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

[Faded Glory]

Depends on four things really...

1. The ship you are flying and the amount of engineering you have. Ships in ED are (for average players?) very unbalanced. Get yourself into the big ships and you already have an advantage, moreso if you have engineered weapons / shields.

2. The rank and ship of the NPC. It makes a difference, and a high ranked large ship can be a challenge. As above though, less so if you are also in a large ship, and if you've engineered it, the advantage is back with the player.

3. The environment. If you are fighting an NPC along with a bunch of other NPCs, be they system security or bounty hunters, then that is much less of a challenge than if you are one on one and the NPC can concentrate it's fire on just you. So typically, at least in my experience, any location such as a RES or a Nav Beacon, and to some extent even some CZ's are much less difficult than an encounter with a pirate lord where you are on your own. Of course, CZ's where you are outnumbered are the polar opposite...

4. Pilot skill. That said, NPCs are designed for all of us, hence I guess some of the complaints that emerge on the forums about them being too easy, but I suspect for the average player they can certainly provide a challenge. After all there are a wide range of NPCs, and a fairly wide range of ways of interacting with them, from really easy to pretty challenging. For (I would imagine) most players, if they want a real challenge they just need to pick the right one.

 

[777Driver]

The issue has always been that the AI is too predictable. You can take a trade fit T9 and easily handle any Elite rank AI if you understand the logic behind their offensive capabilities. It is no fault of Sarah's, programing AI to behave like humans is incredibly difficult, we had a brief period of dangerous AI, no idea what she did to them, however that period was unfortunately short lived.

We are stuck with predictable AI the moment. Those that don't understand how the AI operates will suffer (And get offended by the silly term 'Git Gud') the rest of us find it way too predictable, even in a trade vessel. I can easily force AI into making mistakes, that is not a challenge, just simply knowing what is required to fool a computer algorithm.

 

[jasonbarron]

I've hardly played the game in almost 2 months, and even before that I quit farming NPC's maybe as much as 7-8 months ago. A couple days ago I joined Morbad's wing at the CG and we farmed NPC's for a while, but I was so busy re-learning my controls I wasn't in a position to tell how good/bad they were. I've been stuck at 88% Deadly without budging for months

 

[Kingston@#]

I do a lot of combat in my battle python and I have to agree AI is a bit of a challenge now if they are ranked, dangerous/elite. other than that they are still easy

 

[[VR] Enexemander]

They are kinda bad, yeah. But I still find them a challenge under the right circumstances. I bounty hunt in an Eagle often, and I can get into trouble I run into an Elite FDL/FAS/Anaconda with turrets/gimbals. This is mostly because I'm still not *quite* as good at flying as I wish that I was. I can glue to their six until a boost happens, and then I get into trouble, because if I boost I'll overshoot. If I don't boost, they get the time to turn. It's a problem. I'm thinking about hotkeying the cargo scoop or landing gear and using that to bleed off boost speed? Not sure if it will work.

But that's good, because it gives me something to work on!

 

[Xious]

Pretty challenging in my fighter in a CZ.

 

[Jason Lightning]

Pretty challenging in my fighter in a CZ.

Trick is to use a Taipan or Condor for that, sturdy enough to take a surprise Rail and then you engage the attacker and keep aim off. The GU-97 isn't sturdy, and if shields fail the AI tends to respond with seekers. Between the two the Condor tends to kill faster with fixed multi but the Taipan is more survivable against rails.

Fighters do make CZs interesting, better challenge than the usual and you have quite a lot to deploy with the larger hangars, a makeshift CQC really, but without the long queue.

 

[CMDR Harada]

Depends on the ship, level of engineering/mods, and CMDR.

A stock ship will have problems. An A-spec'd, engineered, Power-Play enhanced, ship ? They laugh. I smoked a wing of 3 Elite Pythons today at a comp nav beacon in my Corvette.. I lost one ring on shields because I face tanked the last two so I'd have time to jump the wing of Deadly eagles I was chasing.

Then add in the CMDR.. an experienced CMDR can usually escape or fight. New CMDRs, or non-combat CMDRs ? They'll have issues with things like hi-waking versus low-waking or submitting vs evading. It's not a 'cut and dried' question. I saw a video last week of a very skilled CMDR in an UN-SHIELDED Sidewinder mess up a would be tough guy in a Clipper. The Sidey actually let the Clipper escape "with a warning".. I was vastly impressed with his skill. Seriously, the Clipper got slapped around pretty bad.

If the NPcs are hard, you need to re-think your build or work on some skills ( or both ). I lost my first T-9 because I didn't know a hi-wake couldn't be mass locked. Oops. Several million credit lesson.

If they're easy, then you've become an apex predator ( as far as NPCs/PvE go, at any rate ). My Corvette is NEVER in any danger unless I do something stupid like carry 10 tons of gold into a Haz-Res or CompNavBeacon. ( Or 5 tons of micro-weave cooling hoses. A 35 million credit lesson ).

So, a better ship makes it easier. Engineered/Powerplay mods make it easier. A better CMDR makes it easier. And they all overlap. An A-spec'd, engineered, modded Corvette CAN make an average player a god. But a true hero in a Sidewinder can do the same thing.

 

[nathanc213]

As you fly an unengineered ship i can understand, tried to fly a vulture when i first set up my PC account (had base game) and just got wrecked despite running exaclty the same build i used to run pre horizons on xbox.

So it seems the AI have been buffed to cope with engineers.

 

[Rankaze]

For the most part, I don't have trouble with the AI.

Except every now and then, I do. I'm not sure what it is, but every once in a while I will run into an AI ship that puts up an uncharacteristically good fight. It's not even always a high-ranking ship. I've run into Competents and Experts that were harder to kill than most Elites. I'd love to see more fights like those, but it ought to be the high-ranked ones - it's kind of frustrating when the best and most difficult fight you have in an entire session is with an enemy who is worth no combat rank advancement at all.

 

[kofeyh]

No, the AI is not challenging. Predictable, formulaic and entirely trivial to render irrelevant as a threat. If the bog-standard AI is a challenge, and being destroyed is a regular occurrence, then I'm afraid there are questions about ship build or decision making.

It says a huge amount that frontier has to place the thargoids hundreds of light-years from the bubble, though; presumably this is so they can retain their considerable threat potential. There's no way they'll have them waltzing through the bubble if the current AI is still endlessly trouncing people.

 

[Troy_McClure]

I find them pretty hard - mind you, I'm a fairly casual player (8-10 hrs per wk). My Vulture has G5 pulse lasers - one rapid fire phasing DPS - 22.7 the other efficient phasing DPS - 17.4 with G5 bi-weave shield, thermal resistance.

This vid took what seemed like forever, just to kill 3 ships; my DVR is set to 6 mins & I guess about a minute is missing! How much harder do people want them? so that it takes 15 mins to kill three ships?

& yeah, I appreciate I could do with some gitting gudder, but as a general rule, I think the AI are fine as they are now!

[video=youtube;uOFSeBQWrMM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOFSeBQWrMM[/video]

 

[Cmnd Fulsom]

Challenging is a bad choice of words, aggressive, the AI is aggressive, to the detriment of all else, and as a result unless you know what you're doing and fly fairly well they will get guns on you and keep their guns on you. And so will do a lot of damage to you. Which, as I've said, is a damn sight better than the pre 2.1 AI. But it's not all that challenging, or all that interesting. I find that the AI difficulty, is fine. The high tier AI could be harder, but it's the limit of the AI. Whatever (I also didn't find the post 2.1 AI to be that bad, btw). What we really need, desperately need, is AI that is more variable in its behavior. And it doesn't have to be heuristic, deep learning, neural net AI. I just want randomized AI behaviors.

I want to see AI that will just immediately book as soon as they're attacked, I want to see AI that flies very defensively and avoids your fire, I want AI that does the 2.1 jousting, I want AI that does the 2.3 turreting, I even want to see the lemon AI from pre 2.1 come back. It's all fine, the more possible AI behaviors we can draw the better. If we can get enough possible draws there could even be set breakpoints where the AI could roll another routine and switch tactics. More variety FD, I'm sick of seeing every AI ship do the same damn thing but with a different ship load out. Come on.


Stay frosty



Cmnd Fulsom

 

[Trafalgar Law]

I'm mostly happy with the AI difficulty. When flying my Clipper, high level npcs in the big three ships are a threat, especially Pirate Lord Corvettes, 'Condas and Cutters are a bit easier now thanks to engineering (although Cutters in CZs still take ages to kill due to their high shield strength). Even high level npcs in similar grade ships to my Clipper can surprise me on occasion.

However the game becomes significantly easier when flying my mostly unengineered FdL (only drives and FSD have been engineered), the Corvettes that offer a significant challenge to my Clipper (probably ending with me running away) are much easier in the FdL, although still not faceroll easy like some people claim, in the FdL I can usually beat the same Corvette without losing my shields. I suspect that if I ever bought one of the big three the game would quickly become too easy while flying those ships.

Another issue I have is that the lower end npcs offer very little challenge to any of my ships with several of the lower tiers barely seeming to fire back or maneuver.

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

It's not only challenging - it's unrewarding, too. Not really worth the effort anymore.

 

[Deleted member 110222]

Oh understand I'm not offended by the whole "git gud" stuff; actually I say it myself to people who don't want to learn about escape mechanics. (I'm pretty carp at fights, but I find my evasion is another thing entirely. )

I'm not even necessarily asking for advice on how to get better at combat. Like I said in my OP, truthfully, I'm more a passive pilot. That's fine. Not every ship captain or airplane pilot IRL commands a Type 42 destroyer or Eurofighter Typhoon. Many more freight ships and cargo planes, and honestly I find those more fun. Hence my preference for trading in this game.

Like I said, I'm not sure otherwise giving up by any means. I'm just going to start focusing on non-combat stuff. This Cobra is probably best suited to that.

 

[MarkAusten]

Yes, I find them difficult at times, but then I'm old, not a combat pilot and therefore have little experience, my reflexes are slow (did I mention that I was old?) and my hands just don't work they way they used to, which is also why I have had to give up playing musical instruments except for very slow tunes.

I am grateful to FD for not making the AIs any harder or I would get trashed every time I met one instead of not all the time.

However, I can sympathise with good pilots like 777Driver above who find the AI too easy.

I too remember the period when the AI difficulty level was turned up. I escaped from most encounters with little hull left despite whatever I tried. In the end I became very good at running away.

 

[Cmdr. Numa]

An unengineered combat ship can deal with the AI as it currently is. An unengineered freighter certainly can't. An engineered anything wipes the floor with the AI however. I wouldn't want to have it any other way though. I spent so much time grinding for the engineers, that's it's damn right that this pays off.

 

[Nerwan]

An unengineered combat ship can deal with the AI as it currently is. An unengineered freighter certainly can't. An engineered anything wipes the floor with the AI however. I wouldn't want to have it any other way though. I spent so much time grinding for the engineers, that's it's damn right that this pays off.

This is basically true.. However, I do wish there was special locations you could take your engineered ship for a much harder challenge. It kind of sucks that you get anywhere near the top ships and you become totally invincible to the AI..

 

[MarkAusten]

This is basically true.. However, I do wish there was special locations you could take your engineered ship for a much harder challenge. It kind of sucks that you get anywhere near the top ships and you become totally invincible to the AI..

It's not going to be long for someone to say 'play in Open' and thereby miss the point completely.