Question about combat missions and threat levels.

[ObsidianKing]

I used to enjoy the chaos of jumping into a group of pirates in one of the threat 3/4 signals and just going to town as all of them opened up on my Corvette - great way to put those shields to the test.

Then someone at Frontier flicked a switch, whether on purpose or accidentally. so they ignore you blasting their buddies into the void. It also ruins that scenario with a lone Anaconda waiting and a supposed ‘ambush’ of pirates… that scan you and off when you attack the big ship.

Actually, I believe it only happens for low rank missions. For higher rank around threat level 8 I’ve been getting ambushed. 1 Anaconda as you tag him his buddies come to meet you.

I focus my drone on the Conda and solo the little guys.

 

[MVBanks]

I have noticed this behavior in massacre missions and high level assassinations but not in the current CG. Being in an unengineered Anaconda and only a drone as my wingman, i dont mind the “bug” at all. Dealing with high mobility ships all at once is nuisance.

On another note, i was wondering if it were normal for pirate ships in mission threat level 4-6 drop zones to all be equipped with rail guns? The only way I have a chance at defeating 6 rail gun-toting pirates is to evade them until a security team comes.

You know, those should be wing assassination missions, so intended for a team of players. It should be very difficult (as well as challenging) for a solo player. And as it is now, it's actually turned into a solo mission, because you're fighting that engineered FdL, one on one. Only after that, when he is destroyed, will the Vultures attack you, all at once, and only then it is a wing fight, but since the mission is actually solved, you can leave, you don't have to fight them at all.

If you're in an unengineered Anaconda, you're happy with that bug or "bug", that's fine. On the other hand, I came in a G5 Corvette with Prismatics and two class 7 SCB and Rail Guns, and then I was actually disappointed that everyone didn't attack me at once, because that FdL alone, doesn't stand a chance.

You can find good training for such situations in Pirate activity threat 5 - 7 POI, in systems that are in Civil unrest state.

All in all, pirate teams don't work at all in the game anymore, I guess they're all in some kind of feud!

 

[Kira Goto]

Actually, I believe it only happens for low rank missions. For higher rank around threat level 8 I’ve been getting ambushed. 1 Anaconda as you tag him his buddies come to meet you.

I focus my drone on the Conda and solo the little guys.

I’ve seen that Conda scenario in threat 3s too. Last experience I had with it was tagging the big ship, pirate friends showed up… and didn’t bother to shoot at me, flying a full combat Corvette.

Maybe they fixed that AI stuff by now, but I doubt it. I also experienced the stuff with ‘wingmates’ not doing anything til the lead ship went down. Bet they were getting cursed at a lot…

 

[aRJay]

So you are saying the NPC's have evolved to plot on their wing leader?

You should have seen what they were up to seven years ago not just handily defeating Elite commanders so easily that some of those commanders were asking to have their rank set down to a much lower level but allegedly creating their own super weapons*.

*It was claimed that this was a bug but forum opinion was that the NPCs were smart enough to have done it and the bug story was a cover up.

 

[ObsidianKing]

You know, those should be wing assassination missions, so intended for a team of players. It should be very difficult (as well as challenging) for a solo player. And as it is now, it's actually turned into a solo mission, because you're fighting that engineered FdL, one on one. Only after that, when he is destroyed, will the Vultures attack you, all at once, and only then it is a wing fight, but since the mission is actually solved, you can leave, you don't have to fight them at all.

If you're in an unengineered Anaconda, you're happy with that bug or "bug", that's fine. On the other hand, I came in a G5 Corvette with Prismatics and two class 7 SCB and Rail Guns, and then I was actually disappointed that everyone didn't attack me at once, because that FdL alone, doesn't stand a chance.

You can find good training for such situations in Pirate activity threat 5 - 7 POI, in systems that are in Civil unrest state.

All in all, pirate teams don't work at all in the game anymore, I guess they're all in some kind of feud!

 

[Walter2]

So you are saying the NPC's have evolved to plot on their wing leader?

Exactly so. It's what will happen when multiple AIs get released escape into the wild.