you tank
I used to have a pretty decent engineered Fer-De-lance with 980 shield and 1000 hull and some other stuff but I was only able to take a few ships 1 on 1 before I had to bail


I sold it and kept all the engineered parts and bought a python and outfitted it for multiple purpose mining ship

 

[HeavyGroovez]

99.9% of the time I find the AI to be a bit "meh".

I get Elite Anacondas parking directly in front of my, trying to hump my Anaconda's deck. (I assume it's mating season!) They die incredibly quick, as do Elite Clippers, which also seem to want to mate.
Smaller ships are generally vapourised before they can become annoying.
All in all they don't put up a challenge these days. I've learned all their patterns.
I took out a wing of 3 Elite Clippers without even using an SCB, or FA-OFF.

Then the 0.1% of the time, some random pair of ships will give me a real run for my money.
I dropped in to a threat 2 Distress signal USS.
Just 1 Competent Anaconda and a 1 Competent Vulture. Easy, I thought!

Was it hell! I dunno what they were firing, but it was doing a fine job on my shields, which normally just tank entire CNBs. I still won. But I have no idea how 2 low skill ships can be more dangerous than 3 Elites. Lol

More like that please.
I thoroughly enjoyed it.

CMDR Cosmic Spacehead

Yeah that whole face hump is bizarre. And they don't give up. You reverski and they just keep coming. Cue the boost ram and they still don't budge.

 

[Gunnet]

I think it's a combination of experience and equipment. Players who focus more on combat are obviously going to have gotten better at it than players who only do it occasionally, and they're also likely to be flying more optimised combat ships.

What ship and loadout were you using?

 

[Bieltan]

Were you in your Cobra? If so, an Elite Eagle will give you a good fight. NPC rank actually means a lot. Elite NPCs in ships even remotely comparable to your own are not to be taken lightly!

 

[verminstar]

No yer not the only one fer whom the AI is a challenge...but...thats because one has tailored and adapted my game to ensure it remains a challenge indefinitely because of what has become a form of role play.

None of my ships are armed...the likes of shock mines are only intended to buy extra time in the event someone or something gets that close.

Its a playstyle perfected after a year in solo playing ironman mode...Ive now adapted it to playing in open. Which means Im not playing ironman anymore because...players. The npc however will remain an issue fer me as I continue to interact with them and players...a new thing Im trying out.

The role play side of it...best ship in the verse was serenity and she is sorely missed...serenity had no guns and her captain refused to put any on it ^

 

[Darth Ender]

the npcs are push-overs.

you can farm them all day if you can manage to stay awake.

I dont necessarily have a huge issue with demanding that the npcs have neural net heuristics and adaptive learning behavior....but if they're gonna be as easy to beat (without them cheating) as they currently are, then they should at least work together better. If a bounty hunter is running all over your pirate brethren, they should begin working in groups more and more to drive the bounty hunter out. Players shouldn't be able to camp a res/cz/nav site and farm them till they're bored. The npc response should reflect the player activity level and scale (ramp up faster / slower) when appropriate depending on system security level.

 

[Ralph Vargr]

People complain about the AI because there isn't (and never will be) one singe across-the-board difficulty setting which is a good fit for all players or even the majority of players. If certain regions and situations were more difficult than others, and the dangers were signposted in a reasonably legible way, people could rise to or shrink from the different challenges and find something which suits them. But instead we have everything distributed evenly everywhere all the time, and nothing (and nowhere) is meaningfully different from anything else.

Of course any particular challenge level is going to be appropriate to some peoples' skills at some point in time. Right now that's you - someday you'll be better skilled or better informed or better equipped, and at that point there will be NOTHING for you.

Meanwhile there are people at a lower skill/knowledge/talent level than you, who are equally hosed, because the AI will forever outmatch and frustrate them.

The AI has some across-the-board problems which are worth complaining about; but the larger issue is that the AI is homogenous across all locations and situations. Until this is addressed there will always be a thread complaining about the AI.

Duly +1'd.

 

[Grey Wolfe]

I think it's a combination of experience and equipment. Players who focus more on combat are obviously going to have gotten better at it than players who only do it occasionally, and they're also likely to be flying more optimised combat ships.

What ship and loadout were you using?

Yes, agree with you here.

I play across all gameplay types in Elite, but I do hold a DEADLY combat ranking with a fully engineered Vette and can hold my own in most combat situations. So off the back of that I would say that the NPC AI isn't challenging enough.

On top of that, it's not fairly balanced either. Many times a Sub Targets list has told me that an enemy only has one chaff launcher and yet they seem to be able to spam it continuously for 10 minutes straight.

I've also had many experiences where NPCs have managed to continuously score direct hits using Rail Guns (that are notoriously difficult to aim with) at a range of over 2 kilometres. Never seem to run out of ammo either ...

In short, they don't fight well and they don't fight fairly either.

 

[zaikoji]

Guess it's because I'm just a pretty average pilot. Probably a bit less. I'm better dealing with cargo, running, and passengers. [yesnod]

I'm making this thread after getting my proverbial handed to me in a compromised nav' beacon today. I barely took out an Elite Eagle, and that Asp Scout was just too much. [blah]

Am I giving up? No... Nor am I complaining; actually I think it's awesome. No, I'm just going to re-outfit my brig to be a bit more passive. [up]

Let me tell you, I find trading in this game more enjoyable than looking for fights, personally. Of course, I can defend myself, and it wasn't like the Asp one-shot me, in fact he didn't even drop me below 90%. But I think it's suffice to say that I'm not one of these ace CMDR's who perform feats of godliness in their vessels, because whilst I survived, I couldn't scratch the Asp either. :|

So what do you think? Do you think some people complain about the AI because they're simply that good a pilot? This is meant as a compliment by the way. [cool]

Discuss.

Take heart. I had the skin taken off me backside by a dangerous imperial eagle last night. They can be a challenge, and if by implication that makes us under-engineered wimps, then so be it

 

[duckofdeath]

They have indeed gotten a lot better over the last year. Trying to adjust their style to how you attack them. Though, they are still "AI" with coded limits. There are ways to trick all ships into behaving erratically. Like, flipping FA off and on will make them mess up their flying. Tailing large ships will make them stop trying to get back into the fight and such.
I think AI in Elite behaves better than AI in most other games. They've tried to make them less predictable, which is nice.