Engineers 3.0: Welcome to ATR Farming

[JesusRocks1988]

I am super grinning! ATR ships are all super-engineered, all piloted by Elite pilots with everything dialled to max, plus with some extra bits of AI logic thrown in for good measure! They have some pretty awesome weaponry, so don't expect those engineered shields to last long against these beasties! If you fight against these, you WILL be taking damage, so it becomes a question of how much you're prepared to spend on repairs... And if by some miracle you manage to destroy one, expect more and more to come...

Hmmm... ATR farming, eh?

 

[Kayweg]

That is deeply disappointing. If the solution is essentially miracle weapons unavailable in the game to CMDRs, well....

... that might make me check out Star Citizen.

I my understanding, ATR isn't put into the game as just another new content item for players to engage with.
It has a singular purpose as part of the revised C&P system, and that purpose clearly is not to be just another flavor of NPCs for players to kill.
That would defeat the point why ATR is introduced to begin with.
FD will have a look at how it initially works, and if ATR turns out to be too weak to do what they want it to do, tweak it accordingly.
So yes, perhaps in beta some players might even manage to kill one, after that ?....good luck, i guess.

As for SC, if at some point it should become evident to the devs there that the game needs stricter policing, or changes to C&P, you think they'd shy away from doing exactly the same as FD is about to do ?

 

[Shadowdancer]

OP, please make sure to play the Beta and prove your point. FDev needs the input to balance the game.

The thread goes like this:

<OP> Today I farmed ATR for an hour.
<SJA> OK.
… next update …
<everyone> What's going on, oh my god, the prismatics they do nothing! They're everywhere! It's like The Mote in God's Eye! Nerf nerf nerf!

 

[Oldric]

Just been watching CMDR Plater live stream. ATR's took his shield out in a few seconds, you might like to try a massive hull tank but i wouldn't bet on any player trying to 'farm' the ATR.
[video=youtube;jDAp0nEA3a8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDAp0nEA3a8[/video]

Last 20 minutes or so of the stream.

 

[Kayweg]

With the changes brought to engineers we heard yesterday in the live stream, I am convinced FD is negating immediately what they are trying to achieve with the new Crime & Punishment system: ATRs will be farmed as Police condas currently.

Currently, a big 3, engineered to mid-range G5 (i.e. couple of G5 rolls once engineers and rep unlocked), can tank system security for as long as ammo doesn't run out, and maybe use an SCB once or twice.

In the new C&P, after a while ATR will show up to stop this. However...

It will take 5 rolls per module or so to turn the mid-range G5s in new G5 god rolls. We can keep any weapons with both special effects and secondaries, as they won't likely be possible in the new scheme, and there you go:

CMDR ships that are more engineered or equivalent to ATR ships, but flown by human pilots against AI. With all due respect to SJA, MoM, I don't see how AI can beat a reasonable human pilot - especially as long as NPCs get utterly confused by pilots flying FA Off.

Hence, ATR farming.

How about now ?

 

[Dbrn47]

Videos are out and ATR is melting players instead of being farmed.

Thanks MoM.

 

[Mangal Oemie]

How about now ?

You can imagine I am a little disappointed.

 

[Martind Forlon]

I heavily laughed watching these ATR in action videos, but it's not reasonable expect that they will hit the live in such strength. I expect they will tune them slowly down to acceptable lvl.

 

[Achilles7]

Simple fix, fit ATR ships with uniquely overpowered weapon and special effects combinations.

Efficient Rapid Fire Long Range Corrosive Reverberating Cascade Railguns will ruin most peoples day rather quickly. Lol

NPCs rarely miss with railguns.

CMDR Cosmic Spacehead

Really?? You only need one basic evasion technique to make NPCs miss with rails - if they are chasing you from a CZ, for example! I would estimate ~1/3 actually hit! This community is legendary for apocryphal statements.[squeeeee]

 

[Crank Larson]

I expect they will tune them slowly down to acceptable lvl.

The current level is acceptable. They are meant to be awesome.

 

[xondk]

With the changes brought to engineers we heard yesterday in the live stream, I am convinced FD is negating immediately what they are trying to achieve with the new Crime & Punishment system: ATRs will be farmed as Police condas currently.

Currently, a big 3, engineered to mid-range G5 (i.e. couple of G5 rolls once engineers and rep unlocked), can tank system security for as long as ammo doesn't run out, and maybe use an SCB once or twice.

In the new C&P, after a while ATR will show up to stop this. However...

It will take 5 rolls per module or so to turn the mid-range G5s in new G5 god rolls. We can keep any weapons with both special effects and secondaries, as they won't likely be possible in the new scheme, and there you go:

CMDR ships that are more engineered or equivalent to ATR ships, but flown by human pilots against AI. With all due respect to SJA, MoM, I don't see how AI can beat a reasonable human pilot - especially as long as NPCs get utterly confused by pilots flying FA Off.

Hence, ATR farming.

ATR's are basically max rank, max engineered npc ships, yeah.....so they will actually be able to hurt player ships significantly...

 

[lysan]

I take it the OP missed this post.

I am super grinning! ATR ships are all super-engineered, all piloted by Elite pilots with everything dialled to max, plus with some extra bits of AI logic thrown in for good measure! They have some pretty awesome weaponry, so don't expect those engineered shields to last long against these beasties! If you fight against these, you WILL be taking damage, so it becomes a question of how much you're prepared to spend on repairs... And if by some miracle you manage to destroy one, expect more and more to come...

Fear Her evilness....

 

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

I heavily laughed watching these ATR in action videos, but it's not reasonable expect that they will hit the live in such strength. I expect they will tune them slowly down to acceptable lvl.

They don't really need to be acceptable. Their goal is not let someone survive but decide to leave.

 

[Vardaugas]

They don't really need to be acceptable. Their goal is not let someone survive but decide to leave.

Well, they still need to be left with enough time to do so. Finding that sweet spot will take a bit of tweaking, I'd say.

 

[Jimbodiah]

Who says AI ships need to conform to what we can roll with engineers. They can just add a few multipliers so a vipercan take put your conda in 5 seconds.

 

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

Well, they still need to be left with enough time to do so. Finding that sweet spot will take a bit of tweaking, I'd say.

Well, sure, it is not for me to decide after all, it is SJA and team who will crunch numbers. Just throw her videos and she will tweak if required.

 

[wrmiller]

The current level is acceptable. They are meant to be awesome.

This...

If anything crank 'em up a notch or two.

 

[Susanna]

I take it the OP missed this post.

Yeap.

That's about par for MoM...

 

[Komemiute]

Absolutely - and I will keep that promise, too - even if I get slaughtered.

My YT channel is essentially videos of me losing in PvP practice, so it would fit right in with those...

Sooooo, any luck farming ATR?

 

[Darth Ender]

you dont need npcs that can fly with skill when you can just code them to cheat. Which is what happened the last time npcs were anything but fish in a barrel.

The updated ai wasn't what got nerfed back down to make them easy again, it was them no longer doing stuff like having crazy engineered weapons that apparently didn't have any negative side-effects that would normally be felt by players with similar equipment.

That's how they'll work the ATR. Not by making the ATR smarter.


edit: Though, i think they could avoid cheating by just using overwhelming numbers. just exponentially escalate an instance at a balanced rate so that no player could resist the onslaught beyond a certain amount of time. Eliminating farming more than one or two in an instance. No cheating, and it's still effective. It's how pirates should react to bounty hunters in res sites too. I shouldn't be allowed to become a one man army against criminals or a one man army of crime against the police. There's an easy and legit way to handle that (overwhelming numbers) that Fdev has just not decided to use. Instead, the've stuck to leaving npcs incompetent and/or cheating.