Make it hard

[Rat Catcher]

You're right. I was just on the "wrong side" of an ATR visit the other night in my Corvette and decided to make a discreet withdrawal.Taking fire from 6 or 7 ships at once, with more popping in, was a challenge. Sure, I could blast them out of the sky, but it was "death of a thousand cuts", and more kept coming. I found a new respect for the Notoriety system.

There are plenty of challenges if you go looking.. Try a CNB with a ton of "gold in the hold".

Ditto for a HazRES. It's a little harder in a HazRES, since you have to break the rings mass lock before you can jump out.

AX/Bug Hunting is another, but never appealed to me because of the AX specific builds that were less effective against human ships.

I was playing with a friend a few months back and he did drop into a CMB with 40t gold in his cargo (he'd forgotten about that) - even before I could drop in on his beacon he'd lost his shields and was running His builds are a little 'tankier' these days, but it made both of us laugh at the time

Plenty of challenge in the game if you are in 'the wrong ship' or have worthwhile cargo!

 

[VR StarLightPL]

turbo rail guns

Turbo plasma clippers:

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_6HjebZFYs

 

[WR3ND]

The difficulty slider exists, it's the level to which you engineer.

I've only really bothered to get around to Engineering my FSDs so far, unfortunately.

 

[Sellias]

The difficulty curve in pve combat is so weird. It starts really steep and then flattens out completely.

I roleplayed a bounty hunter, could not care less about thargoids or the grind involved to get prepared for them. I flew a viper mk3 with fixed multicanons with hotas in open. I hit a small wall with competent NPC vultures at the beginning. However once I learned throttle control, it became shooting fish in a barrel.

After that I hade a little bit of engineering on my engines only grade 2-3, and I was starting to take on master FDL's and pythons with my measly rust bucket viper.

After that Iearned boost control and all challenge went out of the window. No exciting "cuth-throat" galaxy after all I guess.

NPC mechanics need a serious overhaul in my opinion anyway. The difficulty curve is not the only problem :

- load out and ship compositions : extremely stale, every single assassination missions, depending on rank, is the same ship. The game could at least surprise with some cool wacky pirate loadouts.

- faction relations : I just killed dozens of outlaw ships. The faction is seemingly cool with that and wont send hit squads after me for example. Its completely stale.

- NPC interdictions : completely trivial and pose no threat.

- security levels : meaningless, why does the game warn me about anarchy systems when there is no difference?

NPC AI : could definitely use an update, they all fly in the same patterns.

And almost all of this could be based on player combat rank and faction relations. Do a lot combat and kill pirates? You bet you will be infamous among pirates and they will try to take you down.

Right now the Elite universe feels so incredibly stale and uneventful. I was hoping that frontier would overhaul and fix these kind of things with the new era. But I guess that is wishful at this point sadly.

Edit : grammar and spelling

 

[VR StarLightPL]

I've only really bothered to get around to Engineering my FSDs so far, unfortunately.

Think of all that time wasted jumping that could go into FSD engineering ;-)

 

[WR3ND]

Think of all that time wasted jumping that could go into FSD engineering ;-)

Each jump is a new system to honk. But I think you took it the wrong way. I only have the FSDs Engineered so far.

I'm too easily disillusioned by the Engineers meta progression grind to stick with it. Well, at least so far. I do plan on it... sometime.

 

[Riverside]

I think the game's NPC difficulty is broadly balanced around the Cobra MkIII. So maybe fly those?

There are areas of the game where the challenge is sometimes unexpectedly low, but there are plenty of occasion where, although I succeed, I get the impression that in a lesser ship or lesser equipped ship I would struggle to survive let alone win if I stayed too long.

But I also remember it seeming more difficult because I was less experienced with the patterns of behaviour & no NPC is going to be unpredictable enough to still remain a challenge after a focused combat player has killed thousands of the bleeders

The fun is in the learning, once it's learned other players offer the main challenge, NPCs are just there to be farmed more quickly than the other players you are competing against imo.

 

[VR StarLightPL]

But I think you took it the wrong way

Yup, brainfart Been playing Doom Eternal till late night and am not really bright today, sorry ;-)

 

[WR3ND]

OK, no worries.

 

[Sir Ganksalot]

Anyone remember some time back when the npc's were actually dangerous, and subsequently got nerfed? Would like to see them back and think they would fit the game nicely now.

Not everyone has the same skill level. Some people find the current difficulty level hard enough.

Why does the difficulty have to be the same for everyone? Why can't there be areas of the galaxy that have easier NPC's and areas with more difficult NPC's? Sure, there's the Thargoids, but I want to use my own weapons that I've spent hours ginding to engineering.

 

[[PS4] Lorenzo Waringos]

faction relations : I just killed dozens of outlaw ships. The faction is seemingly cool with that and wont send hit squads after me for example.

Aye, I have mentioned this before, also, I’m doing one right now. Kill 15 of matey’s mates. A Cobra MkIII ranked at dangerous is easier to kill than a Python ranked at deadly, that seems silly

 

[wrmiller]

Turbo plasma clippers:

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_6HjebZFYs

I was interdicted by two ships with the rapid-firing plasma 'feature' shortly after buying the game.

I was running missions trying to gain fed rank. Barely engineered ship (I think I had two unlocked then). As soon as I was interdicted, I was hit by the first salvo. Stripped my shields and about 60% of my armor. A few seconds later, the second salvo finished me. I barely had time to blink.

I don't miss those days, but I will say that my experience was sufficient incentive to begin unlocking more engineers.

If I get bored with flying my engineered ships, I throw together a A-rated something and go picking fights with NPCs in a haz res.

 

[Morbad]

Anyone remember some time back when the npc's were actually dangerous, and subsequently got nerfed?

I remember many incarnations of NPCs, but none where they were actually dangerous.

I remember ! They had engineered ships and would interdict you in same system non-stop

Most NPCs of Master rank or higher are Engineered in the current system, they just won't have weapon special effects unless they are part of a wing mission, CZ spec Ops, or a few other special cases.

There is a difference in wanting to fight Thargoids and human ships, since most of the game (about 95% of it) revolves around human spaces.

Thargoids are also generally non-hostile, unless provoked.

I'd also argue they aren't particularly challenging either, just tedious. Nothing that can be defeated through any formulaic approach stays challenging.

I'm combat Elite, but I have no illusions that that means I'm actually any good.

My CMDR has killed enough robots to be combat Elite three or four times over, but I'm no better a combat pilot than when my CMDR was an Expert or Master and I was participating in wing PvP, usually as the underdog, every day.

The fact that PF ranks are wholly divorced from any actual skill renders them irrelevant. The game would probably be better off without them.

The difficulty slider exists, it's the level to which you engineer.

Even by this measure, the slider still maxed out at a pretty low level.

Nature of a challenge also doesn't change by handicapping one's own character.

 

[CMDR Harada]

Each jump is a new system to honk. But I think you took it the wrong way. I only have the FSDs Engineered so far.

I'm too easily disillusioned by the Engineers meta progression grind to stick with it. Well, at least so far. I do plan on it... sometime.

I was disillusioned too, at first. Then I wanted more jump range for my Cutter ( back when the CEOS/Sothis bubble poo runs were the thing ). Next it was dirty drives.. weapons.. shields.. before long it was full on. I still haven't unlocked guardian stuff, except for the FSD booster.

For an explorer, the most disappointing thing is to be looking across a gap between the arms, or at the top/bottom, and be 3 LYs short on range. And then you think about the FSD mods, and lightweight mods, and a guardian booster.. and you read about someone with an Anaconda that does 80+ LYs without jumponium. Right about then I'm setting course back to the bubble for an upgrade..

But I still hate the engineers grind..

 

[[VR] M4st0d0n]

Just read the title, didnt see any pics. So sad.

 

[VirtueXOI]

Anyone remember some time back when the npc's were actually dangerous, and subsequently got nerfed? Would like to see them back and think they would fit the game nicely now.

Well have you ever tried the full engineer Npc without your full G5 combat ship ? No long range allowed. Maybe FAOFF makes it easy , I dont know :/. But the 4xelite special ops in haz rez and sometimes pirates king can give you hard time no ?

To me the problem is not really the NPC it's the way of stacking shield and armor that makes fight SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO long, and make nearly all small ship meaningless by the time they use to take down a single ship (appart for certain build and pvp)

 

[Galafrey]

So a lot of suggestion says don't use your main engineered combat ship, or go shieldless etc. Thing is, as a player, why should I make comprises? The game difficulty should really scale accordingly or we might as well all drive around in a sidewinder with a pair of rails.

 

[WR3ND]

Optional, apt, challenging, and rewarding content would be nice for those who want it without having to handicap themselves, and likewise for those who haven't progressed as far.

My issues are generally more with the balancing of the base game-play levels, though I guess I do understand why they are the way they are. You win some; you lose some.

Yes, the game would be more compelling for me and my play style if the rebuy didn't exist, and a hardcore mode seems unlikely. So, this is the game we have to work with as best we can.

 

[Vandaahl]

Gotra say I'm not a fan of the boss fight mechanics, although I can solo Cyclops no probe. I'm not a combat pilot but have played open at Shinrarta just to annoy gankers. I just feel that stronger npc's would give the game a bit more edge, also put more emphasis of engineering ships properly before setting off for mining, trading etc.

Fair enough, then goto a high conflict zone an take on the whole spec ops team. As soon as they enter, attack the alpha one straight away.
Have fun

 

[Galafrey]

Fair enough, then goto a high conflict zone an take on the whole spec ops team. As soon as they enter, attack the alpha one straight away.
Have fun

Done that already. Conflict zones are fun but I'd like these types of fights to be more organic, rather than have to go somewhere specific.