Will Fighter Crew competence ever be restored?

[Scoob]

Hey all,

Every so often, I take my Elite Crew member out for a bit, to see if she's regained the competence she once had. As of today's test, the answer is no, she's still next to useless.

I still remember the days when I'd take out a Keelback and have her do 90% of the work as I tagged targets. Fun times. Lazy fun, but fun none the less. In more serious situations, where perhaps I needed a little help, she'd be there, punching well above her weight in whichever Fighter I put her in. No more.

Considering how bad she's been for so long now, I wonder if the dumbing down of our Crew was a deliberate nerf, rather than some sort of bug. I mean, I trained her up from Harmless, saw her get better each rank until she was a total Beast after hitting Elite. The 10% cut she takes from everything, even when not around, didn't hurt quite so much, as she was excellent when called upon to help. No more though and I wonder if it's long past time to get rid, as FDev haven't restored even a fraction of her prior skill.

Basically, when deployed, she struggles to hit anything, even with beams. Any sort on not-insta-hit weapon, like multi's or plasmas, well, I'd say she has a 95%+ miss rate, her shots constantly where the target was, assuming she actually got around to firing in the first place. Also, her general piloting competence, and ability to avoid fire, I think that went the same way.

So, do you still run a crew member to pop in an SLF every now and again, or have you long gotten rid of them, like I should, due to the Crew piloting ability issues / nerf. I cannot even remember when it was she became so bad now... it's been so long.

 

[aRJay]

Yes but I trained up a new one since the skill loss even going to the extent of picking one with the background picture of the SLF I want the. to use.

Are they better I am not sure as I bottled out of asking somebody to be a target while I did a competitive fly off between new and old.

 

[Tifu]

I have one pilot who recently reached master level but she still can't aim a Taipan with plasma repeaters reliably. Had to fall back to gimballed weapons.

I usually drive a Keelback so SLF pilots are of some use but I've never seen or experienced the kind of pilot mastery you've described (pre-nerf).

 

[aRJay]

I have one pilot who recently reached master level but she still can't aim a Taipan with plasma repeaters reliably. Had to fall back to gimballed weapons.

I usually drive a Keelback so SLF pilots are of some use but I've never seen or experienced the kind of pilot mastery you've described (pre-nerf).

My long term but now retired SLF pilot was pretty much used as a distraction even after they reached Elite until I switched them off plasma armed fighters into the Imperial one fitted with fixed beam lasers. That made a huge difference I could set them on one of a wing of pirates while I dealt with another sure that they would not only survive and whittle the target down but might well destroy them without my help.
Then they started to barely take the shields down.

Gimbals might be an answer but plasmas might be a different problem.

 

[CMDR Saigon]

Pretty much hopeless but she does prevent space madness in the black abyss!

 

[Stealthie]

My long term but now retired SLF pilot was pretty much used as a distraction even after they reached Elite until I switched them off plasma armed fighters into the Imperial one fitted with fixed beam lasers. That made a huge difference I could set them on one of a wing of pirates while I dealt with another sure that they would not only survive and whittle the target down but might well destroy them without my help.
Then they started to barely take the shields down.

Gimbals might be an answer but plasmas might be a different problem.

Been a long time since I used an SLF pilot but the last one I had was an absolute legend in the Guardian Trident.
I'd target a ship's PP or thrusters, send her out in the Trident and I'd just keep the target busy and let her disable the PP/Thrusters, which she'd usually achieve with 2 or 3 attacks.
Course, the Trident had "Plasma autocannons" (IIRC) rather than a regular PA-style weapon.

But, regardless, she was superb.
There were times, during CGs, when I made it into the top 10 and I suspect she would probably have made it into the top 25% on her own, flying the Trident.
Good times!

Alas, I had to let her go when I realised that I'd paid her two billion credits!
Her bio' said she was from Leesti so I took her back and dropped her at George Lucas station.

 

[Tifu]

Course, the Trident had "Plasma autocannons" (IIRC) rather than a regular PA-style weapon.

But, regardless, she was superb.
There were times, during CGs, when I made it into the top 10 and I suspect she would probably have made it into the top 25% on her own, flying the Trident.
Good times!

I really need to unlock these Guardian SLF's - maybe after Cocijo gets to his final resting place.

Are the Plasma autocannons any good against regular human NPCs?

 

[Three Stars]

If your NPC was around prior to Update 17, they’ve had a stroke and should be gently but forcefully sent into retirement. Hire a new one and rank them up, and you won’t have the same problems with their aim.

 

[Neilski]

If your NPC was around prior to Update 17, they’ve had a stroke and should be gently but forcefully sent into retirement. Hire a new one and rank them up, and you won’t have the same problems with their aim.

Wow, is that documented somewhere?

 

[Kwitzak]

I trained a new pilot up to elite at they still have the same problems.. so that dosent help

 

[foxwalker]

Interesting. When I go mining, and reload I get multiple NPC Pirates after me and I often only get to handle one while my Fighter crew member has killed all the rest of them. He is only at Dangerous.

 

[Darkman Returns]

Mine (was) retired several updates ago. I think she will be alright though, assuming she had invested some of the 11+ billion credits earned in our time together. It was good while it lasted, just the two of us fighting crime, punching above our weight. She was good enough to hardly ever need a rebuild (except solo wing assassination missions where she would attract aggro from at least two fighters while I engaged the others), so we usually flew with just the single hangar and never ever ran out of fighters.

For over a thousand missions, we were the guardians of peace and justice in the galaxy. Before the dark times, before Update 17.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

Wow, is that documented somewhere?

The reports at https://issues.frontierstore.net/issue-detail/62586 seem split on how effective new Elite-ranked ones are, but it seems to still be a problem for those too.

 

[Walter2]

I switched mine from fixed beams to gimballed pulses and she now consistently hits the targets. Unfortunately, the targets have turned out to be quite savvy: they are immediately aware that they are being attacked by a gimballed weapon and spam chaff making my gimballed efforts slightly less effective.
Standard FD policy - you'll gain this but lose that.

Her bio' said she was from Leesti so I took her back and dropped her at George Lucas station.

That was cruel - dropping her off at the very place she was desperate to leave. After all the things you two went through together.
And you paid her peanuts.

 

[Neilski]

The reports at https://issues.frontierstore.net/issue-detail/62586 seem split on how effective new Elite-ranked ones are, but it seems to still be a problem for those too.

Thanks.
The "aiming where the target was" makes it sound like it could have been a deliberate act by the devs - e.g. to reduce impossibly good aim by the AI pilots - but I am guessing that FD have not made any comment (and that issue is still in the voting stage).

It's years since I used an NPC. Sounds like I should leave it a while longer...

 

[Neilski]

That was cruel - dropping her off at the very place she was desperate to leave. After all the things you two went through together.

My thoughts exactly!

 

[Hugh Jardon]

Hey all,

Every so often, I take my Elite Crew member out for a bit, to see if she's regained the competence she once had. As of today's test, the answer is no, she's still next to useless.

I still remember the days when I'd take out a Keelback and have her do 90% of the work as I tagged targets. Fun times. Lazy fun, but fun none the less. In more serious situations, where perhaps I needed a little help, she'd be there, punching well above her weight in whichever Fighter I put her in. No more.

Considering how bad she's been for so long now, I wonder if the dumbing down of our Crew was a deliberate nerf, rather than some sort of bug. I mean, I trained her up from Harmless, saw her get better each rank until she was a total Beast after hitting Elite. The 10% cut she takes from everything, even when not around, didn't hurt quite so much, as she was excellent when called upon to help. No more though and I wonder if it's long past time to get rid, as FDev haven't restored even a fraction of her prior skill.

Basically, when deployed, she struggles to hit anything, even with beams. Any sort on not-insta-hit weapon, like multi's or plasmas, well, I'd say she has a 95%+ miss rate, her shots constantly where the target was, assuming she actually got around to firing in the first place. Also, her general piloting competence, and ability to avoid fire, I think that went the same way.

So, do you still run a crew member to pop in an SLF every now and again, or have you long gotten rid of them, like I should, due to the Crew piloting ability issues / nerf. I cannot even remember when it was she became so bad now... it's been so long.

I still use one for RES farming. You tell her to shoot the target, then she flies in every direction to get the best shot at the massive Anaconda sitting right in front of you. After a couple of minutes, she finally fires, only to miss. I've exaggerated a bit, but that's not far from the truth. It makes the activity very tedious and frustrating, which seems to be Fdevs' goal with every activity. Overall, she's just about a positive because once she's finally landed a shot, the NPC will chase after her instead of me, and if you use a fighter with fixed weapons, the NPC won't chaff, so you can finish them quickly using laser weapons. It's still the most productive way to farm bounties.

It wouldn't surprise me if the nerf was done to confound the guys doing AFK pirate farming in their T10s.

 

[Stealthie]

I really need to unlock these Guardian SLF's - maybe after Cocijo gets to his final resting place.

Are the Plasma autocannons any good against regular human NPCs?

Yep.

The Trident fires a long burst of plasma, which looks a bit like the lasers fired by the fighters in Star Wars, and does absolute damage.
If you look at the stat's it seems to have stupidly low damage, compared to the other GSLFs , but I assume that's per shot and, as I say, it fires a stream of about 20 shots very quickly.

It's very fragile, though.
That's why, in CZs, I used to send my NPCs out in a Taipan instead of the Trident.
For 1 vs 1 fights, though, I'd just target the PP or thrusters, start blasting at the shield with lasers, the Trident would attack 2 or 3 times and the target would be dead in space.
Also, AFAIK, the Trident DOESN'T have unlimited ammo, unlike every(?) other SLF in the game.
That's not a big deal, though, because it'll probably get destroyed before it can run out of ammo' in a long fight.

I should say, that was with an Elite SLF pilot.
Last time I checked, it was best to put an NPC in a Taipan and use them as a decoy until they were at least Deadly.
At lower ranks they just don't have the accuracy or the tactics to do a lot of damage.

 

[Stealthie]

That was cruel - dropping her off at the very place she was desperate to leave. After all the things you two went through together.
And you paid her peanuts.

Bah!

With 2 billion credits in her pocket, I'm sure she could find something to do in her home system.

 

[Arioch]

…but I am guessing that FD have not made any comment (and that issue is still in the voting stage).

The green tick in the upper-right corner of the voting triangle shows the answer from FDev - the issue has been reviewed and is now logged as a legitimate problem.