Maybe the NPC was prospecting for rares and got the usual boatload of iron, nickel, carbon, sulfur, etc. with just those common mats, he or you can synthesize all the ammo reloads you need
(well, not infinite reloads of course but easily 20+ reloads for missile racks and still have plenty of other mats on board with the 600 mat limit. I usually carry 10-15 missile reload mats, which uses up about 150 mats of my 600 mat storage)
so so if he had class 2 seeker missile launcher, that is 24 missiles per launcher, then 10 half reloads would be another 120 missiles. A lot more if it was dumb fire.
so yea. Even if NPCs didn't cheat which we know they do in many cases (e.g. LY jump range, interdiction cool down. Etc), in this case an not following same rules as a player could easily launch hundreds of missiles at you.
![[VR] Mad Mike](https://forums-cdn.zaonce.net/data/avatars/m/27/27910.jpg?1553527108){kind=avatar}
Is this confirmed about the cheats? I thought SJA not promised the ai played by exactly the same rules as us now?
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I don't know about 'confirmed' as in a black/white statement from devs that literally and quite baldy says 'yes, the AI cheats' - but there are the many, many observations of simple facts players have made. Those at least in my eyes are confirmed because a) I've seen it myself and b) too many players who normally don't agree on much have common agreement on a few things:
1. AI jump distance limits - this is a confirmed 'cheat' far as I'm concerned. Even if they had modded FSDs, NPCs with Eagles or other short range jumpers are following Asps modded in my case with level 4 FSD to ~39 LY jumps. Yet every jump, there is that same mission NPC that follows forever until you or he is dead.
2. AI fuel range - related to the above, the NPC with small fuel tank should at very least have to stop to scoop, yet clearly is not the case. Again, mission NPCs where you 100% know their name because mission email tells you exactly who is assigned to hunt you, follow forever with 0 time between jumps. I've had a posse of mission NPcs chasing me ~400LY on the long range Sothis to bubble deliveries/sourcing mission run, and no NPC spends time to refuel / scoop.
3. AI magic teleports - long standing game mechanic where NPCs spawn at player, not actually travel as we do across the galaxy. But with 2.1 it is far easier to spot the utter illogical paradox of jumping high wake AWAY from an NPC that just interdicted you - and land in a new system where that same NPC is waiting for you with the usual 'there's the ship with the big haul I was looking for'.
It is not guaranteed each jump will have them spawn in front - just saying it can. The RNG on how often the mission assigned NPCs can spawn is what I would call quite high, but not 100% of course. I can go 2-4 jumps with no spawn, then go 10+ jumps with NPC spawns - who teleport, because again --> I jump away from them, to land into their waiting ambush on other system end. Bizarre paradox and obvious NPC cheat
4. Interdiction failure cooldown - players have to live with the rules of failing an interdiction cooldown for next jump, whether it is failure on PVP or PVE. But NPCs can fail interdicting you, or you submit which should at least give them a short cooldown timer, but soon as you boost away - quite literally few seconds later the NPC is back in wake and chasing you - with no obvious cooldown. So this is another cheat or a bug, whatever you want to call it.
5. Unlimited ammo - I am not going to call this one a cheat because as I responded to OP, with synthesis there is now an in-game mechanic to create your own ammo loads, so if NPCs follow same rule as players, then with 600 mats of reloads, while not infinite, it is effectively infinite for as long as a viable combat engagement will last until either one of you is dead, or runs away.
6. Full heal cheat - this is an oldie from far before Engineers came out. NPCs that escape your instance, but still in the same system, full heal instantly. But now combined with interdiction spam and no cooldown, this means an NPC that you almost killed which jumped away to escape, will turn around and jump back in less than 10 seconds - while you may still be in normal space recovering your shields or battle damage - and they will re-engage you at full health.
I am sure there are more but off top of my head, and the ones that aggravate me the most just quick listed above.
The only infinite ammo NPC's have is multi-cannons; and that's to stop them hi-waking when they run out.