NPC Difficultly & Engineering

[Pogbellies]

Now I’m the first to admit to being rubbish at combat but having my A rated FDL blown to bits by two NPC Vultures last night has left me puzzled;

Could somebody fill me in on this please?

Running a data mission I was interdicted by a single Vulture with a pilot rated as Master. I engaged with him and as expected against a Vulture, it took a while to get him in my sights. I did and started hitting him with my class 4 beam and four class 2 mc’s but by then he had taken 2 shield rings off. A second Vulture (didn’t even see his rating) then jumped in and joined in against me. I decided to bug out but it was too late.
I was using usual techniques, such as reverse, vertical and lateral thrust with FA on.
So the questions are;

1 Have the NPCs been toughened up recently?
2 Can NPCs have engineered ships?
3 How can a Vultures shields hold out so well against a class 4 beam?
4 How can a Vultures two large weapons shred a 4A shield with 3 A rated boosters so quickly?

as ever, suggestions (other than get better) or ideas welcome.

 

[d8veh]

The mistake you made was fighting. There's absolutely no advantage in fighting any ship that interdicts you. You have a good chance of losing everything, and if you win, you get a 500cr bounty and waste a lot of time when you could be earning money. Bookies love guys like you who don't know how to calculate the expected value of outcomes. Get rid of your weapons so that you're not tempted. Put them back on when you're fully-equipped and prepared for battle. NPCs in the RESs and CZs are not as difficult.

 

[Bigmaec]

Now I’m the first to admit to being rubbish at combat but having my A rated FDL blown to bits by two NPC Vultures last night has left me puzzled;

Could somebody fill me in on this please?

Running a data mission I was interdicted by a single Vulture with a pilot rated as Master. I engaged with him and as expected against a Vulture, it took a while to get him in my sights. I did and started hitting him with my class 4 beam and four class 2 mc’s but by then he had taken 2 shield rings off. A second Vulture (didn’t even see his rating) then jumped in and joined in against me. I decided to bug out but it was too late.
I was using usual techniques, such as reverse, vertical and lateral thrust with FA on.
So the questions are;

1 Have the NPCs been toughened up recently?
2 Can NPCs have engineered ships?
3 How can a Vultures shields hold out so well against a class 4 beam?
4 How can a Vultures two large weapons shred a 4A shield with 3 A rated boosters so quickly?

as ever, suggestions (other than get better) or ideas welcome.

4A shields with 3 3A boosters give you about 600 mj of shields, with two pips in system that's about 900 mj absolute iirc.

A Vulture, especially a plasma Vulture (ugly little beasts those) deal about 160 mj damage per salvo, and they usually hit. So two of them will kill your unengineered (?) shields with about 6 salvos.

Solution: either get way better with evading (more difficult than it sounds) or engineer your shields.

(Or don't fight at all, as d8veh said)

 

[Pogbellies]

The mistake you made was fighting. There's absolutely no advantage in fighting any ship that interdicts you.

Interesting, so I guess if interdicted you are at an immediate disadvantage? Or is this just because there’s no profit in it?

NPCs in the RESs and CZs are not as difficult.

Thats was why I was puzzled, I have killed quite a lot of NPCs in RES areas, including Vultures.
Why would you get a bounty though?

 

[seanguzzi]

Couple of random thoughts:
-Keep pips in SYS and ENG if you're not firing. While you were trying to get lined up for the shot, they were chipping way at your shields.
-Where was your throttle during your maneuvers? Try to keep it in the blue zone for max yaw/pitch/roll rates.
-A boost will also yield a temporary increase in pitch rate.
-Know when to run
-Wings of enemies can be challenging, especially when it 2x vulture/python/feddy/larger ships. They require even more specialized tactics.

Good luck, it gets better and more fun with practice.

 

[viper666]

FDL is an OK ship but it is a big target. Vulture is very nimble and packs two large hardpoints. For PVE I would now recommend the Chieftain as the go to ship for combat. Two Vultures is a tough combo for an FDL, should have run bro.

 

[d8veh]

Interesting, so I guess if interdicted you are at an immediate disadvantage? Or is this just because there’s no profit in it?

Yes and yes. The ships that interdict you are always well-equipped for combat. If you're running missions anything other than assassination and massacre ones, it's unlikely that your ship is fully-optimised, which will put you at a disadvantage. Also, they often get a few shots in before you get a chance to face them. They often have SCBs and /or chaff, which makes a long battle. In the time that it takes to kill them, you could have done another mission run and made millions. Instead, you get 500cr bounty for their assault on you.

In the RES, you get to shoot them first, normally from behind. The level of engineering the NPCs have seems to be a lot lower - if any at all.

When you choose to fight the interdictors, there's a chance that you might lose, then you get a rebuy cost and lose all your profitable missions. That's always going to be uneconomical compared with running away.

Take my advice: Go fighting when you plan to do so for whatever reasons you want or need to, in which case you go prepared for it - both mentally and physically. For all other activities, avoid fighting.

 

[Pogbellies]

Some interesting responses there, thanks all. d8veh and bigmaec thanks for the clarification. FDL may not be the ship for me, I had a Vulture which I had more success with and I’m trying a FAS out at the moment. My favourite is the iEagle but it doesn’t seem to make much of a dent on mid/large ships, great for running away bravely though!

 

[Bob Lighthouse]

I agree with d8veh, fight on your own terms.

That said, the FDL is more than capable of shutting down a couple of Vultures.
Get to engineering!

 

[wastelandestroya]

2 vultures are pretty low level targets. Do some engineering they won’t even phase you in a fdl.