[UPDATE] A word from Frontier about NPC's, AI and Bi-Weave Shields

[jonluv]

You are not alone my friend I am doing the same as well. Until I read that an update is coming I won't take the risk. The thing is, and have you noticed it's only sometimes that the a.i. most fights I can tell the a.i. is better at techniques and strategy that's fine. And out of the blue some fights your shields and hull are gone in seconds. Playing the game right now is a risk to my credit balance I feel. 4.5 mil rebuy is a few hrs of combat.

Decided a week or so to drop ED due to update changes and have a go at Fallout 4 only using Melee weapons
Yesterday went back to ED just local trading--- found a short ( 2.5ly) run bringing 100k per 10 mins, really enjoyed it , interdicted 4 times and got away quite easily with only slight damage so maybe some changes have been made got the feeling AI a bit easier . Graphics not so good and had 3 crashes in a couple of hours.

Altogether I found they the longer I played the less I worried about being "mugged"

 

[Arkman07]

Decided a week or so to drop ED due to update changes and have a go at Fallout 4 only using Melee weapons
Yesterday went back to ED just local trading--- found a short ( 2.5ly) run bringing 100k per 10 mins, really enjoyed it , interdicted 4 times and got away quite easily with only slight damage so maybe some changes have been made got the feeling AI a bit easier . Graphics not so good and had 3 crashes in a couple of hours.

Altogether I found they the longer I played the less I worried about being "mugged"

That's just it though you can play for hrs and it's just fine then, out of the blue some a.i. god shows up in a eagle and bam your dead. I fought in the mehet event all weekend and ran into these things every couple of hrs. Got away all but once.

 

[Assumedcodet888]

I thought I was ok

I had a similar experiance. i'm in a asp explorer with class A sheilds, three sheild boosters which i believe stack and what used to be military bulk heads there some kind of D variant now i think. I was interdicted by a vulture with the message ' all that lovely cargo' of which i had none. On his first pass he took out my sheilds and inflicted 27% hull damage while i merly dimmed the outer ring of his sheilds. The post mentions 'for those needing a quick exit'. when your shields are down and a third of your hull gone and him behind you for the kill there is no chance your getting away. No sooner than i hit drive my thrusters were gone 2 seconds later as was i. It's akin to putting a one armed man with that arm tied behind his back and his shoelaces tied together in the ring with mike tyson and sayin go on lad 'get gud'. So i'm not seeing any changes here. Now i'm sure i read somewhere in the FD forums that this change was going to pc first and that xbox one players would have to wait but could be wrong

I also fly an Asp Explorer, armed with med pulse lasers and small multi cannons. I have 3A shields and 2 shield boosters. On three occasions my shields were wiped out on the first pass by the enemy's lasers. These were; Vulture, Eagle and Asp Explorer. On the first and second occasions I was only saved by allied enforcement ships coming to my rescue.

I'm all for a challenge but it seems the scales have tipped too far. By all means improve epc AI but at least have a broader scale of difficulty so it's more Elite Dangerous and less Elite Slaughter! And before the git gud brigade helpfully suggest that I git gud, save it, not everyone has the time or inclination to spend hours perfecting nuanced combat skills, we just want to have a bit of fun.

 

[TB6]

As the kids say "I'm not playing anymore!" Well not until the NPC's are sorted, I've been blown to bits twice now, just can't afford the money losses. I love this game but I'm really fed up with the attacks from NPC.

NPC's attact even if don't have cargo, using heat damaging weapons.

I tried mining yesterday for the 1st time, got attacked by NPC he asked for my cargo which I had none, just got away.

 

[Dutchman141]

As the kids say "I'm not playing anymore!" Well not until the NPC's are sorted, I've been blown to bits twice now, just can't afford the money losses. I love this game but I'm really fed up with the attacks from NPC.

NPC's attact even if don't have cargo, using heat damaging weapons.

I tried mining yesterday for the 1st time, got attacked by NPC he asked for my cargo which I had none, just got away.

Same just happened to me in my Python, A deadly FDL followed me to the station and started shoot'n heat damaging weapons, my shields were gone in seconds.
I was just able to get within the no firing zone of the station and security took care of the       .
I didn't have any cargo or even limpets and he just kept ranting about me being that big haul he was waiting for!!!

 

[deathcry]

I keep getting interdicted by master npc's i wouldnt mind so much if i wasnt mostly harmless combat rating, i think fd needs to tweak the npc to be same level as you are combat rating. I been able to get away but just annoying i know i will have no shot to fight back.

 

[Crichton5]

There's no way my FAS should be getting shat on by Vultures and FDLs regularly. It's kitted out for absolutely millions more than I paid for it. Got lots of A and B systems. Good Shields. Mil spec armour.

Vultures and FDLs just laugh at me. I wasted hours getting that ship and it's utter pants. Before 2.1 my Vulture could take a Python 70% of the time with good flying and tactics. A Conda, 50% of the time. Other Vultures weren't a problem. FDLs were an 80% win ratio.

Bow I don't mind AI improvements as I like a challenge. But if I wanted to be paying this much insurance I'd just go play in Open mode and not Solo. It's a game. It's meant to be fun. "play as you want"

I.dint have the time of the skill to."git gud" so I play Solo in order to still have fun.

Not anymore Frontier. Thanks for ruining the game for me. I JUST forked out 29.99 for Horizons and looks like I won't be playing anyway. Thanks a bunch.

 

[Sylon]

There's no way my FAS should be getting shat on by Vultures and FDLs regularly. It's kitted out for absolutely millions more than I paid for it. Got lots of A and B systems. Good Shields. Mil spec armour.

Vultures and FDLs just laugh at me. I wasted hours getting that ship and it's utter pants. Before 2.1 my Vulture could take a Python 70% of the time with good flying and tactics. A Conda, 50% of the time. Other Vultures weren't a problem. FDLs were an 80% win ratio.

Bow I don't mind AI improvements as I like a challenge. But if I wanted to be paying this much insurance I'd just go play in Open mode and not Solo. It's a game. It's meant to be fun. "play as you want"

I.dint have the time of the skill to."git gud" so I play Solo in order to still have fun.

Not anymore Frontier. Thanks for ruining the game for me. I JUST forked out 29.99 for Horizons and looks like I won't be playing anyway. Thanks a bunch.

Vultures are are much more maneuverable than an FAS. The Vulture can fly rings around that ship, and has 2 class-3 weapon slots. I can eat any ship for breakfast in my Vulture. I picked up an FAS because bounty hunting in my Vulture was too easy.

 

[Arkman07]

There's no way my FAS should be getting shat on by Vultures and FDLs regularly. It's kitted out for absolutely millions more than I paid for it. Got lots of A and B systems. Good Shields. Mil spec armour.

Vultures and FDLs just laugh at me. I wasted hours getting that ship and it's utter pants. Before 2.1 my Vulture could take a Python 70% of the time with good flying and tactics. A Conda, 50% of the time. Other Vultures weren't a problem. FDLs were an 80% win ratio.

Bow I don't mind AI improvements as I like a challenge. But if I wanted to be paying this much insurance I'd just go play in Open mode and not Solo. It's a game. It's meant to be fun. "play as you want"

I.dint have the time of the skill to."git gud" so I play Solo in order to still have fun.

Not anymore Frontier. Thanks for ruining the game for me. I JUST forked out 29.99 for Horizons and looks like I won't be playing anyway. Thanks a bunch.

I'm in an a rated fdl and even I'm having trouble in combat zones the a.i. is ultra aggressive and I don't care what they say I run into those stupid heat lasers all the time. I've only died once so far but at 4.5 mil rebuy and how often I'm having to run back to stations for repairs. My credits per hour for combat is nearly nothing. For regular combat pilots such as myself this update is a nightmare. Combat was the reason I bought this game, I worked for hundreds of hrs to earn my fdl and I'm fairly decent at combat, even against other cmdrs. All the youtubers even are running from fights regularly. I've always told people if you want that lvl of difficulty go I to open play and fight other cmdrs. But npcs need to be npcs, cmdrs should be better than npcs on the regular with random boss types every now and then but the common mobs in combat zones should not be keeping up with A rated kits on our ships. And ignore any posts by individuals boasting about they're prowess, that's not helping anyone.

 

[Guywired]

So.. that sucked.

After an 800ly round trip to get 4t of meta alloys...

An NPC Anaconda WRECKS me and with engineer weapons and sets me back 400ly.

Eff this.

Where do I submit a ticket?

 

[the source 0179]

There's no way my FAS should be getting shat on by Vultures and FDLs regularly. It's kitted out for absolutely millions more than I paid for it. Got lots of A and B systems. Good Shields. Mil spec armour.

Vultures and FDLs just laugh at me. I wasted hours getting that ship and it's utter pants. Before 2.1 my Vulture could take a Python 70% of the time with good flying and tactics. A Conda, 50% of the time. Other Vultures weren't a problem. FDLs were an 80% win ratio.

Bow I don't mind AI improvements as I like a challenge. But if I wanted to be paying this much insurance I'd just go play in Open mode and not Solo. It's a game. It's meant to be fun. "play as you want"

I.dint have the time of the skill to."git gud" so I play Solo in order to still have fun.

Not anymore Frontier. Thanks for ruining the game for me. I JUST forked out 29.99 for Horizons and looks like I won't be playing anyway. Thanks a bunch.

Definitely. Its a game. Its supposed to be fun the way you want to play. Open for challenge. Solo for fun and cruising around.
I've gone exploring just to get away from the        ed up AI now. No fun. Might have to stop till it gets fixed. And not just a little. A lot.

 

[Dutchman141]

I'm wondering when FDev comes with an official reply to all the comments made about the new AI, interdictions, graphical glitches, etc.
It's been almost two weeks since 1.6 now and besides the server patch and the client patch that Xb1 players are still waiting for there hasn't been much feedback from FDev regarding the issues that aren't covered by those two patches yet.

I'm curious to hear about your point of view at the moment FDev, a few words can do a lot of good.

Cheers.

 

[Systolic]

I keep getting interdicted by master npc's i wouldnt mind so much if i wasnt mostly harmless combat rating, i think fd needs to tweak the npc to be same level as you are combat rating. I been able to get away but just annoying i know i will have no shot to fight back.

Not sure that that's a great idea. I may be Elite in combat, but what if I'm trying to up my trade rank. I might be bumming around a T6. In this scenario I'd only have Elite level pirates coming after me. That's no good. Just because I'm elite ranked doesn't mean I'm always in something that is capable of fighting.

 

[Nightmoss]

I'm fairly new to ED and still learning the ropes, but for me atm, it's clearly one step forward and two steps back everytime I log in. Many Sidewinders, and now Cobras have gone puff to the AI master NPC's.

 

[deathcry]

Not sure that that's a great idea. I may be Elite in combat, but what if I'm trying to up my trade rank. I might be bumming around a T6. In this scenario I'd only have Elite level pirates coming after me. That's no good. Just because I'm elite ranked doesn't mean I'm always in something that is capable of fighting.

I see what you are saying and i agree with you in that case, there has to be a way to keep AI good but at same time not over powered or so high level u cant fight. I didnt have any issue with AI pre 1.6 and woulsnt mind returning to that level but i alao know it wouls upset alot of people just hope there can be a middle ground for everyone

 

[Grubilman]

Vultures are are much more maneuverable than an FAS. The Vulture can fly rings around that ship, and has 2 class-3 weapon slots. I can eat any ship for breakfast in my Vulture. I picked up an FAS because bounty hunting in my Vulture was too easy.

I would argue that the FAS and Vulture have different kinds of maneuverability. Both of those ships are some of my favorites. The Vulture, to me, feels more like a traditional fighter. The FAS is hard do explain... It's tail end slides out much faster than the rest of it's ship. It means that it's easier to keep the nose on target, compared to the Vulture. The problem is, that when it turns sharp like this, it loses it's momentum. So, different kinds of maneuverability, I'd say.

 

[Diceman199]

I'm still getting issues since the update. The hud turning completely black during combat is a big problem....even pre combat as I can't even see if the ship i'm targeting is wanted or not or see what the bounty is after a KW scan. Plus the problem with not knowing where they've gone if they get out of your line of sight.

Chaff also doesn't seem to work very well at all. Last night a conda covered in turrets was able to target me despite me not being on it's nose and continually popping chaff.

At least harmless AI's in diamonbacks are not taking out my vultures A rated shields in two shots anymore

 

[Dragonfiend]

Has anything been done? My 6A prismatic shield is still being ripped off like prom dresses in seconds. The npcs are firing everything they have at once, i cant even tell you how many different weapons i just got hit from. My chaff are pretty much cheap firework sparklers at this point.

And a quick question to anyone reading, are you having federal ships i.e gunship or assault ship try to ram you on every pass while unloading every bullet in their inventory in the process?

 

[Arkman07]

Has anything been done? My 6A prismatic shield is still being ripped off like prom dresses in seconds. The npcs are firing everything they have at once, i cant even tell you how many different weapons i just got hit from. My chaff are pretty much cheap firework sparklers at this point.

And a quick question to anyone reading, are you having federal ships i.e gunship or assault ship try to ram you on every pass while unloading every bullet in their inventory in the process?

Nope not a thing, and the newsletter just came out no mention of anything at all. It's funny because at this point for what I do, (combat) the games broken right now, so it feels like I've only pre ordered the horizons dlc, and I'm still waiting for the actually release.

 

[Ezren]

Combat has become a chore. I got some CZ missions, so I headed in and tried to clear a few out.

In my FDL, I've had every single fight continually be a head-on joust-off, where they always seem to whip around faster than I can. I just spent 5 minutes trying to take on an AspX who, with each pass, was dropping SCBs and going back to full shields, and chaff when we would make a run at each other. And the instant my shields went down, my canopy blew out and my power capacity was exceeded.

So, combat. No. Maybe in Res sites where I can try to disable a target ship before it gets itself to facing me (which they always can, even a Conda) but CZs leave me nothing but annoyed. I drop in and out of the 8 ships engaging one target, they will always charge head-on at me.

This doesn't even touch on the mysterious problems I had last night, where my modules were rapid-fire malfunctioning while my shields were still fully up.