Power conflict zones are too easy
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I had encountered Spec-Ops in PCZs.
Spec Ops / War Correspondents seen. Basically they're beefed up CZs.
Agree they could do with more larger ships, I spent an hour killing Cobras & Vipers (because the 4th Spec Ops ran away so I couldn't get any progress from them.) But that's an issue they inherit from normal CZ
Agree they could do with more larger ships, I spent an hour killing Cobras & Vipers (because the 4th Spec Ops ran away so I couldn't get any progress from them.) But that's an issue they inherit from normal CZ
Or differentiate the warzone chatter with customised convos... or ship names/paints, etc.Spec Ops / War Correspondents seen. Basically they're beefed up CZs.
Agree they could do with more larger ships, I spent an hour killing Cobras & Vipers (because the 4th Spec Ops ran away so I couldn't get any progress from them.) But that's an issue they inherit from normal CZ
Yes. There are Sepc Ops in Power MCZ, but super boring now.
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Last nite , me & a buddy ( in blue team/grouped wing ) tried multiple 'Power Conflict Zones' within the same system for over 2 hours and NOTHING ever spawned. No enemies, no onscreen combat prompt, no objects....nothing.
We tried in open-mode and private group-session. We tried disbanding , relogging , re-forming wing, re-entering the zone, going into supercruise then relogging/re-entering , landing on a planet then relogging/re-entering , waiting to re-form wing after entering PCZ , praying to 'Raxxla' , etc. etc. etc. etc. ---- Never any spawns would appear.
So yeah, super "easy" and def. super "boring" .
We tried in open-mode and private group-session. We tried disbanding , relogging , re-forming wing, re-entering the zone, going into supercruise then relogging/re-entering , landing on a planet then relogging/re-entering , waiting to re-form wing after entering PCZ , praying to 'Raxxla' , etc. etc. etc. etc. ---- Never any spawns would appear.
So yeah, super "easy" and def. super "boring" .
This was my experience.Last nite , me & a buddy ( in blue team/grouped wing ) tried multiple 'Power Conflict Zones' within the same system for over 2 hours and NOTHING ever spawned. No enemies, no onscreen combat prompt, no objects....nothing.
We tried in open-mode and private group-session. We tried disbanding , relogging , re-forming wing, re-entering the zone, going into supercruise then relogging/re-entering , landing on a planet then relogging/re-entering , waiting to re-form wing after entering PCZ , praying to 'Raxxla' , etc. etc. etc. etc. ---- Never any spawns would appear.
So yeah, super "easy" and def. super "boring" .
I tested power CZs today being pledged to Kaine. Of course with Kaine nothing is ever easy, there is exactly one contested system I could find, and I even almost missed that one. Anyway, this is my experience (beware, long post).
Just to test it I went there with my PP mission runner Mandalay. It has roughly 1400 shields and 1400 armor, so not squishy, but not exactly a tank. It was also equipped with a full load of gimballed overcharged frags, incendiary on the mediums, corrosive and drag on the small ones.
I went to a medium CZ, because that's all the system spawned (I assume there should be different ones too?). For my test, I stayed until I ran out of ammo, which was after 15 minutes. I encountered a healthy mix of smalls - mostly Cobras (both III and IV), Viper IV and Vultures, plus three Anacondas, all ranging from Expert to Dangerous. I also encountered a Spec Ops wing.
With the Mandalay I felt the ships weren't exactly difficult, but very bullet spongy. I was never really in danger, most of my shields I losts while jousting a dangerous Anaconda and not really noticing Spec Ops Alpha on my ass were like 20% or so. Again, I was never really in danger, the Mandaly did good, and I had fun doing some good dogfighting, but the fights were also longer than neccessary and... a bit exhausting. Annyoing maybe. Also, those CZ seem to run VERY long, the green bar hardly moved.
Anyway, I ran out of ammo and bailed to reload. In those 15 minutes I earned 441 merits. Not great, but also not bad.
So of course I decided to return with a murder boat and got distracted on the tangent of rebuilding my Python Mk.II (I had not really flown it and stolen most of its parts) and engineering a set of new frags for it - all overcharged, the four large one again incendiary, the medium ones again corrosive and drag.
So with that murder board I again went to do that medium CZ until I ran out of ammo, which was after 13 minutes. I encountered pretty much the same mix of ships with a couple of Python Mk.I sprinkled in. I didn't count the ships, but I killed the enemies significantly faster and thus many more. Largest merit payout I saw was like 79 or so, most disappointing was Spec Ops Alpha that gave me like 19 or so, but that might also been display lag or something.
Anyway, in the Python I of course roflstomped the enemies and completed a quarter of the green bar. In the 13 minutes there I earned 876 merits. In theory that's pretty good, but I can't sustain it of course with having to reload three times per hour.
So are they too easy? Hard to say. While I am generally a crappy combat pilot, I am pretty experienced and went there well prepared with decent gear. A player with less experience and possibly worse ships will struggle with these. The aggression level was pretty much on par with normal CZ I think, the CZs just seem to run incredibly long with a steady stream of new enemies. I did get constantly attacked by other ships and did have to be aware of my surroundings, just like in normal CZs.
Anyway, of all the merit earning methods I tried so far I had the most fun in the Power CZ. It's some nice pew pew where you do have to have your wits about you or you get thrashed (well I do), and merit earning is... I think decent. I enjoyed it, it was fun. You need decent DPS though, the ships were very tanky.
Just to test it I went there with my PP mission runner Mandalay. It has roughly 1400 shields and 1400 armor, so not squishy, but not exactly a tank. It was also equipped with a full load of gimballed overcharged frags, incendiary on the mediums, corrosive and drag on the small ones.
I went to a medium CZ, because that's all the system spawned (I assume there should be different ones too?). For my test, I stayed until I ran out of ammo, which was after 15 minutes. I encountered a healthy mix of smalls - mostly Cobras (both III and IV), Viper IV and Vultures, plus three Anacondas, all ranging from Expert to Dangerous. I also encountered a Spec Ops wing.
With the Mandalay I felt the ships weren't exactly difficult, but very bullet spongy. I was never really in danger, most of my shields I losts while jousting a dangerous Anaconda and not really noticing Spec Ops Alpha on my ass were like 20% or so. Again, I was never really in danger, the Mandaly did good, and I had fun doing some good dogfighting, but the fights were also longer than neccessary and... a bit exhausting. Annyoing maybe. Also, those CZ seem to run VERY long, the green bar hardly moved.
Anyway, I ran out of ammo and bailed to reload. In those 15 minutes I earned 441 merits. Not great, but also not bad.
So of course I decided to return with a murder boat and got distracted on the tangent of rebuilding my Python Mk.II (I had not really flown it and stolen most of its parts) and engineering a set of new frags for it - all overcharged, the four large one again incendiary, the medium ones again corrosive and drag.
So with that murder board I again went to do that medium CZ until I ran out of ammo, which was after 13 minutes. I encountered pretty much the same mix of ships with a couple of Python Mk.I sprinkled in. I didn't count the ships, but I killed the enemies significantly faster and thus many more. Largest merit payout I saw was like 79 or so, most disappointing was Spec Ops Alpha that gave me like 19 or so, but that might also been display lag or something.
Anyway, in the Python I of course roflstomped the enemies and completed a quarter of the green bar. In the 13 minutes there I earned 876 merits. In theory that's pretty good, but I can't sustain it of course with having to reload three times per hour.
So are they too easy? Hard to say. While I am generally a crappy combat pilot, I am pretty experienced and went there well prepared with decent gear. A player with less experience and possibly worse ships will struggle with these. The aggression level was pretty much on par with normal CZ I think, the CZs just seem to run incredibly long with a steady stream of new enemies. I did get constantly attacked by other ships and did have to be aware of my surroundings, just like in normal CZs.
Anyway, of all the merit earning methods I tried so far I had the most fun in the Power CZ. It's some nice pew pew where you do have to have your wits about you or you get thrashed (well I do), and merit earning is... I think decent. I enjoyed it, it was fun. You need decent DPS though, the ships were very tanky.
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Spec Ops give like 140sh to me...
may be Kaine doesn't trust her combat pilots.As I said, the merits in the info panel might not necessarily have been the ones for the current ship.
Hm, if somebody got bored by lack of spec ops ships - welcome to salvage signals. Often Condas with prismatics, etc. Shooting from Corvette 2x4 machine guns in such wooden Eagle - 4-5% of hull minus on distance less, than 1 km - effect is better, than beating a tree, but not too much. And it's effective gun, not short range blaser. Once even escaped, because there were 6 such beasts around 1 me, opponent's Conda was 20% of hull, but own shield...
They're not difficult, but they're probably the best combat source of merits (I got slightly over 4k/30min with friendly spec ops+correspondents). Seemed to be mostly small tanky CZ ships with no chaff, they're probably new designs for CZs/PP2 but there's not enough new designs so it felt like I was fighting vipers/DBXs the entire time.
With how a conda or a cutter would still give merits just based on pilot rank having mostly small ships is fine.
The main issue here is that it's old content. There's plenty of ways to spice up CZs with just hyperfocusing on enemy ship designs (and spawns to an extent) to force some new meta/playstyles for different CZs but I don't think any of that is going on.
This (highly repeatable combat activities, different form existing ones) is the content that Elite needs more of the most and it's very under served.
With how a conda or a cutter would still give merits just based on pilot rank having mostly small ships is fine.
The main issue here is that it's old content. There's plenty of ways to spice up CZs with just hyperfocusing on enemy ship designs (and spawns to an extent) to force some new meta/playstyles for different CZs but I don't think any of that is going on.
This (highly repeatable combat activities, different form existing ones) is the content that Elite needs more of the most and it's very under served.