Edit: I was wrong about this. See the posts after this for context.
So I was doing wetwork missions earlier on my Mamba, have been for a while. Overall it's been alright, much more of a challenge than bounty missions for sure, but today's experience was very frustrating and inconsistent. Mind, I've been doing this for a while, and I understand how to do them properly. I get that some will inevitably be harder than others. This isn't about the game being too hard. Let me explain in detail:
I took 3 different wetwork missions from the same station. Two of them were recommended for Elite pilots, while the last one was for Competent pilots. I usually go for the big game first, as a higher recommended combat rank would usually imply that it would be harder, right? If I'm gonna run out of something, better be on the small target. As usual, I take the first two fast n easy and go to the third system to grab my dessert. I'm not running low on ammo, got my heatsinks too, all modules are nominal. I see my target in supercruise, I move in to interdict but was too close to the star and target falls in, I don't. I go "oh well, I guess that was my fault although this target seemed to be going straight for the star". I see no low wake so i continue on to the mission signal source, where i know i'll find the target. Soon before arriving though, I see my target again in supercruise, going out from the signal source and straight into the nearby star. As in, crash into the star. No interdiction involved this time. Weird, but okay. So I finally low wake into the signal source, my target is here with eight to twelve system security ships. No problemo, I thought, it's a Novice FDL in a Competent mission. Blown up plenty like him.
Boy how wrong I was.
My ship is made for this. at almost 600m/s boost speed, with a huge PA and double shot frags everywhere else, it usually takes no more than one to four runs to absolutely wreck whatever is in my way.
This guy though was made of something else entirely, I was absolutely unloading on him, and the 3 double shots from 4 frags plus the PA shot point blank on its exposed hull did no more than 5-7% damage TOTAL. Keep in mind, I just came from making two kills supposedly harder than this one. A deadly Orca which, to be fair, was an Orca, with some heavy ships supporting it, and another FDL, also deadly, that did not move half as well and did not have half the defense this NOVICE had. I didn't panic but I was extremely annoyed at this, the previous two missions were Elite ranked and I hardly had to use a heatsink on each because my ship runs HOT, nevermind a chaff. This novice and his posse made me use 10/15 chaff and the rest of my heatsinks, and I came out limping from overheating.
So yeah, today the game kicked me out, out of straight up annoyance. I don't mind a challenge, but this isn't it. The lowest ranking (and paying) mission being the hardest is a big issue in my book. And I know this isn't consistently the case, but that is precisely the issue. Ranking should correlate directly with difficulty, at the very least in combat. Nevermind the whole slew of issues with combat balancing overall, particularly in pve (imo npc ships should start having minor engineering from competent onwards, and the difficulty curve should look more like a curve and less like a staircase), combat ranks in relation to npc skill being this inconsistent only makes it harder and more frustrating for new players that are trying to understand the game as well (i know that was my experience at least during my first years of Elite).
So, did I go unprepared for what was expecting me? Sure, only if you ignore the part where I was ready for two targets that were estimated to be way harder than that. No, I'm not gonna take the blame for FDev's lack of consistency.
And this is just today's experience. But this complaint applies to plenty of other areas of E
. Ever been in an RES, caught a clean ship with a stray bullet, gotten just a fine and now this npc's free to unload on you? Sure, Supercruise away and come back, but you're paying for FDev's mistake. Ever been doing a mission on a planetary base, only to get stuck on the most mentally challenged collision you have ever seen? Sure, just relog or open the game without horizons, but you're paying for FDev's mistake. I'm sure you've come back from your RES, to the station you just left, and open your contacts panel to see the "Cancel docking" button even though you haven't requested docking yet. And you have to exit the screen or move into another tab for it to fixitself. Every time. Ever gotten a massacre infected targets mission, only to find out an hour and a half of searching later that the mission tags are broken and these missions still can't be done? Sure, quit the mission and lose the rep, it's like, half a mission worth of rep and only an hour and a half lost. But you're paying every time for FDev's mistakes, with your time and your patience. And I'm sorry to say because this could be the best space sim out there, I'm just fed up.
So I was doing wetwork missions earlier on my Mamba, have been for a while. Overall it's been alright, much more of a challenge than bounty missions for sure, but today's experience was very frustrating and inconsistent. Mind, I've been doing this for a while, and I understand how to do them properly. I get that some will inevitably be harder than others. This isn't about the game being too hard. Let me explain in detail:
I took 3 different wetwork missions from the same station. Two of them were recommended for Elite pilots, while the last one was for Competent pilots. I usually go for the big game first, as a higher recommended combat rank would usually imply that it would be harder, right? If I'm gonna run out of something, better be on the small target. As usual, I take the first two fast n easy and go to the third system to grab my dessert. I'm not running low on ammo, got my heatsinks too, all modules are nominal. I see my target in supercruise, I move in to interdict but was too close to the star and target falls in, I don't. I go "oh well, I guess that was my fault although this target seemed to be going straight for the star". I see no low wake so i continue on to the mission signal source, where i know i'll find the target. Soon before arriving though, I see my target again in supercruise, going out from the signal source and straight into the nearby star. As in, crash into the star. No interdiction involved this time. Weird, but okay. So I finally low wake into the signal source, my target is here with eight to twelve system security ships. No problemo, I thought, it's a Novice FDL in a Competent mission. Blown up plenty like him.
Boy how wrong I was.
My ship is made for this. at almost 600m/s boost speed, with a huge PA and double shot frags everywhere else, it usually takes no more than one to four runs to absolutely wreck whatever is in my way.
This guy though was made of something else entirely, I was absolutely unloading on him, and the 3 double shots from 4 frags plus the PA shot point blank on its exposed hull did no more than 5-7% damage TOTAL. Keep in mind, I just came from making two kills supposedly harder than this one. A deadly Orca which, to be fair, was an Orca, with some heavy ships supporting it, and another FDL, also deadly, that did not move half as well and did not have half the defense this NOVICE had. I didn't panic but I was extremely annoyed at this, the previous two missions were Elite ranked and I hardly had to use a heatsink on each because my ship runs HOT, nevermind a chaff. This novice and his posse made me use 10/15 chaff and the rest of my heatsinks, and I came out limping from overheating.
So yeah, today the game kicked me out, out of straight up annoyance. I don't mind a challenge, but this isn't it. The lowest ranking (and paying) mission being the hardest is a big issue in my book. And I know this isn't consistently the case, but that is precisely the issue. Ranking should correlate directly with difficulty, at the very least in combat. Nevermind the whole slew of issues with combat balancing overall, particularly in pve (imo npc ships should start having minor engineering from competent onwards, and the difficulty curve should look more like a curve and less like a staircase), combat ranks in relation to npc skill being this inconsistent only makes it harder and more frustrating for new players that are trying to understand the game as well (i know that was my experience at least during my first years of Elite).
So, did I go unprepared for what was expecting me? Sure, only if you ignore the part where I was ready for two targets that were estimated to be way harder than that. No, I'm not gonna take the blame for FDev's lack of consistency.
And this is just today's experience. But this complaint applies to plenty of other areas of E
. Ever been in an RES, caught a clean ship with a stray bullet, gotten just a fine and now this npc's free to unload on you? Sure, Supercruise away and come back, but you're paying for FDev's mistake. Ever been doing a mission on a planetary base, only to get stuck on the most mentally challenged collision you have ever seen? Sure, just relog or open the game without horizons, but you're paying for FDev's mistake. I'm sure you've come back from your RES, to the station you just left, and open your contacts panel to see the "Cancel docking" button even though you haven't requested docking yet. And you have to exit the screen or move into another tab for it to fixitself. Every time. Ever gotten a massacre infected targets mission, only to find out an hour and a half of searching later that the mission tags are broken and these missions still can't be done? Sure, quit the mission and lose the rep, it's like, half a mission worth of rep and only an hour and a half lost. But you're paying every time for FDev's mistakes, with your time and your patience. And I'm sorry to say because this could be the best space sim out there, I'm just fed up.
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