I liked it better when they only rammed asteroids...

DragoonKnight

DragoonKnight
Yeah, well I became a "pirate" by fighting the good fight against ALD and her imperial minions... and all those independent NPC traders that were clearly up to no good in their neighborhood. After dozens of interdictions and about 800K worth of bounties later, the Empire does not seem to like me very much. Then I went back to Nanomam and apparently there were missions from the Federation to kill the independent traders, pirates, and bounty hunters in the next system. So next thing I know there is a 500K bounty on my head and I find myself sneaking into a space station that considers me hostile. Strangely enough they allow me to dock, but security ships open fire on me as I am leaving the station. Whatever, but missions complete and it is really not my fault. Just following orders and killing non-federation.
 
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Red Anders

Red Anders
GluttonyFang said:
I don't know, I enjoy dodging them by using my radar and eyes .-.

And ramming is a valid combat tactic that NPCs should take advantage of .-.
Click to expand...

Yesterday I dropped out near a station in an Asp with no shields. 0.5 seconds later I was on 53% hull thanks to a Viper flying straight into me at full boost. I'm never getting that good lol.

Best one I've seen yet was a wing of 2 FAS and a Fed Gunship in a res site, all three of which came screaming into me at full boost. Frankly it's not challenging it's just dumb. Usually it's when they're flying in to scan me that it happens; if they'd already established I wasn't on their Christmas card list then I agree it would be a valid tactic but as it is, it just smells of either a bug or lame AI. Paradoxically, Anacondas almost always used to try to ram me back when I started but hardly ever seem to now.

Same as the fact that if I target a ship's powerplant, even if it has shields up, 95% of the time I can make it just sit stilll spining on the spot. If I keep firing at it, even on zero weapons power shooting pulse lasers at minimum rate, it won't move until it explodes. If I stop firing for a second, it will fly off. It's not module damage causing it because it happens even when they are at virtually full shields, they just stop. Absolutely screams 'bug' to me that. It definitely didn't use to happen with anything like this frequency before the Horizons update. I may be a fairly new player but I've made over 200m in bounties from about 6,000 kills so it's not like I don;t have some experience base from which to make that observation. Put it this way, virtually every Python I attack does it now and although it doesn't make much difference what they do now when I'm in my FAS or Vulture, back when I was going to haz res sites in a Cobra Mk3 and an Imperial Courier, I'm pretty sure I would have noticed. Pretty sure I'd have another 50m in bounties too :D
 
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BillD

BillD
hehe I was mining in a res and got scanned by an NPC python. I was deciding whether to fight or flight when the local feds appeared on radar rushing in. I thought woohoo... we fight.
I was not moving as I was on the other side of the asteroid hiding from the enemy. The Feds came in from behind me.
I pictured a scene from Serenity and thought to myself well this should surprise him :) Lets fight.
Then before I even started moving one of the feds rammed me and took out my shields. At least I saved him from crashing into the rock Urgh!!!
I had to Run Away .... stupid feds, couldnt they have at least rammed the bad guy.
 
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Banana's_Are_Good_For_You

Banana's_Are_Good_For_You
Had a Wanted DB come straight for me earlier after he'd lost his shields and I had 2 rings. I could have swore he changed course to try and hit me though, when his shields went down. He hit and perished in the contact, silly fellow.
He was dangerous as well.
 
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dxm55

Banned
D
Happened yet again. After taking out a clipper, python, FDL, and 3 Eagles in a haz res site, I was down to 40% hull and no shields. Nearly 15m mins and 500 grand worth of effort and I was ready to high tail it back to the port to monetize my work.

Put the ship on park while I sorted out the navpoint.

Damned authority Viper came charging at me, scanning, and then T-boned me to Kingdom Come.

Derpy derp derp. Ended up paying insurance instead.
 

pakriksz

P
Ship scan detected-> prepare for collision

Even if i stop, the authority vessels collide to me when scanning. Also happens in combat.
 

Metalstardust

M
Happens to me all the time. Scan detected, bang as the NPC scanning me rams into me. They must be fixated on the KWS and just keep the throttle open.
 

DefiledDragon

D
GluttonyFang said:
I don't know, I enjoy dodging them by using my radar and eyes .-.

And ramming is a valid combat tactic that NPCs should take advantage of .-.
Click to expand...

Point 1: Dodgems in space. Not the game I payed for ;)

Point 2: Suicide ramming a much bigger ship is a valid combat tactic? I hope you exercise a little more selectivity than the AI does when choosing which ships to ram during combat ;)
 

BillD

BillD
I seem to remember a few versions ago, they upped the AI flying skills and there were many complaints they they were now too deadly and hard to hit.
Maybe when they nerfed them a little they did an accidental lobotomy and removed something from their frontal lobes.

Amongst many other functions two of the key functions processed in the Frontal Lobe of the brain:

  • How we know what we are doing within our environment (Consciousness)
  • How we initiate activity in response to our environment


FD please restore the Frontal_lobe subroutine for the AI. :D
 

Ixnatifual

Ixnatifual
Ramming is fine as a combat strategy if they are likely to be the ones coming out of the collision alive. But friendly NPCs should obviously try to avoid flying into you.
 

Commander Biscuit

Commander Biscuit
Twinn said:
Side note: NPC's now seem to prefer gathering/fighting above the asteroids rather than flying in them. I just spent 2 hours killing ships and only 1-2 of them were actually flying in the RES. This is either an unwanted side-effect of NPC's being so boost happy now... or a lazy shortcut to get around the NPC's smashing into asteroids. Either way I'm thinking Frontier may want to put the AI programming back in the oven a bit longer.
Click to expand...

This has been happening as long as I've been farming res sites. What happens is that fights initially start out in the belt, and then NPCs move above it to get rid of the mass lock so they can jump out if needed. During the dogfight, more stuff spawns and then approaches you or others to scan them while you're all still above the belt, and then you're off to the races and stuff continuously spawns and there's no reason to go back down.
 

Soothsayer

Soothsayer
The best defense is a good offense, I suppose. Yesterday, I brought a Master-ranked Corvette to literally 1% hull from almost full health and shields with my Anaconda in a single ram, and only lost ~1.5 - 2 rings of my Anaconda's shields in the process. ;)

For some reason, NPC Corvettes aren't too keen on using shield boosters or decent shield generators. I find that they're significantly weaker in combat than NPC Anacondas.
 
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Salami

Salami
I like their boost-happiness.
It makes me pay attention even more, adds to the danger, especially when winged.
Often though they smack into one another, making my job a whole lot easier.
 

Mitore

Banned
M
I ram cops in res sites and leave them with around 10-20% hull, so they will be easy bait for pirates. :D
Also i hate cops, scanning my drugs and pulling me over in SC.
 
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Red Anders

Red Anders
BillD said:
I seem to remember a few versions ago, they upped the AI flying skills and there were many complaints they they were now too deadly and hard to hit.
Maybe when they nerfed them a little they did an accidental lobotomy and removed something from their frontal lobes.

Amongst many other functions two of the key functions processed in the Frontal Lobe of the brain:

  • How we know what we are doing within our environment (Consciousness)
  • How we initiate activity in response to our environment


FD please restore the Frontal_lobe subroutine for the AI. :D
Click to expand...

AI fights did seem to be more challenging to me when I started than they are now. I put part of that down to flying stronger combat ships now and being more familiar with the game but it definitely feels like more than that. I used to have to actually outfly npcs, now it's something more akin to what I imagine hunting dodos used to be like.

If nothing else, I really wish they'd up their AI levels in haz res sites and at compromised nav beacons - anybody heading to those should be in a combat ship and loaded for bear. I actually took my smuggling Asp into a haz res the other day to check it out and was able to snuff deadly Pythons and an Anaconda in it without any difficulty; that ship has a class 3 shield and light bulkheads. I don't want to farm helpless targets when I go to supposedly the most dangerous hunting grounds the game offers, I want to be fighting for my life.
 
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