NPC Balance

[Envomni]

I see the pinned topic at the top seems to be strictly about ship balance.. sheilds, hull, agility etc, so I think this is the right approach to start a new topic on this specific balance issue.

In a few other posts, such as in the "Discovery Freelancer RP 24/7 Server ", there are people posting to explain that they are tired of doing the NPC missions, to find that they go on, and on, and on from NPC's that seem able to regen forever. Two posts even came as someone stating that they intended to leave the server because they were fed up with it. One of those posts is..

http://discoverygc.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=10242

The problem stems from chasing down enemy NPC's in a mission, and getting them right down to the last barely visible bar of life, and then seeing that regardless of what you smash them with.. nothing is now happening. The hits show, you hear the NPC screaming that they're hit or life support is out.. but still it doesn't kill them off. Next, they make some wild impossible shifts and turns you could never do, and 8 seconds later, they have 60% of their hull and 20 to 25% of their sheild back.. though youve' scanned them to see that they had no bots left.

Making the missions more challenging - absolutely. Its important that the game is not too easy, because you'll get bored and leave quick. But the same is true of this kind of over-invincibility stuff. If your level 9 and 10 weapons do no damage hit after hit, when they should be wiping these guys out, that too utterly ruins the sense of being here. Why play? You put all that effort into getting yourself the ship and weapons you want.. but you can't do anything with them, because the game has pre-defined when it will let you kill the enemy.

I hope the admins can make some adjustments here. It would be a shame to see more good RP players state their intention to leave because of this frustration, and it would be just as bad if it lead to players deciding to ignore PvP rules to make the profit they want because they're fed up with the NPC invincibles.

Thank you to the mod makers for your hard work into this game, even though Microsoft has done nothing to support it and help it grow. As a programmer, I do understand the time this takes out of your life to tweak and adjust, the late nights, the occaisional spousal "fights" over the time your putting on the machine, etc. Your players do appreciate your committment to make a damn good game.