Same, I positively hate mirrored NPCs with passion in any game, and even more so in "open world" games. I want to roam around a world with lizards and dragons and I either hunt lizards or venture into dragon territory at my own risk, not a world where the dragons turn into lizards and lizards turn into dragons according to my "level".
Combat Completely Ruined for Non Engineered Players
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Same, I positively hate mirrored NPCs with passion in any game, and even more so in "open world" games. I want to roam around a world with lizards and dragons and I either hunt lizards or venture into dragon territory at my own risk, not a world where the dragons turn into lizards and lizards turn into dragons according to my "level".
Indeed, for what happens is that you just keep seeing the same things over and over. Happens in ED, too, I take a mission - and I bet you my rear it's Anaconda with some chaff escort. Anaconda targets everywhere. I go in some radio wossname PoI, Anaconda with chaff as a trap.
But not in resource mining zone - oh no - we can't have people collecting bigger bounties. There it's just cheap chaff that spawns. I mean I should be happy, for everything other than small ships there is a good chance it's a bullet sponge and then it doesn't really matter what type of ship it is - they are all the same cancer.
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So all those times you told us that engineering had made NPCs into bullet sponges... That was less than 90% correct?
No. It is obviously tied to the power creep.
This is false and has been repeatedly stated as such by SJA.
Master rank and lower NPCs, even in CZ, have zero Engineering.
Engineering can't even double the raw hull integrity of a ship, though you might perhaps triple the effective integrity, if resistances were balanced against weapons it was formerly weak against.
Just adding non-Engineered HRPs and bulkheads to ship is a much larger increase. With no Engineering what so ever an Eagle can be made at least a dozen times as durable as stock.
Wanted ships in nav beacons are smugglers and pirates. Ships in CZ are outfit for combat and nothing else...they have a tendency to be vastly more durable and Engineering has nothing at all to do with it.
You can easily survive in a low CZ. But surviving isn't what you are asking for. It is you preventing yourself from playing the game by blocking off a huge part of its content. There's no-one else to blame here.
Yep. Doesn't change the fact that it's tediously unfun cancer bulletsponge gameplay. And it's introduction after the engineers puts it right in context with the ridiculous buffs engineers bestow.
Let's face it. This is the sorry kind of balance they are able to cough up and it's a heap of turd.
I'm not fond of the ultimate effect, but at least it illustrates some of the underlying balance issues with combat in general.
It's taken far too long for NPC loadouts to become more reflective of what was possible for CMDRs (though they still fall well short), and this, as well as artificially castrated NPC behavior, has allowed major issues to persist throughout the entire life of the game. People just complained less when they were the only ones that could benefit.
Personally, I think they should show everyone what every PvP-tolerant player has always known...by giving every NPC past the bottom couple of ranks complete Engineering, perfectly min-maxed builds, and the best combat AI SJA can muster. That would illuminate these issues in a way that could not be ignored.
Every signal source or POI with a threat level higher than four will nearly always have an engineered NPC or two waiting for you, or a large wing.
Unless it's a NHSS, which means bring some bug spray.
Me too. Only fools grind for stuff.
Just play the game "normally" and ENG materials will come your way. Use the brokers to trade for the mats you want and slowly ENG your ship until it's complete.
Engineers saved Elite for me; it gave me something to do other than earning CR.
O7
I'll happily be a fool then. I get to play with my maxed out toys sooner, and there are quite a few materials that you will never see in regular play. You have to go out of your way and farm them.
<cough>material traders</cough>
Helps to a degree, but when it's G5 materials and possibly crosstrading, you end up at so terrible exchange rates that I rather directly farm what I actually need.
I did that last year when i started on PC. I started at the end of November. Basically about an year ago.
As a reference - in the last CG from december 2019 (Reorte, Davies High) i ended in top 50% in Trade GC using a T6 and in top50% in the bounty CG using a C3
Both ships obviously non-engineered.
Yes, but, as been said already, they differ not in the hardness of the opponents but in the content and the win/loss conditions
A low CZ is finished after the 6th kill - maybe you can get a 7th if you manage to nail one of the ships that are waking out. There are no missions
A medium CZ will spawn most of the time SpecOps Wing as its sole mission. To finish it takes 15-18kills (harder to count, completing the mission will also advance the progress bar)
A high CZ will spawn various missions, sometime 2-3 of them. And completing the missions will advance the progress bar too. It can take 15-22 kills to finish a high CZ.
Mind you, these are not your kills - the ships killed by your side are counting too. Also If you lose a SLF, it will count for the opposition. So make sure you are not wasting SLF, else you will make it easier for the other side to win it.
If you fly a non-engineered ship - it is recommended to engage ships already engaged and damaged by your side.
This is valid if you fly engineered ships too. Going head on, all by yourself against a ship in CZ will just take you much longer than focusing them enemies with your sidekicks
Also not all the ships in a CZ are engineered, only the higher ranks are. But they are fitted with multiple hrp, mrp and some of them have scb too (duracell pythons, cutters, anacondas, corvettes - i've seen vultures too sporting scb)
SpecOps are highly engineered, including some nasty experimentals. They cover each other if they are not too dispersed and they are very good at killing SLF in a matter of seconds
Enemy Captain is too highly engineered, also with nasty experimentals
And one more thing.
ED has no difficulty sliders - the difficulty stands in the player choices in terms of combination of ships and engineering.
Your choice of playing non-engineered means only one thing, you are playing on
Kudos to you!
Nollocks.
Takes hours with peashooters.
If you chose to do so, it may as well take hours. (people are know to take on Hydras on Sidewinders, taking an hour or so iirc)
But it will not - one side or the other will win...
Possibly the other if the human player lacks the determination to do engineers and the skill to combat the enemies.
I lack the stamina. Once that's gone any skill goes to the ta. It's just tedious to me when I want some casual explosions and get the BGS done along a bit. I can't be bothered tryharding stuff that was just relaxed fun before they buffed the NPCs.
It was referencing fighting in a stock Sidewinder versus the first mission targets. Actually killing stuff (particularly as experienced players, not noobs) isn't an issue.
I was referring specifically to the pirate mission USS Vipers. They're easy. They just take ages.
It felt... Immediately grindy.
BGS is kinda end game. While you can do some hauling/missions in non-engineered ships, you cannot do combat efficiently. Not unless you are really good pilot.
Sure you can do some low CZ and if you dont have oposition, you might get to win the war.
But if you have opposition, why bother? They will have engineered ships. You wont. Game over.