The AI is annoying not challenging.

Harley001

Harley001
Flying in a FDL with a good set up. Been doing undermining and Crime Sweep as part of powerplay. There are certain ship types i NEVER bother fighting.

Vipers and Cobra's mainly, why? BECAUSE THE AI FOR THEM IS GOD AWFUL! They never actually "fight" me. They just fly around in a seris of loops without doing any actual damange. Jousting but 1000x worst. Oh, you are trying to joust and trade shots with a FER-DE-LANCE!? Yeah that'll work out for you. Oh trying it on a cutter, great plan.

The problem is that this strategy isn't differcult BUT IT MAKES FIGHTS WAY TOO LONG. Most of the fight is spent trying to chase down the NPC as he boost all over the place trying to line up his next "joust" if you counter his joust and catch up to him he will keep boosting away until he can do another joust.

A solution MIGHT be just flying in reverse when these idiots try their joust. NOPE for some reason if you fly in reverse they will fly away or stop giving chase. When I fly in reverse they often get up to 4m away from me won't come near me again until I stop.

Its hard to describe but basically I feel like too much the AI for ships is the NPC simply trying to extend the length of the fight rather than win it.
 

Meeklo Braca

Meeklo Braca
After the 2.0 AI update, Vipers were just about the hardest kill for me in the game. They scaled it back a lot since then though. The issue might be that your build is great against big slow ships, and not made to fight small fast ones. You're definitely going to want tracking weapons if you don't have them already. Downgrading to a smaller ship than an FDL will actually help as well. Or alternatively, upgrade to something larger that can fit a lot of turreted lasers.
 

Serin Vickers

S
Use lateral thrust more. If you thrust in the direction of your pitch while dogfighting you narrow the window of attack but if you thrust in the opposite direction of your pitch you widen the arc. This way you get a lot more shots in and they die much faster as they can't outlast your damage.
If we're talking purely PvE and you do want to reverse against fast ships a lot use laser weaponry with grade 1 (higher ones are not necessary) long range engineering upgrades to remove your falloff penalty - with those you do full hitscan damage at range and enemies have to be outside of max weapon range before they have a chance at surviving the damage pressure.
 

DeathStroke

Banned
D
You're not looking in the right places. Check out some combat zones, the AI (and fitting) is a lot 'better' (assuming harder = better for your) there. CZ's vary in difficulty, so check several out, not just one.
 

Heavensburn

Heavensburn
NuttiKrust said:
The AI was challenging.
But people didn't like losing their e-ships and didn't want to put in the effort to get better.
So, we have what we have now.

#RememberChallengingAIOf2.1
Click to expand...

All hail the great SJA and the awesome AI she made. And then was pulled from the game due to the above...
 

Julio Montega

Julio Montega
The AI is working as intended, if you fight a lone viper that is not apparent,
but in a wing these single annoying dodgers actually bind you while the rest hammers away.

Well equipped ships are a bad basis to evaluate NPC difficulty on, as it has to suffice for a rainbow
of player skills;)
 

lordpsymon

lordpsymon
You know why the AI isn't challenging? Because people kept complaining and moaning that they were way too hard and ruining their credits-per-hour.
 

jasonbirder

J
The AI simply isn't challenging...it's set up so Players can go out and "farm" ridiculous numbers of kills with little danger...
It SHOULD be set at a level where killing a couple of high level deadly/elite ships comparable to your own is an achievement and you should regularly look at an engagement and have to decide...too tough...evade...
Instead it's set at a level where players worry about having materials for ammo reloads so they don't have to rtb so often...they can kill such high numbers!
Elite Dangerous...it's like shooting fish in a barrel...
 

Julio Montega

Julio Montega
jasonbirder said:
The AI simply isn't challenging...it's set up so Players can go out and "farm" ridiculous numbers of kills with little danger...
It SHOULD be set at a level where killing a couple of high level deadly/elite ships comparable to your own is an achievement and you should regularly look at an engagement and have to decide...too tough...evade...
Instead it's set at a level where players worry about having materials for ammo reloads so they don't have to rtb so often...they can kill such high numbers!
Elite Dangerous...it's like shooting fish in a barrel...
Click to expand...

Just to easy my curiosity,
do you fly ships with hitpoint modules equipped (SCB/SB/HRP/MRP)?
If so, did you ever try to engage the NPCs without these, especially a wing?
 

ebbrell

ebbrell
jasonbirder said:
The AI simply isn't challenging...it's set up so Players can go out and "farm" ridiculous numbers of kills with little danger...
It SHOULD be set at a level where killing a couple of high level deadly/elite ships comparable to your own is an achievement and you should regularly look at an engagement and have to decide...too tough...evade...
Instead it's set at a level where players worry about having materials for ammo reloads so they don't have to rtb so often...they can kill such high numbers!
Elite Dangerous...it's like shooting fish in a barrel...
Click to expand...

As you progress the more difficult NPCs open up. normally one level higher than your own.
But, the problem still remains the ability of the NPCs is low. They seem to be in easy mode. I took out a deadly corvette yesterday without being hardly hit. I was in a corvette so turning ability evenly matched.

I am nearly a master

Fdev can you please make NPCs more difficult like they once were.
 
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Durden T.

Durden T.
I also think AI ships are totally dumb, specially when getting interdicted and attacked in my A-rated Cutter by small ships like Vultures, ASPXs or Cobras...

That isn't the worst, the worst is watching them loss shields while mine are full and still saying things like "you are going to die!!" or "give my X amount of your cargo and you'll live"... Where is their sense of susrvival??

I think it won't be difficult to implement a system where AI ships think twice when facing a bigger and more powerful vessel, and to stop saying nonsenses when clearly loosing the match, otherwise they look just so unrealistic that is difficult to take them seriously, which, for me, totally breaks inmersion...
 
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Rampant

Rampant
lordpsymon said:
You know why the AI isn't challenging? Because people kept complaining and moaning that they were way too hard and ruining their credits-per-hour.
Click to expand...

No that isn't true.

The mantra "The AI isn't challenging" is only true for players who have engineered the shizzle out of their combat-optimised fighting ships. Usually top-tier fighting ships like FdL and FAS. For the great majority of players the mantra just isn't true. You don't even need much skill provided you have engineered the shizzle out of your combat-optimised fighting ship.

So I say it again - in big fat letters - so the hard of thinking have a chance of it penetrating their stubborn reluctance:

If you are looking for a challenge and some *FUN* - go combating with a smaller less-well-engineered ship


It gets really tedious reading posts about players finding combat "unchallenging" while using their top-tier combat vessel.

Logic dictates that using a top-tier combat vessel to go combating less well optimised vessels is deliberately and with forethought reducing the "challenge". So a bit of friendly advice - and please don't take this the wrong way - it isn't intended to upset or insult - but how about you don't complain about the lack of challenge when you seek to deliberately minimise the challenge in the first place? Surely that's just common sense?

Happy New Year

Mark H
 

Kenneth McGrew

Kenneth McGrew
From the OP it sounds like you would prefer the AI to stand there and be swatted, its unclear weather you're actually asking for FD to dumb down AI even further, at least they're showing some signs of intelligence by using their strengths of agility vs your FDL, and when you try to reverski they will fly off, because they're not completely stupid, although there is room for improvement

however there are many challenging opportunities in the game which people ignore, but people will choose to fully engineer a Corvette and pack it full of SCBs / HRPs then proceed to moan its too easy,

The game has to cater for all and is a question of balance, if i was complaining i couldn't kill a corvette within 10 seconds in a stock sidewinder you would think i was nuts, complaining the AI are too easy in a fully engineered end game ship is not too dissimilar

If you were say; debating the AI were too easy while flying a viper fighting a wing of 3 Elite Condas your request about challenging AI would have more credibility
 

Justinian Octavius

Justinian Octavius
How challenging the NPCs are should depend upon the system you are in; it's security rating, whether they are hostile to you etc. As for the constant interdications by your own side due to undermining, well, that's just daft I'm afraid to say.
 

kofeyh

kofeyh
If you want an actual fight, go hunt thargoids. AI have been neutered to the point of irrelevance, and this has been compounded by the excessive focus on commander-only C&P.

Expecting AI to roll over and die so you can protect an income stream, as partly why they are as bad as they are. You got what you wanted. Farmable AI. Don’t complain that that isn’t enjoyable; it was never a consideration.

Pretty soon, people are going to wake up and realise that Frontier only make specific changes like this to respond to a specific complaint. Not to actually improve the experience. This isn’t meant to be harsh. It’s just reflective of the outcomes we now have.

Also the hot takes about improving the challenge by essentially running around naked, with a blunt spork, are a garbage bin fire of illogical nonsense.

We have a garbage outcome because people did not consider the consequences of screaming for endless AI nerfs. We’ve got what was asked for. This may bear no resemblance to what was or is wanted. And this isn’t changing, because even Frontier has bought into the same inane narrative.
 
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