When did NPCs get so suicidal?

Stealthie

Stealthie
Haven't been doing a lot of NPC combat recently.
I shoot anything that interdicts me but that's about it.

Having accumulated Cr2bn, my SLF pilot has decided to buy herself a small moon and devote her full attention to expanding her collection of Faberge eggs and Da Vinci paintings.

As a result, I hired a new SLF pilot and took her to the nearest war so she could have a play in CZs and git gud.

Seems like every ship, from Eagles to Anacondas, Harmless to Elite, just wants to mate with my ship.
Soon as I start shooting at them, they just slow down, sit in front of me and then slowly descend onto the front of my Corvette... and then explode.
I had a play in my Krait too and the same thing happens, except without the exploding due to my Krait not having 5000MJ of shields.

It's an, erm, interesting new tactic but I'm not sure it's especially effective. [where is it]
 

CMDR Cosmic Spacehead

CMDR Cosmic Spacehead
Yeah, I've noticed this.

If you don't fly particularly "well" (mostly sit still) the NPC's get rather confused and just sit in front of you.

Most NPC's also try to seemingly land on the desk of my Anaconda, which often doesn't end well considering what I've put up there.... :D
 

Borko

Borko
There’s been some sort of ai tweak, i’m sure. I’ve noticed npc interdictions have become harder of late. Not impossible mind, just tougher; they’ve gone from sleep-through-it to huh-i-better-mean-it.

It’s also possible i just suck.
 
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Stigbob

Stigbob
I think its location dependent the run of the mill NPC's you get in res sites do seem easier, the more interesting fights like assassinations and CZ's seem tougher.

Lots of variables though, I've banged PA's back in my FDL so I may just be a bit OP.
 

smiths121

S
I think there is a lot of mirroring going on.

I was up against Expert (+/- one level) Eagles/Vipers/Cobras in a CZ, using an unengineered Viper, alternated between jousting and turning battle, pretty much based on what I did.

I leave this here, as I am Novice and not worth 2BCr (can I be you SLF pilot OP) and can only afford small ships for combat. We know the NPCs "hardness" changesd with your rankings.

I actually think they need to tweak the top end of the NPCs (Dangerousd+) that you can discover in the "challenge" scenarios, and CZs (not played them in beta yet). Having restarted a few time recently, I think the beginning and mid level NPCs are about right. I think I would struggle if this was my 1st time through.

Cheers
Simon
 

GunnerBill

GunnerBill
Stealthie said:
Haven't been doing a lot of NPC combat recently.
I shoot anything that interdicts me but that's about it.

Having accumulated Cr2bn, my SLF pilot has decided to buy herself a small moon and devote her full attention to expanding her collection of Faberge eggs and Da Vinci paintings.

As a result, I hired a new SLF pilot and took her to the nearest war so she could have a play in CZs and git gud.

Seems like every ship, from Eagles to Anacondas, Harmless to Elite, just wants to mate with my ship.
Soon as I start shooting at them, they just slow down, sit in front of me and then slowly descend onto the front of my Corvette... and then explode.
I had a play in my Krait too and the same thing happens, except without the exploding due to my Krait not having 5000MJ of shields.

It's an, erm, interesting new tactic but I'm not sure it's especially effective. [where is it]
Click to expand...

Personally I thought NPC's jousting was the real issue here ;)
 

Shiro Akai

Shiro Akai
Stealthie said:
Soon as I start shooting at them, they just slow down, sit in front of me and then slowly descend onto the front of my Corvette... and then explode.
Click to expand...



CMDR_Cosmicspacehead said:
If you don't fly particularly "well" (mostly sit still) the NPC's get rather confused and just sit in front of you.
Click to expand...


Hmm... good to know, maybe there's a hope for me as a combat pilot. With some hard training I *may* actually be able to win a fight without sacrificing half of my armor in the process.
 

B1rdy

B1rdy
Aashenfox said:
You really never saw that thread?? :D

I'll dig it up for you... hang on

I expect you're pulling my leg after all, but here we go for the SnGs...

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/454879-Please-make-NPCs-stop-jousting-in-combat
Click to expand...
Due to that thread I checked NPC behaviour during one of the recent betas and found exactly, what Stealthie is describing. If you stand still with your ship, enemy NPCs will also stop and align themselves in front of your ship within your firing arc - completely stupid.
 

Stealthie

Stealthie
B1rdy said:
Due to that thread I checked NPC behaviour during one of the recent betas and found exactly, what Stealthie is describing. If you stand still with your ship, enemy NPCs will also stop and align themselves in front of your ship within your firing arc - completely stupid.
Click to expand...

If that's "working as intended" it's utterly bonkers.

I mean, in a Corvette it does make perfect sense to move toward an opponent slowly.
It's got two honking great lasers on the roof and my objective is to creep into range of a target, open fire and do catastrophic damage to the target as quickly as possible - so even if it flies straight toward me it'll be debris before it arrives.

The target, OTOH, should not be thinking "Aha! He's moving slowly and deliberately toward me while firing so I shall retaliate by doing the same thing!"
That makes no sense at all.
It's like Amir Khan deciding to stand toe to toe with Lennox Lewis and trade punches.
Surely a small ship should always be looking to 1) get out of an attacker's line of fire and 2) find a blind-spot to attack?

And what's with the slow-speed "ramming"?
Is that supposed to be some kind of "last great act of defiance"?
"You've destroyed my ship but I'm going to scratch your paintwork!!!"

nwzv3s.jpg
 
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CMDR Corlas

CMDR Corlas
NPC's have almost always done that, I think. Seems to happen a lot when I'm in Corvettes and Anacondas, but that might just because I'm more likely to be flying slower and get into those situations.

Basically the only time they weren't suicidal was the 2.1 Beta.
 
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