Combat zones/rewards/massacre missions are completely unfair and broken.

[Smisbu]

Yes this will be a rant.

After getting back into elite about 2 weeks ago, I decided to try some of the passenger missions. They paid well, but they were a bit too boring for me.
I decided to go back to killing in combat zones. What a mistake that was...

Combat zones are completely broken. They used to be low risk/low reward, but now they're high risk/low reward.
There are 2 ways combat zones go for us:
1)We jump in and instantly get targeted by 4+ ships that practically delete our shields. there is no time to run away nor is there time to react. They look at you and you die.
or
2)We get picked off by a single 4 railgun asp.

How can we fix this?

1)Decrease the accuracy with railguns dramatically.
2)Don't let AI spam shield cells and railguns without heat buildup.
3)Increase fighter health. They are practically useless right now in cz's.
4)Make the friendly AI better. They never cooperate with you.
5)Don't let 4 AI ships target 1 player.
6)Increase the reward for combat zones dramatically.

Now that we got that out of the way...
Massacre missions asignment is completely . I've been playing for 3 hours while allied with the factions i'm fighting for and I haven't gotten a single massacre missions.
My friend in his dropship has been able to pick up 3 10 million cr missions, while I received none. How the hell am I supposed to be profitable If playing for 20 mins gets me 500k?

Sincerely, an angry commander.

PS: Don't tell me to get stuff from the engineers. I have grade A everything and engineering shouldn't be a requirement.

 

[Argus Leadhead]

Yes this will be a rand.

After getting back into elite about 2 weeks ago, I decided to try some of the passenger missions. They paid well, but they were a bit too boring for me.
I decided to go back to killing in combat zones. What a mistake that was...

Combat zones are completely broken. They used to be low risk/low reward, but now they're high risk/low reward.
There are 2 ways combat zones go for us:
1)We jump in and instantly get targeted by 4+ ships that practically delete our shields. there is no time to run away nor is there time to react. They look at you and you die.
or
2)We get picked off by a single 4 railgun asp.

How can we fix this?

1)Decrease the accuracy with railguns dramatically.
2)Don't let AI spam shield cells and railguns without heat buildup.
3)Increase fighter health. They are practically useless right now in cz's.
4)Make the friendly AI better. They never cooperate with you.
5)Don't let 4 AI ships target 1 player.
6)Increase the reward for combat zones dramatically.

Now that we got that out of the way...
Massacre missions asignment is completely . I've been playing for 3 hours while allied with the factions i'm fighting for and I haven't gotten a single massacre missions.
My friend in his dropship has been able to pick up 3 10 million cr missions, while I received none. How the hell am I supposed to be profitable If playing for 20 mins gets me 500k?

Sincerely, an angry commander.

PS: Don't tell me to get stuff from the engineers. I have grade A everything and engineering shouldn't be a requirement.

You're doing it wrong.

If you don't want to get ganged up on by military load out NPCs, a resource extraction site would be better suited until you know exactly what you're doing.

Rail gun accuracy was just nerfed on NPCs in the last patch. Thing is, if you make yourself easy to hit, they're going to hit you. Use your thrusters.

AI has the same heat limitations as us. They just fight through it and ignore the sparks flying from their dashboard. We can do the same.

The same as number 2. It's a small nimble ship. If you use that to your advantage, you won't get hit as much. They don't need a buff, you just need to manouver better.

The AI isn't there to support you or follow you around. They're there to fight a battle for their faction, not you. Learn to stick close to them and chances are, you won't get swarmed by enemy ships.

The pay out is fairly good, again, if you know what you're doing and aren't flying into clusters of hostile ships. More so if you can get massacre missions, which aren't a problem for most people. I'm guessing you just have bad luck with the mission boards.

 

[NascentChemist]

Wait, you're claiming CZ and massacre missions are low reward? I've got to say that's a huge red flag that this is a troll thread. While you may have to hop about stations/boards to get the missions, the pay out is insane. Did you see the "1 Billion CR in a Week" video by Dr. Kaii?

More importantly, ships can't instant target you when you enter a CZ. You have to declare for your faction first. If you do that right in the middle of 3 dozen ships all searching for a target, ~4 of them are going to look at you. Wait for ships to fight. Back up to ~ 4 km. Declare faction. Choose targets on the edges. That's the formula for CZ's.

 

[Ragamuffin1979]

They seem about right to me.

 

[goemon]

engineering is no requirement (i have a second account without horizons/engineers), but tactical flying is required

- do not choose sides before flying out 10-12 km. wait till AI has found its targets - new spawning NPC will always target players first

- and than ... everything i learned i learned from this old thread... pick a buddy, group up with your friendly ships, pick out ships with them ... and constantly watch watch your scanner: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...e-to-Surviving-a-Combat-Zone-in-a-Starfighter ... it's old, but still very good!

- with that, you should be able to make 500 k - 750 k in a eagle, viper, cobra, dbs and 1,5 - 2 mio in a FDL, before you need to go rearming

 

[Flavourless]

You say "we" so I guess you are CZ'ing in a wing?
So its alright to gang up on an NPC, but unfair when they do it to you?

You can do CZs solo in the current patch.

 

[Deleted member 115407]

1)We jump in and instantly get targeted by 4+ ships that practically delete our shields. there is no time to run away nor is there time to react. They look at you and you die.

An unfortunate result of the supercruise drop is it drops you right into the middle of the CZ. To avoid getting ganged-up on, when you drop into the CZ, fly 10km out, declare, then fly back in. You can even take your time to ensure the NPCs have ground each other down a bit.

 

[Cmdr Hobgoblin]

I would be happy already if they reduced the Chaff Spam. That one is really annoying.

 

[Deleted member 115407]

- and than ... everything i learned i learned from this old thread... pick a buddy, group up with your friendly ships, pick out ships with them ... and constantly watch watch your scanner: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...e-to-Surviving-a-Combat-Zone-in-a-Starfighter ... it's old, but still very good!

Had two friendly corvettes in one CZ today, they were my best buddies, ever

 

[Smisbu]

But the AI has nothing lose.

 

[Deleted member 115407]

But the AI has nothing lose.

But you have the advantage of having a brain. That allows you to adapt to the AI, which isn't really an "AI", rather it's just a series of scripts.

 

[Frenotx]

When you have a relevant mission, CZs pay quite well. If not, the reward is waaaay too low for the effort involved. I'd argue that this is a little screwy. I think combat bond value should be raised by a decent amount, and the mission pay to be lowered by a similar amount. The net effect would be fighting with a mission would pay the same (bonds + mission rewards), but fighting without one wouldn't be a complete joke.

 

[TuxedoSteve]

1) They already have been
2) They do have heat buildup and they do take damage from it, you'll often seem them fire off heatsinks.
3) Fighters are already beyond the realm of making sense via the amount of damage they do, having them be more durable would make them outright OP and it would beg the question of how they are as durable as a Sidewinder while being much smaller.
4) You're dropping into a conflict zone as a mercenary, not as a military ship.
5) But 4 AI ships are allowed to target 1 AI ship? 4 Player ships are allowed to target 1 AI ship? The AI targets using the select highest threat function, so if you happen to be the highest threat, then you'll be targeted by multiple AI.
6) Read below

Combat zones were never supposed to be low risk. The AI just used to be completely incompetent. Now they're only mostly incompetent.

The rewards in conflict zones are designed to be lower than bounties, but if you play CZs properly, using the tips others have given in this thread, you get higher income than with RES sites because there's more ships that take less time to kill each.

Massacre missions are a little bit random, but generally you want to go to as high a population system as you can. While I have no evidence that this has any effect, I think your combat rank might have a slight influence on the ranking of missions that spawns (higher combat rank = higher rank missions = more money per mission)

 

[Smisbu]

1) Having to fly out 12 km first before actually engaging is dumb and should not be necessary.

2) I didn't say massacre mission payout is low. I said I just wasn't getting any at all. And only getting 800k missions at that.

3) They clearly do not have the same heat limitations as us.

4) I doubt the railgun accuracy was reduced much. Since the npcs picked off my friends fighter instantly every time. It's small and nimble and should be practically unhittable with railguns.

5) My friend and I have both been playing since beta. I have more than enough experience on hand and I know how to play the bloody game.

6) Don't excuse the game for bad mechanics with all the bull i'm getting here. It's clearly not working like it should right now. This "git gud" mentality should really just die off. You guys know next to nothing about my playstyle or me.

 

[CATPAIN KIRK]

Just keep your distance when pledging and look around before doing it. If in a small ship, stick to a friendly furball and look for the enemy they're shooting at. One single MC bullet hit within ten seconds before it pops will be enough to steal the kill from the AI.

But you have the advantage of having a brain.

Optimistic...

 

[4fast5me]

5) My friend and I have both been playing since beta. I have more than enough experience on hand and I know how to play the bloody game.

6) Don't excuse the game for bad mechanics with all the bull i'm getting here. It's clearly not working like it should right now. This "git gud" mentality should really just die off. You guys know next to nothing about my playstyle or me.

I know you're bad if after all your experience you still struggle with CZs. You obviously don't know how to "play the bloody game".

 

[nosleepdemon]

7) learn 2 play. Trololol.

 

[goemon]

When you have a relevant mission, CZs pay quite well. If not, the reward is waaaay too low for the effort involved. I'd argue that this is a little screwy. I think combat bond value should be raised by a decent amount, and the mission pay to be lowered by a similar amount. The net effect would be fighting with a mission would pay the same (bonds + mission rewards), but fighting without one wouldn't be a complete joke.

it's good for combat rank ... but not so good as a comp nav beacon... pays roughly 50% of bountyhunting in a haz res...

but is the only way to win a war for the minor faction you back!

the annoying thing about these missions is, that their generation is erratic (at least to me). no idea which kind of faction/conflict/economy/... generates them constantly. buffing the regular payout would be great!

 

[TuxedoSteve]

1) Having to fly out 12 km first before actually engaging is dumb and should not be necessary.

2) I didn't say massacre mission payout is low. I said I just wasn't getting any at all. And only getting 800k missions at that.

3) They clearly do not have the same heat limitations as us.

4) I doubt the railgun accuracy was reduced much. Since the npcs picked off my friends fighter instantly every time. It's small and nimble and should be practically unhittable with railguns.

5) My friend and I have both been playing since beta. I have more than enough experience on hand and I know how to play the bloody game.

6) Don't excuse the game for bad mechanics with all the bull i'm getting here. It's clearly not working like it should right now. This "git gud" mentality should really just die off. You guys know next to nothing about my playstyle or me.

1). You don't HAVE to (i normally don't), but if you don't want to be involved in an immediate furball it may be a good idea to do so

2) Can't really help you beyond what I said in my previous post.

3) They DO have the same heat limitations, they just don't panic if they go over like human pilots often do, and they won't be seen malfunctioning from much heat because just like with your ship damage before a certain point will not cause any malfunctions.

4) They won't hit if the fighter is moving across their vision fast enough, but if it's going towards or way from them it makes a very easy target, esspecially further away when you include the 0.5 degrees of fixed gimballing.

5) Evidently you don't have enough experience on had, at least since the AI improvements with 2.1, as you wouldn't be having the issues you're having if you did.

6) Similar to above, we aren't excusing the game for bad mechanics, no one that's trying to help you is having any issues, so it's not the game's problem then, it's yours. No one told you to get gud, they gave tips and advice on how to preform better in CZs. While we don't know anything about your playstyle, we DO know about playstyles that do work, which evidently yours isn't.

 

[Necronaught]

Today I have been to several systems at war and civil war. Some with Military economies and the most missions I could stack was two. Potentially over 20 million if you are allied with the faction. If you are neutral or cordial the pay outs are rubbish. I am wondering if the missions frequency has been nerfed to only 2 massacre missions at a time?