Discuss AI here (After Engineer mods removal)

How do you find NPC *combat* AI (after Engineers mods removal)?

  • Too hard

    Votes: 119 27.8%
  • Just right

    Votes: 222 51.9%
  • Too easy

    Votes: 70 16.4%
  • Other (specify)

    Votes: 17 4.0%

  • Total voters
    428
  • Poll closed .
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This is very close to the way I feel (I'm less than half your age, but I completely get where you're coming from.) I liked combat, and yes I felt it was too easy, but the way it is now, even considering myself a pretty good pilot it feels as though it's swing far too far in the opposite direction, absurdly so. I've tried to adjust, I really have, but it's just honestly not feeling fun anymore, and that's what really stings. I love Elite Dangerous, it's become a sort of release valve for me as I work 2 jobs, both of which are quite stress laden. Rag on me, call me names, call me carebear, whatever, that's the way I feel - just making my voice heard.

Thank you, I was starting to feel like a voice in the wilderness, and at least now I know that it's not just my age and that other players just want to chill out with this game, it is an incredible game, but it is now totally unplayable if you just want to trade or explore, it's great if you want to turn into an adranline combat addicted junkie.
 
Do the TRAINING missions use the same AI? When I fight that Cobra in the training mission, or the waves of enemies, are they using the same AI as the game does, that everyone is discussing?
No, I believe the training mission NPC scripts are as they were in 1.0.
 
Thank you, I was starting to feel like a voice in the wilderness, and at least now I know that it's not just my age and that other players just want to chill out with this game, it is an incredible game, but it is now totally unplayable if you just want to trade or explore, it's great if you want to turn into an adranline combat addicted junkie.

Exploring still has very low risk on average overall. High waking out is still a thing once you get to the bubble, and/or you can outfit a ship to be more tanky and faster to buy you some extra time to get away, though maybe at the cost of a few less light years jump range.

Also, they will be addressing and resolving the insta-death dealing NPC mods as soon as they can, so hopefully people won't have that much to worry about before too long.
 
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I find it odd that the NPC's always manage to charge their shields.
You get the shield down and they take no damage during the recharge phase, anyone else noticed this.
 
This is the first I've heard about NPC's losing modded weapons and I have to say I'm disappointed. I thought the AI was pretty good, I honestly haven't been having so much trouble killing them, even with unmodded ships.
 
I find it odd that the NPC's always manage to charge their shields.
You get the shield down and they take no damage during the recharge phase, anyone else noticed this.

Are you damaging them while they are recharging shields? The shield regen rate can keep up with DPS of many ships. Otherwise, they may be managing their pips well. If they stick 4 pips to SYS, then that last ring can be pretty strong. So they are just doing what any human would. They may also gain enough range on you (1-2km), which can reduce your damage to almost nothing.
 
The AI isn't very good.
They are easily beaten by FA-off + reverse boosting + vertical pitching. The only thing hard about it was contorting my hands by having to press multiple buttons and sticks at the same time.
I fought a dangerous FAS and he did not fire his weapons once. More intent on ramming me for some reason and then hi-waked when I took him down to 20% hull.
I also don't appreciate killing wanted ships and receiving zero credits after the encounter. Stop wasting my time already.
Quite frankly, the old AI was much more fun to fight, minus the occasional spinning in place bug.
BTW, they still have modded weapons because I keep getting the "impulse attack" warning.
 
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Today a friend and I winged up and went to both Low High and Haz res points. We are quite experienced and found the Low was too easy, the High just right and the Haz a bit on the hard side. I now think the balance is nigh on perfect.
 
Too easy and predictable after two dozen fights.

The mods are necessary on top of the improved AI. Bugs aside. NPC's should always be a tougher challenge, and have the edge over all or most players. No matter how well written their scripts are, they are not true AI. They don't have a positronic brain (Isaac Asimov robot novels reference), i.e. we have the biological advantage of having a brain.

Many rushed to get the most money and biggest ship and felt entitled by their wealth to suppress, dominate or harvest all NPC's all over the rank ladder and not have to put a great effort, still get most kills or creds/h. They would use their biological advantage, but instead the intelligent thing they did is make this sound like a reasonable plea to lower the difficulty:

9-Spaceballs-quotes.gif
 
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Another thing i noticed is that the NPCs are inhumanly skilled on Interdiction and Tracking.
Npc interdicted me right after jumping into the system.
I boosted off and got out.
Less than one second in SC i got another message of that npc and 200ls later he interdicted me again.
I escaped again and then the whole thing repeated.
I got Annoyed and Killed him for a nice 140k bounty.

Another NPC even followed me to the Station lol


But heck there should be a bit cool off here.
You cant tell me that a human would be able to follow me into SC and track me again within one single second and thus Interdicting me three times on a 800 ls distance....
 
There were 3 or 4 of us regularly doing CZs in 1.4 - we all got our Elite ranking through farming CZs. When 1.4 hit we all upgraded to FAS for CZ fighting, the Vulture just killed too slowly compared to the potential targets in the CZ.

Whilst I am pretty sure CZs are far more difficult now than in 2.0, I have only used an Eagle with Capital Ship support post 2.1, and that is a little too edge case compared to normal CZs for me to agree. However if your having to dance more often due to superior AI I can see the kill rate lowering for the Vulture. We concluded it was the king of the CZs in 1.3, but quickly de-throned it in 1.4. It might be the case it is just a little too slow for the CZs.

On another note, the low CZs do offer smaller targets where the agility of the Vulture and class of the weapons offset the fact there are only 2. You may curiously do better in low CZs with the Vulture than in Hi CZs. NPC ranking used to be down a tad as well, which is annoying if you are working on your rank.

Simon

Was in low CZ as was hoping for lower ranks. Can't say i noticed that much, they went from Competent to Elite, with the majority being dangerous/deadly. Rank isn't important for me as I'm working the BGS, only number of kills matter, so Low CZ makes more sense anyway.

I might rethink my ship strategy for 2.1, i'm also coming to the conclusion the Vulture just isn't good enough for them (although this kind of sucks for people who have limited budgets. I used to have fun in CZ with a FAS, but to get one of those again, i'm going to have to sell some ships, and i'd rather not do that. The FAS... ugh, i know, nice ship, but i tend to be shield person than a hull person, i get very nervous when my shields are down. I think i qualify for buying one at least. Will think about it.

Anyway, still staying out of combat until the patch arrives and is confirmed to work. Its just too annoying being insta-killed.
 
AI seems OK now. With only one exception.

Really, there is WAY TOO MUCH interdictions if the ship have cargo. Be interdicted three times in a row, only because ship have 2t of Praseodymium which is necessary for Engineer, is not funny. Of course, it is possible to run, but the whole process and time waste is pretty annoying.
 
Another thing i noticed is that the NPCs are inhumanly skilled on Interdiction and Tracking.
Npc interdicted me right after jumping into the system.
I boosted off and got out.
Less than one second in SC i got another message of that npc and 200ls later he interdicted me again.
I escaped again and then the whole thing repeated.
I got Annoyed and Killed him for a nice 140k bounty.

Another NPC even followed me to the Station lol


But heck there should be a bit cool off here.
You cant tell me that a human would be able to follow me into SC and track me again within one single second and thus Interdicting me three times on a 800 ls distance....

They don't have to even interdict you. I was interditcted, got away into SC, then dropped back into regular space. The moment i did so, he was there and firing on me.... this was you know, several hundred thousands of km from where i left him. He wouldn't even have had time to spool up his FSD, never mind spot my wake and drop down.

Anyway, i reported that one.
 
AI seems OK now. With only one exception.

Really, there is WAY TOO MUCH interdictions if the ship have cargo. Be interdicted three times in a row, only because ship have 2t of Praseodymium which is necessary for Engineer, is not funny. Of course, it is possible to run, but the whole process and time waste is pretty annoying.

In the last week, I have only been interdicted 3 times.....& only successfully 1 time....& that is only because I chose to submit. In 2 of the 3 occasions I was in an Anarchy system, in the 3rd case I was in a Low Security system.
 
Voted for Other because AI capabilities I cannod judge diffentiated right now.
Problem is since 2.1 I get successfully interdicted by ELITE ships only. So way too much high end opponents.
Elite pilots are rare not the most common ones. This needs to be balanced. Statued this in other posts already.

Regards,
Miklos
 
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They don't have to even interdict you. I was interditcted, got away into SC, then dropped back into regular space. The moment i did so, he was there and firing on me.... this was you know, several hundred thousands of km from where i left him. He wouldn't even have had time to spool up his FSD, never mind spot my wake and drop down.

Anyway, i reported that one.

Well.
I dont interdict people so i dont know.
But when he interdicted me second time he came from front right on insane speed
I dont think thats normal either

Maybe NPC doesnt need to do anything here.
If player jumps out he likely gets instand SC and also doesnt have any speed or other rules. Meaning if he is in lets say 1ls range he just automaticly interdicts you or joins your zone if you drop.....


Well thats fine in itself given that programming AI to do complicated actions is much harder than just boosting its stats and loosening the rules for them. So from programmer perspective thats a logic choice.

But then they need to put some cool off timers onto them so they dont magically appear onto people.
Hopefully its not intended that way and they add some cool off there
 
Had to say just right. Of course that doesn't mean it isn't too easy for some and too hard for others. This is one of those threads where I think the number of votes mean more than the opinions therein.
 
Maneuverability is the king now and NPC's are very good in that. Even when in more maneuverable ship like corvette vs conda I cant outurn NPC conda

How could one counter super maneuverability of NPC's ?

There are some theoretical ways. Lets take a look:

1. Head on attack if you think you have firepower and shield advantage over NPC (firepower is tricky now as mutated NPC weapons are still in game)
Head on attack is only applicable to NPC that will also try to go head on with you. from my observations fer de lances and gunships are allways trying to go head on and not stick to your ass

2. Turrets... but wait we dont have class 4 turrets, also NPC's are spamming chaff like no tomorrow

3. Speed... You disengage from combat gain some range from NPC turn around and head on pass, full unload from all weapons, rinse and repeat. But wait if you are in less maneveurable ship this means your ship is also slower than NPC - not applicable

Big slow ships dont have counter to more maneveurable ship that will stick at your 6 even if you have turrets NPC will just spam chaff

I can imagine some players that started playing recently and are flying ships like eagles, vipers, vultures, couriers saying that AI is fine. Yes it is if you fly the most maneveurable ships in game you can take down big NPC's like pythons, anacondas in those ships. But later if they save enough credits to buy python they will have their asses handed to them by eagles, ASP's, couriers, sidewinders, cobras...until broke and rage quit the game

If I wanted to make credits safely now I would take vulture or viper 100% combat build and head to high RES to shoot down NPC's safely but I've been there done that, not interested anymore.
 
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Robert Maynard

Volunteer Moderator
Maneuverability is the king now and NPC's are very good in that. Even when in more maneuverable ship like corvette vs conda I cant outurn NPC conda

How could one counter super maneuverability of NPC's ?

I was interdicted by a 4 NPC Wing (Sidewinder, Cobra, Eagle + another) last night in my Python. It didn't seem to matter what I did - I could barely get into a firing position. It was almost as if their translational inertia (Up/Down; Port/Starboard) was zero - while mine was as turgid as ever....

NPC interdictions themselves seem to have been given a buff - much more difficult to get the blue target into the crosshairs, much less keep it there - especially in larger ships.

In my subjective experience, of course....
 
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