NPC ships insta-repair and shield gen to full

Since he described the same thing I'm experiencing I'll respond that I was in solo.

Ok, thanks. I thought maybe it was desync with instance hosts, but thats obviously not the case in solo. :p

only time I have seen this. when a pirate npc is hunting me. I take his shield down pummel him till hull is down to 20% os so and they jump to escape. even though no fsd charging has happened. I jump back to sc the same ship interdicts again and had got full hull and shields and no damage to modules. only about 10 secs has past since he escaped.

In sc a new npc is spawned with same name, but its a different one 'under the hood'. Not a AI bug, but I hope whomever works on this part adds better consistency indeed.
 
From what I can tell the "becoming neutral" happens quite often when NPCs use heatsinks. It seems that at certain distance and enemy temperature you don't lose target lock completely, but the ship can't be tracked by gimbals and stops showing as hostile. I always assumed that this is a feature (cold ships being more difficult to track and get information about) and not a bug.
 
From what I can tell the "becoming neutral" happens quite often when NPCs use heatsinks. It seems that at certain distance and enemy temperature you don't lose target lock completely, but the ship can't be tracked by gimbals and stops showing as hostile. I always assumed that this is a feature (cold ships being more difficult to track and get information about) and not a bug.

Yeah, lots of assumptions can be made, but thats about it. If an NPC becomes neutral, but is otherwise targetable and capable of being locked onto because of some kind of quazi heat sink activation, and if we have no way of knowing if they've launched a heat sink if they don't fall off radar and become unlockable, then we can't be sure if this behavior is due to heat sink use.

I hadn't paid attention to any shield regeneration accompanying this, so I will look for that tonight. If I see any thing "definative" I'll submit a bug report.
 
only time I have seen this. when a pirate npc is hunting me. I take his shield down pummel him till hull is down to 20% os so and they jump to escape. even though no fsd charging has happened. I jump back to sc the same ship interdicts again and had got full hull and shields and no damage to modules. only about 10 secs has past since he escaped.

The reason for this because the npc you were fighting ceases to exist moment you and it are not in the same instances. Essentially the game spawn a brand new npc, engaged by the "hunting player" script. The ship type and name transfers over to give you the illusion of continuity, but it's a lie. Im not even sure weapons and loadout transfers over to be honest.
 
Funny how NPC's are not affected by masslock; heat effects or how they still have pretty much perfect aim with rails etc... care to tell me how those issues are misunderstandings?
Not to mention when they fire upon you they don't become wanted... took multiple large plasmas in the face from security forces in RES sites on multiple occasions and they don't as much as say "ooops" let alone become wanted.

Considering how combat is basically the only viable part of the game and these issues have been around for as long as I can remember, one would expect a little more attention for details after 3 years of development...
 
Hello Commanders!

NPC ships should not be instantly healing shields or hull. If they use a shield cell (which some ship load outs have), you should see the tell-tale strobe effect on their shields before regeneration, just like on human vessels. Instant healing with no obvious cause should be logged as a bug.

Thanks for the response, I'll end up logging this as a bug then, if I can repro it so I can get some video of it. That Cobra IV would lose its shields (got the message that they were down), and then in a couple seconds they would pop back on full strength. Never seen that before which is why I posted about it.
 
Funny how NPC's are not affected by masslock; heat effects or how they still have pretty much perfect aim with rails etc... care to tell me how those issues are misunderstandings?

They are affected by heat (you can force them to expend heatsinks and cook their internals) and they don't have perfect aim with rails. They have slightly better aim than I do with rails, but I'm not particularly good with rails...CMDRs that are put even the best of Elite NPCs to shame in this regard.

They can see SRVs when CMDRs wouldn't be able to, they do have unlimited MC ammo, and they can high wake irrespective of what's around them (no masslock), but that's about it.
 
I'm doing it wrong.. KWS and engage is my modus operandi. If it's a wing of 2 or more, I set the SLF on one and then hit the biggest threat til dead. Then the next highest threat til wing dead. The little are the pain in the bottom. if you take them on first, you end up chasing them while the big lad is hitting you with everything. If you take the big lad first, the little guys fire un-ending rockets at you. All fun. It's the sizzle weapons that really irk me.

KWS??

94d74643939cd685a54ae8065ce91cd3f66a8aa727239585983bd879b07b2793.jpg
 
I've met a few too.. It's the all new FDev way. "We can't code any better so we'll cheat." We'll give NPCs endless ammo, endless chaff, engineered armour engineered shields, and engineered weapons with enhancements. Then what we'll do is add extra weapon slots to the NPC ships and make it so they never miss, and from any distance.

What this does is make it so no matter how good a flyer you are, they'll still damage all your modules. And if you do manage to get the shields down, they fly off and come back with them regen'd to full. Meanwhile, the 'master rated' NPC sidewinders are laying in with endless rockets and enhanced weps. I had a Clipper that was flying away from me and still managing to hit me?

The idea in this craziness, in that it makes it more difficult for you the player to like, have fun, and earn credits without resorting to Quince et'al. That means it takes you ages to actually accomplish anything. So they [fdev] get time to work on something else that no-one will use. It also makes Horizons mandatory for any player wanting to play the combat side. A neat if not cheap, tactic.

They've absolutely ruined any fun in the combat part of this game [sic] Games are meant to be fun.. E.D. is just a toy now for them to see how difficult they can make it for players. It's pathetic.



Wow why do you even play the game buddy? [haha][haha][haha]
 
NPC's jump out (quite reliably) if they take too much hull damage and you give them the chance.

The problem is, when they interdict you again 10 seconds later, they have a shiny new ship, full shields, and full ammo.

If they are going to jump out, then they should stay away long enough to get repairs (ie. wait for you to complete your next "stop", or just go away altogether)

That's why people mix up these two things or think NPC 'cheat'.

NPC combat AI does not cheat. However, game does not track (yet) states of NPC shields, hull and ammo over multiple encounters. That's all there is.
 
Also sollisb, problem is not that your experience is soured somewhat, and you find NPCs acting way you thought they shouldn't - that's not a problem. Problem is that you accuse developer with full confidence although you have no evidence nor you have clearly given alternative explanation some thought.
 
They can see SRVs when CMDRs wouldn't be able to, they do have unlimited MC ammo, and they can high wake irrespective of what's around them (no masslock), but that's about it.

This. Anything else for NPCs have been either limited, or made same as human ships.

They even remove flying back for lower Elite ranks for NPCs for Tux's sake.

This thread remains me of moaning and Steam review bombing after fixing NPC combat AI.
 

sollisb

Banned
Also sollisb, problem is not that your experience is soured somewhat, and you find NPCs acting way you thought they shouldn't - that's not a problem. Problem is that you accuse developer with full confidence although you have no evidence nor you have clearly given alternative explanation some thought.

You're wrong. Speccial weapons effects show up under your ships graphic as a small iconic. I proved tonight over the past hour that yes, NPC ships do use special effects. And to the best of my knowledge the only place to get special effects is from engineers.

How much evidence do you want?? I have full confidence. NPCs have multiples of the same module. Proven. NPCs use engineer only weapons. Proven. There is no alternative. Nothing else pitss those icons in your your ship graphic. So I'm right, and you, are wrong.

And, you all missed the entire point completely. It's meant to be game, a way of making credits. But what we're given is a system that FDev insist on making harder and harder to do. I don;t give a toss about credits, I can go to multiple places to get aany amount I need. I'm coming home from work, to play a game. But am being given another job. And! Try going up against a wing of Elite NPCs without any engineering..

I'm out, I've proven my case. Last night it was multiples of the same modules. Tonight special effects weapons. Case closed.
 
That's why people mix up these two things or think NPC 'cheat'.

NPC combat AI does not cheat. However, game does not track (yet) states of NPC shields, hull and ammo over multiple encounters. That's all there is.

Well, the software/server apparently tracks the names and ship types of the NPC's who continually interdict you (if not eliminated). They should also track the state of their ships. Saying "thats the way it is" is only stating the obvious. Folks are asking for it to be changed/improved. Another "lazy" implementation. ED remembers who/what will be interdicting you (from the time it is announced) yet DOESNT bother to maintain additional persistent state information. This is lazy programming and could be/should be fixed...
 
sollisb, please post a screenshot of you experiencing a special effect. "Thermal attack," with its wavy fire icon most often comes from plasma accelerators. "Impulse attack'" with the three circles icon comes from rail guns. Both of these do tremendous damage. Neither of them mean NPCs have experimental engineer effects on their weapons.

latest


Please point out which warnings you are getting? Note that "severe module damage" and "hull breach" also have warnings and are not from experimental effects.
 
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You're wrong. Speccial weapons effects show up under your ships graphic as a small iconic. I proved tonight over the past hour that yes, NPC ships do use special effects. And to the best of my knowledge the only place to get special effects is from engineers.

How much evidence do you want?? I have full confidence. NPCs have multiples of the same module. Proven. NPCs use engineer only weapons. Proven. There is no alternative. Nothing else pitss those icons in your your ship graphic. So I'm right, and you, are wrong.

And, you all missed the entire point completely. It's meant to be game, a way of making credits. But what we're given is a system that FDev insist on making harder and harder to do. I don;t give a toss about credits, I can go to multiple places to get aany amount I need. I'm coming home from work, to play a game. But am being given another job. And! Try going up against a wing of Elite NPCs without any engineering..

I'm out, I've proven my case. Last night it was multiples of the same modules. Tonight special effects weapons. Case closed.

And yet you still haven't posted screenshots. If you post a screenshot of the status indicators, we can (with perhaps a bit of searching) tell you which ones they are and where they came from.

And I assure you it is entirely possible to make those icons light up with stock weapons.
 

sollisb

Banned
And yet you still haven't posted screenshots. If you post a screenshot of the status indicators, we can (with perhaps a bit of searching) tell you which ones they are and where they came from.

And I assure you it is entirely possible to make those icons light up with stock weapons.


I posted links to screenshot of multiple modules.

What I saw tonight was the thermal, impulse attack, and internal damage icons. I was under the impression that these were engineer only damages? If I'm wrong in that; then yes, I'm wrong. I never saw these before Engineers, so I maybe laying blame in the wrong quarter. In addition to this, this is all happening with full shields. So if there are 'standard' weapons out there that by-pass shields, then I want them :D

Edit: Just spent some time reading up on weapon damages. It may be, because i'm in a bigger ship I'm taking more damage from the missiles all these are non-stop firing from NPCs are doing. (Counted 8 non-stop salvos from a dropship I think earlier). From what I'm reading these missiles do larger damage to larger ships. In which case, using my vette is pointless. May as well go back to my FDL or Python. Leaving me in a situation where I cannot defend against something is pretty lame.

If I'm wrong, then hands up and apologies.
 
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I posted links to screenshot of multiple modules.

What I saw tonight was the thermal, impulse attack, and internal damage icons. I was under the impression that these were engineer only damages? If I'm wrong in that; then yes, I'm wrong. I never saw these before Engineers, so I maybe laying blame in the wrong quarter. In addition to this, this is all happening with full shields. So if there are 'standard' weapons out there that by-pass shields, then I want them :D

Edit: Just spent some time reading up on weapon damages. It may be, because i'm in a bigger ship I'm taking more damage from the missiles all these are non-stop firing from NPCs are doing. (Counted 8 non-stop salvos from a dropship I think earlier). From what I'm reading these missiles do larger damage to larger ships. In which case, using my vette is pointless. May as well go back to my FDL or Python. Leaving me in a situation where I cannot defend against something is pretty lame.

If I'm wrong, then hands up and apologies.

@sollisb please read this thread concerning redundancy legacy warnings:

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...l-effect-warnings-from-NPC-attacks?highlight=

You are being struck by unmodified plasma, triggering the thermal attack warning, or unmodified rail guns, triggering the impulse attack warning.

There are 2.75 million purchasers of this game. Since engineered specials were removed from the game in version 2.1.1 not one single video or screenshot has emerged of an NPC using any special, and if they did there would be thousands of such vids, because specials like phasing, dispersal, thermal cascade and reverberating cascade produce immediately recognisable outcomes.

@Frontier Two Developers have posted in this thread. Please check out my suggestions thread linked above. Here yet again we have the evidence that the needless continuing inclusion of these redundant legacy warnings is causing confusion. They have been, for over a year. Please remove them. TY.
 
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