NPC Pirate logic in RESs is....flawed

[TheSisko]

Pirate Lord: "We're going to a RES!"

Minion: "Excellent idea, boss! We can rob those miners of their cargo! All their gold belongs to us!"

Pirate Lord: "What? No! We're going to kill those miners instead!"

Minion: "But....how does that make us rich?"

Pirate Lord: "You'll never become a Pirate Lord with that attitude!"

Minion: "But......we will become the target of local cops! And Bounty Hunters! With their engineered ships!"

Pirate Lord: "Don't worry about them, what could possibly go wrong?"

********************

I've never seen any attempt by NPC Pirates to rob NPC Miners of their cargo in a RES. Shouldn't they be unleashing the hatch-breakers instead of the hull-breakers?

 

[Aashenfox]

Agree.

 

[zorbaq]

Real world is full of dimwits like that.

"Hold my beer, imma rob this gas station with a rubber chicken!"

 

[Agony_Aunt]

Don't the pirates make specific demands now? They do if they interdict you in SC.

And they have to do it at RES if they are going to pirate in a ring as they would never find anyone by dropping into a random location (although its silly how there is always an NPC waiting for you when you do drop into a random location in a ring - ideally FD should fix that).

Suppose the logic would be that they can rob someone and get out of there before the cops arrive.

 

[fruitbat]

Res's are flawed full stop.

They're purely never ending farming sites for wanted npc's, for people that like mostly afk fighting.

Nothing to do with resource extraction unless you take it to mean extracting bounties

 

[CMDR Cosmic Spacehead]

I think NPC pirates are flawed full stop.

They never use hatch breakers anymore, and IMHO, they should be targeting your engines and cargo hatch. Not just trying to blow you to pieces.

 

[TheSisko]

Don't the pirates make specific demands now? They do if they interdict you in SC..

Yep, but I was thinking more on the lines of NPC Pirate vs NPC Miner. I enjoy saving those miners from doom but the Pirates aren't acting as Pirates. Its like they go there just to shoot stuff, in an area crawling with System Authority Condas. :S

 

[Hadarmil]

Yep, but I was thinking more on the lines of NPC Pirate vs NPC Miner. I enjoy saving those miners from doom but the Pirates aren't acting as Pirates. Its like they go there just to shoot stuff, in an area crawling with System Authority Condas. :S

I can't remember what system it was, but I happened to stumble across a RES around an earthlike where the ring was basically nothing but dust. No miners to be found, but sure enough there were wanted ships all over. RESs at the moment are bounty mining sites, sadly though I doubt Fdevs will take away people's combat playground.

And considering RESs are nothing but wanted ship's spawn points, they are there to kill&die.

 

[IndigoWyrd]

Res's are flawed full stop.

They're purely never ending farming sites for wanted npc's, for people that like mostly afk fighting.

Nothing to do with resource extraction unless you take it to mean extracting bounties

By Odin's beard, I only wish they were never-ending. Within an hour by myself these are devoid of anything but the same handful of miners, with maybe a random eagle or cobra spawn once every 20-30 minutes. With three plasma-slugged PA's, I can't even make a dent in my Beluga's fuel reserve before these are empty wastelands. And that's a Hazardous RES.

And if there's a CG going on - 30 minutes to lifelessness.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

Yep, but I was thinking more on the lines of NPC Pirate vs NPC Miner. I enjoy saving those miners from doom but the Pirates aren't acting as Pirates. Its like they go there just to shoot stuff, in an area crawling with System Authority Condas. :S

Hmm... how do we know the NPCs don't talk to each other? Maybe its not the pirates that are stupid, maybe its the miners.

NPC Pirate: Hand over your goods or ill destroy you.

NPC Miner: La la la, not listening

 

[TheSisko]

Hmm... how do we know the NPCs don't talk to each other? Maybe its not the pirates that are stupid, maybe its the miners.

NPC Pirate: Hand over your goods or ill destroy you.

NPC Miner: La la la, not listening

That should show up in the Local Chat Window.

I dunno, maybe the miners are stupid. But at least they're acting as miners, mining and attempting to earn money.

What are the pirates playing at?

Even if they don't get destroyed by System Authority (or me), the cost of repairs to their ships, along with the cost of expended missiles/kinetic weaponry, means they're making a loss.

I agree with other posters regarding RESs being a bounty farm, I just want a little more immersion and for NPCs to act true to their motivations.

 

[Crank Larson]

Logic? Pirate?

I think I've said enough.

 

[mautaban]

Get over it. ED gameplay is crap. But The Engine, Sounds and controls arme awesome. WHAT A WASTE

 

[TheSisko]

Logic? Pirate?

I think I've said enough.

I learned everything I needed to know about Pirates from watching Black Sails, and they never sailed out and blew up ships for fun.

 

[CMDR Cosmic Spacehead]

Maybe the NPC pirates are just as badat piracy as I am....?

 

[Cygnus X-1]

Even when they did use hatch breakers, they would fire them at you when your shields were still up and have no effect.

 

[Conch]

for everyone saying the NPCs are broken, you should take some cargo into a RES and you will find out why they dont use limpets

 

[Leo Sagan]

It has been suggested time and time again already and my post isn't as good as what we read already but it's time we get *REAL* bounty hunting in the game. The RES farmers can keep swimming in circles in their goldfish bowl but FD should design interesting bounty hunting scenarios.

For instance it could be a mission : "find and eliminate pirate lord bounty hunter. Las time we saw him, he was ..."

- in this system/station => go there, wait for him outside the station => use wake scanner to tail him => interdict => scan/frag
- in this system/RES => go there, enter RES, look for him fending a few pirates on the way => scan/frag
- at this NAV point, at this planetary base, in this CZ etc. etc.

The wake scanner should be mandatory because the pirate lord would try to jump away at least once if he's taking too much heat. One kill would obviously take much longer : increase the payout accordingly.

Even with the placeholders we have currently in the game (RES,CZ), there is potential for a semi interesting bounty hunting game mechanic.

I'm not even interested in combat and EVEN I can see BH needs (a lot of) love.

 

[Crank Larson]

One kill would take much longer

lol, the forums would be ripe with complaints over how long these missions now take to do...

But I don't really disagree with any of your post (except maybe the wake scanner requirement - for some missions, ok, but not all).

 

[Villainous Ruffian]

NPC's used to fire hatchbreakers, I was just reminiscing about that earlier today. I hope they bring it back. Although slightly less common, hearing "hatchbreaker limpit... avoided" every 5 seconds for every fight got annoying.