Constantly having the same 2 Elite ships thrown at me every interdiction is kind of ruining the game for me.

[Punished Mobius]

Constantly having the same 2 Elite ships thrown at me every interdiction is kind of ruining the game for me.

Since I reached Elite a couple months ago No matter what ship I choose to fly the AI will send only an Elite FDL or an Elite Conda to kill me. (And the Elites have totally cheated HP) Same two ships. And as far as I am concerned with the lack of dialogue or anything but a name to differentiate them they may as well be the same NPCs bothering me every jump. They all fly exactly the same... It has gotten so bad that I only feel safe inside my Corvette while inside the bubble (not that there are any real reasons to get out of it than exploring) And this whole shenanigans brings up a bigger issue about the AI scaling. It makes sense that only an elite would challenge another elite. But what doesn't make sense is that there are suddenly just as many Elites to go around as there were deadlies or dangerous pilots. It is pretty clear to me that the difficulty is being artificially inflated for the sake of still providing me a challenge. Which it does but at the cost of being repetitive and tedious. If you are going to throw the same set of NPCs at players you need to first of all go crazy with adding new lines. And then give them different paint jobs and ship kits. The keyword here is variation.

 

[Deleted member 38366]

Ways to get rid of them :

- win the Interdiction Minigame (quite easy to do now, even in less-than-stellar agile Ships)
- destroy them if your Ship/Equipment affords it

Advanced methods to get rid of them :
- drag them into a Disengage at a Station and land the last shots after they attack & get engaged by Authority and the Station (actually difficult, quite common for the Station to "kill-steal" )

- while avoiding them to establish teather in SC, locate a "Convoy Dispersal Pattern - Thread 3/4" type USS and enter it
-> upon getting attacked by the chase NPC that will spawn 10-15sec later, the entire Convoy of local System Defense Force Ships will immediately engage the offender (needs to be a non-Anarchy System)

(just did it for fun... here's 3 Anacondas w/ SLFs, 3 Vultures and a bunch of T9's of a local System Defense Force Convoy USS hammering away at a poor ELITE FdL NPC )

 

[xondk]

Since I reached Elite a couple months ago No matter what ship I choose to fly the AI will send only an Elite FDL or an Elite Conda to kill me. (And the Elites have totally cheated HP) Same two ships. And as far as I am concerned with the lack of dialogue or anything but a name to differentiate them they may as well be the same NPCs bothering me every jump. They all fly exactly the same... It has gotten so bad that I only feel safe inside my Corvette while inside the bubble (not that there are any real reasons to get out of it than exploring) And this whole shenanigans brings up a bigger issue about the AI scaling. It makes sense that only an elite would challenge another elite. But what doesn't make sense is that there are suddenly just as many Elites to go around as there were deadlies or dangerous pilots. It is pretty clear to me that the difficulty is being artificially inflated for the sake of still providing me a challenge. Which it does but at the cost of being repetitive and tedious. If you are going to throw the same set of NPCs at players you need to first of all go crazy with adding new lines. And then give them different paint jobs and ship kits. The keyword here is variation.

You do not really say much about the situation, but it sounds like you were on a mission, and encounters on mission is chosen by the mission rank, not what you fly.

 

[Punished Mobius]

Ways to get rid of them :

- win the Interdiction Minigame (quite easy to do now, even in less-than-stellar agile Ships)
- destroy them if your Ship/Equipment affords it

Advanced methods to get rid of them :
- drag them into a Disengage at a Station and land the last shots after they attack & get engaged by Authority and the Station (actually difficult, quite common for the Station to "kill-steal" )

- while avoiding them to establish teather in SC, locate a "Convoy Dispersal Pattern - Thread 3/4" type USS and enter it
-> upon getting attacked by the chase NPC that will spawn 10-15sec later, the entire Convoy of local System Defense Force Ships will immediately engage the offender (needs to be a non-Anarchy System)

I did say I was Elite. Kind of wasting keystrokes telling me what most players know. I am familiar with evasion. But that's not what I am getting at. My point is that every single NPC that tries to interdict me is also an Elite. And never are they any other rank than Elite.

 

[Bryan K]

If you truly are Elite, then you should be able to swat them out of the sky with no trouble at all. I'm only ranked Dangerous and I actively point and laugh at Elite NPCs. My Vulture could kill an Elite Anaconda without losing shields. Frankly I'd love to be interdicted by these kinds of ships, as I'm sick of the pathetic FDS's and Clippers that harass me from time to time.

 

[Punished Mobius]

You do not really say much about the situation, but it sounds like you were on a mission, and encounters on mission is chosen by the mission rank, not what you fly.

Just flying with cargo. No missions. 3 months now it has been this way wherever I go with cargo\bounty. Nothing but elites even when I choose my eagle.

- - - Updated - - -

If you truly are Elite, then you should be able to swat them out of the sky with no trouble at all. I'm only ranked Dangerous and I actively point and laugh at Elite NPCs. My Vulture could kill an Elite Anaconda without losing shields. Frankly I'd love to be interdicted by these kinds of ships, as I'm sick of the pathetic FDS's and Clippers that harass me from time to time.

OK clearly no one is listening. The problem is not that they can't be swatted. The problem is that they send nothing but Elite NPCs. Not deadly not dangerous only Elites. And it is always an FDL or Conda I haven't seen a pirate Python in months.

 

[Mohrgan]

Well, if you are elite ranked, and in a decent ship, you should expect to face elite opponents. I can't see wanting a Expert to challenge you, when you are ranked elite. Do you just want pushovers every once in a while?

 

[Chris Simon]

I don't really want to sound too smug, but if you are Elite and don't want/know how to fight Elite NPCs, you're not Elite. :/

edit: ninja'd

The game will always want you to face your equals. But if you want, you can switch to lower-tier ship. You will still be facing Elites, but at least in lower-tier ships. Maybe that will be more manageable for you.
I recommend Clipper. It's formidable opponent to the comparable level of ships and faster than the ships she can't out-gun, so you can Brave-Sir-Robin it if need be.

 

[Bryan K]

Just flying with cargo. No missions. 3 months now it has been this way wherever I go with cargo\bounty. Nothing but elites even when I choose my eagle.

- - - Updated - - -



OK clearly no one is listening. The problem is not that they can't be swatted. The problem is that they send nothing but Elite NPCs. Not deadly not dangerous only Elites. And it is always an FDL or Conda I haven't seen a pirate Python in months.

Firstly, why are you carrying cargo in an Eagle?

Secondly, why is this a bad thing? I've been hauling 12 tons of ancient artifacts around in my Anaconda hunting for ruins and I'd jump at the chance to fight an Elite NPC. If you aren't a big enough fan of PVE combat to want to engage Elite FdLs and Anacondas then how in the world did you make Elite anyway?

And thirdly, did it ever occur to you to, oh I don't know, STOP hauling cargo around if you have no missions to complete? These days, you'll only make pocket change doing conventional trading anyway, and I have yet to meet someone who thinks space-trucking is actually entertaining.

 

[Cosmos]

It is pretty clear to me that the difficulty is being artificially inflated for the sake of still providing me a challenge. Which it does but at the cost of being repetitive and tedious.

You've rather hit the nail on the head. The ships spawned against you are also dependent upon which ship you are flying. Its tediously predictable and repetative and often makes little sense..

I think its rather lazy of the developers in all honesty. There is no variation either, no wings of pilots no differing strategies. Much of the game is like this when we fight the bots. I simply view them as pests, and the forum wonders why many players like to encounter other players instead..

 

[Agony_Aunt]

Just flying with cargo. No missions. 3 months now it has been this way wherever I go with cargo\bounty. Nothing but elites even when I choose my eagle.

Its what happens when you fly around with cargo... and bounty? Why are you flying with a bounty when you are carrying cargo? That's a very risky game. You're attracting pirates and bounty hunters at the same time.

I'm not Elite in combat, but high enough rank in all that i should be getting elite level spawns in most circumstances (based off what devs have said), and i get a wide variation in attackers. Mainly higher ranks, but all sorts of ships.

What i would do if i were you would be to document these occurences, and submit them to FD to investigate. Maybe something is wrong.... not sure why it would be specifically for you... maybe its just bad luck with the RNG, maybe it happens to other people but not well known about. Still, there are plenty of elites out there, and surprised nobody else has complained about this yet. Maybe something specific to your account?

Anyway, file a bug report about it, and give as much details as possible.

 

[Punished Mobius]

Well, if you are elite ranked, and in a decent ship, you should expect to face elite opponents. I can't see wanting a Expert to challenge you, when you are ranked elite. Do you just want pushovers every once in a while?

I covered that point. I said I expect elites to challenge elites.
But the problem is that it is ONLY elites. And only elite FDL and Condas. Only those two ships. Its as if Pythons don't exist anymore as far as pirates are concerned. The issue isn't difficulty. The issue is lack of variation in enemies. It is the same 2 ships over and over and over and over and over and over

 

[Agony_Aunt]

I think its rather lazy of the developers in all honesty.

For sure. I can just imagine the devs talking about the spawn system and deciding they can't be bothered today to make a decent system, so let's just nip down the pub for a few, and call it a day.

Devs are well known for being lazy after all. Nobody lazier than developers, its a well known truth. /s

 

[Chris Simon]

You've rather hit the nail on the head. The ships spawned against you are also dependent upon which ship you are flying. Its tediously predictable and repetative and often makes little sense..

I think its rather lazy of the developers in all honesty. There is no variation either, no wings of pilots no differing strategies. Much of the game is like this when we fight the bots. I simply view them as pests, and the forum wonders why many players like to encounter other players instead..

Surprise surprise - the game is a piece of code. It has two objective ways to assess your skill - the ship you fly and your rank. And it tries to match you up with challenging opponents. I'm not really sure what you people think it should look like.

 

[ShimEnki]

Since I reached Elite a couple months ago No matter what ship I choose to fly the AI will send only an Elite FDL or an Elite Conda to kill me. (And the Elites have totally cheated HP) Same two ships. And as far as I am concerned with the lack of dialogue or anything but a name to differentiate them they may as well be the same NPCs bothering me every jump. They all fly exactly the same... It has gotten so bad that I only feel safe inside my Corvette while inside the bubble (not that there are any real reasons to get out of it than exploring) And this whole shenanigans brings up a bigger issue about the AI scaling. It makes sense that only an elite would challenge another elite. But what doesn't make sense is that there are suddenly just as many Elites to go around as there were deadlies or dangerous pilots. It is pretty clear to me that the difficulty is being artificially inflated for the sake of still providing me a challenge. Which it does but at the cost of being repetitive and tedious. If you are going to throw the same set of NPCs at players you need to first of all go crazy with adding new lines. And then give them different paint jobs and ship kits. The keyword here is variation.

I agree but maybe from a different angle.

We engage the game to grow in power to experience that power and that becomes lost if no matter what growth you attain thats neutralized by artificial scaling. I can scale things quite well myself if my mind programming dislikes personal power via the ship load out options.

In game wise its easy to reconcile why a master vulture would be sent to you as an elite. You have over the time of becoming an elite cmdr no doubt developed a potent networking system to counter the npcs info highway and in fact use that to provide disinfo...Garry tells samantha that instead of you being an Elite in a conda with 200 T of painite, you are a much less in a much less ship and carrying bauxite. Behind the scenes you of course pay for this disinfo service thats both paid for and written off thru and as advanced maintenance.

And im am glad that they now have removed scaling from mission interdictions and linked it to the rank of the mission. Speaking of which, i have a master level assassination mission that will get squashed in nanoseconds by Father Conda and frankly im lovin it

 

[Kerrash]

It would be nice to see more variation in ships I agree, but if you want to be taken seriously I would suggest you post your suggestions in a less provocative way.

 

[Bryan K]

I covered that point. I said I expect elites to challenge elites.
But the problem is that it is ONLY elites. And only elite FDL and Condas. Only those two ships. Its as if Pythons don't exist anymore as far as pirates are concerned. The issue isn't difficulty. The issue is lack of variation in enemies. It is the same 2 ships over and over and over and over and over and over

Those two ships are the only non-faction NPC ships that can present a real challenge. Pythons can be powerplant-sniped within seconds of losing their shields, and anything smaller than that goes poof under a few seconds of sustained corrosive multi-cannon fire. My NPC in a fighter can take out anything Deadly or lower all on her own.

Frankly, when I'm hunting in a RES, I specifically seek out FdLs and Anacondas because they're the most fun. What you're describing is my idea of paradise.

 

[Cosmos]

Surprise surprise - the game is a piece of code. It has two objective ways to assess your skill - the ship you fly and your rank. And it tries to match you up with challenging opponents. I'm not really sure what you people think it should look like.

Well there could be some interesting encounters for starters.. I refer to the NPCs as bots because thats exactly what they are, there is no character. They are okay for folks new to the game but almost all the encounters, including the USS ones, lack depth and meaning.

ED Its a bit like WoW but without the quests, dungeons and raid content. Ultimately fighting the bots isn't rewarding or fun. In this area the gameplay is subpar to the quality of the rest of the game.

 

[Punished Mobius]

Firstly, why are you carrying cargo in an Eagle?

Secondly, why is this a bad thing? I've been hauling 12 tons of ancient artifacts around in my Anaconda hunting for ruins and I'd jump at the chance to fight an Elite NPC. If you aren't a big enough fan of PVE combat to want to engage Elite FdLs and Anacondas then how in the world did you make Elite anyway?

And thirdly, did it ever occur to you to, oh I don't know, STOP hauling cargo around if you have no missions to complete? These days, you'll only make pocket change doing conventional trading anyway, and I have yet to meet someone who thinks space-trucking is actually entertaining.

You still aren't hearing me...my problem is not about being interdicted or being overly harassed by NPCs. The problem is that all the NPCs doing the interdiction are all the same Rank. And they only fly either an FDL or Conda. Only those 2 ships absolutely nothing else is sent against me no matter what ship I am in. Eagle/Winder for example should attract smaller ships to target you. Not in my case. Nothing but elites in the same 2 ships. I am not complaining of difficulty. I am complaining of lack of variation.

 

[Chris Simon]

Well there could be some interesting encounters for starters.. I refer to the NPCs as bots because thats exactly what they are, there is no character. They are okay for folks new to the game but almost all the encounters, including the USS ones, lack depth and meaning.

ED Its a bit like WoW but without the quests, dungeons and raid content. Ultimately fighting the bots isn't rewarding or fun. In this area the gameplay is subpar to the quality of the rest of the game.

On that we can agree. Then again, that's kind of what Elite is. "Screw you, make up your own stories" thing works for me, but I can see how it's not working for everybody.