I'm pretty horrible with railguns and high rank NPCs can absolutely match or best my aim.
However, you have been insisting that NPCs are unnaturally good, when this is clearly not the case. The benchmark for that would be the best human player there is, not me, not you, not everyone else...and the best players are better than the best NPCs in this regard.
NPCs have, quite literally, unnaturally poor rail aim.
I don't have selective memory.
I also don't think the scenario you outlined would end any differently than you've said it would. We are in complete agreement on that particular point.
However, I also think that if that's what you are doing with SLFs in a CZ, you are utilizing them poorly. They cannot be sent into groups of NPC hostiles and be expected to survive long with NPC crew. They have to be micromanaged a bit if you want them to last more than a few minutes.
I hear ya, and again, this was never about me, this was about a half remembered promise that something would be done when MANY people complained about the unnaturally good aim of NPCs with rails in the game.
I don't use the fighter in CZs, I very rarely do CZs, I use the fighter for distraction when I aggro one or two too many in a RES or during a distress call, or whatever. Anyway, like I say, it's not about me.
I will never agree that they have poor railgun aim. You put a railgun in the hands of the average pilot that doesn't do a great deal of combat, but isn't useless. You then put a 'competent' NPC with railguns in a similar ship and order them both to shoot at an eagle 2km away. Don't even think about telling me that the player will land a SINGLE shot, while the NPC will land three hits in a row. I find that a far more meaningful paradigm than your assertion that the best NPC should match the best humans. That would be a movingn goalpost anyway, as humans will keep getting better and better, such is our nature.
When I say selective memory this is what I mean, either you remember the humans being much better than they are, or you remember the NPCs being much worse than they are.
Apart from the general issue being discussed, what kind of test is this? A low-ranked pilot in an SLF ignoring a rail-equipped ship? What do you think the outcome should be? :S
The point is how long it would last, less than 10 seconds or two rail shots, because the NPCs don't miss. Now put a 'competent' human in an eagle with railguns and tell him to hit an SLF (which is focused on another target) twice in a row.
I keep saying I'm decent with rails, but I wouldn't even consider wasting the ammo trying to hit an SLF at any range, although I admit micro gimballing at long range is damn useful, if the fighter is engaged and evasive, it's still quite the ask.
