the KI Asp hits again...
Cheater NPC-s with Railguns, or something like that, mostly vultures
- Thread starter pakriksz
- Start date
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- Tags
- cheat impossible npc overpowered
Personal observations/opinions follow.
NPC AI has to span a wide range of opponents, and that brings on consequences.
If you pilot a small ship, knocking out an NPC can take some time, depending on your rig/skill. The same NPC is quick toast against an equipped medium or large.
There's a scaling effect based on a CMDR's rating which also has more of an effect if you fly a small. Time to kill is greater.
My gripes are the endless chaff and bullet sponging, after a while, the time to kill is boring and the battles are repetitive.
It would be nice if FD would program a random effect where a "lucky shot" would destroy an NPC regardless of hull integrity. This occurrence is not unknown in real combat, perfect examples are the destruction of the "HMS Hood" in WWII and the British cruisers at the Battle of Jutland in WWI.
Any variety would be appreciated.
NPC AI has to span a wide range of opponents, and that brings on consequences.
If you pilot a small ship, knocking out an NPC can take some time, depending on your rig/skill. The same NPC is quick toast against an equipped medium or large.
There's a scaling effect based on a CMDR's rating which also has more of an effect if you fly a small. Time to kill is greater.
My gripes are the endless chaff and bullet sponging, after a while, the time to kill is boring and the battles are repetitive.
It would be nice if FD would program a random effect where a "lucky shot" would destroy an NPC regardless of hull integrity. This occurrence is not unknown in real combat, perfect examples are the destruction of the "HMS Hood" in WWII and the British cruisers at the Battle of Jutland in WWI.
Any variety would be appreciated.
That 'lucky shot' happens because something critical has taken a direct hit after a fairly meaty weapon penetrates through the armour (the ammunition store in the case of the Hood). The same thing happens in ED when you keep hitting a 0% integrity powerplant. If I'm hitting one of the big 3 in my iEagle, I'm looking to whittle down the shield and then target the plant once I can hit it.
Chaff also stops being a problem if you use fixed. As for being bullet sponges, there's a reason why I use a 5 PA FdL in CZs. They are tougher, so you need to bring a bigger gun.
nah, it's not endless... chaff has 10 charges - that like 50 seconds of perma sequential chaffing. then they're out.
Chaff doesn't increase heat at all.
Most NPCs have undersized SCBs that they can use without serious heat increases (on the bright side, they don't get as much back from it)
Heat damage is really minor anyway - it might look really bad when the warnings are going off and your cockpit is on fire, but the actual module damage you're taking is pretty trivial. The NPCs don't panic about that or about the few percent of module integrity it burns off.
You can do the same if you stack on the hull reinforcements. A standard Anaconda with lightweight armour and no hull reinforcements has 945 hull. A Viper IV with military armour and standard hull reinforcements in its military slot and just two of its size 1 optionals has 1005 hull (and can go up to 2415 without even needing engineering) ... plus the Viper IV is way harder to hit than the Anaconda so it feels tougher even when it isn't.
Yep. 15 seconds on, 10 seconds off. So that's at least 250 seconds and they don't always rechaff immediately.
Most NPCs don't last four minutes in the first place, so of course they don't run out of chaff.
(Plus high-capacity chaff is a level 1 blueprint, so not implausible for a high-ranked NPC to have, and that's another 50% time)
I think most people compare the wrong things... The base ship in this game is maybe like 10% of the equation. With Modules + Engineering a downgraded Anaconda can have literally 10 times less hull & shields than a middle sized A rated + G5 engineered ship like an FDL. Not to mention if you try to kill them with a weapon against which they have 60-70% resistance.
I don't think NPCs cheat.. they just spawn with predefined levels of module class + engineering based on their rank.
I don't think NPCs cheat.. they just spawn with predefined levels of module class + engineering based on their rank.
Sounds like they have packhounds.
I can with multicrew. So long as it doesn't happen from a single-seater that's probably a good design choice- give them an extra pip too!
The chaff is fine, I like that we have it and if we do they should too. It's very easily countered using fixed weapons or untargeted hitscans (or getting up close). The bullet sponging- yeah, I kind of agree, it's especially egregious pvp. Hazres npc ships are squishy enough though, but CZs are a little dull sometimes. I would rather shots had a shield bypass chance after you lose a ring or something. I don't want ganking traders to be easier, but I would like pvp fights to last less than 10 minutes.
But if you aren’t interested in combat why would you expect the combat experience to be fun?No matter how you look at it, NPC/AI combat is borked, immersion breaking and not a fun experience for those of us who are not combat-orientated.
Expecting it to be not borked is reasonable, but immersion breaking is a very individual thing so difficult to ensure against.
i love railing cobras, so juicy and fat.
@OP the only cheating the NPCs do is their random outfitting... nothing random about it.
if i have a rail boat... guaranteed SCBs & shield boosters, & of course module reinforcements galore! (not a single chaff or point defense for 65KLY, its like they KNEW i was flying a rail boat before leaving the dock that day)
if i have rockets.... Guaranteed chaff, point defense
if i have gimaballs... Chaff + more chaff & some more chaff for good measure.
if i have fixed.... back to the SCBs & boosters and module reinforcements.
i haven't seen chaff equipped on a ship or deployed in years because i don't fit gimbal weapons... its like the NPCs know!, the minute i fit them though.....
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I find chaff really annoying - it is just a time sink and other than that adds very little to the game except irritation. I'd like it gone. I don't mind the endless ammo strangely enough, because really it's just the same as fighting one ship then another. But the cheating with rails does bug me. I know it isn't "cheating" in the true sense of the word because it is just an AI. But that is the effective appearance. I just think that there are aspects of the programming of the AI that is lacking. In terms of rails, they don't seem to require the same time on target before firing that we do. They just line up and fire - and never miss. Anyway, I've learned to check the loadout now and just don't bother with ships that have chaff or rails.
"Someone who is not combat-orientated" does not equate to "someone not being interested in combat". For instance, I'm not combat-orienatated but enjoy combat now and then.
A change of scenery would be nice, just to break up trade/exploration/mining burnout now and then. Besides a game should try to be at least appealing to those who wish to try something different.
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"Someone who is not combat-orientated" does not equate to "someone not being interested in combat". For instance, I'm not combat-orienatated but enjoy combat now and then.
A change of scenery would be nice, just to break up trade/exploration/mining burnout now and then. Besides a game should try to be at least appealing to those who wish to try something different.
Look I'm with you on this. In the year 3306 you'd think that someone in a galaxy sized environment would have figured out some kind of area where you can fight PvE in an arcade type of game. Us non-combat-oriented losers could indulge in a bit of harmless fun without having to spend all night to try and find it and then get frustrated when we realise we have weeks of learning (at a personal avg of about 10 hours / week gameplay) just "for a change of scenery".
I also want a SRV racetrack and rally cross track with start > stop times in-game I can attend any time I want.