As a new player, I wasn't struggling because the AI was too good. I was struggling because they were OP, destroying me:a) for no reason (just out scanning planets, no cargo), and b) taking out my shields in 1 shot, half my hull on shot #2, and then destroying me with a 3rd shot, all in about 10 seconds. But I'm on the XBox, and the NPCs were equipped with OP weapons even after the last patch prior to this one.
There was no chance to learn the game getting destroyed so swiftly. There was no logic behind the attacks (Skynet level of aggressiveness vs a human player). It was "Welcome to the game!" BAM, you're dead!
Hopefully, this change will help. But I don't like the AI not being allowed to target subsystems. If I can, they should. Maybe not all of them, but higher ranked ones, yes. But the NPCs need to be limited to the same weapons and restrictions as a player - not auto-regen of shields and hull if I escape an interdiction; no psychically knowing if I have cargo; no fighting to the death over a few thousand credits worth of cargo, or no cargo at all. You know, NPCs that make sense and aren't psycho killers.