Discuss the AI here!

What do you think of the new AI?

  • Too hard

    Votes: 954 46.7%
  • Just right

    Votes: 838 41.0%
  • Too easy

    Votes: 117 5.7%
  • Other (give reason)

    Votes: 134 6.6%

  • Total voters
    2,043
  • Poll closed .
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Thread Closed: Not open for further replies.
Question - not a troll...Is the sharp increase in difficulty players are experiencing due to a better scaling of NPC experience with rank?
IE Are you all experiencing such a difficulty wall beacause you're Elite and facing off against buffed up Elite NPCs with a suite of engineer mods...
I'm a lowly Master with a Vulture and was playing in Haz Res last night - just to get a feel for the changes...
Now i'm RUBBISH at dogfighting...but have always done okay by being sneaky and smart in target selection and positioning/seperation when I engage...and I didn't really feel there was too much difference...they seemed a bit smarter in use of thrusters and weapons (perhaps down to Pip management) and their maneuvering was more "player like" (which is undoubtedly a good thing)
But at my level...I didn't feel like I was facing a Kobayashi Maru scenario by any means...
 
Don't hate me - but did you continue to chase the marker, despite submitting; or ignore it? There is a timer when you submit. Because if you don't fight, even if you submit, you can lose before the routine engages.

The number of people who don't realise you still need to fight until the submit routine kicks in, often surprises me.

Generally yes. But sometimes even following the marker wouldn't save you from FSD failure. And then there are sudden 90-degree jumps from facing the marker to facing the tunnel wall. Both could happen in 2.0, and it would be nice if these things were fixed in 2.1.
 
That's cool - but that's also very little for res-site farming.
You should be getting around that per kill (at least).

Although in a Cobra, I'm not sure how viable that is - I haven't tried using a small ship for this in a while.
I only have 2million in the bank. 200k is plenty enough to get some more upgrades. I could have stayed much longer as I wasn't suffering any major damage, but it was getting late and I was getting tired.

I like having a small ship. I spend a lot of time flying around picking up small missions, doing small volume trading and bounty hunting. I like to vary things, and making big profits doesn't really matter to me. I just survive and progress slowly. However, it will become frustrating if I keep getting killed by deadly pilots every day. I think I'll stay around this RES for a few days and get some combat practice in.
 
Generally yes. But sometimes even following the marker wouldn't save you from FSD failure. And then there are sudden 90-degree jumps from facing the marker to facing the tunnel wall. Both could happen in 2.0, and it would be nice if these things were fixed in 2.1.

Agreed. Just checking. Again, the number of people who will determinedly, inexorably try to leave by waking to SC rather than just high-wake out of dodge, still surprises me.
 
This is what happened to me when I encountered adder in hazres. I totally expected beta 6 AI :D. Boy was I wrong. I equip missiles next time. Cannons are not the best weapons anymore. In 2.0 I used to melt adders like these with lasers and use cannons against larger ones. Now you need proper weapons agains small ones too.

[video=youtube;bmpDKB47F2Q]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmpDKB47F2Q[/video]
 
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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.
 
Question - not a troll...Is the sharp increase in difficulty players are experiencing due to a better scaling of NPC experience with rank?
IE Are you all experiencing such a difficulty wall beacause you're Elite and facing off against buffed up Elite NPCs with a suite of engineer mods...
I'm a lowly Master with a Vulture and was playing in Haz Res last night - just to get a feel for the changes...
Now i'm RUBBISH at dogfighting...but have always done okay by being sneaky and smart in target selection and positioning/seperation when I engage...and I didn't really feel there was too much difference...they seemed a bit smarter in use of thrusters and weapons (perhaps down to Pip management) and their maneuvering was more "player like" (which is undoubtedly a good thing)
But at my level...I didn't feel like I was facing a Kobayashi Maru scenario by any means...

I'm just starting, mostly harmless rank, and I'm getting nothing but masters every time I engage in combat. The difficulty might well be better for higher level players with big ships, but for me, I can't even get the AI in my sights, no matter what I do. I'm in a Cobra Mk. III and a lone Eagle destroys me without me ever being able to get him in my crosshairs. I've never in my life seen an MMO balance destroyed this badly, and I've been playing them since Everquest. I don't care if longtime players like it, for new players and casual players, it has made the game impossible. You WILL alienate everyone but the hardcore crowd, and you won't be able to sustain the game just from them. These kind of shenanigans are what put Star Wars Galaxies out of business. You don't completely retool every established facet of your game. If the advanced players think it is too easy, add places they can go where the difficulty is higher, don't ruin the game for everyone else.
 
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What I learned from my Beta testing:

1) High Security Systems now live up to their names.
[...]
3) If you're flying alone, I strongly recommend you stay away from Threat level 4 USS's.

In a game that has no concept of "level appropriate zones" in the traditional MMO sense, the comments above are key. You need both awareness of your environment and defined (and prepared) plans to cover the fight/flight/other situations that you may find yourself in. Blindly trundling from USS to USS or tootling around an Anarchy system with lucrative cargo may not end well. Which should be the case and certainly was in the original.
 
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Question - not a troll...Is the sharp increase in difficulty players are experiencing due to a better scaling of NPC experience with rank?
IE Are you all experiencing such a difficulty wall beacause you're Elite and facing off against buffed up Elite NPCs with a suite of engineer mods...
I'm a lowly Master with a Vulture and was playing in Haz Res last night - just to get a feel for the changes...
Now i'm RUBBISH at dogfighting...but have always done okay by being sneaky and smart in target selection and positioning/seperation when I engage...and I didn't really feel there was too much difference...they seemed a bit smarter in use of thrusters and weapons (perhaps down to Pip management) and their maneuvering was more "player like" (which is undoubtedly a good thing)
But at my level...I didn't feel like I was facing a Kobayashi Maru scenario by any means...

Its a mentality thing. If you dont overestimate yourself and take it easy you're fine. Most of the complaints are from those who loaded 2.1, tried whatever they did in 2.0, lost and immediately came here to rant without even trying something.

You know:"I dont mind tougher AI as long as I can do the same stuff with the same results."
 
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I'm just starting, mostly harmless rank, and I'm getting nothing but masters every time I engage in combat.

That's pretty grim then...the opposite of what I thought (I was expecting it to be the guys at Elite rank facing off against Elite/Deadly NPCs) I've not had chance to play more than a couple of hours...so I'll see how my impression changes with time...
 
Just been interdicted and murdered for the ten limpets in my hold.

lol, at least you have cargo (of sorts), I keep getting interdicted and asked for my cargo..... on a cargo spaceless FDL [rolleyes]. Don't mind the more challenging AI (before someone decides to flame), but when it does agressive things for dumb reasons it does start to become a little annoying.

No bounties/not wanted/no cargo space/stable secure system/no hostile groups, interdicted by 4 different NPC's asking for cargo, just SCing from one station to another...... not sure this is how it is supposed to be working....

EDIT:maybe they should start with "Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die."....... :p
 
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That's pretty grim then...the opposite of what I thought (I was expecting it to be the guys at Elite rank facing off against Elite/Deadly NPCs) I've not had chance to play more than a couple of hours...so I'll see how my impression changes with time...

And I'm in the starter systems besides. I haven't traveled any farther than one jump away from assellus prime, and anywhere I go it's the same.
 
EDIT:maybe they should start with "Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die."....... :p

Not intending to derail this thread but THAT would be AWESOME with some sort of "persistance" to that.
Right now you dont care what the poor NPC is called, but if it suddenly meant something if you killed one from a leading family in a system... wow.
 

Achilles7

Banned
Perfect SJA

..loaded my FAS with fixed multicannons (no mods) and headed to the nearest HazRES..didn't try any low ranked ships & large ships are still a doddle, but wings of high ranked small small ships? omg..with fixed weapons it is much harder, the combo of more damage and better offensive & evasive manoeuvrability makes pip management a real challenge now..before a wing of 3 deadly/dangerous Cobras would have been easily dispatched in a couple of mins without really trying, but this took 5-6 mins of full concentration and used all of my SCBs!! Next I spied a deadly vulture - with my FAS at 74% hull & only two shield rings, chaff malfunctioned and no SCBs, I thought WTH...5 mins later I'm running after many malfunctions (thrusters, PD) having rebooted on 22% hull, everything comes on line at 8% hull & I escape on 4 % with my tail between my legs.

One caveat - the psychic nature of NPCs knowing you are just about to fire & correspondingly boost or zig-zag at just the wrong/right time (depending on perspective), compounded by the m/c reloading when perfectly centred on target used to be annoying, now it might make the difference between living & dying!!

I posted that after one very recent SJA comment, I was no longer worried about people claiming that NPCs were too easy in beta 6...my trust was well founded! Magnificent job with the AI..just right! I've already had to change my dogfighting technique slightly against the small agile craft..adapt or become NPC fodder...simples!..no nerfing necessary!

A big 'GOOD JOB' to FD for 2.1 even my lappy kicks bottom at 60fps now & next time I'm not going to use up a valuable day's holiday on launch day! I know, I know but this was the first time..learned the hard way!! No golf this bank holiday...I guess I'm going to have to concentrate on 'gitting gudder'!! hehehe
 
I have to reply here because the original thread was locked.

I mentioned being interdicted on each of the four missions that I had undertaken with my second commander account (I am reserving my main commander at the moment). This commander is only a "Master" combat ranking yet I had two Elite and two Deadly NPCs interdict my Asp. They were an Anaconda, Python, Asp and Viper and I was subjected to two modded attacks, an impulse attack and a thermal (heat build-up warning) attack. All of these were trading missions and all below my trading rank and in federation systems that I think are "secure" (if that is the right term).

So that should put to rest the argument that "you should not take on missions above your rank" - thank you.

It does not appear that any scaling of NPC combat rating to player rating is being implemented and the prevalence of NPCs with modded systems makes a mockery of the fact that engineers are only just introduced and the idea that mods were supposed to be rare. It now looks like they will be ubiquitous on NPCs and so make it untenable for traders and explorers and non-Horizons players to pursue their pre-existing games, only pew-pew fanatics who traipse around engineers will enjoy this new game.

(P.S. Yes I did manage to survive each encounter so please leave any "git gud" responses in your handbags. ;) )
 
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.

Exactly this. Repped. Outfitting is now very important.

The first thing I did was stick mil spec on my Lance, knowing that I can claw back the jump range and speed deficit with some engineering down the line.

It's already saved me a couple of rebuys.

In time people will sharpen up their ships and strategy and will welcome the challenge.
 
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