Set the Mistress of Minions Free!

[CMDR Cosmic Spacehead]

To be frank - the current NPCs don't vary enough. They did at one stage - for around a week - then they got nerfed as it wasn't possible for every human to be master of the universe and gamers are just used to being "The one true hero" - however ridiculous that might be in an online game.

Personally? - I like the idea of looking at an NPC and thinking "no ' chance" and chuckering off before I got killed. I looked at FDLs from my Cobra and just knew it wasn't worth the risk. I looked at Eagles and thought "what rank are they? - is it worth a go?" - I enjoyed this aspect of the game immensely. It was a whole new challenge.

Now. They're rubbish, mostly.

The other day I look on a dread pirate lord in the Cobra. He's in a Vulture - and it was easy. He just stopped flying a couple of times and just hung there whilst I shot at him - and he's supposed to be a master pilot. Now my Cobra IS a little engineered and ought to at least have a chance against someone in a Vulture, but it shouldn't be *easy*.

For me, an Elite NPC ought to put up a damned good fight in whatever they're flying and be virtually unbeatable unless you really know what you're doing if they're in a better ship than yours.

I took on an Elite pirate lord mission the other day, in my multipurpose Python (not dedicated combat, no armour).
I went in expecting a decent fight. Double checked my systems and firegroups, and dropped in to the USS.
1 Elite Anaconda. Nothing else.
1 minute later I was heading home slightly richer.

Not what I was expecting from an Elite mission NPC.

 

[Nerwan]

Yes this needs to happen!!!! I'd love places were you can meet super bad- NPCs!!

 

[William J Smith]

Gulp

And what would it do upon spotting an uber-smuggler like me?

Bill

Fill its hold with nerve gas, use grade 5 dirty tuning, and run smack into the slot sideways because theres a fine art to going in at 400+m/sec

 

[Sugarat]

Yes this needs to happen!!!! I'd love places were you can meet super bad- NPCs!!

Make it an in game location with unique assets.. a proper no go area.. populated by NPCs that get progressively more difficult until you reach the uber NPC..

 

[Komemiute]

Oh hell YEAH!

 

[lysan]

Yeeeesss, I'd say RELEASE HER....

The Minions are ready to utterly destroy us.....

 

[Arry]

I would say that she is working on them; they are called Thargoids. When they arrive in force, all you tough guys will be filling your VR head-sets, with tears.

 

[fruitbat]

long been an advocate of this, i want to face equally engineered and tough AI opponents as myself.

As long as its in specialised opt in areas of the game and not general play, there is no reason (legitimate anyway) why anyone can complain about this addition.

 

[Chris Simon]

long been an advocate of this, i want to face equally engineered and tough AI opponents as myself.

As long as its in specialised opt in areas of the game and not general play, there is no reason (legitimate anyway) why anyone can complain about this addition.

You can BET there would be people complaining about it. Don't forget. It's Elite forum.

Right off the bat - "Why Frontier adds useless challenge arena?!! Fix the !"£$%^ damn game, first!" - comes to mind.

 

[Muetdhiver]

Hell yeah, it's been missing for a while now XD

 

[Chris Simon]

Btw. not only would be a good idea to try and battle against beefed up enemy.

It would be awesome to try and fight against an exact copy of my actual ship.

I remember one mission in SWTOR where you have to fight against your mirror opposite with the same level, same skills and so on. One of the hardest and most fun fight in the whole game!

 

[raymondo the great]

Gulp

And what would it do upon spotting an uber-smuggler like me?

Bill

Fill its hold with nerve gas, use grade 5 dirty tuning, and run smack into the slot sideways because theres a fine art to going in at 400+m/sec

I'd suggest that they leave the general AI as is so that people can "trade in peace" unless they take said missions or go to said areas.

That said I'd actually like them to tone up the general AI in my smuggling encounters....but I'd accept given that there are many players and many skill levels and that I was new once this is probably not a smart "business decision" hence I'd be more than happy just seeking the action out!

 

[Sixteen-String Jack]

And why don't the minions have minions? The pirate lords don't have enough cash to hire a couple of wings of Eagles or Sidewinders as escorts? There is too much emphasis on single NPCs and there are too few NPCs cooperating in wings. Anarchy systems used to have swarms of cheap Kraits and Geckos on the make.

Perhaps what is missing is some sort of equivalence system so that one FAS is rated the same as an encounter with several smaller ships?

However, I'm sure that previous versions of Elite posed a far greater threat level if you strayed beyond high security systems. Unless there is high-level revision of a game design that seems to want to allow commanders to travel anywhere in a Sidewinder without being hampered by criminal records or political affiliations, then blandness and indifference rather than apprehensiveness and caution will be the norm.

 

[Arry]

And why don't the minions have minions? The pirate lords don't have enough cash to hire a couple of wings of Eagles or Sidewinders as escorts? There is too much emphasis on single NPCs and there are too few NPCs cooperating in wings. Anarchy systems used to have swarms of cheap Kraits and Geckos on the make.

Perhaps what is missing is some sort of equivalence system so that one FAS is rated the same as an encounter with several smaller ships?

However, I'm sure that previous versions of Elite posed a far greater threat level if you strayed beyond high security systems. Unless there is high-level revision of a game design that seems to want to allow commanders to travel anywhere in a Sidewinder without being hampered by criminal records or political affiliations, then blandness and indifference rather than apprehensiveness and caution will be the norm.

I see pirates in wings all the time, in fact I would say it is rarer to see them on their own.

 

[Truesilver]

Thanks to the OP for catching this ball and running with it!

Let me add a few things that I have variously said when making this proposal before:

boss level NPC with insane difficulty, top tier loot

1. Oh yes ^^ indeed, Frontier let these things drop all the goodies. Including (somehow) Cracked Industrial Firmware. And/or the mission-giver should give top stuff by the ton. And lots of faction +rep.

2. Credits-wise, succeeding in these missions should per hour be an absolute top-dollar career. Better than RES farming, for sure. Risk/reward.

3. Right back before 1.2 Wings we were told missions would be introduced that people would pretty much need to wing to complete. Well, here is the obvious way forwards. Either have an absolute apex combat ship yourself and piloting to match, or team up. Indeed, this could be a reason to use multi-crew matchmaking.

4. These missions should be advertised with some pretty big scary warnings.

5. The Monster NPC's in question should, at higher risk/reward levels, have tactical loadouts and matching tactical behaviour, as players do - e.g. stacked pack hounds + emissive, or a hull tank that boosts constantly whilst spamming gimballed weapons, or a frag or plasma ramming gameplan.

Anyway, here's hoping!

 

[Chris Simon]

2. Credits-wise, succeeding in these missions should per hour be an absolute top-dollar career. Better than RES farming, for sure. Risk/reward.

I wouldn't even be mad if one such boss-fight missions would be required prior to gaining the Combat Elite ranking.

 

[fruitbat]

I wouldn't even be mad if one such boss-fight missions would be required prior to gaining the Combat Elite ranking.

Now that should be mandatory

 

[Iori]

Elite missions, or Elite wing missions, designed to be taken in a party, like you would a Raid Boss in an MMO.

 

[Dathayn]

i'm in. Bring it on MoM

 

[Gully Foyle]

Unleash the Elite NPCs in Anarchy systems with YUGE bounties and rare cargo rewards.
o7