NPC Very powerful

[starman]

So where to put this

In mission encountered very powerful NPCs. Such as an Eagle that can withstand a barrage of tor[pedo and missle voide locks . Or the invinsible drop ship . Elite rateing imposible to hit

Yet a a player Eagle with mods or Asp with many shield and hull mods fully loaded just crumble

Whats going on Any one else experienced this?

 

[Hantif]

Playing in solo the other day, I got interdicted by a NPC Anaconda with some odd super powered weapon. Smoked my FAS that normally stands a fair chance of at least out running an Anaconda. Two hits and my hull was down to 10%.

 

[CMDR Cosmic Spacehead]

I'm not sure if these are rare super NPC's. Or bugged. Lol

I can usually take on any NPC's in my Anaconda or Python with ease. Even groups of NPC's. (6 Elite Clippers was surprisingly easy... Lol)

Then I'll meet an Elite Viper MkIV, that has a seemingly invincible hull. I mean it doesn't do much damage to me, but my guns + SLF aren't doing much to then either.
Then eventually I do get them. Then the next Elite Viper MkIV I can almost 1 shot kill. Lol

So I'm not sure of SJA threw in some suprise NPC's (which I don't mind at all, I encourage it infact!), or if some kind of networking error is making the hits not register properly.

I've since learned that missiles, particularly Packhounds, can make even the most annoyingly difficult NPC's, easy.
Drop their shields, target thrusters, launch a full volley of Packhounds.

CMDR Cosmic Spacehead

 

[starman]

I think the point is not everyone fly around in a mazex out Anaconda. A ship Like the Asp Explorer has 6 hardpoints plus the ability to have multi shield boost and hull mod. Its should mean something. Ive lost 10 mil Cr because of this. There is something fishy when a Eagle can withstand volley of missiles yet if a player Eagle it crumbles.

A statement from Frontier about this would be good.

 

[Hantif]

From what I have heard, fdev is fairly lazy so it wouldn't surprise me if they were just mirroring PC ships for NPCs. We just ran into a doppelganger of one of the maxed out player's ships.

 

[starman]

Yeah I mean they invented a procedural generation system to create planets rather than hand craft each one

 

[CMDR Cosmic Spacehead]

I read somewhere that NPC loadouts vary quite a bit.
Some are good, some a rubbish, some even had no weapons for a while(a bug, now fixed.. I think. Lol).
Some are simply extremely effective.

Then the various AI's are layered on top, so you might have a really good ship, but useless AI. Or really good AI with no weapons (lol).
And occasionally, a really good, effective loadout, and AI that can exploit that. And that's what you're bumping in to.

That's what I read anyway. Might not even be true. Lol

CMDR Cosmic Spacehead

 

[bicarbon8]

some of the modifications available can make a Commander's ship have a really easy job of killing certain kinds of ships... these specialisations also carry over to NPC's. It's probably the case that a different Commander, with a different set of engineering modifications would find your overpowered NPC's too easy.

That said, I've noticed that a Conflict Zone seems to scale it's difficulty based on how well one side is doing vs. the other. I was happily zooming around in a Viper Mk III with 1C Biweaves (https://eddp.co/u/CYt4xqd7) and making good kills (made over 200,000 Cr. in about 10 minutes), but when I returned to the CZ in my Keelback (https://eddp.co/u/GmLqv7CY) so I could make some more money I suddenly found myself being fired upon by 5 NPC's with Seeker Missiles after only engaging my first target. Both times I joined the same faction, but there was an overpowered, Commander piloted, Cutter in the CZ the first time who was easily taking out wave after wave of the enemy faction's ships, so I think the other side stepped up their game and when I returned, the other Commander had left so I became the singular focus of the enemy faction's attention. Was destroyed within less than 5 minutes (good thing the rebuy is only ~900,000)