What just happened? O.o

Xenthrix

X
So I hopped into my Asp today and thought I'd go out to a nearby High Intensity Resource Extraction site and kill a few pirates. I'd only just discovered you could make alot of credits there. I've been mainly just bounty hunting since I bought the game. So I thought i'd go and give it another shot.

So I get there and theres a couple sidewinders. I take them out no problem. then i come across a wing of 3 cobras. So I'm bashing one of the cobras and the other 2 are bashing me. I look down and my shields are gone. I'm taking some severe damage. I'm thinking, 'Did i accidentally down grade my shields?'. And why is it taking so long to kill this cobra? This has never happened before. I'm flying a nearly completely upgraded Asp. I should be slaughtering these guys.

So anyway, I'm almost dead and decide its better to boost out of there, lick my wounds and try to figure out what just happened.

I finish docking and am about to click 'repair all' and what do i see? A repair bill for 168000 cr.
What? If i remember correctly my repair bill was usually somewhere in the neighborhood of 10000 cr. o_O

I check the bounties i got for killing the few pirates i killed. 128000 cr. I actually lost money bounty hunting.

o_O What happened??

2 weeks ago i was having a blast playing this game. Finally making some money for a change. Now i'm scarred to leave the station. I only have 2 million cr in the bank. I cant afford to loose my ship more than 3 times.

I'm thinking i might have to drop my bounty hunting job and take up mining. At least the limpets make mining a little more interesting now. And i can actually make some money. Not loose it.

And yes, I am aware that the AI got an upgrade. But I think they might be cheating. My shields popped like a bubble. 2 cobras, no matter what upgrades they had, shouldnt pop my A grade shields and a B grade shield booster like a soap bubble. And i was hitting that one cobra pretty good but his hull was going down alot slower than mine. i had 2 medium multi cannons, 2 small beam lasers and 2 small burst lasers. All gimbled. Hard to miss.

I know alot of people are loving the new AI. But i'm wondering if this latest patch today might have given them an even bigger boost. Or even a bit of a cheat of some kind. I mean before the AI patch i could handle an Anaconda. It wasnt easy and i've been killed before, but most of the time it was do able. Now 3 cobras just kicked my ass. Thats a bit too much of an upgrade I think.

And that repair bill. When did that happen?
 

GammaZ

G
Not only AI got upgraded, but npc-s in RES have higher ranks now. If you hit 3 elite/deadly cobras you were lucky to escape...
 

jpaulwilson1982

jpaulwilson1982
You have to be more choosey concerning your targets. RESs were just a slaughter against the AI pirates, but its no longer that way. The only thing that bothers me is the higher price for repairs, but it is what it is. Just be more careful who you jump on.
 

Xenthrix

X
Thank you. Now i dont feel quite so humiliated.

Maybe i'll give it another shot and keep an eye on what it is i'm shooting at. If cobras really are that tough maybe i'll try a low intensity site.
 

Troublemaker

Troublemaker
The AI has also skill levels and those have been adjusted afaik. So if you met a wing of 3 elite Cobras... hmmm... never used an ASP for combat, so hard to say for me... I can handle them in my Vulture, but I probably wouldn't try with an ASP...
While you're chasing the one, the others are chasing you. While you have to put 4 pips on your shields because of the two Cobras on your six, they can put 4 pips to their weapons. Just the one you're chasing has to be in defense mode... sounds ok for me. Elite AI has to be smarter than master or similar...
 

Brimstone

Brimstone
I'm gonna guess that repair costs were accidentally tweaked when they adjusted the Courier repair costs in one of these last patches. It doesn't really make sense that the devs would reduce them, create a galnet article about corruption in the Mechanics Union, and then raise them again. Hopefully it's fixed soon, or atleast we get some clarity on the issue.
 
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Araviel

Araviel
if you ever fought an asp yourself you know that they got a pretty large hitbox and are pretty easy to hit.
the npc's can manage their power better and their accuracy has improved so they will land more shot, but they are not 100%, however you will notice it more in larger ships that are easy to hit and being evasive is now a more important tactic.

i would suggest trying out a vulture for the res sites if you find that you still struggle whit the Asp, its more built for combat whit a smaller hitbox while the Asp is more multi role.
and experiment whit your power management, full pips to shields is no longer the only rule and more pips to the engine can be just as good for defense
 

Suul Vellumcore

Suul Vellumcore
Araviel said:
if you ever fought an asp yourself you know that they got a pretty large hitbox and are pretty easy to hit.
the npc's can manage their power better and their accuracy has improved so they will land more shot, but they are not 100%, however you will notice it more in larger ships that are easy to hit and being evasive is now a more important tactic.

i would suggest trying out a vulture for the res sites if you find that you still struggle whit the Asp, its more built for combat whit a smaller hitbox while the Asp is more multi role.
and experiment whit your power management, full pips to shields is no longer the only rule and more pips to the engine can be just as good for defense
Click to expand...

Good advice, especially about being proactive with pips and gaining maneuverability with engine pips.
I've come to the understanding that Sys pips are set only to maintain/re-charge the capacitor depending on the situation, more for a faster re-charge rate when your shields are taking hits, and virtually no need for Sys pips if your capacitor is full and there's no drain being applied through combat at the moment. The one thing I'm not sure about is how Sys pips effect downed shield re-charge?
This new gangup situation with NPC wings is also now an important consideration for the RES bounty hunter. Situational awareness is important like it is in the conflict zones, and a pilot has to pick and choose who and when to attact now instead of just willy-nilly attacking anything and everything. Being ganged up on by an NPC wing is serious business in 1.3.04 - same as it is when the Feds turn on you for a mis-hit, or when you get out in the fringe of a conflic zone where new enemies are spawning and your allies are far away. And I've go to say I love it.
 

Araviel

Araviel
Suul Vellumcore said:
Good advice, especially about being proactive with pips and gaining maneuverability with engine pips.
I've come to the understanding that Sys pips are set only to maintain/re-charge the capacitor depending on the situation, more for a faster re-charge rate when your shields are taking hits, and virtually no need for Sys pips if your capacitor is full and there's no drain being applied through combat at the moment.
Click to expand...
yea i think thats correct, i always assign my pips to engines when my capacitor is full, and only assign to shields when its about to get drained.

Suul Vellumcore said:
The one thing I'm not sure about is how Sys pips effect downed shield re-charge?
Click to expand...
i think its the same there, they don't seem to come back faster whit more pips, but the capacitor needs to have power or it stops.

and good advice you gave about situational awareness, thats a key thing :)
 

Rauminen

R
Xenthrix said:
...
Now i'm scarred to leave the station.
...

I'm thinking i might have to drop my bounty hunting job and take up mining.
...
Click to expand...

Yes, yes, yes! That's the real game feeling I was missing! :D I actually like to be scared to leave the station - (just to clarify getting annoyed because of pscyho players is not "scared")

In all honesty, they probably had rail guns on them - deadly cobras often do. 2 of these guys can pop your shield like no-ones business.
The rank means much more than the type of ship. A deadly vulture can be much harder than a mostly harmless anaconda.

And don't forget, there's still a bug where sometimes they forget to shoot - what if that'll get fixed too? hm? :D
 

Suul Vellumcore

Suul Vellumcore
Araviel said:
yea i think thats correct, i always assign my pips to engines when my capacitor is full, and only assign to shields when its about to get drained.


i think its the same there, they don't seem to come back faster whit more pips, but the capacitor needs to have power or it stops.

and good advice you gave about situational awareness, thats a key thing :)
Click to expand...

It's weird that after all these months flying in ED, I've never paid attention to what the capacitor is doing while waiting for my shields to re-charge. What you've pointed out is pretty much what I assumed, but thanks for that confirmation.
 

Mr_Blastman

Mr_Blastman
If you have only 2 mil in the bank and can afford three rebuys, something is wrong. Your ASP isn't close to fully upgraded. What size shields do you have? 4? That thing can run 5. Your rebuy should be close to 1.5 million with it upgraded nearly all the way.
 

Xenthrix

X
my insurance is around 650,000. No its not completely upgraded. Most of the stuff is B grade. I cant afford the A grade stuff. Most of those around a million or more apiece.
 

Faded Glory

Faded Glory
@OP

Do you remember what rank your three Cobras were? You need to take that into account now. ;) The higher ranking ships are now much tougher, and additionally most of the NPCs now have stronger shields and even use shield cell banks. As to them cheating, it has been said by the AI developer that they don't, and there's no good reason to disbelieve her. NPCs have just become more than a walk over. :) By the way, I have no idea if they got 'upgraded' in the recent patches. I don't think so, although now you will meet more than just Mostly Harmless ones at RES and Nav Beacons.

- - - Updated - - -

Suul Vellumcore said:
I've come to the understanding that Sys pips are set only to maintain/re-charge the capacitor depending on the situation, more for a faster re-charge rate when your shields are taking hits, and virtually no need for Sys pips if your capacitor is full and there's no drain being applied through combat at the moment. The one thing I'm not sure about is how Sys pips effect downed shield re-charge?
Click to expand...

Pips to sys have no effect on the recharge rate of shields, they just make the shields 'stronger' if you are taking fire, but yes, your capacitor needs to be charged for shields to recharge at all.
 

Xenthrix

X
No i dont remember the rank. Not even sure they were all cobras. I just targeted the first one and went in guns blazing. Never got a good look at the other 2 as i nose dived to take out the cobra. They were small. Could have been vipers or eagles for all i know. Going to have to be much more carefull in how i go about attacking now.

Just before i came across the wing, i had taken out a couple eagles and sidewinders. I guess that gave the illusion that anything i came across would be just as easy. Not so much.
 

Faded Glory

Faded Glory
Xenthrix said:
No i dont remember the rank. Not even sure they were all cobras. I just targeted the first one and went in guns blazing. Never got a good look at the other 2 as i nose dived to take out the cobra. They were small. Could have been vipers or eagles for all i know. Going to have to be much more carefull in how i go about attacking now.

Just before i came across the wing, i had taken out a couple eagles and sidewinders. I guess that gave the illusion that anything i came across would be just as easy. Not so much.
Click to expand...

Definitely worth checking out ranks now. Anything over Dangerous in a decent ship could be... Dangerous. ;)
 

Xenthrix

X
So the ranks actually mean what they say. What a novel idea. :p

Lots of good suggestions everybody. Thanks.

Now if they could just reduce the repair costs, i'd feel a whole lot better.
 
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