Ships Useless loadout since 2.3 what have changed? Several questions.

[s4bleknight]

Hi,

early this year I restarted playing elite, and enjoyed several new things (haven't played for years). I had some problems with the new AI and so on, but thats it. I bought a Vulture did a loadout with a multicannon gimbled (3C) and Beam laser gimbled (3C). Everything was nice till I made the update yesterday. I was playing in Gandii doing this community event. I still have to learn against the AI but I did make money. Now it has stopped. So my questions:

1. Multicannon and Beam Laser now seem to have half the damage. An eagle needs around 300-400 Rounds and the same time of beaming. Against ASP I gave up the NPC now carry a bazillian of shield cells. One took 6 minutes of beaming (with short underbreakings) and 700 shots until I gave because of no shield damage. Has something changed here? I haven't found anything in the changelog?

2. New NPC with ASP can turn there gun towards me forever. I have done anything, tested a good built ASP by myself the AI just follows all my flying like nothing with constant hit rate. This I also didn't see before.

3. Since the update the very first thing that will break is thrusters. No matter where I get hit, my typical death is my shields are draining I try to get off, ASP drains my shield and instantly my thruster go down and there is no way to get away, restart them or get to jump. The second szenario is 4-5 NPC pop up in front of my out of nowhere and drain shield and hull in under 2 seconds. There is nothing new to AI or NPC Intelligence in the changelog but the fighting style to me has changed hard since yesterday.

My fun has gone to hate...

 

[Hellfire85]

It's not the guns that have changed, At least not that I have noticed.

I have the same loadout as you and still take down dangerous to elite NPCs ranging from I-eagle/eagle to Anaconda and sometimes 'vettes.

I read somewhere that NPC now have modded ships too, so you can prepare yourself of finding an NPC with say, DD tuning, OC weapons and so on.

What I suggest is you get used to your Vulture and get the handling right.

It's rather easy to stay behind the opponent if you know how to use thrust/counter-thrust and FA off at the right moment. Even with a factory A fitted Vulture.

If your modules take most of the hits, then I suggest you get some good module reinforcement packages (D class are the lightest , don't go for E)

Also, best is to upgrade powerplant and shields first.

So, tl:dr:

Weapons, at least class 3 have not changed. NPC became simply more "intelligent" in maneuvering and use upgrades now.

Edit: Practice staying behind the target on easier targets first and don't rush to kill them. Take your time to think and move accordingly to the enemy ship.
after a while you will need to think less and can adapt faster to each situation.

 

[Imo]

Did you synthese premium ammo before? There was a bug in the game where the premium ammo once fitted stood premium forever even after a standard restock. Since 2.3 the synthesed ammo will only last until empty. The premium ammo btw made your particle guns 30 % stronger.

 

[Vitamin Arrr]

There is no counter to NPCs one-hitting your engines into a malfunction the instant your shields drop, if they have Scamble lasers or missiles you are hosed. Instead of making AI smarter they just gave it godmode weapons.

 

[Hellfire85]

There is no counter to NPCs one-hitting your engines into a malfunction the instant your shields drop, if they have Scamble lasers or missiles you are hosed. Instead of making AI smarter they just gave it godmode weapons.

(did I get lost in a Mobius/solo mode sub? o0)

Godmode weapons? They only gave them the same weapons we do plus a few upgraded modules.

And yes, they improved the AI, you can see the change in their flightpatterns and how they react to your shots.

There is no godmode in this game. Either you know what you're doing or you don't.

 

[s4bleknight]

It's not the guns that have changed, At least not that I have noticed.

I have the same loadout as you and still take down dangerous to elite NPCs ranging from I-eagle/eagle to Anaconda and sometimes 'vettes.

To get it back to the vulture I have not experienced such thing as instant thruster death on other ships (Currently I have an ASP and an eagle). In fact the Vulture was my hunting ship after I tested a Viper. I tried a lot now, still ASP will hunt me down every time (I think of using my asp as a fighter now). Second: I get everyone down, without problems. Even elite anacondas, except two things: ASPs with shields that won't go down (never I just had a fight turning 10 minutes, ended up whole ammunition without getting the shields of the one enemy down once). And after a few battles I get killed, no matter what I do. I thought maybe one has a better weapon loadout.

One large question I have: In most loadouts on coriolis the Vulture has a class 8 bulkheads slot. Mine only has a class one slot. Searching for this here only delivers one bug report and one other topic without real answer. So is it supposed to be a class 1 or is this a bug

 

[GammaZ]

Bulkheads have no different classes so it does not matter how it is displayed.

Also after reading this took my favourite dual-PA vulture for a ride and... nothing have changed since 2.2, everything still dies fast and easy while ammo lasts... Asps are super easy as they are big and have relatively low shield/hull, so PA-s just wreck them in few shots... Eagles/sideys are "fun" to deal with, as they always were...

 

[Wildbill336]

Just recently bought myself a vulture... what's do you veterans suggest for weapons? I need to come up with a good build... I suck at combat (only been playing solo for about month and half) also which npc ships should I tar get to practice on?

 

[Rankaze]

To get it back to the vulture I have not experienced such thing as instant thruster death on other ships (Currently I have an ASP and an eagle). In fact the Vulture was my hunting ship after I tested a Viper. I tried a lot now, still ASP will hunt me down every time (I think of using my asp as a fighter now). Second: I get everyone down, without problems. Even elite anacondas, except two things: ASPs with shields that won't go down (never I just had a fight turning 10 minutes, ended up whole ammunition without getting the shields of the one enemy down once). And after a few battles I get killed, no matter what I do. I thought maybe one has a better weapon loadout.

One large question I have: In most loadouts on coriolis the Vulture has a class 8 bulkheads slot. Mine only has a class one slot. Searching for this here only delivers one bug report and one other topic without real answer. So is it supposed to be a class 1 or is this a bug

If you get hit from behind with your shields down (or with weapons that do damage through shields) in a Vulture you will take Thruster damage. Take a close look at the ship's model and you will see why: the back of the ship is all thrusters. The answer to this is: don't let your enemies get behind you. You have every maneuverability advantage in the world; unless you are fighting wings by yourself, you should be able to avoid this. And watch out for missiles if your shields are down, because they will frequently hit you right in the tailpipe. The AI is missile-happy these days; point defense might be a good investment. Make sure you put them on slots that can cover the rear quarter of your ship.

Module reinforcement is also a good idea, and I've found it to be very effective on my FdL; I would imagine it works well for Vultures, too.

 

[Madrax573]

My question would be 'Why on earth are you facing away from your target in a Vulture?! With the agility of this boat you should always be putting fire on your target!'

Honestly I can't remember ever getting thruster damage in a vulture. The agility just lets you sit facing your target and strafing them to death. Unless you are fight loads of baddies I suppose....

 

[Rankaze]

My question would be 'Why on earth are you facing away from your target in a Vulture?! With the agility of this boat you should always be putting fire on your target!'

Honestly I can't remember ever getting thruster damage in a vulture. The agility just lets you sit facing your target and strafing them to death. Unless you are fight loads of baddies I suppose....

As I noted, it's an entirely avoidable situation. A Vulture shouldn't ever be getting hit from behind. But if someone is taking heavy thruster damage in a Vulture (especially from NPC's, who do not target modules), this is the most likely explanation.

 

[Madrax573]

As I noted, it's an entirely avoidable situation. A Vulture shouldn't ever be getting hit from behind. But if someone is taking heavy thruster damage in a Vulture (especially from NPC's, who do not target modules), this is the most likely explanation.

Yeah I was aiming the question at the person who was taking the thruster damage.

I really like the vulture, it's a funky ship for anything apart from combat

 

[Zeeman]

(did I get lost in a Mobius/solo mode sub? o0)

Godmode weapons? They only gave them the same weapons we do plus a few upgraded modules.

And yes, they improved the AI, you can see the change in their flightpatterns and how they react to your shots.

There is no godmode in this game. Either you know what you're doing or you don't.

The AI does "cheat" to a degree (never miss rail guns, for example), however, it's still not even close to a match for a semi capable human. Another thing to note, ships in CZ's tend to be significantly harder to take down than ships in a RES. More to do with shield/hull strength and SCB spamming, but I do notice ships in a RES (even highly ranked) go down faster than in a CZ.

Now as for having one's thrusters sniped... If your shields go down in a Vulture, you should be running. It hits hard, and has good shields, but it's still a small ship and will get pounded once the shields are down.


Z...

 

[Elektriccobra]

Just recently bought myself a vulture... what's do you veterans suggest for weapons? I need to come up with a good build... I suck at combat (only been playing solo for about month and half) also which npc ships should I tar get to practice on?

If you have the money to get the right stuff, try dual beam lasers. It really melts everything in it's path very quickly, but you'll need bi-weave shields and the best power plant and distributor to get the power right.