Why am I getting insta-pwnd now?

Ive just come back from a 9-12 month hiatus from the game and I'm finding NPC's are ripping new holes into me in a way that just isn't fun.

I have a Cobra MK3 I think, I thought it was pretty good (insurance value is 380k) and I recently bought a Keelback to try some larger freighting gameplay.

Before I went away from the game I could handle most NPC's in places like High and Haz RES', but since coming back (and playing about 6 hours) my Cobra has been destroyed three times and my Keelback (which is upgraded and now insures for 300k) has been destroyed twice! I've lost millions in the space of hours.

The last Time I got destroyed in the Keelback I lasted FIVE FKN SECONDS. I didn't even have a chance to turn around?!

This is all in SOLO btw.

So yeah, what the Hell is going on? This isn't fun.
 
Ive just come back from a 9-12 month hiatus from the game and I'm finding NPC's are ripping new holes into me in a way that just isn't fun.

I have a Cobra MK3 I think, I thought it was pretty good (insurance value is 380k) and I recently bought a Keelback to try some larger freighting gameplay.

Before I went away from the game I could handle most NPC's in places like High and Haz RES', but since coming back (and playing about 6 hours) my Cobra has been destroyed three times and my Keelback (which is upgraded and now insures for 300k) has been destroyed twice! I've lost millions in the space of hours.

The last Time I got destroyed in the Keelback I lasted FIVE FKN SECONDS. I didn't even have a chance to turn around?!

This is all in SOLO btw.

So yeah, what the Hell is going on? This isn't fun.
Dude. When you were gone there was a literally a tornado here about what you're describing. I'm affraid the tornado killed all the pillots that thought they're already "pretty good";) Various of changes man..., one of the most important one - the new NPC AI, your oponents are not a meatbag anymore.

Adopt Commander. Learn that you knew nothing before and improve your skills as never before. Try harder. It's much, much more fun after you'll get a grip on this. Learn HOW TO POSITION YOUR SHIP in 1st place. How to ise advantages and dissadvantages of your ship's model. The fun just bacame way more complex!! I promisse you'll love this mate!!:))
 
Ive just come back from a 9-12 month hiatus from the game and I'm finding NPC's are ripping new holes into me in a way that just isn't fun.

I have a Cobra MK3 I think, I thought it was pretty good (insurance value is 380k) and I recently bought a Keelback to try some larger freighting gameplay.

Before I went away from the game I could handle most NPC's in places like High and Haz RES', but since coming back (and playing about 6 hours) my Cobra has been destroyed three times and my Keelback (which is upgraded and now insures for 300k) has been destroyed twice! I've lost millions in the space of hours.

The last Time I got destroyed in the Keelback I lasted FIVE FKN SECONDS. I didn't even have a chance to turn around?!

This is all in SOLO btw.

So yeah, what the Hell is going on? This isn't fun.

NPCs aren't hurr durr anymore. If you're planning on fighting, use a dedicated combat vessel (viper/vulture/FDL) with combat fittings, or a multispec ship once you've got familiar with the way combat works now. If survivability is your problem, military-grade armour as a minimum is a must-have, and while HRPs will hurt your agility, fitting them will also help matters a lot *if* you are planning to go into combat. There is mixed feelings about this suggestion (to deck out HRPs) as some ships (like the cobra) are meant for agility. But if you're getting killed, your agility isn't counting for much... so increasing survivability at the expense of something that isn't protecting you isn't terrible imo.

Personal success stories having taken up HRPs (as my combat style isn't agility focused, so it's not an issue for me) are going toe-to-toe with an Elite FAS for a very prolonged period in a Cobra III, and I actually managed to solo route a capship again with a python, once I added the HRPs.

If you're hauling, strongest shield + boosters, and fit mines. Seriously. Mines. They are your new best friend if you aren't planning to get into prolonged combat.

Others will suggest to put in a support request to reset your combat rank and allow you to "grow" with your rank, as the difficulty of ships you face is proportional to that, though it's not something I'd do.
 
Last edited:
Great. Why did this happen?

I'm not sure if you read or scanned my post, but my Keelback was destroyed in 5 seconds from behind at a LOW RES. I couldn't even turn around.

That's the equivalent of a King Hit at a club by a coward. This is a video game; how is that even remotely considered fun?

Also, my third Cobra death was by a 'DEADLY' Imperial Clipper in a Low RES. Why is a 'Deadly' Clipper spawning in a Low RES? What the hell spawns in a Haz Res? An Imperial Armada??
 
Last edited:
Pip management is absolutely essential now. If you had anything less than 4 in shields. You're pretty much dead in the water. Put up your loadouts. Tell people how you're flying and what tactics you're using and you'll find plenty of good feedback.
Ai and npcs still have a few problems here and there. They'll get fixed in time.
 
You need to stay out of the Res areas until you have fought against some of the NPCs single combat and re-learn how to fight and outfit your ship. And when to cut bait and run. I'm not the best pilot but the combat is much more challenging and fun that it was when you were here last. Before it was too easy. There are plenty of videos that will show you tips on outfitting and fighting in the new environment. Look thru the forums as well. Yes, it is hard, but if you like combat it is worth it.
 
I don't have the game at work so I can't post my loadouts, but I really want to know:

Is it normal for a 'Deadly' Imperial Clipper to be visible instantly on dropping into a Low Res?

Yes/No
 

Deleted member 115407

D
Great. Why did this happen?

I'm not sure if you read or scanned my post, but my Keelback was destroyed in 5 seconds from behind at a LOW RES. I couldn't even turn around.

That's the equivalent of a King Hit at a club by a coward. This is a video game; how is that even remotely considered fun?

Also, my third Cobra death was by a 'DEADLY' Imperial Clipper in a Low RES. Why is a 'Deadly' Clipper spawning in a Low RES? What the hell spawns in a Haz Res? An Imperial Armada??

Sounds like one of a few problems, OP...
  1. You have a combat rank that is past your actual combat skill level, thus causing you to attract NPCs that are tearing through you
  2. Your ships aren't as combat-hardened as you think they are
  3. You aren't managing distributor pips effectively to power your subsystems where/when needed
  4. You're being too quick on the draw and pulling down attacks from authorities

My biggest problem after coming back was #'s 2-3. Can you post coriolis.io links to your ship builds? That's a good place to start.

*edit*

I see you've already been asked and answered. Post them when you can and folks will be happy to help out.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Great. Why did this happen?

I'm not sure if you read or scanned my post, but my Keelback was destroyed in 5 seconds from behind at a LOW RES. I couldn't even turn around.

That's the equivalent of a King Hit at a club by a coward. This is a video game; how is that even remotely considered fun?

Also, my third Cobra death was by a 'DEADLY' Imperial Clipper in a Low RES. Why is a 'Deadly' Clipper spawning in a Low RES? What the hell spawns in a Haz Res? An Imperial Armada??

High res spawns ships more often. Not sure if they are higher rank or bigger.

And you took a Keelback - aka one of the most useless ships - to go bounty hunting. What did you expect to happen?

Deadly and Elite rank ships now have engineer mods. They also no longer spin in place. So if you expected an engineered 100 million credit deadly clipper to beat killed using a 6 million credit cobra then you better have the pilot skills to cover that equipment gap.

Basically you need to relearn combat using your Cobra mk3 and get good.
 
I don't have the game at work so I can't post my loadouts, but I really want to know:

Is it normal for a 'Deadly' Imperial Clipper to be visible instantly on dropping into a Low Res?

Yes/No

What's your combat rank? If you're dangerous or above, then yeah, good luck mate. You'll need to get real good real quick, or reset your combat rank.
 
You need to stay out of the Res areas until you have fought against some of the NPCs single combat and re-learn how to fight and outfit your ship. And when to cut bait and run. I'm not the best pilot but the combat is much more challenging and fun that it was when you were here last. Before it was too easy. There are plenty of videos that will show you tips on outfitting and fighting in the new environment. Look thru the forums as well. Yes, it is hard, but if you like combat it is worth it.

And as soon as you do some engineering on your shields and thrusters it returns to being on the easy side.
 
What's your combat rank? If you're dangerous or above, then yeah, good luck mate. You'll need to get real good real quick, or reset your combat rank.

I used to bounty hunt a lot so I'm guessing it's not the lowest 1 or 2.

I'm reading forum and subreddit threads about all of this now. I was going to buy Horizons on the weekend, but not if I can't even survive a single battle without the help of the system police (I don't know what they're called!)

So how are the player numbers since this change? I'd love to see the results of a global player-base survey regarding people's opinions of the changes...
 

Deleted member 115407

D
I used to bounty hunt a lot so I'm guessing it's not the lowest 1 or 2.

I'm reading forum and subreddit threads about all of this now. I was going to buy Horizons on the weekend, but not if I can't even survive a single battle without the help of the system police (I don't know what they're called!)

So how are the player numbers since this change? I'd love to see the results of a global player-base survey regarding people's opinions of the changes...

Oh, now you're opening a whole other can of worms.... there have been lots of threads and no one knows the answer except for FD. Probably best to just focus on yourself.

Combat is not impossible. It's just going to take a little extra work to be proficient at it. It can be done (I am testament to that).
 
So how are the player numbers since this change? I'd love to see the results of a global player-base survey regarding people's opinions of the changes...

the best we got are steam stats and people would insist they're meaningless. frontier will not give that info.

anyway i've not played in the last two weeks but community still goes on strong. you may delay buying horizons while you re-evaluate but ... chances are that if you liked elite before you will probably like it even more, just with a bit of effort. it really got more fun, just take care for a while.
 
Or reset my combat rank?

Some people have got support to reset just their combat rank, rather than a full wipe of the save. NPC spawns are based on your combat rank now, if you're Dangerous expect mainly deadly/elite interdictions.

Problem being lots of people farmed their rank in RES and CZ whilst the AI was still braindead, now they are out ranked.

Idea being they can grow more naturally into the new AI.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom