To be honest i really want to reset my combat rank, in this way if am wanted (most of the time i am), the other commanders will try to attack me instead of running from me and i am only dangerous.
Discuss the AI here!
- Thread starter Agony_Aunt
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I would agree if ED was a classic MMO, which it is not. Also, if risk and reward of different NPC difficulty levels would be balanced well, I would not see a negative impact on player experience. And PVP in Open would obviously not be affected.
The Ai has been too easy for too long, now finally they are putting up a challenge. in fact I thought it was best during the beta when ships would flee when their shields came down. Elite AI, in my opinion, should be better than most human players, but now I see this poll that says most people think it's too hard. Please don't nerf the AI again FD, please please, please.
I've no problem with AI being more of a challenge in combat. I did rather get caught out though. Had been fighting and collecting bounties in a RES with no problem, but got interdicted and wiped out within 1 minute or so on my way back to a station. Had not point defence, but I had never been attacked by NPC with missiles before so never needed it. First thing I'll be equipping when I get back in the saddle tonight.
The one strange thing I noticed though. After the NPC took out my thrusters and I was left helplessly floating there, they just stopped attacking and sat there watching me.No attempt to finish me off, no comms, just sat there. I waited, hoping a system authority vessel would appear, but when one didn't after 5 minutes I then started to repair the thrusters. As soon as they came back online I was hit by more missiles and destroyed. Talk about toying with me. Just finish me off already, don't give me hope then snuff it out again.
Although this was frustrating and I turned the air blue for a bit, I shall be back and will be better prepared next time. I just hope I meet him again and can kick his !
The one strange thing I noticed though. After the NPC took out my thrusters and I was left helplessly floating there, they just stopped attacking and sat there watching me.No attempt to finish me off, no comms, just sat there. I waited, hoping a system authority vessel would appear, but when one didn't after 5 minutes I then started to repair the thrusters. As soon as they came back online I was hit by more missiles and destroyed. Talk about toying with me. Just finish me off already, don't give me hope then snuff it out again.
Although this was frustrating and I turned the air blue for a bit, I shall be back and will be better prepared next time. I just hope I meet him again and can kick his !
And you added "just right" which helpfully distorts the outcome because there is one negative, with positives that have to be added together to actually match. But.. it's not a binary poll so I will forgive you.. for now.
"I'm watching you Wazowski."
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So, having played a bit now.
The AI seems to be nicely balanced. AS LONG AS YOU ARE AN ELITE PILOT or close to that.
I had no problems with eagles or Vipers or even Cobras in my Explorer AspE that is fitted with A3 shields and 6*gimbaled MC.
I even killed a mostly harmless anaconda with some help from a wing of system security. ( they jump in quite fast now, good!)
I DID use an enormous load of ammo more for a single Eagle now tho.
ON the other hand i picked my targets one by one in a nav point and some SS. AND i shied away from any SS more than thread one.
So while it _IS_ possible to win against the NPCs now i doubt anyone has a chance if a few eagles or vipers attack him at once.
As a conclusion i would say: just fix the "matchmaker" to some more believeable ways, i.E: dont let elite clippers attack newb sideys or such things.
Then it should be ok, even for the less skilled.
And paint a big "WARNING: ELITE PLAYER WINGS ONLY" on things like HAZRES and CZ.
If it stays like it is now i predict that we will have a LOT less players anywhere (not just in open) in a few months.
I am not really confident that the hardcore gamers will be enough to sustain the game in the long run at all.
The AI seems to be nicely balanced. AS LONG AS YOU ARE AN ELITE PILOT or close to that.
I had no problems with eagles or Vipers or even Cobras in my Explorer AspE that is fitted with A3 shields and 6*gimbaled MC.
I even killed a mostly harmless anaconda with some help from a wing of system security. ( they jump in quite fast now, good!)
I DID use an enormous load of ammo more for a single Eagle now tho.
ON the other hand i picked my targets one by one in a nav point and some SS. AND i shied away from any SS more than thread one.
So while it _IS_ possible to win against the NPCs now i doubt anyone has a chance if a few eagles or vipers attack him at once.
As a conclusion i would say: just fix the "matchmaker" to some more believeable ways, i.E: dont let elite clippers attack newb sideys or such things.
Then it should be ok, even for the less skilled.
And paint a big "WARNING: ELITE PLAYER WINGS ONLY" on things like HAZRES and CZ.
If it stays like it is now i predict that we will have a LOT less players anywhere (not just in open) in a few months.
I am not really confident that the hardcore gamers will be enough to sustain the game in the long run at all.
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So, my experience of first time out in 2.1 flying an asp built for smuggling, ie fast and light. Interdicted on 2nd mission (40 tons of wine) and despite my usual response of immediately throttle down; prepare to run, within seconds I got; failed interdiction, FSD failure, uncontrollable spinning ship, warning! thermal attack, warning! module malfunction, warning! thruster malfunction, warning! shields offline, warning! canopy critical, eject, eject eject... please deposit just over 1 million credits with your friendly buy back screen. At no point during any of this process did anything I tried to do have any effect whatsoever on the outcome.
BTW, thanks for all the warnings lol, really useful
BTW, thanks for all the warnings lol, really useful
Okay here's the thing. I LOVE challenging combat, and the new AI delivers wonderfully. However, I just don't feel the risk is justified with the new level of difficulty. I run a high spec anaconda which used to be able to take on medium swarms of low level ships, and I just got my rear handed to me by an EAGLE. stayed out of range or right under me the whole time. I'm not saying make the AI easier, but I think bounties should be raised to compensate. I don't want to have to stick my eight and a half million credit insurance cost on the line every time I fight a twenty thousand credit bounty target. I used to see bounty values sort of cap out around two hundred thousand, but I think these should be raised fairly significantly, especially on bigger ships.
I had a thread based on the distribution of AI, not really how good or bad it was. I was saying that since the higher AI's were now much harder, they should be suitably more rare, instead of having 20+ elites running around, making it seem like it's barely even an accomplishment. Deadly+ should be rare, not the norm.
I mean it has to do with the AI but it's not really a direct conversation about whether or not they are too hard or too easy.
I mean it has to do with the AI but it's not really a direct conversation about whether or not they are too hard or too easy.
Yes, mommy... ahem, auntie...
Moved from a closed thread:
First of all, I was quite suspicious of the danger posed by the new AI and unparked my Clipper with a bit of concern. Equipped (and needed!) point defense and large multi cannons. Went to a Navigation Beacon to test and especially hoping to find some material. I was in Wolf 47 and encountered quite a mix of NPCs, from Mostly Harmless to Deadly (I am "Dangerous").
First off, I was somewhat handicapped by not having my usual X-52 Pro setup available (broken again, replaced under warranty, but parcel will take another 5 days to arrive), so I am playing with an older Saitek Cyborg Evo joystick - unfamiliar to me and no good throttle. But still, I did not find the AI too hard, if somewhat challenging. Would have been quite a bit easier for me with my HOTAS. Only real hairy moment was against a dangerous FGS with no assistance by Security, that cost me two SCBs.
I flew out with a ton of materials, a million in bounty vouchers and 100% hull. I would not consider myself a particularly good combat pilot, but I have a lot of experience with the game and know how to manage my pips and throttle.
However, I can see that a casual player with mediocre skills would be quite put off by the challenge they now face. This would include the (relative) newbies that just farmed credits and rank with easy AI kills and Robigo runs. While I assume that the first reaction of the hardcore community would be a shrug and "git gud" message, I ask you to think again. ED already has not the greatest reputation for being accessible to newbies and casuals - and that reputation is probably going to take another hit. As a consequence, sales to new players and season pass sales to casuals may suffer. This, in turn, might greatly hurt FDev's bottom line and in consequence endanger the long term viability of the game.
Thus, FDev (and we) should listen to the complaints about the UI. Maybe a NPC difficulty slider would be appropriate, with harder settings giving better combat-related rewards (military rank, combat rating, credits, materials etc) and possibly a trade bonus. This might reconcile the casuals without taking the fun away from the "hardcore" players.
TL;DR: new AI is nice, but maybe too much for casuals and less skilled players. This might hurt sales and thus future development. A difficulty slider adjusting AI challenge and rewards might help to reconcile this.
and here is a link to AI thread in steam forum to compliment this post http://steamcommunity.com/app/359320/discussions/0/357287304422524570/
A difficulty slider would be weird in a MMO context.. but then again.. so would a mode that allowed you to play the game solo with no other player interaction. Hmm.
I agree with you.
and here is a link to AI thread in steam forum to compliment this post http://steamcommunity.com/app/359320/discussions/0/357287304422524570/
Haha! Love the "i have already changed my review" comments.
Goes to show the value of steam reviews...
Now that is a suggestion I can get behind.
I wholeheartedly agree. For human players their status doesn't necessarily relate to their combat prowess, just the length of time they had fought. I a pilot could be 'Mostly Harmless', but a top combat pilot, or a pretty average 'Deadly' pilot who has just racked up lots of kills over the life of the game.
I almost feel like once you are a few days into the game, your combat should be ranked on your kills to death ratio and quality of pilots defeated, rather than numbers of kills. Unless of course this is part of the ranking and I'm just talking rubbish, in which case just ignore me!
I wholeheartedly agree. For human players their status doesn't necessarily relate to their combat prowess, just the length of time they had fought. I a pilot could be 'Mostly Harmless', but a top combat pilot, or a pretty average 'Deadly' pilot who has just racked up lots of kills over the life of the game.
I almost feel like once you are a few days into the game, your combat should be ranked on your kills to death ratio and quality of pilots defeated, rather than numbers of kills. Unless of course this is part of the ranking and I'm just talking rubbish, in which case just ignore me!
Nope, you're spot on! You get points per kill, and the greater the rank difference the greater or lower the number of points awarded. You could theoretically becone elite without ever killing anything above expert/master.
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I like that suggestion. With all these deadly+ pilots around, wouldn't they all be fighting each other and keeping the numbers down?
Put one's finger on!
I will just add that AI pirates do leave you alone if you give them reasonable amounts of cargo now
So they have added options for escaping if you are out gunned.
You can target threat when interdicted to see the ship type and rating so you can plan before are pulled out of SC
Previously it was possible that even if you dropped all your cargo they would demand more and keep attacking.
Here one ton of Tobacco was sufficient, as I am guessing that I was in a Sidewinder was taken into account.
[video=youtube_share;TijL_oUz50k]https://youtu.be/TijL_oUz50k[/video]
So they have added options for escaping if you are out gunned.
You can target threat when interdicted to see the ship type and rating so you can plan before are pulled out of SC
Previously it was possible that even if you dropped all your cargo they would demand more and keep attacking.
Here one ton of Tobacco was sufficient, as I am guessing that I was in a Sidewinder was taken into account.
[video=youtube_share;TijL_oUz50k]https://youtu.be/TijL_oUz50k[/video]
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