What have they done to NPC pirates and trading?
- Thread starter Leighroy
- Start date
I remember this state of NPC during beta, it's great, had missiles fired at me and mines dumped by them. I now can improve my combat skills, where as before NPC killing required 1-5% skill. It is great to have that feeling of dread and not one of, oh yawn NPC again.
Last edited:
I get interdicted by a constant stream of mostly harmless Sidewinders and Eagles that are so surprised that an Anaconda is equipped with shields and weapons that they do almost nothing other than hover in front of my ship waiting to get KWSed and killed. No way that I can improve any skill from that encounters.
The NPCs with a better rank than dangerous are really nice now.
To the OP: Yes with 1.3 the NPCs got better in combat and the frequency of interdictions got increased. Using shields as a trader is a very good idea now.
The "Queen of the Minions" (Sarah Jane Avory, AI coder at FDev) had these to say in a tweet the other day...
So yes, the NPCs are getting nastier.
https://twitter.com/SarahJaneAvory/status/613757950847533056Sarah Jane Avory said:
https://twitter.com/SarahJaneAvory/status/614041310400520192Sarah Jane Avory said:
So yes, the NPCs are getting nastier.
I'm based about 80ly from the core systems and I'm now getting interdicted once every six jumps approx by NPC pirates.
I enjoy the extra danger.
My tactic is just to chaff and run away and jump as soon as I can. The AI of the npc ships had really stepped up in combat but they don't seem to be able to catch me. I'm piloting aT9 and on boost the top speed I reach is 199 so their inability to overtake is a bit surprising.
Usually I only lose one ring on my A5 shield. Sometimes I get double-interdicted as the pirate follows me to the next jump location and I lose a few percent of my hull. Occasionally they follow to the station where the local police take them out. I just have to be careful to stay out of the line of fire from the station itself.
On one occasion the pirate took my shield out with the first volley so their weapon load out must vary. I suspect he had a plasma weapon. On that occasion I was down to 67% hull when I finally reached the station.
On two occasions I tried to stop to see if I could buy the pirate off with some dropped cargo but he attacked so quickly that I didn't have a chance to try.
The pirate generally warns you with a chat threat before the interdiction and sometimes I can jump before they sort out their interdiction attempt. Sometimes on these occasions they follow and try again. If the jump timer has already started to count down when the interdiction starts then the jump will still happen, otherwise the jump will fail.
After the interdiction success the pirate will chat, 'don't try to run', 'drop all you've got', 'prepare to die' or some such. But as I've said I've never been given a chance to drop any cargo. It would be nice if their AI was improved so that they could recognise when you were trying to submit.
I enjoy the extra danger.
My tactic is just to chaff and run away and jump as soon as I can. The AI of the npc ships had really stepped up in combat but they don't seem to be able to catch me. I'm piloting aT9 and on boost the top speed I reach is 199 so their inability to overtake is a bit surprising.
Usually I only lose one ring on my A5 shield. Sometimes I get double-interdicted as the pirate follows me to the next jump location and I lose a few percent of my hull. Occasionally they follow to the station where the local police take them out. I just have to be careful to stay out of the line of fire from the station itself.
On one occasion the pirate took my shield out with the first volley so their weapon load out must vary. I suspect he had a plasma weapon. On that occasion I was down to 67% hull when I finally reached the station.
On two occasions I tried to stop to see if I could buy the pirate off with some dropped cargo but he attacked so quickly that I didn't have a chance to try.
The pirate generally warns you with a chat threat before the interdiction and sometimes I can jump before they sort out their interdiction attempt. Sometimes on these occasions they follow and try again. If the jump timer has already started to count down when the interdiction starts then the jump will still happen, otherwise the jump will fail.
After the interdiction success the pirate will chat, 'don't try to run', 'drop all you've got', 'prepare to die' or some such. But as I've said I've never been given a chance to drop any cargo. It would be nice if their AI was improved so that they could recognise when you were trying to submit.
Yay trading trading becoming less basic yay!
I fly a Conda and i have only seen Pythons, Vultures, Clippers and Conda NPCs in last few days. Not seen Sidewinders or Eagles or any little NPC ship in last few weeks, it has always been mid size ships. So for me my skills are greatly improving with these type of aggressive NPCs.
I can imagine there are a load of behind the scene game mechanics going on and that i have triggered that get me these type of ships, i murder a lot of Feds and trade in E. Slaves may attribute to it.
Last edited:
Sarah Jane Avory
Retro Queen
I'm fixing that...
Haha nice ! Npcs that can catchup with traders will cause quite an uproar. Ignore it though the traders have it too easy
I shouldn't be able to fly half asleep in a t6 knowing I escape everything.
Last edited:
I'm fixing that...
And Hi-waking to SC within system, negating mass-lock?
Been a while since I checked (in case this has been dealt with).
How many chaffs do you use?
I'm fixing that...
What about NPC pirates actually pirating you rather than shooting to kill?
This is a tricky issue. The advancement of the AI is great for those who desire more of a challenge when dealing with NPC but also is a huge deterrent to the more casual players who are satisfied with an easier to handle AI. I think the folks who want it tougher will only shake their head and hope for changes while the people who like it casual will just quit playing and give the game bad press because it it too hard. I like a bit of challenge but also want the game to be accessible. Challenge and accessibility is, mostly, a matter of opion/preference so I, personally, hope the AI doesnt get too out of hand.
Last edited:
Well hopefully at some point we will be able to hire AI wingpeeps then those that need a hand can hire one or three and those that like a challenge can tough it out on their own..