NPCs turning and running at RES sites

[Mercy Killing]

Me, reading? Nah! Everybody's okay, nothing to worry about... (quickly scribbles some notes)

It's all well and good you're trying to improve the AI, but just keep this in mind while you're doing so:

I play solo because I'm not as good as most people, and I'm okay with that. If you make it TOO hard, I'll just quit playing...and I'm reasonably certain I won't be alone. Losing players isn't good for the business, no matter how few or many do so.

Why not institute a difficulty slider or choice instead of arbitrarily jacking up the difficulty for everyone and screwing over the people that aren't so combat savvy that play this game?

 

[Ralph Vargr]

It's all well and good you're trying to improve the AI, but just keep this in mind while you're doing so:

I play solo because I'm not as good as most people, and I'm okay with that. If you make it TOO hard, I'll just quit playing...and I'm reasonably certain I won't be alone. Losing players isn't good for the business, no matter how few or many do so.

Why not institute a difficulty slider or choice instead of arbitrarily jacking up the difficulty for everyone and screwing over the people that aren't so combat savvy that play this game?

I have never, ever said this, and got shouted down.

And, the AI's are pushovers, just like the forum says they are.

 

[Spork]

The latest dev updates mentions they'll be adding different intensity extraction sites similar to the different strength signal sources. That's where you'll be able to choose difficulty. Upgrading your ship is another route

 

[ocflyer]

Interdiction and RES - I find as a general rule when you kill the first one the others will flee and jump out without firing a shot, however sometimes in a RES zone I'm immediately attacked by a (hostile to me) wing of 3 all at the same time and on a number of occasion's I've been attacked by two wings at the same time so you end up fighting 6 of them because they don't run. While that's a lot of fun most times it means loosing your shields and taking some hull damage because you cant disengage and the local security spend more time getting in your way than helping out or their all off attacking a single ship. But why are some of them running while other stay and fight. Sarah might know but without us knowing the reasons it just seems like inconsistent game play to me.

I've noticed this too as I've been picking on a particular faction for the last few weeks. My solution is to blast the weakest ship as quickly as possible. Then the next stronger one until I've worked up to the boss. By that time, the cops have chipped away at him, making my work even faster. I've yet to see a Clipper, Python, or Dropship escape from my dual C3 bada$$ beam lasers.

- - - Updated - - -

I make it a habit of targeting the engines first, even on small ships. That stops them from FS out. Though, on the small ships, they usually just go *pop* before the engines actually go out.

I like making the little ones go pop. It's like squeezing the sealed wrapper on a fortune cookie juusst right so that they make a rather satisfying pop. The wumpf explosion sound effect when the little ships blow up is like the massive symbol and bass drum at the end of some classical pieces.

 

[Mercy Killing]

And, the AI's are pushovers, just like the forum says they are.

Really? I just fled from a Master rated Anaconda NPC that indicted me while cruising to a station because there is no way I can stand up to it in a fight in my Viper.
I've run from wings of three SIDEWINDERS that were rated competent because they were all ganging up on me and my shields on said Viper went from full to down in about three seconds.

No, the NPC's are NOT pushovers. At least, not to me.

As I said, people need to keep in mind that others that play this game and love it just like they do might not be as skilled as they are.

NOTE: I most certainly am NOT calling for nerfs, here....but I don't want it to get much harder for me. It stops becoming fun once NPC's start killing me.

 

[CMDR Holycow]

I've had it happen twice in the last week. Once an Anaconda, once a Python. Neither of them was anywhere close to being out of the asteroids. The Anaconda was in fact heading further INTO the asteroids when i heard "Frame Shift Charge detected."
.

I dont doubt you. AI ships aren't bound by the same physical limits put on the player's ships. My favorite is watching an AI anaconda do a fast 180 degree wip with his throttle at zero... like he's a turret mounted on a swivel.

 

[Krow]

The thing you need to fix first,(not really, of course.. this is just something that bothers me in-game) is that 9 times out of 10 when I engage a wing... I basically fight one of them 1 on 1...and kill it.. then the other two tuck tail and bail out, having never fired one shot while I was engaging the first. Why don't the other two attack me at the same time as the first guy? They almost never do. (usually USS I'm talking here..., not so much in a RES).

Here is a prime example of where AI fails in USS:

Two nights ago I was getting bored looking for PC pirates in my clipper... so I decided to drop into a Strong USS just to see what was in there, and see if I could actually take on whatever was there (I was in leesti). Sure enough, there was a tough looking wing. It was 1 Anaconda, and (I think) 2 cobras. I target a cobra and start going to town... at this point, the other cobra IS attacking me silmutanously. I kill cobra #1 quick enough, and turn to take out cobra #2. After 20 or 30 more seconds, that guy melts also. ALL THE WHILE... their buddy in the Anaconda is just sitting there doing nothing. I select him, do a KWS scan, target his PP, and then at my convenience, start attacking the conda, eventually killing him. I dropped into 3 Large USSs back to back to back, and they were all identical. Hardly even a challenge. Now, had that Anaconda started to fight as soon as I started attacking his wing buddies (like one would expect), these particular large USSs would have been un-doable for me, a solo player... I would have needed a wingman, which I think is the point. I don't know about you, but when my wingman is being attacked by another ship, I am on that ship's ass like white on rice.

So.. why do these Anacondas not care or notice that I have been fighting his wingmen for the last 2 minutes? The AI is getting better...but no offense, it's still terrible.

This happens to me quite a bit as well, but last night I was at a RES and took on a Fed Dropship, and the two wingmen (Cobra's I think) instantly opened up on me -
Two Cobra's and a Fed Dropship rained on me, my shields went down immediately and I was the one who tucked tail and ran (Not before them pulverizing my hull down to 62%)

It was all over in seconds. - Careful what you wish for.

 

[Rankaze]

It's all well and good you're trying to improve the AI, but just keep this in mind while you're doing so:

I play solo because I'm not as good as most people, and I'm okay with that. If you make it TOO hard, I'll just quit playing...and I'm reasonably certain I won't be alone. Losing players isn't good for the business, no matter how few or many do so.

Why not institute a difficulty slider or choice instead of arbitrarily jacking up the difficulty for everyone and screwing over the people that aren't so combat savvy that play this game?

Interdictions are limited by how many combat ranks above you an enemy can be. In any non-interdiction scenario, you can choose how strong an enemy you are willing to engage.

The fact is, the AI at higher combat ranks IS too weak to threaten players with that level of combat experience. It does need improvement. A Dangerous rank AI should be, well... Dangerous!

Also, the fact that AI's up to Novice have no shields, even on hilariously expensive ships like Anacondas, means nobody gets to complain about the lower combat rank AI's being hard. Considering how long it takes for a player to get past Novice, it's downright insulting to players that Novice AI's are the kind of idiots who buy a 225,000,000 credit ship and don't put shields on it!

 

[Rankaze]

Really? I just fled from a Master rated Anaconda NPC that indicted me while cruising to a station because there is no way I can stand up to it in a fight in my Viper.
I've run from wings of three SIDEWINDERS that were rated competent because they were all ganging up on me and my shields on said Viper went from full to down in about three seconds.

No, the NPC's are NOT pushovers. At least, not to me.

As I said, people need to keep in mind that others that play this game and love it just like they do might not be as skilled as they are.

NOTE: I most certainly am NOT calling for nerfs, here....but I don't want it to get much harder for me. It stops becoming fun once NPC's start killing me.

First off, you really aren't meant to engage that master rated Conda. You're faster than he is. By a lot. RUN. He is INTENDED to outclass you! Knowing how to pick ones' battles is an important skill in Elite; don't fight when you have a choice unless you are certain you can win.

I mean, I'd kill him, but I have a lot of confidence in my ship and my skill and my ability to target Conda powerplants. I've had lots of practice at it.

Second, engaging ANY wing is potentiallyMUCH more dangerous than engaging a single enemy. Don't attack ships in wings when solo unless prepared for a challenge! I feel much safer engaging a single Deadly than three Competents at once!

THIRD, I don't think most of us are looking to have low ranking AI boosted. I mean, I think Novices should have shields (weak shields would be fine), but that is more about it breaking my immersion to see unshielded Anacondas in combat. What I think most combat-oriented players want is to see the Dangerous, Deadly, and Elite foes live up to their lofty ranks as threats.

It seems to me that your problem isn't that the AI is hard, it's that you are choosing to fight opponents that overmatch you and you don't yet have the skills to be doing that.

 

[SquidgyB]

First off, you really aren't meant to engage that master rated Conda. You're faster than he is. By a lot. RUN. He is INTENDED to outclass you! Knowing how to pick ones' battles is an important skill in Elite; don't fight when you have a choice unless you are certain you can win.

I mean, I'd kill him, but I have a lot of confidence in my ship and my skill and my ability to target Conda powerplants. I've had lots of practice at it.

Second, engaging ANY wing is potentiallyMUCH more dangerous than engaging a single enemy. Don't attack ships in wings when solo unless prepared for a challenge! I feel much safer engaging a single Deadly than three Competents at once!

THIRD, I don't think most of us are looking to have low ranking AI boosted. I mean, I think Novices should have shields (weak shields would be fine), but that is more about it breaking my immersion to see unshielded Anacondas in combat. What I think most combat-oriented players want is to see the Dangerous, Deadly, and Elite foes live up to their lofty ranks as threats.

It seems to me that your problem isn't that the AI is hard, it's that you are choosing to fight opponents that overmatch you and you don't yet have the skills to be doing that.

Yeah, I agree completely here - the main thing to remember is that we'd like diversity. Low sec areas should be truly dangerous, high sec areas should be relatively tame. Looks like a lot of this is already planned, from what I read in the latest Dev update (at least in terms of sectioning out RES to be high/low intensity).

Never consider running away to be a fight lost - technically you won! You're still alive, and the aggressor didn't get his target.

 

[magot]

I noticed last night that some NPCs turn and run after being shot at RESs. This happens to all size of ships from the humble Sidewinder all the way up to Anacondas. Has the AI been updated recently? Has anyone else noticed this?

you should be happy that npc s are not combat loging

 

[Elfman]

Really? I just fled from a Master rated Anaconda NPC that indicted me while cruising to a station because there is no way I can stand up to it in a fight in my Viper.
I've run from wings of three SIDEWINDERS that were rated competent because they were all ganging up on me and my shields on said Viper went from full to down in about three seconds.

No, the NPC's are NOT pushovers. At least, not to me.

As I said, people need to keep in mind that others that play this game and love it just like they do might not be as skilled as they are.

NOTE: I most certainly am NOT calling for nerfs, here....but I don't want it to get much harder for me. It stops becoming fun once NPC's start killing me.

To be fair the ships that interdict you seem to be better combat pilots than the ones at RES and it really depends on how you have you viper set up but 3 sidewinders you should be able to eat for breakfast in a viper - do you use Joystick or mouse keyboard as I found I was rubbish at combat with mouse but much better with a joystick even though I had not used one since the MW4 days and play all other games mouse keyboard.

Will go post up my viper spec from the shipyard for elite anaconda mission killing in a while

 

[gritech]

AI ships have flight assist off capability.

I dont doubt you. AI ships aren't bound by the same physical limits put on the player's ships. My favorite is watching an AI anaconda do a fast 180 degree wip with his throttle at zero... like he's a turret mounted on a swivel.

Think you'll find that AI ships have flight assist off capability.

 

[Ralph Vargr]

This happens to me quite a bit as well, but last night I was at a RES and took on a Fed Dropship, and the two wingmen (Cobra's I think) instantly opened up on me -
Two Cobra's and a Fed Dropship rained on me, my shields went down immediately and I was the one who tucked tail and ran (Not before them pulverizing my hull down to 62%)

It was all over in seconds. - Careful what you wish for.

Been happening to me since 16 DEC 2014. Twitch gamers have Dunning-Kruger Syndrome- and *I* get punished for it when the AI's are upped in difficulty.

 

[CMDR Holycow]

Think you'll find that AI ships have flight assist off capability.

yeah.. thanks. That's not what I'm talking about.

 

[yyy]

It's all well and good you're trying to improve the AI, but just keep this in mind while you're doing so:

I play solo because I'm not as good as most people, and I'm okay with that. If you make it TOO hard, I'll just quit playing...and I'm reasonably certain I won't be alone. Losing players isn't good for the business, no matter how few or many do so.

Why not institute a difficulty slider or choice instead of arbitrarily jacking up the difficulty for everyone and screwing over the people that aren't so combat savvy that play this game?

Keep at it. You'll learn. During the 8-bit/16-bit era the battles got harder as your ranking went up. It was usually an increase in the number and types of ships. Elite has always been difficult on the combat side of things. My personal opinion is that ED combat is easier than previous incarnations.

 

[Thebadmf]

Still annoys me when I shoot out 'that vipers' drives to make sure he doesn't run and he still manages to increase his distance from me and FSD out... I hate NPC vipers.

 

[yyy]

Still annoys me when I shoot out 'that vipers' drives to make sure he doesn't run and he still manages to increase his distance from me and FSD out... I hate NPC vipers.

Report it as a bug.

 

[Reaver 2.0]

Didn't read the entire thread but in case nobody mentioned it....when a ship is running....get on his 6 and put all pips in sys and ram him...chances are you'll get the bounty. Just make sure you have a decently upgraded generator and at or close to full rings.