Well, not playing combat at least. I've been mining, trading and testing to see if sandbox (i.e non mission) smuggling works yet (Spoiler: it doesn't. But smuggling missions do, and that's nice!)
So I decided with all the changes (last change I saw in action was the change to PP explosions), I thought I'd run into a combat zone, a RES, a few missions and get myself interdicted, and compare them to my previous experiences/ each other.
Overall (all done in high intensity CZ/REZ. Couldn't find one of the new hazardous ones. Didn't really try that hard, I hate RES, that isn't bounty hunting, you're a glorified security guard)
+NPCs use chaff, shield cells, and evasive manoeuvres.
- NPCs cheat with chaff and general heat management.
+NPCs seem a little better at staying out of my gunsights.
- NPCs are no better at getting ME in THEIR gunsights.
- 'Spin of Death' bug still present.
- Still no 'suicide check' to stop small ships attacking much more dangerous ones, and very few seem to try and run when on low hull. As a general rule FD, if a player would do it, make the NPCs do it.
+Missiles seemed to do reasonable damage/cost against one viper who interdicted me (30% or so hull)
- Missiles then did 4% hull repeatedly against vipers/couriers in the combat zone. Presumably they had better modules. Shouldn't utterly negate missile damage though. Ammo cost more than I got for the kill. More work to do there FD.
+Shield Cells have a downside. They also seemed to have less effect? Must admit I didn't test that part in a 'controlled' environment...
- They can still be chained, you just need heatsinks now. At least that lowers how many shield boosters can be stacked?
+ Bi weave shields/recharge rate in stations are good alternatives for PVE.
- Armour packages seem to be creeping in to replace SCB. So long as their mass penalty is balanced (i.e. you can be agile or a tank, but not both), I'm fine with that. Makes them a playstyle choice. The game could use more playstyle options (agile/tank, sustained/burst DPS etc).
RES
-Still seems to rely on RNG when spawning the instance as to what you get inside. Nothing is more game-y and horrible than being forced to jump in and out of an instance just to get decent spawns. Either fix the spawns so each instance always gets the same, or allow spawn rates to change while the instance is in session.
- Still fish in a barrel, still a weird number of pirates willing to commit suicide.
- Rewards now seem low given how long it takes to kill ships (chaff, evasion, no PP explosions etc).
Combat Zone
- Still no objective/limit to reinforcements. Still an endless grind.
- Again rewards now seem low given how long it takes to kill ships (chaff, evasion, no PP explosions etc).
Missions
- These are the most immersive combat option I have found in game (aside from pirating players/PP interactions), but are still woefully underpaid.
- Like all missions, don't seem to spawn enough to cover many rank levels. Most of the time even as a mid ranked player you will see 2/3 of the missions as either low paid and low ranked, or too high a rank to accept. This only leaves 1/3 of missions as viable. Which would be fine, but quite often so few missions spawn, that not even one at your level will appear. To be a viable alternative to RES/CZ, missions must spawn in higher numbers on BB, to ensure you can reliably get a mission at your rank from most stations where such missions would spawn.
Interdiction/wild spawns (Supercruise)
- Similar problems to all other sections, rewards are too small to be worth the effort. Without a mission, a bounty hunter has no economic reason to interdict a wanted ship. Which is a bit wrong, no? As they are meant to be BOUNTY hunters, not hired guns.
TDLR:
Needs:
How do your experiences match up? Am I way off here?
So I decided with all the changes (last change I saw in action was the change to PP explosions), I thought I'd run into a combat zone, a RES, a few missions and get myself interdicted, and compare them to my previous experiences/ each other.
Overall (all done in high intensity CZ/REZ. Couldn't find one of the new hazardous ones. Didn't really try that hard, I hate RES, that isn't bounty hunting, you're a glorified security guard)
+NPCs use chaff, shield cells, and evasive manoeuvres.
- NPCs cheat with chaff and general heat management.
+NPCs seem a little better at staying out of my gunsights.
- NPCs are no better at getting ME in THEIR gunsights.
- 'Spin of Death' bug still present.
- Still no 'suicide check' to stop small ships attacking much more dangerous ones, and very few seem to try and run when on low hull. As a general rule FD, if a player would do it, make the NPCs do it.
+Missiles seemed to do reasonable damage/cost against one viper who interdicted me (30% or so hull)
- Missiles then did 4% hull repeatedly against vipers/couriers in the combat zone. Presumably they had better modules. Shouldn't utterly negate missile damage though. Ammo cost more than I got for the kill. More work to do there FD.
+Shield Cells have a downside. They also seemed to have less effect? Must admit I didn't test that part in a 'controlled' environment...
- They can still be chained, you just need heatsinks now. At least that lowers how many shield boosters can be stacked?
+ Bi weave shields/recharge rate in stations are good alternatives for PVE.
- Armour packages seem to be creeping in to replace SCB. So long as their mass penalty is balanced (i.e. you can be agile or a tank, but not both), I'm fine with that. Makes them a playstyle choice. The game could use more playstyle options (agile/tank, sustained/burst DPS etc).
RES
-Still seems to rely on RNG when spawning the instance as to what you get inside. Nothing is more game-y and horrible than being forced to jump in and out of an instance just to get decent spawns. Either fix the spawns so each instance always gets the same, or allow spawn rates to change while the instance is in session.
- Still fish in a barrel, still a weird number of pirates willing to commit suicide.
- Rewards now seem low given how long it takes to kill ships (chaff, evasion, no PP explosions etc).
Combat Zone
- Still no objective/limit to reinforcements. Still an endless grind.
- Again rewards now seem low given how long it takes to kill ships (chaff, evasion, no PP explosions etc).
Missions
- These are the most immersive combat option I have found in game (aside from pirating players/PP interactions), but are still woefully underpaid.
- Like all missions, don't seem to spawn enough to cover many rank levels. Most of the time even as a mid ranked player you will see 2/3 of the missions as either low paid and low ranked, or too high a rank to accept. This only leaves 1/3 of missions as viable. Which would be fine, but quite often so few missions spawn, that not even one at your level will appear. To be a viable alternative to RES/CZ, missions must spawn in higher numbers on BB, to ensure you can reliably get a mission at your rank from most stations where such missions would spawn.
Interdiction/wild spawns (Supercruise)
- Similar problems to all other sections, rewards are too small to be worth the effort. Without a mission, a bounty hunter has no economic reason to interdict a wanted ship. Which is a bit wrong, no? As they are meant to be BOUNTY hunters, not hired guns.
TDLR:
Needs:
- More rewards (across the board, but particularly for 'wild spawns' outside of RES/CS/Missions.)
- More aggressive (trying to get you in their sights) but less cheat-y NPCs.
- An NPC 'suicide check'/flee mechanism.
- More numerous missions on BB to ensure even rank spread.
- Care taken to balance armour with agility in HRPs.
How do your experiences match up? Am I way off here?