Where can i find engineered NPC to fight with?

I see NPC Anacondas do FA Off turns frequently. It's obvious because they continue to move in one direction while pivoting at the center of the ship, and when It's flipped upside down the FA goes on the NPC hits the boost.

I don't want to seem argumentative, but you didn't, honestly. For what it's worth, big ships do plow on, even when FA on...

ZLAavyH.jpg
 
So, how does an NPC Anaconda pivot in the middle while drifting?
The same way we do...FA on doesn't put you on rails, unless you're in a Vulture, Viper mk3, FAS or FDL, and even they have (a little) drift. The chieftain is super drifty, it looks like it's FA off all the time, even when it's not. Also, don't forget an important thing, the AI's favored pip configuration is 2-4-0. With 4 pips to eng, their maneuvers genuinely would look quite magical. I almost never use 4 pips to Eng except in extremely niche circumstances (and usually in the FDL). When I do, it's like 'wow! I'm flying a paper plane!' :)

edit: P.S. Space 'grip' is a hidden stat. One of the easiest ways to realise it is flying the Chieftain and then straight after it, the Challenger, the Challenger has a lot more space 'grip' than a Chieftain, despite being heavier, and the FDL/Vulch/FAS, etc, all have very high grip. Once you recognise this, you can actually feel it when your ship loses grip, just like in a racing game, that moment when momentum overcomes direction and thrust.
 
Last edited:
This is not correct. Different levels of AI have different levels of pip handling ability and there are deliberate delays built-in so that they don't use their computer-like speed. Even shooting railguns, they are not a patch on a good player, and suffer terrible heat problems as a result of spamming them as they do.



I can't mitigate for your chosen control method, suffice it to say that as mentioned above, they don't do things with computer-like speed, as you imagine they do, they are programmed to behave in a human-like way in that respect. Moreover, I am able to perform all those adjustments at the same time with my HOTAS. What percentage of players would you suggest are on PS4? I hope you don't think it would be appropriate for my AIs to get a nerf so that DS$ players can compete? It;s not my fault FD went with the exact same version of the game for the console release. I will mention that they spend most of their time with 4 pips to ENG, which perhaps explains why you percieve them doing things that you can't, it's because you don't have full pips to ENG, and it's why their shields will often melt like a wet paper bag once you do get them under your guns.



Again, nope. Firstly, lower levels of NPC are notably less good at firing fixed weapons, while Elite NPCs almost never miss a railgun shot. This is one thing I will give you (they are freakishly good with railguns, not PAs or any other fixed weapon though), however, they are not as good as the best players. They also don't open fire at maximum railgun range (thank god), they wait for some arbitrary range to be reached, so you can keep them at a distance and use your own long range railguns.



I don't care what others claim, you can take it from me as gospel that up to 3.3 for sure (and I haven't seen anything that contraindicates this is the truth since then) that NPCs CANNOT fly FA off. I know this because it was stated by the person who programs the AI, Sarah Jane Avory (or MoM) on more than one occasion, along with a lot of my other points, when she too got tired of people imagining that the AI cheats.



I also do more pvp than pve these days, both in squadron 1v1 practice (twice a week), wider inter-group wing practices (once a week) and real multiple contact engagements with outlaw groups (about once a fortnight), and I have never ever seen an AI do something that a player can't do twice as fast and twice as accurately. The AI are utterly pitiful compared to the commanders I fly against and so they should be. You'd be stunned how quick I can 'whip the vette around' with my controls. Perhaps the joypad is the problem here as well? Not being facetious, genuine thought.



I don't believe that FD went to the trouble of changing the AI combat code for the PS4 release. I hope I've helped you come around more to the idea that they aren't cheating half as much as you suggest. :) I don't 'enjoy' fighting the AI any more, but then I find most humans laughably easy to kill as well, it's only the good ones that are worth worrying about and they do things the AI can only have digital dreams of. :)

This is the best I can do as far as evidence goes...Unfortunately, the original links don't work since the forum 'upgrade'. ;)

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/do-npcs-cheat.437888/#post-6850672
please... explain this method of multi-Quotes in a PM... I can't get it to do that properly...
 
please... explain this method of multi-Quotes in a PM... I can't get it to do that properly...
Funny you should say that, at the time I made that post, I couldn't figure it out either, I did it manually, copied and pasted the whole quote 5 times and then removed the bits I would refer later, each in turn, not very efficient, but this is a subject I'm quite passionate about (or rather, the theorycrafting behind it is what I play this game, to learn and master) so felt it was worth it. :)

I have figured out how to multi quote multiple different quotes though, that took me a few goes, you have to add them all to the multiquote by hitting the quote button on each post, and then you have to hit the reply button on the LAST POST YOU WANT TO QUOTE! That's the trick. :) But yeh I don't have a shortcut for breaking up a big post into multiples. :( Maybe someone else knows a trick, I'm kinda old school, used to the manual workarounds. ;)
 
Funny you should say that, at the time I made that post, I couldn't figure it out either, I did it manually, copied and pasted the whole quote 5 times and then removed the bits I would refer later, each in turn, not very efficient, but this is a subject I'm quite passionate about (or rather, the theorycrafting behind it is what I play this game, to learn and master) so felt it was worth it. :)

I have figured out how to multi quote multiple different quotes though, that took me a few goes, you have to add them all to the multiquote by hitting the quote button on each post, and then you have to hit the reply button on the LAST POST YOU WANT TO QUOTE! That's the trick. :) But yeh I don't have a shortcut for breaking up a big post into multiples. :( Maybe someone else knows a trick, I'm kinda old school, used to the manual workarounds. ;)
I tried that... it just quoted the the last one... I'll keep trying
 
Thanks again. :)

Has anyone tried to rate Grip from least to most?
That would be a ton of work, due to the equivalent roles being played by the blue zone and the number of pips to eng, the blue zone is another thing that is different on different ships, so an over-arching formula to work it out in a reasonable way would be tough to produce. Even seat of the pants estimations are dodgy, as many ships are really close to each other in this regard. Some are just a bit more than others, and it's not related to speed or pitch speed, it's totally arbitrary, the challenger proves that, it's an otherwise slow, heavy ship that just grips space really well. Best to just go on feel I think. Now that you'll be looking out for it, I reckon you'll notice it fully, it's a kind of 'once seen, can't be unseen' thing, but as I say, many ships are similar, it's only the edgy ones that you really notice it (Chieftain/FDS vs Challenger/FAS, for example, in both cases, both basically the same design with roughly the same modules, yet totally different grip... opposite ends of the spectrum in fact!)
 
It sound like, from your description, that Grip is an adjustment to a base profile. That would assume that an actual statistical input is used to adjust it?

Okay, better question, Ashenfox: Are ships built on a base profile?
I believe each ship has a unique base, with certain stat formulae being largely similar, such as thruster to weight ratio or range to weight ratio (bar the permabugged Anaconda), and others varying wildly, some completely arbitrarily. I'm fine with it, I don't think I want to see the genitals of all the ships, leaves a few things to the imagination and the 'butt dyno'. :D
 
I don't think you can sell mission cargo on the BM these days.

Possible, I have not tried it in a while but they don't care about that anyway.

The thing that triggers them to send hit squads is abandoning or failing missions (and it usually takes more than a few depending on where you start from). Selling their cargo was strictly for my fun.
 
Top Bottom