How much does combat rank effect RNGesus' encounter set ups?

Have noticed that getting higher rank in combat, but staying in an Eagle, is getting near impossible. More and more NPCs I encounter now in a combat mission can shield strip and implode my hull in one volley from kilometers out. Does the random mission generator just assume a commander of a given rank will be in a wing, or ship, engineered up, etc, and able to slug it out with magic railgun snipers? Is there a way to surrender rank, and go back to using combat as a way to pass time until the market trade data not being available is fixed?
 
Have noticed that getting higher rank in combat, but staying in an Eagle, is getting near impossible. More and more NPCs I encounter now in a combat mission can shield strip and implode my hull in one volley from kilometers out. Does the random mission generator just assume a commander of a given rank will be in a wing, or ship, engineered up, etc, and able to slug it out with magic railgun snipers? Is there a way to surrender rank, and go back to using combat as a way to pass time until the market trade data not being available is fixed?

I don't know - but my experience is as yours, so I strongly think it does.

The Eagle is a fantastic craft, there isn't a ship it cannot defeat - but it has to be set-up right, and you need to be an absolutely superb (& patient) pilot. I am useless!
 
As your own combat rank increases both the minimum and maximum rank of combat mission you are offered will increase (I think +/-3 from your actual rank is still the rule). For assassination missions this will definitely make the NPCs tougher ... for massacre missions it adds more of them and makes at least some of them tougher.

So, yes, the assumption is that as you gain combat rank you'll either upgrade from the Eagle to something with more firepower and armour ... or at the very least engineer that Eagle up to full ridiculousness and kill them all that way.
 
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So, yes, the assumption is that as you gain combat rank you'll either upgrade from the Eagle to something with more firepower and armour ... or at the very least engineer that Eagle up to full ridiculousness and kill them all that way.

The fact that at least one player has made it to Combat Elite in a Sidewinder, leads me to guess that it is simply being a case of whether you are good enough or not. I am not, regrettably - but I keep trying!
 
Well NPC combat rankings rng has always been tied up with yours if I am not gravely mistaken. My advice for ranking up in an Eagle if you insist on it, is to pimp it up real good, top tier and engineered all the way. And then you can get to Elite with it no worries. Eagle isn't a bad ship. Just hit conflict zones and focus on high combat rank Eagles.

If that doesn't sound appealing, get a Viper Mk.III as soon as you can afford one with decent thrusters, shields and distributor. Not so expensive but you'll do so much better in fights on it I am pretty certain.
 
Not sure, i still get a spread of targets, although assassination missions of course tend to spawn higher ranked targets. But drop into a weapon fire signal source and ill see a range of ships, and of course, always a wide vareity flying around in SC. In a RES... well, you can take your pick.

CZ remains the best place for ranking up quickly though. Although a CZ in an Eagle requires some tactics.

EDIT: Oh, and for the love of Jeebus! Its affect not effect!
 
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Have noticed that getting higher rank in combat, but staying in an Eagle, is getting near impossible. More and more NPCs I encounter now in a combat mission can shield strip and implode my hull in one volley from kilometers out. Does the random mission generator just assume a commander of a given rank will be in a wing, or ship, engineered up, etc, and able to slug it out with magic railgun snipers? Is there a way to surrender rank, and go back to using combat as a way to pass time until the market trade data not being available is fixed?

Its one of the reasons I try not to rank up combat rank. Specially when npcs still have bugs that make them sometimes better than they should be. Or can do things they shouldn't be able to do or have.
 
I reported this as a bug a couple weeks ago, as it used to take both ship and rank into account back in 2.2.

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...e-only-geared-to-combat-rank-not-current-ship

I don't think that was the case. Afaik the enemies (both rank and ship) generated by a missions have always been tied to the rank of the missions, nothing to do with your rank or your ship (although missions are generated around your rank these days so in practice it has an impact).

On the other hand the NPCs generated to come after your bounty or your cargo every other jump / supercruise transition (so neither the mission nor the regular supercruise NPCs) do scale based on both your rank and your ship (which will respectively determine their rank and ship).

Your rank or ship has no effect on what/how other NPCs are generated though: that's the NPCs doing their own thing in supercruise, flying around at nav beacons, in the various USS, in RES, CZs, around stations etc... in other words all the NPCs which exist not because something you did or a mission you accepted but because they're part of the world and spawn based on the local BGS context. On the other hand your rank/ship can have an impact on how they decide to interact with you.
 
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I noticed this as a went up the ranks in trade (far earlier than combat). Interdictors became significantly more, ah Dangerous as I went up the ranks, and once I hit Elite in trade interdictors more often than not were Deadly if not Elite.

Not really sure I've seen much of an increase as my Combat rank has increased (was a Master forever, and moved into Dangerous last month). Not sure where that would manifest. Mission enemies seem completely dictated by the level of the mission, same with signal source levels. Combat zones and resource zones (all varieties) don't seem to have changed with either rank of mine changing.
 
In my experience, both ship and rank affect my encounters. The type of enemy ship is more affected by what ship I am flying. When in my Python, if I take a pirate mission then the target is most likely to be in an FDL or medium ship. When in the Cutter, I most often encounter Anacondas.
 
In my experience, both ship and rank affect my encounters. The type of enemy ship is more affected by what ship I am flying. When in my Python, if I take a pirate mission then the target is most likely to be in an FDL or medium ship. When in the Cutter, I most often encounter Anacondas.

Noticed this too. Even without rank gain, went from mostly diamonback/cobras vs my asp ex to suddenly fas/gunships when I upgraded to python. When I A-rated my python I started getting going up against low expert condas all the time.
 
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