News NPC AI update

[coca_fr]

I don't believe in your ship size theory.

I had a T6 (6 Millions cr) and changed for an Asp Explorer (20 Millions Cr) and i was more interdicted with my T6.

In fact it's seems random, like very profitable mission are random. Sometime you have a lot of them in row, sometime just low value mission.

In the other hand some missions have enemy attached to them. If you kill them you'll have optional reward.

As concerned to new AI, now that i have adapted to it, i think it's really better. But AI ship skill should be more according to their rank. Some rookie are , some others are not that bad.

I don't know what you are doing guys but i was only interdicted only once after trading 4 time 88 imperial slaves to the next system and it was a python that was not even shooting at me at all... lol
But i did missions i was often interdict as there enemy attached to them.

Maybe depending of where you are and at what time you play, you can be very safe or very in danger.

Better Combat Ranking System to face AI of your level :
It would be nice to implement a better combat ranking system, so that if you don't manage to kill ships with higher ranks you'll only face ship of your level till you have the skill to face stronger enemy.
A bit like ranking system you have in CS Go for example. This way everybody plays at their own level.

Running away does not work.

I don't agree with you.

If you submit to the interdiction you can hyper jump faster.
Start by fighting a bit the enemy. Move a lot. Use boost thruster to avoid him. When you are close to being able to jump again retract your weapon and jump to a next system or try to reach the next base if you are close to it.

The enemy may follow you at the next base : Just attack him there. The station will help you.

 

[COLINR4]

My jump range is 13 to 17 Ly in my Python
The Cond is upto 22Ly and they have followed me 4 times to destroy me,
Submitting then boosting away used to work but now they keep pulling u down till u dont have anymore shield banks etc then kill u.

One of the things they do is disabel your thrusters and u are dead in the water
Once in a 260 000 Ls run I killed a FDL, then a Python, then they send a Deadly Conda with major weapons we dont gave access to, all cells now depleted FSD disabeled where do u go.

I do agree that if u lucky enough to get to the station and have the help of the police U can survive
My value was about 600 Mil before 2.1
This has now been reduce to 500 Mil in a month and yesterday in very little trading lost 50 + Mil
I did manage to kill a 200 000 credit Conda in combat, yippy little concelation in loosing 50 Mil and all my turreted class 3 beams and cannons, Pythons 11 Mil rebuy cost and 1.3 Mill fine for a 2.5 Mil mission
My Conda class B rebuy is 20 Mil
Not happy Very dispondent and needing to vent my frustration
After the 2.1 upgrade is was reimburst 80 Mil but I am back where i started after yesterday

 

[Tkael]

Not happy Very dispondent and needing to vent my frustration

It seems many of us share the same frustrations. I enjoy the challenging AI, but interdictions are extremely pervasive now and the AI is consistently at 'Dangerous' and 'Elite'. Efforts to escape often do not succeed - the same AI has interdicted me over and over until I was destroyed. When I do escape, a different AI ship interdicts me in the next system (often with a similar result). This seems to occur regardless of whether I am carrying cargo, have a bounty, etc. I shouldn't have to feel like the AI is trying to murder me if I've done nothing to make myself a target (it would be much more understandable if I had a high bounty on myself or something similar at the time).

As someone just trying to make the leap from a casual player to a more engaged player, the AI's new murderous streak is very discouraging. 5% insurance costs add up very quickly if your ship is getting destroyed multiple times per play session. :-(

 

[Xordus]

PEOPLE LOVE TO COMPLAIN!!!!

I'm very happy with the AI changes and hope they continue to enhance the AI over the coming years. The difficulty now is much better than before. Elite is supposed to be about flying ships and without a ton of players around (I only see a few every day) we need aggressive and smart AI to keep our 'ship flying' interesting and challenging.

Please don't listen to the whiners that spend all of their time solo trading. Most players in this game appreciate combat and love competition. This is one of the best changes Frontier has made to this game and the main reason I once again am enjoying myself.

Thanks Frontier!

 

[COLINR4]

Good for U

Maybe if all the whiners left there would be no one left to support and promote the game so U would have nothing to play
The new motto is to invite a friend

??????

Making senseless comments does not help

Just for info the Ranks under the info does not mean much

When U get a Class A anaconda with a re-buy cost of 50 Mil call me

 

[mephisto9466]

I dont have too much of a problem with the ai except those damn plasma accelerators

 

[manos70131]

PEOPLE LOVE TO COMPLAIN!!!!

I'm very happy with the AI changes and hope they continue to enhance the AI over the coming years. The difficulty now is much better than before. Elite is supposed to be about flying ships and without a ton of players around (I only see a few every day) we need aggressive and smart AI to keep our 'ship flying' interesting and challenging.

Please don't listen to the whiners that spend all of their time solo trading. Most players in this game appreciate combat and love competition. This is one of the best changes Frontier has made to this game and the main reason I once again am enjoying myself.

Thanks Frontier!

I find this comment perfectly valid. It's good that there are people (quite a lot I believe) that enjoy the new game (it's a new game for most of us). In fact if this is officially announced (that only minor changes will be applied without significant impact to the user experience), I would think that many people would be thrilled. Some others of course will leave the game (including myself). I can only speak for myself and say that I have been playing ED less and less each week and started other games I had left in store. I see the potential of ED however and I wait for any fixes that may be applied. If I find the game playable after the fixes, I'll continue playing. If not I'll go. I guess that this is all we can do. So I agree: no whining is necessary or useful. Que sera sera.

 

[CMDR Sheehy]

In case you miss it:

Hi everyone,

update 2.1.03 will be released this morning for all platforms. Servers will be turned off at 10 am BST, and should be live again within 2 hours. The update contains the following changes listed below.

For Xbox One players the download size is 1.2 GB.

Thanks!

Michael

<snip>
NPCs

- When determining the rank of NPC ships, use the player's combat rank, rather than their highest PF rank, although add 1 rank if their trade or exploration rank is higher than their combat rank
- Updated the Archetypes of the NPCs in the USS cargo drop missions - they are now Ambush Pirate and should attack the player on entry
- Fixed AI rotation damping to work properly across the AI skill range
- alter the changes in allowed interdiction ranks based on security, so that the biggest rank disparities are reserved for very low security and anarchy systems
- Reduced the number of engineer mods on AI ships substantially, now only Deadly & Elite rank ships are guaranteed to have mods and any below Master are guaranteed to have none
- Fix for Large AI ships ramming large player ships
- Slightly reduced the ranks below an AI that they can interdict players, this will tighten up the difficulty a bit
- Add state to Powers Assassin and Powers Security ships to allow them to threaten the player before attacking
- Reduced the percentage interdiction chance of power play ships by 10%, and altered the ship type chances and combat ranks to be more mid range, dropping a lot of the top range down
- Balance mission generated NPCs to be lower ranked (for the most part)

<snip>

So - basically a confirmation that NPC encounters are based on your own combat rank... but possibly before based on other ranks...

 

[Moinfruie]

I would like to share my experience with AI and Engineers.

Being a casual ED pilot, lacking pro skills, at first I was greatly disappointed with the AI changes. Lost my mostly A rated Combat Conda several times at first - thanks for the refund - and struggled with Engineer mats in combat zones. Lost around 40Mil in the first days and I was about to give it all up.

Now I am able to grind almost the same amount of Bounty as before 2.1 without much struggle (I am Deadly rated) and killing all different kind of AI ships in HAZRES, even going for groups with pytons, condas. All I had to do is to adopt the changes and change my play style. In a few points:
- Max Pip shields when facing enemy or all times if I am lazy - as in PVP
- Use Flight assist against small ships
- Pick the time for an attack - A Deadly conda will fall apart in 5-10 seconds if the time is chosen correctly, such as
- I am facing 90 degrees alligned with the target.
- It is already engaged wit something else.

So long story, some ppl just need to change their style.

 

[ruger_shooter]

I would like to share my experience with AI and Engineers.

Being a casual ED pilot, lacking pro skills, at first I was greatly disappointed with the AI changes. Lost my mostly A rated Combat Conda several times at first - thanks for the refund - and struggled with Engineer mats in combat zones. Lost around 40Mil in the first days and I was about to give it all up.

Now I am able to grind almost the same amount of Bounty as before 2.1 without much struggle (I am Deadly rated) and killing all different kind of AI ships in HAZRES, even going for groups with pytons, condas. All I had to do is to adopt the changes and change my play style. In a few points:
- Max Pip shields when facing enemy or all times if I am lazy - as in PVP
- Use Flight assist against small ships
- Pick the time for an attack - A Deadly conda will fall apart in 5-10 seconds if the time is chosen correctly, such as
- I am facing 90 degrees alligned with the target.
- It is already engaged wit something else.

So long story, some ppl just need to change their style.

Good advice. If your previous style is no longer successful either adapt/change or die. Complain as much as you like but you will still die. Evolve and you will succeed.

 

[Tecker]

PEOPLE LOVE TO COMPLAIN!!!!

I'm very happy with the AI changes and hope they continue to enhance the AI over the coming years. The difficulty now is much better than before. Elite is supposed to be about flying ships and without a ton of players around (I only see a few every day) we need aggressive and smart AI to keep our 'ship flying' interesting and challenging.

Please don't listen to the whiners that spend all of their time solo trading. Most players in this game appreciate combat and love competition. This is one of the best changes Frontier has made to this game and the main reason I once again am enjoying myself.

Thanks Frontier!

If you enjoy your new Game it is good for you.
I don´t enjoy your new Game and i don´t pay for your new Game.
I pay´d my Money for the old ED with a normal AI.
Bug´s like Spin of Death or NPC´s who do not react after attacking them are Problems but FD did nothing to Fix these Bug´s
They bringt your new Game with a part of my Money.
Can i refund this new Game on Steam?......simple response is NO!
Thanks for ruining my Game with my Money to become your Game.
Over and out!

 

[mavrac]

Hey guys,

We wanted to share a quick update with you to let you know how the investigation into the NPC AI has been progressing after the removal of the Engineers weapons for the NPCs and what the next steps are.

The development team have been hard at work investigating these bugs. To give you a little more information, it appears that the unusual weapons attacks were caused by some form of networking issue which allowed the NPC AI to merge weapon stats and abilities. Meaning that all new and never before seen (sometimes devastating) weapons were created, such as a rail gun with the fire rate of a pulse laser. These appear to have been compounded by the additional stats and abilities of the engineers weaponry. (We don’t think the AI became sentient in a Skynet-style uprising! ). However, the valiant Mark Allen from the Development team has managed to terminate these NPCs in their tracks.

The bug fix is expected to go live in our next point release which is planned for the end of this week/early next week but we’ll have more news on the exact time in the normal patch notes forum.

I would just like to take this opportunity to clarify a few misconceptions. The AI has in no way been reduced, it remains the glorious, improved version from the update. The only action that we’ve taken so far has been to remove the engineer weapons to allow us to investigate the issue and address a key bug. Once this bug fix goes live we’ll be able to see how the AI is performing and then, over time, should we feel that the balancing is right to introduce a very select few high end engineers weapons to the highest ranked NPCs we will investigate that option. However, that won’t be immediately as we want to ensure that the balance is just right.

Edit: Please note this point update will be PC specific and the Xbox One update will need to follow after. We'll let you know as soon as we have more information.

The AI isn't the big issue, not the weapons. It's NPC ship maneuverability, they stick to you like glue, weapons aren't really an issue as much as that. Thanks for the hard work guys

 

[Tecker]

The AI isn't the big issue, not the weapons. It's NPC ship maneuverability, they stick to you like glue, weapons aren't really an issue as much as that. Thanks for the hard work guys

100% true.
Whatever Ship i am flying (FdL, Python, Imp Clipper or Vulture)
If the NPC passes me and iam make a fast turn without Flight Stabilisator i see the Front of a Ship thats shooting at me.

 

[Codger]

After all of our long-winded speculations in this thread, it boils down to combat rank after all. Figures. I just have to laugh.

 

[Tecker]

Okay.
Iam done with ED.
A Dangerous NPC Imperial Clipper destroys my A Spec FdL.
DANGEROUS!
Thats it.
i look for another Game and hope all the Pro´s here get happy.

 

[STRONTIUM DOG]

in that siyuation I find bravely running away (fligt assist off for better acceleration) full pips to engines and a high wake preset destination bravley works for me in most cases[sad] your finding it too much

 

[Max Gandalf]

Just dowloaded today's update 2.1.03. Unfortunately I don't have time to play today.

Main points:

NPC now considers combat rank
Interdiction ranks based on security of system
Reduced number of engineer mods on AI ships substantially

It is a very very long list on steam. For me the fixes sound good. Lets give it a try

 

[Insomnia]

I tried the new patch today in one of Apam Napat's HighRES. Still very challenging. I had big issues with a Clipper, and the Anacondas was just impossible. I think I need to mod my drivers cuz damn my Vulture is slow.
I still think Bounty Hunting needs to be challenging. It would be extremely stupid to have some sort of relaxed form of BH.

 

[Con]

OK I am Combat rank master, Trade rank Tycoon (one step from Elite), I used to get interdicted by Master, Dangerous, Deadly & Elite, so I guess now it's going to be a minimum of Dangerous? so not much change i guess. or have I got this wrong?

 

[Riverside]

I tried the new patch today in one of Apam Napat's HighRES. Still very challenging. I had big issues with a Clipper, and the Anacondas was just impossible. I think I need to mod my drivers cuz damn my Vulture is slow.
I still think Bounty Hunting needs to be challenging. It would be extremely stupid to have some sort of relaxed form of BH.

I'm glad you're not disappointed Insomnia, I'm pretty happy with it to, so far.