Discuss the AI here!

[AsRock]

How ever you look at this, by those percentages they managed to near p*ss off 1/2 the players, don't mind them being harder than they were but when you start a fight even in a low res you find your target and get owned due to more joining in.

Just got hit a bunch of times and noticed the shields dropping so got out of their, friendly's joined in and got them of my back but not before the AI 100 killed my thrusters and did not even hit another part of the ship lol.

 

[DBCloggy]

When I reset my save in beta I didnt really run into these killer AI. I think real newbies are relatively fine. 'Medium' players with some established routine will have it hard, at first.

If they come across deadly NPCs like I did last night then they wont. I was dead without ever seeing them. All over in less than a minute, well 10 if you take into account that they left me alone as soon as my thrusters went down. We both just sat there until I decide to fix the thrusters. As soon as my thruster condition returned to 1% they started shooting me again. I couldn't move and BOOM!

 

[gogereaver]

I went to haz res with my anaconda and I felt that AI was good. It was harder and more challenging than before. But just a moment ago I was attacked by a NOVICE viper in USS. And there was no difference between novice and dangerous viper in terms of skill! He was just doing less damage I thing, but other than that, he was flying like elite. Really, I just couldn't catch him. He was cycling about me like an annoying fly for 15 minutes. I left him with 4% hull, but I couldn;t land that last blow, so I decided to escape. From a NOVICE viper.

So keep the high rank AI as it is, but lower the difficulty of harmless enemies, because i don't have time for this et.

that kinda how it should be your weakness in a large ship if you dont have turrents is the fact small ships can simply avoid you.

 

[Edgey75]

tested again today .... first run in the low combat zone went great kicked some major butt.
2nd run jumped on by 2 vultures and a imp eagle, i was in the friendly group and was singled out by the ai i was hit by something akin to a ion cannon that shut my ship down, power comes back on, shuts down again, power back on shuts down, power back ship explodes. total time from being singled out in the middle of the friendly pack of ships to being blown up 40 secs.

 

[Han Brannigan]

And I promise you, there's a silent majority that thinks like I do.

Are you having visions - or is this pulled out from the body part with two cheeks that ain't your face.

The game isn't getting better, it's getting worse.

No. ( that is a subjective opinion - but then so is yours)

I got wrecked twice today and it was glorious.
I have to get better - and I want to have to get better for quite some time bc I think I will play this game until it reaches finished state at the very least... Thanks MOM.

 

[ulpian]

that kinda how it should be your weakness in a large ship if you dont have turrents is the fact small ships can simply avoid you.

I agree, I had a lot easier time killing other big ships and a lot of problmes with high rank eagles. But still, I should be able to kill a novice viper with ease, not spending 15 minutes doing it.

 

[gogereaver]

I agree, I had a lot easier time killing other big ships and a lot of problmes with high rank eagles. But still, I should be able to kill a novice viper with ease, not spending 15 minutes doing it.

yea if a novice is just as insane as a elite then clearly they have a scaling problem.

 

[Dave1029]

You can't get better against a machine that is stacked against you. You will always get worked. Always. You may welcome the challenge now, but I've already been convinced that this isn't the game for me. So stroke your e-Peen all you want.

 

[Soliluna]

This happened before, btw. Last AI upgrade, 1.4 I think, people also stormed the forums in droves claiming it was too hard within hours of release. A few days or weeks later almost everyone agreed it was actually quite easy.

Yeah and that was when the AI span and span and span while you peppered it with every single weapon humankind ever created.

Honestly, the people so averse to change really threaten the future of the game. The AI is supposed to continue to get more difficult, much like other areas of the game become more complex and detailed over time the AI will get smarter.

And this is only the beginning... Thargoids will come eventually and they will be tougher still - in the previous games so tough they were like Reapers.

The Elite world is not a soft mattress where we have pillow fights, it is a ceaseless power struggle, with constant undermining, assassinations, espionage, murder, piracy, civil war, slavery, smuggling etc.

The AI needs to be able to communicate that through the gameplay, we should fear an interdiction - not be frustrated by it. We should be sticking 4 pips to ENG and boosting before the pirate gets an opportunity to open comms. When a scan is detected, the hairs on our neck should stand and adrenaline should pump through our veins.

Even now, the game gives you every opportunity to escape, allowing you to pick and choose your fights and some would argue this is too much.

 

[DrBo42]

I think the AI is mostly fine except for ramming. Was in a High Conflict Zone in a Corvette and Vultures and Asps just started ramming me until my shields were down and then I dropped to 0% in a matter of seconds. They don't seem like tactical rams by big ships, just dumb facehugging AI at times.

 

[DBCloggy]

tested again today .... first run in the low combat zone went great kicked some major butt.
2nd run jumped on by 2 vultures and a imp eagle, i was in the friendly group and was singled out by the ai i was hit by something akin to a ion cannon that shut my ship down, power comes back on, shuts down again, power back on shuts down, power back ship explodes. total time from being singled out in the middle of the friendly pack of ships to being blown up 40 secs.

I'm going to record my combat now so that I can see exactly what happens in the cold light of day, and show that there isn't much that can be done in these situations other than suck it up and move on.

 

[Hexcaliber]

I think I'm just going to play a different game instead of being frustrated that your solution is to fly a different ship. And I promise you, there's a silent majority that thinks like I do. The game isn't getting better, it's getting worse.
.

Silent majority, and you know them all personally too I assume?

 

[Jellicoe]

Having spent the morning playing I love it. Simple as that. Love the engineers, love the new outfitting screen and particularly love the improved AI. Only slight concern is it should be tiered for the newer players so ELITE or Deadly ect pirates should be almost non existent in high sec space, if you go to a combat zone, anarchy systems or a haz rez though you're asking for it.

 

[Karla]

Combat gameplay needs a combat ship now. Before there was no need for military plating, anti-missile defence, etc. There is now, so correct outfitting has become more important. That is excellent. In addition, some of us will need to move from HAZRES to low RES for a while. Or work more in high security systems.

It's a big change and it will take some time to adjust. I think if people are asked again in a few weeks, many of those complaining now will have recovered from their initial humiliation, shock and disbelief. Overall, the game is vastly better for this AI upgrade.

Agreed. It's a perfect storm really.

I've been buying loads of different ships and trying them out, and I find that it's critically important to get the right load out otherwise the ship just won't work for me. It really makes a difference. There are new weapons in the update and the balance of the existing weapons has been changed apparently (larger weapons not being so effective against smaller ships for example).

Add to that the NPCs are pre-modded by the engineers whereas people haven't had a chance to mod their own ships. When they do they'll end up with a whole variety of loud outs. Take something as simple as increasing the power plant on the Vulture. Do you use the extra power to go for the A5 shield and shield boosters or to pack a large beam laser and large PA?

And then we have NPCs with improved AI who will shoot out modules and use fancy tactics normally only used by humans.

Last but not least, the rank of the NPCs that you come up against is determined by the rank you gained by farming Haz Reses in earlier versions where you didn't need to improve your combat skills.

Throw all of this together and it was always going to be a shock to the community. But I think that it will slowly even out. People will buff their ships, traders will buff their shields and thrusters, we'll develop new techniques, new metas, and learn the weaknesses of the NPCs. And eventually people who have gained really high combat ranks shooting fish in the barrel will adapt as well.

Not that there's anything wrong with shooting fish in a barrel. I found Haz Res farming really fun.

 

[DBCloggy]

We should be sticking 4 pips to ENG and boosting before the pirate gets an opportunity to open comms. When a scan is detected, the hairs on our neck should stand and adrenaline should pump through our veins.

Even now, the game gives you every opportunity to escape, allowing you to pick and choose your fights and some would argue this is too much.

I didn't get the chance last night. They hit me with lasers and multiple missiles before I'd even manage to get 2 km away. Took out my thrusters in double quick time. I didn't even have any cargo or a bounty at the time.

 

[Colonial Air Force]

My feeling is that the AI used to be a difficulty 3, and now they're 12. They should be a 7.

Giving them engineering mods is probably the worst part, the upgraded tactics is just a bit overzealous.

 

[Dave1029]

Silent majority, and you know them all personally too I assume?

We'll see. I bet it's rebalanced within 2 weeks. They're going to get all the feedback they need server side.

 

[Ziljan]

tested again today .... first run in the low combat zone went great kicked some major butt.
2nd run jumped on by 2 vultures and a imp eagle, i was in the friendly group and was singled out by the ai i was hit by something akin to a ion cannon that shut my ship down, power comes back on, shuts down again, power back on shuts down, power back ship explodes. total time from being singled out in the middle of the friendly pack of ships to being blown up 40 secs.

You were running into disabling mines. Next time look on the radar HUD for white squares being pooped out of the enemy ship. Try not to fly into them. Pretty easy to avoid mines, once you know what they are.

 

[Hexcaliber]

You can't get better against a machine that is stacked against you. You will always get worked. Always. You may welcome the challenge now, but I've already been convinced that this isn't the game for me. So stroke your e-Peen all you want.

You're making excuses instead of admitting you are not as good as you perhaps thought you were; that's what your posts boil down to.

 

[ammonitida]

We'll see. I bet it's rebalanced within 2 weeks. They're going to get all the feedback they need server side.

Sarah is against nerfing the AI. She said so on the beta forum. She wanted to make it even harder than beta 4. I doubt she is going to cave to a vocal minority after what she saw on the beta forums regarding beta 5 and 6.

There's no silent majority.