Pirate NPCs a bit too overconfident.

[Riepah]

Hi there.

I'm sure many of you have come across instances where pirates attacked you when they were guaranteed to lose, all the while spouting how you're nothing but space dust, that you have no chance and so on...

It's really rather annoying and unrealistic. If an unshielded Eagle is going to attack my fully outfitted Viper over 1t of Biowaste, please, at least don't make him all that convinced that he's going to have an easy fight. Pirates also seem to be inconsistent in their morale - They can be totally overconfident at the start, lose their shields, whine "How can this be happening?", only to turn back to their overconfidence for absolutely no reason. Why do they talk at all? It's a 100% giveaway when they scan you and go "What treats do you carry?" or "I see all!" and it gets old, fast.

Pirates should not pick a fight with larger ships unless their cargo is really expensive. As it stands, "Any cargo, no matter how worthless -> attack, no matter how doomed I am" is what describes pirate behavior, and it's sad.

Please make NPC pirates in this game a bit less stupid and a bit less comical. As people keep saying, this is supposed to be Elite: Dangerous, not Elite: Embarrassing.


EDIT: And please give us an option to block incoming chat messages from NPC pirates. Their repetitive and nonsensical messages really don't improve my experience, and I can't imagine it does wonders for many people's immersion.
Not to mention that they should realistically be focused on attempting to actually put up a fight, rather than keep talking to somebody who won't respond.

Another EDIT: I just realized I made a typo in the thread title. So much for embarrassment. If a mod could please change "big" to "bit", thank you.

 

[vonvonbraun]

Maybe they got inspired by the so called player "pirates" that brag about shooting first

scum i say, avast!

 

[Deleted member 38366]

-- Deleted --

 

[Riepah]

Really nothing beats a Sidewinder or Eagle NPC interdicting or otherwise attacking a big, pimped Player ship *g*

Yup, yup. I've been interdicted in my Viper by a Sidewinder recently. Granted, I had 5t of Gold on top of my 1t Biowaste Pirate-bait, but can they even see that during supercruise? In any case, Sidewinders should leave anything larger than an Adder alone if they're on their own.

At the very least they shouldn't act all high and mighty. If they'd go "Oh, whoops, you actually look more dangerous than I thought... I'll be on my way, nevermind, matey!", it'd be a bit more acceptable, I find.

 

[Unoriginality]

I was interdicted by a "Master" pirate in his little shield-less Sidewinder. I was in my Asp... It is such hilarity that makes me submit to each interdiction, but I also have a dream that one day it will be a decent pirate.

 

[Riepah]

I was interdicted by a "Master" pirate in his little shield-less Sidewinder. I was in my Asp... It is such hilarity that makes me submit to each interdiction, but I also have a dream that one day it will be a decent pirate.

Very true, I have yet to experience a case where the "Evade Interdiction" minigame would've actually been worth doing. Currently, it's less effort to submit and blast them away, as long as they're Wanted.

 

[Susimetsa]

Sounds like I should just submit to those interdictions as well... I've been too successful at evading them and have shot down only two since before Christmas...

If a mod could please change "big" to "bit", thank you.

Done.

 

[Riepah]

Done.

Thank you very much!

And yes, at the moment, unless you're an unarmed trader or something, submitting and fighting back seems like less of a hassle than trying to evade - it's also definitely more satisfying and comes with a little bounty reward on top.

Perhaps when wings are added, group-interdictions could also become a thing, allowing more than one NPC pirate to show up if you fail to evade, making evasion an option much more worthy of being considered. In such a case, pesky Sidewinders could also reasonably pick a fight with larger ships, as long as they don't try it on their own.

 

[Cmdr. Numa]

I my experience the ship classes of interdicting ships go up as the capability of your ship gets better. It's been a while since I've seen a Sidey or Eagle intercept me. It's at least Cobras, and lately it was a Python, although in the bugged shieldless variant, so was easy to take down.

 

[Seonid]

Add to that the long-reported NPC equipment bug, which apparently spawns NPCs with insufficient Power Plant for their given Ship configuration (which is IMHO the reason for them being occasionally Shield-less), and you get some hilarious moments.

Ah yes, the "Skyrim Mugger" syndrome where some guy in fur armour and an iron dagger demands money with menaces, oblivious to the fact that I have top end caster gear, Lydia is in full dragonplate and either of the Dremora can tank a dragon on its own. It actually took longer to get through the dialogue sequence than the "I smell weakness!" *splat* part.

 

[schuesseled]

I don't see whats so unrealistic, i have PVP pirates doing very much the same thing.

 

[Riepah]

I my experience the ship classes of interdicting ships go up as the capability of your ship gets better. It's been a while since I've seen a Sidey or Eagle intercept me. It's at least Cobras, and lately it was a Python, although in the bugged shieldless variant, so was easy to take down.

That's how it should be I suppose, however, so far I've seen nothing of the sort. A fully upgraded Viper which can take on an Anaconda with ease, gets interdicted by Sidewinder, shieldless Eagle - and I'm sure they'd interdict me while flying around in, quite literally, an unarmed trashcan, if they could. Not that they interdict me often, mind you - but when they do, there's a high chance it's a completely pathetic opponent. I do believe I got interdicted by a Python once in my life, and from what I recall, I was still in an Eagle at the time.

I don't see whats so unrealistic, i have PVP pirates doing very much the same thing.

Interdicting you in Sidewinders, Eagles without shields? That someone would bite off more than they can chew here and there is fair enough, but NPCs don't seem to have any consideration for their lives or their chances of success at all.

 

[Moonlord]

First thing that came into my mind when I saw this conversation was certain npc Cobra pilot, who could have ran away from me, already lost it from my scanner. Then noticed that he flew back to me, with 9% hull left from our earlier "conversation"

 

[mollymawk]

I don't have a problem with the AI - some NPC ships are tougher and seem to be reasonable pilots.
Its the ones in poor ships with broken modules that are upsetting, the poor guys don't know what bad ships they are in. And so die before the AI can decide what best to do.

Level the playing field.

They should had properly fitted ships and we should be able to purchase the Auto-Smack talk modules they seem to be using. You probably have to turn them off before docking, you wouldn't want to be station blasted for saying rude words to police.

 

[Riepah]

Its the ones in poor ships with broken modules that are upsetting, the poor guys don't know what bad ships they are in. And so die before the AI can decide what best to do.

They should had properly fitted ships and we should be able to purchase the Auto-Smack talk modules they seem to be using. You probably have to turn them off before docking, you wouldn't want to be station blasted for saying rude words to police.

I do agree that flying shieldless seems like a very strange thing to do. Like a fuel tank, at least a basic shield generator should be a mandatory module on any ship.
The smacktalk module sounds like a funny idea, actually... upon activation, it could have a x% chance of goading your target into attacking you, allowing you to blast them away without incurring a bounty even if they were Clean beforehand, hah.