"NPCs are too easy" "No wait! they are too hard now" "They are too easy again" "Oh noes, I died!" Please, stop it.
Sigh... So first we get everyone complaining that the NPCs are to easy and the combat in the game is a snooze fest. Now we get everyone complaining that the NPCs are too hard and that they should be dumbed down...
Ladies and gentlemen, the NPCs are not too hard. The problem is, that since they were so easy before (everything from escaping an interdiction to killing an Elite conda), that even those among us rated "Elite" aren't really that Elite. My point being, that we developed the skills necessary to kill the NPCs as they were, and we now have to develop the skills to kill them as they are now.
Please, let's not start complaining and have FD dumb the hell out of NPCs again. I understand those of you that are not combat pilots, and I am sure that with a fresh release there are kinks to be worked out. However, just like us combat pilots have to retrain ourselves to fight the improved NPCs, those of you that do not do combat will have to retrain yourselves to learn to survive against such NPCs.
And for those that are like "But I was in an A rated conda, and I am Elite ranked, and I'm a decent pilot, etc etc". I repeat: The development of your skills were limited and reached a plateau with the previous NPCs. It's time to improve those skills further now.
I fly a Fer De Lance. Normally, I can even handle a wing of 5 NPCs in a Hazardous zone, possibly including two condas among them. With this patch, I knew I needed to be careful, so I went to a HIGH RES to test the waters.
I found a wing of two: A Cobra MKIII and a Vulture. I decided to attack them and see what the new NPCs were all about. Needless to say, THANK YOU FRONTIER. Holy crap, those two NPCs felt almost like two humans talking to each other and coordinating. It's like they knew they had the smaller, less powerful ships, so they resorted to hit and run tactics. Not to mention, they tried hard to stay on my blind side, as if they knew that my maneuverability isn't as good as theirs. They also made sure to stay on opposite sides of my ship (so they tried to keep me in between them. Pincer attack?) After a few, interesting, exciting minutes and more than two or three shield cells and Chaffs, I killed them. (They were ranked Dangerous and Master, respectively).
Then I found a single Python. This was also a very interesting fight. However, it was over actually quicker than the previous one (Dangerous Python). It still proved to be a challenge, and I had to pop a shield cell or two, but I killed it without taking any actual damage.
Basically, NPCs in smaller ships will take advantage of their maneuverability. Which is great. NPCs in bigger ships will take advantage of their firepower.
Personally, this is how the game was meant to be from the beginning. Frontier finally added the "Dangerous" aspect to it. And I hope with all my heart that they don't dumb down the AI, no matter how much people whine about it. I don't mean to be rude, but if anyone wants "easy peasy NPCs that drop dead and provide no challenge", go play another game, but don't try to ruin this one for the majority of us who actually enjoy it and have been wanting a challenge since the beginning.
Sigh... So first we get everyone complaining that the NPCs are to easy and the combat in the game is a snooze fest. Now we get everyone complaining that the NPCs are too hard and that they should be dumbed down...
Ladies and gentlemen, the NPCs are not too hard. The problem is, that since they were so easy before (everything from escaping an interdiction to killing an Elite conda), that even those among us rated "Elite" aren't really that Elite. My point being, that we developed the skills necessary to kill the NPCs as they were, and we now have to develop the skills to kill them as they are now.
Please, let's not start complaining and have FD dumb the hell out of NPCs again. I understand those of you that are not combat pilots, and I am sure that with a fresh release there are kinks to be worked out. However, just like us combat pilots have to retrain ourselves to fight the improved NPCs, those of you that do not do combat will have to retrain yourselves to learn to survive against such NPCs.
And for those that are like "But I was in an A rated conda, and I am Elite ranked, and I'm a decent pilot, etc etc". I repeat: The development of your skills were limited and reached a plateau with the previous NPCs. It's time to improve those skills further now.
I fly a Fer De Lance. Normally, I can even handle a wing of 5 NPCs in a Hazardous zone, possibly including two condas among them. With this patch, I knew I needed to be careful, so I went to a HIGH RES to test the waters.
I found a wing of two: A Cobra MKIII and a Vulture. I decided to attack them and see what the new NPCs were all about. Needless to say, THANK YOU FRONTIER. Holy crap, those two NPCs felt almost like two humans talking to each other and coordinating. It's like they knew they had the smaller, less powerful ships, so they resorted to hit and run tactics. Not to mention, they tried hard to stay on my blind side, as if they knew that my maneuverability isn't as good as theirs. They also made sure to stay on opposite sides of my ship (so they tried to keep me in between them. Pincer attack?) After a few, interesting, exciting minutes and more than two or three shield cells and Chaffs, I killed them. (They were ranked Dangerous and Master, respectively).
Then I found a single Python. This was also a very interesting fight. However, it was over actually quicker than the previous one (Dangerous Python). It still proved to be a challenge, and I had to pop a shield cell or two, but I killed it without taking any actual damage.
Basically, NPCs in smaller ships will take advantage of their maneuverability. Which is great. NPCs in bigger ships will take advantage of their firepower.
Personally, this is how the game was meant to be from the beginning. Frontier finally added the "Dangerous" aspect to it. And I hope with all my heart that they don't dumb down the AI, no matter how much people whine about it. I don't mean to be rude, but if anyone wants "easy peasy NPCs that drop dead and provide no challenge", go play another game, but don't try to ruin this one for the majority of us who actually enjoy it and have been wanting a challenge since the beginning.
