What's up with Spec Ops sometimes exclusively aggroing the player for an entire CZ?

[Kaleo Ainos]

I spend most of my time in ED playing Conflict Zones and since the last update I've noticed that sometimes the entire Spec Ops wing will aggro me immediately I get within 3-4km. If I attempt to reset aggro by running away, they'll aggro me again en masse as soon as I'm back in range. This is without me attacking any of them, and without me being the closest ship to their spawn. It doesn't happen all the time, but when it does it makes the CZ extremely tedious unless I happen to be flying a ship that can realistically fight a 4v1. As I prefer to fly smaller ships in CZs, it kind of ruins my day having sticky aggro from the entire wing, so I've taken to just leaving when it happens.

When Odyssey launched, I noticed that the behaviour of Spec Ops seemed to have changed from Horizons, in that they no longer seemed to care what order you attacked them in, and you rarely ended up with aggro from the whole wing unless you were the closest ship to their spawn. In Horizons, my recollection is that attacking Alpha would usually lead to the whole wing aggroing you, whereas destroying them in the order Delta > Gamma > Beta > Alpha would usually be fine.

This behaviour seems to have been restored recently, but the sticky aggro thing is confounding me. Is anyone else experiencing this? What causes it, how can I avoid it?

 

[Weps]

I have no knowledge on the subject, I don't even do CZs. But if this started happening for you after Update 14... could there be any connection with the AXCZs, and how the Thargoid behavior is similar (always aggroing the player)?

 

[Rat Catcher]

It seems to me that they finally react to the highest threat in the CZ, if playing as part of a team the Spec Ops wing doesn't tend to focus on just a single player, as happens when playing alone.

 

[Northpin]

I only did a couple of space CZ since U14 hit but i cant say i noticed that - sure, 2 is too small to have any weight, but quite surprisingly, in both CZ the reds got SpecOps and we didn't.
And i was playing a small ship as well, yet they didn't focused me at all. In both CZ i let them get split then went after each of them one by one.

 

[yianniv]

I noticed it last week. I participated in 20 or so high CZs and it happened in 2 of them. They fought me as a group and focused on me for a long time. I had to withdraw to repair/rebuild my corvette bi-weave shields and return to fight. It was not their usual behaviour, and it made fighting very difficult, since I was fighting alone.

 

[Northpin]

They fought me as a group and focused on me for a long time. I had to withdraw to repair/rebuild my corvette bi-weave shields and return to fight.

That used to happen more often than not when i was playing my Vette (before U14). Guess they do tend to focus on highest threat

 

[yianniv]

That used to happen more often than not when i was playing my Vette (before U14). Guess they do tend to focus on highest threat

I should take it as a complement then

 

[Dillon Fallon]

Don't know if you can avoid it, but probably the best way of dealing with it is to stick close to the spec ops on your side. They will have the same behaviour and should focus on the enemy spec ops to give you some back up. In a 5 v 4 the enemy shouldn't last too long.

 

[Episparh]

This spec ops behaviour is same at least for 3 years. Medium CZs are more dangerous than high CZ because of the higher chance to spawn spec ops wing.

 

[yianniv]

Don't know if you can avoid it, but probably the best way of dealing with it is to stick close to the spec ops on your side. They will have the same behaviour and should focus on the enemy spec ops to give you some back up. In a 5 v 4 the enemy shouldn't last too long.

That's an excellent suggestion, I'll test it in the next war.

 

[yianniv]

This spec ops behaviour is same at least for 3 years. Medium CZs are more dangerous than high CZ because of the higher chance to spawn spec ops wing.

Up until recently I thought I had their behaviour mapped out: I attacked them in reverse alphabetical order, because A was supported by BCD, B was supported by C and D, C was only supported by D and D was on their own upon attack. And it worked. I don't remember getting simultaneous attacks before, for me it's changed behaviour on their part.

Edit: I had active instead of passive voice...

 

[Walter2]

That used to happen more often than not when i was playing my Vette (before U14). Guess they do tend to focus on highest threat

You may be right. I've noticed that it doesn't happen in every instance - you can often get through a medium CZ without Special Ops causing a problem - but you really take notice when all four focus on you.

 

[Kaleo Ainos]

Up until recently I thought I had their behaviour mapped out: I attacked them in reverse alphabetical order, because A supported BCD, B supported C and D, C only supported D and D was on their own upon attack. And it worked. I don't remember getting simultaneous attacks before, for me it's changed behaviour on their part.

Yep, this is precisely how it used to work before Odyssey, but my experience in ODY was that order no longer mattered - until recently at least. It's good to have the old behaviour back but it does seem like it was restored at the same time as the weird occassional sticky aggro thing started to happen.

This spec ops behaviour is same at least for 3 years. Medium CZs are more dangerous than high CZ because of the higher chance to spawn spec ops wing.

Most of my time in Elite has been spent in CZs and I've never had an entire Spec Ops wing gang up on me for the entire duration of their spawn until recently. Attacking Alpha first, sure, but then ceasing the attack and gaining sufficient distance would work to reset if necessary. Likewise with if you were unlucky enough to be the closest ship to where they spawned. But for neither of those conditions to be met, and have all four Spec Ops target you the moment you enter one of their weapons ranges, and then repeat that until they're killed or the player leaves the instance? Never seen that before.

 

[AceMcKool]

This spec ops behaviour is same at least for 3 years.

Thank you. I was looking for this reply.

What the OP describes happens to me every time I enter any Med or High CZ, and it's been happening since at least Sept 2020 when I started playing.

That and the absurdly low payout made me forget about CZs altogether. The reward/effort ratio is so not worth it.

 

[Cmdr Snuffler]

They've done this for years...if you're dealing the largest amount of damage and have the highest threat then they all gang up on you. Even in my Vulture it's not a massive issue unlike people flying large slow ships that are sitting ducks for incoming fire.
Big is not always better. It's worth noting my Vulture can clear a Hi CZ in 7m 17sec, which is about the same time a Corvette can clear it in when we did some tests a while back.

 

[Helmut Grokenberger]

the spec ops have always ganged up on you if you engaged them immediately. The best tactic to fight them is still keeping away from them for a while until their wing has spread out and engaged the other NPCs. Then take them out, starting with Delta and working up to Alpha. Reason being that Alpha is usually the tankiest and fighting it bears the danger of getting stuck with it, and while you concentrate on Alpha, the other three regroup and bust your behind.

 

[Northpin]

Most of my time in Elite has been spent in CZs and I've never had an entire Spec Ops wing gang up on me for the entire duration of their spawn until recently. Attacking Alpha first, sure, but then ceasing the attack and gaining sufficient distance would work to reset if necessary.

I always managed to break SpecOps focus by having them following me through the mostly packed green areas.
Eventually they'd get some agro and ceased pestering me.

The best tactic to fight them is still keeping away from them for a while until their wing has spread out and engaged the other NPCs. Then take them out, starting with Delta and working up to Alpha.

Yeap, this is the working strategy.
With the mention that, mid CZ when the SpecOps wing was spread all over the place, i managed to nail the Alpha FDL using my DBX ground attack ship (1300mj shields, 1 large gimbaled laser, 2x advanced missiles) with no wingman support for the Alpha (which - i like to imagine - made for a really miffed off Alpha )

 

[Helmut Grokenberger]

I always managed to break SpecOps focus by having them following me through the mostly packed green areas.
Eventually they'd get some agro and ceased pestering me.



Yeap, this is the working strategy.
With the mention that, mid CZ when the SpecOps wing was spread all over the place, i managed to nail the Alpha FDL using my DBX ground attack ship (1300mj shields, 1 large gimbaled laser, 2x advanced missiles) with no wingman support for the Alpha (which - i like to imagine - made for a really miffed off Alpha )

nailing Alpha first works if you keep your spatial awareness . If you get carried away while dogfighting Alpha, you might find yourself suddenly out of shields and with very little armor left

 

[Rat Catcher]

you might find yourself suddenly out of shields

Which, for me, is the reason I don't load up Prismatics for CZ play, big bi-weaves recover much more quickly than big Prismatics.
Now I'm getting the urge to go play in a CZ or 3... Been fighting Thargoids for too long...

 

[Helmut Grokenberger]

Which, for me, is the reason I don't load up Prismatics for CZ play, big bi-weaves recover much more quickly than big Prismatics.
Now I'm getting the urge to go play in a CZ or 3... Been fighting Thargoids for too long...

I don't have access to prismatic shields. I use bi-weaves in almost all my builds (and I don't do PvP). When building my ships, I always expect them to drop at some point and never fly paper planes even in PvE .