I personally think the ai is about right now, from what I have so far encountered in beta and in live version.
I do have sympathy for the players who are struggling a bit though, as there has been a significant raising of the performance bar. We are all individuals in our personalities, and while some who are struggling in a task will relish the challenge to improve, there are others who will just walk away as they become disheartened and discouraged by defeat.
I am not one who believes in lowering the bar to the lowest common denominator in a bid to be inclusive, that is merely a race to the bottom. Something that has been happening for a while in gaming, though for which there appears to have been a backlash of late.
Hence I am not going to shout for the AI to be nerfed. It should be refined and made better, especially at the higher levels.
I have had the advantage of playing the BETA and being forewarned of the new AI, however many of you are currently in an understandable state of shock, due to the large paradigm shift in gameplay that has taken place. Therefore people are having to go through a steep learning curve again, which I can understand can be frustrating.
What I would say myself is having encountered the AI in BETA and been thoroughly bested I took a long hard look at my flying and combat and made changes. Learn not only your ships strengths and weaknesses but also learn about other ships. Try to play on your ships best terms and your opponents weakest terms. Cutters Condas and Corvettes are not dogfighters, so don't use them like one. They are heavy assault platforms. Similarly dogfighters should not be used to face tank the likes of Pythons and Corvettes.
Things that people took for granted in the past and ignored now mean a lot. For example people need to seriously take note of any powerplay powers that control a system and the nature of security level in that system. For example Zachary Hudson controlled systems suffer a 40% reduction in security if they have a none Federation faction in power. That can turn such systems into quasi anarchies. System states such as War also reduce security so trading in a war zone will be dangerous.
If you want to avoid combat I therefore suggest searching out high security systems and plan any trade routes accordingly.
Finally I will say I fear for some explorers who have been in the deep for a while. Most will be flying stripped down ships, and will undoubtedly have suffered some wear and tear damage. As things stand I would recommend they get friends or Iridium wing to escort them once they get close to the bubble. Otherwise I think they stand a significant chance of being destroyed by NPC's. Its one thing to lose your ship its another to lose months of exploration data.
I do have sympathy for the players who are struggling a bit though, as there has been a significant raising of the performance bar. We are all individuals in our personalities, and while some who are struggling in a task will relish the challenge to improve, there are others who will just walk away as they become disheartened and discouraged by defeat.
I am not one who believes in lowering the bar to the lowest common denominator in a bid to be inclusive, that is merely a race to the bottom. Something that has been happening for a while in gaming, though for which there appears to have been a backlash of late.
Hence I am not going to shout for the AI to be nerfed. It should be refined and made better, especially at the higher levels.
I have had the advantage of playing the BETA and being forewarned of the new AI, however many of you are currently in an understandable state of shock, due to the large paradigm shift in gameplay that has taken place. Therefore people are having to go through a steep learning curve again, which I can understand can be frustrating.
What I would say myself is having encountered the AI in BETA and been thoroughly bested I took a long hard look at my flying and combat and made changes. Learn not only your ships strengths and weaknesses but also learn about other ships. Try to play on your ships best terms and your opponents weakest terms. Cutters Condas and Corvettes are not dogfighters, so don't use them like one. They are heavy assault platforms. Similarly dogfighters should not be used to face tank the likes of Pythons and Corvettes.
Things that people took for granted in the past and ignored now mean a lot. For example people need to seriously take note of any powerplay powers that control a system and the nature of security level in that system. For example Zachary Hudson controlled systems suffer a 40% reduction in security if they have a none Federation faction in power. That can turn such systems into quasi anarchies. System states such as War also reduce security so trading in a war zone will be dangerous.
If you want to avoid combat I therefore suggest searching out high security systems and plan any trade routes accordingly.
Finally I will say I fear for some explorers who have been in the deep for a while. Most will be flying stripped down ships, and will undoubtedly have suffered some wear and tear damage. As things stand I would recommend they get friends or Iridium wing to escort them once they get close to the bubble. Otherwise I think they stand a significant chance of being destroyed by NPC's. Its one thing to lose your ship its another to lose months of exploration data.
