After the devs have confirmed that the zero threat USSs are in fact traps set for (noob/casual) players to walk into, I'm left with three options.
1. Walk and find other games to play that don't annoy me to the level of frustration that ED has been since 2.1.
2. Only play as an Explorer well away from the bubble and forego any engagement with the game as intended. Although I'm not really getting value for money with this option, but then again fdev already have my money anyway... They just won't be receiving any further financial support from me.
3. Try to understand why they have done this and what the current 'state of play' actually is.
I could spend more frustrating hours trying to learn my way through to obtain the answers to options 2 and 3. But I'd rather just ask here and save myself any further upset. so... My apologies if some of these questions seem obvious but I'd like to go over them.
1. Are npc's (pirates?) still randomly lunching you regardless of whether you are carrying any cargo or not? If so, (and I see no reason why fdev would have changed this) how is the level of the attacking npc determined? This might be difficult to answer now as I believe FDEV are still working on this one.
2. Does carrying cargo a) increase the frequency of npc attacks over and above 1. b) increase the rank level / difficulty of the attacking npc and if so, by what amount?
3. Does the type or value of cargo (e.g. Fish compared to Palladium or Imperial Slaves) determine the frequency and/or rank of npc attacks?
4. Do your own ranks (be it combat, trade or exploration) equally affect the frequency or rank of attacking npc's or is this solely determined by your combat rank? In other words, does the Elite trade rank for example, have the same impact in game as Elite combat rank? If the answer to this is yes, then obtaining profits and spending them on better ships is directly driving the level of npc threat a player experiences in game.
5. Does previous game playing style (e.g. smuggling, imperial slave trading etc) affect the frequency/rank of attacking npc's? [I'm presuming it does as otherwise why would ppl suggest wiping your game and starting from scratch again. Although, I can't really understand the logic of this other than just going around the loop again. You still end up with an unplayable game at the end of it by being right back to where you were before wiping your game file].
6. How much less likely are you to be attacked by npc's if you only trade in high security systems? How do Medium and Low Security systems scale? I'm presuming here that interdiction by npc's is inevitable regardless of what strategy you play. Or is the incident rate/severity the same but security ships might come to your aid in a high security system?
7. Are there goods that can be traded that do not impact upon the npc's attacking frequently / severity and if so, what are these goods?
8. Are there any other in game 'features' I need to know about that are not obvious. Like the zero threat USSs that are not zero threat at all and have been setup as deliberate traps? What else am I being lied to about?
9. Lastly, given the current AI bugs still being ironed out in future updates, where is this game likely to be once these are resolved in relation to the above questions.
Thank you for any advice given. It will at least help me decide between the three remaining options and the information will at least help other noob players out too.
1. Walk and find other games to play that don't annoy me to the level of frustration that ED has been since 2.1.
2. Only play as an Explorer well away from the bubble and forego any engagement with the game as intended. Although I'm not really getting value for money with this option, but then again fdev already have my money anyway... They just won't be receiving any further financial support from me.
3. Try to understand why they have done this and what the current 'state of play' actually is.
I could spend more frustrating hours trying to learn my way through to obtain the answers to options 2 and 3. But I'd rather just ask here and save myself any further upset. so... My apologies if some of these questions seem obvious but I'd like to go over them.
1. Are npc's (pirates?) still randomly lunching you regardless of whether you are carrying any cargo or not? If so, (and I see no reason why fdev would have changed this) how is the level of the attacking npc determined? This might be difficult to answer now as I believe FDEV are still working on this one.
2. Does carrying cargo a) increase the frequency of npc attacks over and above 1. b) increase the rank level / difficulty of the attacking npc and if so, by what amount?
3. Does the type or value of cargo (e.g. Fish compared to Palladium or Imperial Slaves) determine the frequency and/or rank of npc attacks?
4. Do your own ranks (be it combat, trade or exploration) equally affect the frequency or rank of attacking npc's or is this solely determined by your combat rank? In other words, does the Elite trade rank for example, have the same impact in game as Elite combat rank? If the answer to this is yes, then obtaining profits and spending them on better ships is directly driving the level of npc threat a player experiences in game.
5. Does previous game playing style (e.g. smuggling, imperial slave trading etc) affect the frequency/rank of attacking npc's? [I'm presuming it does as otherwise why would ppl suggest wiping your game and starting from scratch again. Although, I can't really understand the logic of this other than just going around the loop again. You still end up with an unplayable game at the end of it by being right back to where you were before wiping your game file].
6. How much less likely are you to be attacked by npc's if you only trade in high security systems? How do Medium and Low Security systems scale? I'm presuming here that interdiction by npc's is inevitable regardless of what strategy you play. Or is the incident rate/severity the same but security ships might come to your aid in a high security system?
7. Are there goods that can be traded that do not impact upon the npc's attacking frequently / severity and if so, what are these goods?
8. Are there any other in game 'features' I need to know about that are not obvious. Like the zero threat USSs that are not zero threat at all and have been setup as deliberate traps? What else am I being lied to about?
9. Lastly, given the current AI bugs still being ironed out in future updates, where is this game likely to be once these are resolved in relation to the above questions.
Thank you for any advice given. It will at least help me decide between the three remaining options and the information will at least help other noob players out too.