Quite, ED pretty much states outright... So if this does turn out to be the beginning of a PTW mentality, then it's a betrayal of trust. It's something none of us would want and we're all hoping my conjecture is wrong. Problem is, 1 is a pretty small data set to be working with, especially so when said datum is incomplete.
Can a Combat Veteran please tell me what I did wrong in this situation?
- Thread starter CoyoteXStarrk
- Start date
Its not their revenue model. I can't go to the store and buy upgrades to help me in combat or anything else in game, that's what you get in "pay to win" games. All of their in store purchases are cosmetics. I agree that everyone should be converted to horizons. Its silly IMO that not everyone has access to the engineers at this point in the game's life cycle. You can't point at Horizons and say that qualifies ED as a P2W game, that just highlights your ignorance of the standard revenue models.
Everyone has horizons anyway.
Do they now?
Yep.
You just don't see it raised as anything other than an entirely theoretical issue ever since that one guy who refused to get it left the forum. He only ever complained about the mechanics of it anyway not imbalance, even though he'd never actually tried any of them.
For example when you raised it as being a problem in this thread you specifically said it wasn't applicable as the OP has horizons.
I didn't say that they don't take internal damage - they just care much less about it than at least I would
. Yes, I've seen enough NPCs who were, after dropping their shields, in an extremely bad state without having received any fire that would account for that. At least before 3.3. In 3.3, I was surprised several times by NPCs turning tail and trying to run while they still could.I didn't say that they don't take internal damage - they just care much less about it than at least I would
NPC's running away before exploding is sensible and realistic.
Its the most difficult/annoying part of these kill pirate missions. When I see their HP retract its an all out mad dash to disable/destroy before they can escape and reset to fully restored.
Yup. True.
The way the "AI" in Elite is done with the NPCs is that they're not smart, just beefed up with engineered modules, and to survive against engineering, you have to engineer yourself. So in essence, the real blame is on the cheap (cheat?) AI for the NPCs. (in my opinion)
Hit the FSD and take something with a bit of zoom.
By "pretty much states", I meant its often implied by fdev. If I'd meant explicit, I'd not have used the "pretty much" part.
My apologies for any misunderstanding.
3.3 did improve AI tactics and piloting. I noticed this when doing the challenge scenarios after revamping my control bindings. They have fewer holes that can be exploited.
It's a good change, but is a matter of degrees, not a radical change from pre-3.3 behavior.
Sounds like you were shot with some plasma and then collided with your target. Your setup sounded pretty fragile and you may not have had many pips in SYS.
Mamba's thrusters are quite vulnerable from the rear, so expect malfunctions if you don't have adequate hull and module protection and are hit from behind.
HRPs are not that heavy, certainly not relative to bulkheads (which protect far less).
The mission rank isn't really a difficulty level. Threat level and your own ship seem to dic
Enormous spectrum of defensive and offensive capabilities possible. The OP's setup was very fragile and he was fighting an NPC wing which included two relatively potent combat vessels.
With my current Mamba loadout, I can take out the mission target and maybe one of the Vultures, without assistance, but I usually finish with a badly damaged ship. My Krait and FDL can knock out all four targets (three vultures and FDL), and in the FDL's case I can often do so without losing shields.
I'm still trying to decide in a good general purpose combat loadout for the Mamba though. My PvP loadout is quite poor vs. NPCs and the loadouts I can do wing assassination missions with is quite poor against other CMDRs...I want something passable for both.
It's a good change, but is a matter of degrees, not a radical change from pre-3.3 behavior.
Sounds like you were shot with some plasma and then collided with your target. Your setup sounded pretty fragile and you may not have had many pips in SYS.
Mamba's thrusters are quite vulnerable from the rear, so expect malfunctions if you don't have adequate hull and module protection and are hit from behind.
HRPs are not that heavy, certainly not relative to bulkheads (which protect far less).
The mission rank isn't really a difficulty level. Threat level and your own ship seem to dic
Enormous spectrum of defensive and offensive capabilities possible. The OP's setup was very fragile and he was fighting an NPC wing which included two relatively potent combat vessels.
I tested my mamba the same way as the OP. However mine is fully engineered with 2600mj prismo shields and decent armor w/ MRP. I used huge MC + Frags in the large, pulse turrets in the smalls. My results vs a pirate wing mission? I didnt get waxed, but I had to flee. I tried several of these missions with the same result in the mamba. It just doesnt have the firepower/agility to take on 3 or 4 enemies like this and survive. I suppose I should try different weapon loadouts for reverski tactics in the mamba, but I lost interest. The corvette, OTOH, no problem. I can solo these missions all day long
With my current Mamba loadout, I can take out the mission target and maybe one of the Vultures, without assistance, but I usually finish with a badly damaged ship. My Krait and FDL can knock out all four targets (three vultures and FDL), and in the FDL's case I can often do so without losing shields.
I'm still trying to decide in a good general purpose combat loadout for the Mamba though. My PvP loadout is quite poor vs. NPCs and the loadouts I can do wing assassination missions with is quite poor against other CMDRs...I want something passable for both.
Last edited:
Maybe I am, maybe not...
It will of course remain to be seen.
Perhaps this is all a bug and engineered NPCs aren't intended to appear for non-Horizons commanders. Hell, maybe they don't, and there are so few of them left that we just don't notice.
The problem is you see, that since I don't actually work for FD nor have the ear of DBOBE, then all I can do is guess based on what is said in streams and written here in the forum. So I am, quite understandably, sometimes mistaken (about a great many things). But that's ok, speculation is healthy after all. You of course, might actually be DBOBE and know exactly what's going on, but then again, maybe you're just speculating too... That's also fine.