Funny thing, a high ranked NPC crew member seems to always result in ship destruction.

Bloodsign

Bloodsign
Lost my fourth NPC crew member today, this one was a Master level, the others were Experts.

It seems to me that the chance of spawning outrageously buffed enemy wings is tied to the level... Of my NPC crewmember? Has anyone else noticed a similar effect?

With #3, she was an Expert approaching Master level. I was scumming a low level nav beacon when a wing of 2 pirate Vultures and 1 FAS jumped in. No problem, business as usual, I thought. I have engineered shield boosters and hull reinforcements on all free slots in my Krait MkII, so I wasn't concerned. Ten seconds in, my shields go down and I'm down to 75% hull, I think to myself I'll keep throwing fire on my current target and take it down, taking the heat off myself, no worries. A few seconds later I'm down to 14% hull, and before I can even execute my realization that I need to run, boom! I'm dead and my NPC crewmember is gone. 20 second confrontation.

This one, #4, was oddly similar. I was in a hazardous RES with my NPC crewmember, nailed a dozen kills of Vultures, FAS, Pythons, etc. My crew gets promoted to Master, I see a wing of two FASs and boost over to engage, bam! I'm dead in less than 30 seconds before I can even take the shield down on the first FAS.

The timing and presence of NPC crew when these over buffed npc encounters occur is... Coincidental to say the least.
 

Jaxterix

Jaxterix
I have 2 NPC crewmembers. One is Elite, the other I just recently started training and is only at Novice. I haven't noticed any change in the rank of opposing NPC's on missions between my Elite and Novice NPC's. Then again, NPC's...even Elite ones don't usually pose any challenge at all for my fully G5 engineered Krait MK II. Mind posting your MK II's build? Maybe there's something we can point at that can help you better survive this encounters.
 

Hacker#451563

Hacker#451563
One thing I've noticed (as a vet. of many a lost pilot) is that as the NPC crewman gets to around the Expert/master level they get a fair bit better at keeping themselves alive but don't up their overall DPS by much. This can mean that whereas one would normally think of bugging out because the bad-guys are too tough one doesn't realize it until too late.
 

Bloodsign

Bloodsign
Jaxterix said:
I have 2 NPC crewmembers. One is Elite, the other I just recently started training and is only at Novice. I haven't noticed any change in the rank of opposing NPC's on missions between my Elite and Novice NPC's. Then again, NPC's...even Elite ones don't usually pose any challenge at all for my fully G5 engineered Krait MK II. Mind posting your MK II's build? Maybe there's something we can point at that can help you better survive this encounters.
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Yeah, my Krait is only half engineered, so this is definitely one way to overcome my particular problem. I'm not really struggling with combat in general or anything though; my multicannons, shields, and shield boosters are pretty well engineered and it's rare for shields to go down. It's just kind of odd that I don't run into these wings of killer heavies in my other pirate killing ships, like my FDL. (1500+ pirate bounties claimed)

I'm sure there's some kind of spawn level algorithm, but for most of my career I wasn't using a fighter bays with my Krait and didn't seem to have heavy wings spawning then either.
 

Requiem Mortis

Requiem Mortis
I keep losing NPC crew at dangerous got one to deadly once and lost her almost immediately, over confidence on my part haven't noticed any effect on the levels of opposition spawning.
 

Dagwit

Dagwit
Schmack said:
When I lose shields, if there's more than one active opponent I bug out. I wish they made a paint job with a yellow stripe down the back of the ship.
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Yeah, I could do with one of those. I'm currently grinding out combat rank and so far (about to reach Deadly) I've only been killed once - lost my power plant after being caught by a Thargoid Interceptor while harvesting scouts.

But I'm very aware that my ability to survive is due to no skill of mine other than a finely honed sense of when to run away.
 

Schmack

Schmack
I did notice (maybe obvious to others) that when I accept a pirate faction kill mission, if it's a winged mission, powerful wings will drop into the instance (let's say a haz res). If it's not a winged mission, then if I get a wing of target ships they are mostly smaller ships. I met a wing yesterday, 2 Kraits and and an FDL that were really fierce and tanky. Then the last two ships of the mission were a winged pair, Cobra and Python. The Cobra snapped pretty easily but the Python was using double plasma and deadly accurate. I hadn't lost my shield in the entire trip even on multiple wing engagements, however I was at 65% hull when I left that engagement. That Python kept ramming my corvette (stupid move usually) and my hull was taking damage even with all those stacked HRPs. The Python's hull was steady around 55% for what seemed like an eternity, even as I was dumping everything I had into it broadside. Finally it went down very quickly all of a sudden as if I broke through some invisible barrier.

Maybe you faced something like that.
 

Bloodsign

Bloodsign
jankula said:
High ranked crew member is dangerous,deadly &elite,mid ranked master,expert,competent...
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Hmm, fair point, haha :)

Thanks for the input guys! I'll work on fully engineering my ship and likely I won't have to worry much then.

Just as an FYI, I accept almost exclusively pirate massacre wing missions and solo them, might be part of my experience, as CMDR Schmack mentioned. :)
 

Schmack

Schmack
J.States said:
Hmm, fair point, haha :)

Thanks for the input guys! I'll work on fully engineering my ship and likely I won't have to worry much then.

Just as an FYI, I accept almost exclusively pirate massacre wing missions and solo them, might be part of my experience, as CMDR Schmack mentioned. :)
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Are you using that Clipper in your Inara sig?

If you need a wingmate (in private group) let me know. Wing missions pay the same for each player as they do for one, with half the work. Have Vette will travel.
 

Bloodsign

Bloodsign
Schmack said:
Are you using that Clipper in your Inara sig?

If you need a wingmate (in private group) let me know. Wing missions pay the same for each player as they do for one, with half the work. Have Vette will travel.
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That's my newest toy and I like it a lot, but I usually stick with my Krait mk2., it's better engineered and has a fighter bay. I'll PM you. :)
 

Northpin

Northpin
Disengage and wake away as soon as you lose shields.
I lost an elite crew and one almost deadly due to a combination of not paying attention, bad luck and overconfidence.
This one I have now is elite too, but she kinda annoys me so when I will lose her I won't mind much - "We lost the fighter, Commander" O'really? We?
 
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