PETITION: Nerf NPCs

[Eppy]

i.e. I'm bias. Hence, I realise that others might enjoy trading somehow or think its hard work umm... Hitting F6, right clicking then clicking the thing to the right then... F2. Oh dear! There goes my oversimplification due to fire hatreds acting up again!

Aaaanyways. Kuro and Ivr have reiterated my sentiments.

-Edit-

Yes. I feel your pain. All of these opinions aren't coming from a blind idiot who has no idea what he's talking about. Exhibit A: I get swarmed by 4 BH Dessies in a Titan and when I make a completely in RP request for help, I get "Omg, u shudd heif picked bettur". A tip, anything under skill level 39 usually doesn't have caps. Admittedly its not really worth anything, but still. I learned this during the long line of "Lolwuts", "Omg noob" and a myriad of other condescending remarks.

-Double Edit- And generally when a giant crown jewel of a fleet gets pummeled by shots meants to annihilate armor, its understandable the repair bill would be high. The missions are probably meant for bombers, maybe a really good GB pilot, not a planet-sized target expecting to make a profit off of a private commission.

What I'm saying is that it shouldn't be possible, because these things wouldn't have infinite powerplants. If they can only get off realistic numbers of Razor shots my shield wouldn't even drop, and my Mortar can have them dead in no time at all, but if they can just keep shooting their pulse cannons indefinitely I'm doomed, flagship or not. Missions were originally meant for solo players, and unless the Gods of Repping make an insta-rep tool (which would take a lot of the experience out of it, I think) it ought to stay that way. Also, since the Dessies have Razors, sending bombers up against them would be very unintelligent...

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Quick comment - we thought that Panzer was the Leader, Swift. -Agmen

Which Dreadnought was that?

One of your nine.

[n00bl3t]

/signed.

(Should I expand my post?)

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Anything I say is not intended as offensive, and to try and deliberately misinterpret it as such would be an attempt at trolling via misrepresentation.

It's not a conspiracy, it's localised bias. They're not intelligent enough to form a conspiracy.

[Fozzie]

I agree in part. I think either the NPCs should be nerfed or reduced in number. Alternately they could drop more loot when destroyed or the pilots and loot should pay more when sold. I don't mind fighting my way around but right now my ships cost more to fix and reequip after NPC encounters than I make selling the loot. Guard systems and bases are fine to have powerful defensive NPCs but trade lanes and free systems should be adjusted a bit.

[Baltar]

Get real ... NPCs are not that tough. The only time an NPC is a challenge is when you're starting out with a new character and have no cash to buy something to counter them. Once you're established its pretty tough to die to an NPC ... unless you're in a small vessel up against an NPC cap.

[Benjamin]

Or if you're trying to RP on the RP server? Or you know, mine? Or if you're being pirated?

Don't be obtuse. Just because you can beat NPCs when you're out killing things, does not mean some newbie who came here to RP and trade can.

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[sovereign]

/signed.

(Should I expand my post?)

Don't bother, it would appear that the people who can fix these things aren't going to no matter what we say.




Yes, Mjolnir, I'm aware that 50-odd people think that nerfing the NPCs is the wrong answer. I'm also aware that about three people in this entire thread have said that NPCs are not badly in need of fixing (not necessarily nerfing, which the poll was about), as opposed to the fifty-odd who posted full complaints with examples. Are you going to tell them that they're wrong, that their characters didn't get owned by those NPCs? Yes, there's some Navy Weapons Platforms at Ithaca. Yes, the Unioners are stronger. The Unioners also don't have perfect aim and occasionally shoot at things other than you. They're a problem and have killed my flea once or twice out of the dozen chars I've setup in Rheinland, but as of yet I have never gotten a flea out of Pennsylvania on my first try. Ever. Even when the server's busy, it's about 50/50. Screw the numbers, something is wrong, if the NPCs shouldn't be capable of that kind of destruction then find out what's causing it. There IS a problem there whether your or not you'll admit it, I believe that the posters in this thread have established that. You seem to be the only one who cares that it "should" work find yet doesn't.

As for the set of plaguing fleas taking "only three passes"... in the event you actually have done that, remember that you're one of the better pilots on the server? Not to stroke your ego or anything, but you are, and not everyone else is that good. Just because it takes you only three passes to wipe out a patrol doesn't mean that everyone else must fail at life if they can't kill them that fast, especially in a transport.

Also, the EK trick doesn't exactly fly in a transport. Half of the time, they CD you anyway, and the other half of the time they follow you at full speed anyway. If an NPC patrol shows up and attacks your transport, your profits basically just got halved, since even if the EK trick *does* work, you're still only going at 130 m/s as opposed to 350 m/s. No, you can't just wait a few seconds and startup cruise, that doesn't work when the enemy is within 3k and I'm in a fighter with full CMs and it's certainly not going to be any better when the NPCs impulse as fast as I thrust (and the NPCs do move faster than us, hell, I remember some catching up to my ship on cruise when they were quite obviously on impulse...).

And as for the specific examples that somehow disprove the trend, like the Legionnaire... you haven't, by chance, ever actually tried to kill an NPC Legionnaire, have you? I spent five minutes killing just one of them in one of my Eagles. I consider a reduced agility on it a piece of mercy rather than balance...

So... any more things you'd like to say the playerbase is wrong about? Maybe say that we should all do high-level missions in our fighters (and yes, I've been sent up against a set of Osirises in a mission that went for 120k, you *cannot* predict which will give you fighters and which caps in locations where both are offered)? Perhaps you'll next suggest that we fly nothing but LFs, KU DDs, and things that fly like those ships- but no, the Whale must be surely as combat capable as those ships! Or howabout say that our facts are all wrong and that all these things we're complaining about never happened and are actually cardamine-induced hallucinations! That's definitely more likely than the playerbase being right about anything.

Sorry for the tone here, but I'm getting a bit fed up with being told "you're wrong, shut up" or "then you must just suck" when it seems like everyone else has the same issue. I can understand it when all the posts are "/signed" but when they're "/signed because of A, B, and C" you might want to consider listening. Fancy that, listening to people. Sadly, it seems to be about as common as avoiding NPC CDs.

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[Derkylos]

Just flew my BH dessie from Delta to O-56 (scrapping it and getting a Manta, I'm fed up of it sitting around, eating all my cash and not doing anything...), and, as soon as I jumped from 41 to 15, I had about 8 Corsairs of varying types on me. I couldn't cruise, as they simply CDed me each time (that's a destroyer we're talking, here), and, due to my primarily anti-cap setup, I was unable to kill them quickly. They, in return, proceeded to drop my shield to about 1-2 bars as I tried in vain to do the e-kill+turn thing (what a surprise, doesn't work in big ships). When I eventually managed to get around and bring my guns to bear, I was able to slowly pick them off one by one (pulses do not great antifighter weapons make).

Interestingly, passing through the system, I later encountered 4 Hessians, which were unable to even make my shield wobble...

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[atm999]

I think the main problem with NPCs is the Train Cd spam. Make TCD NPCs only pop up in guard systems, and you will make everyone happy. Next, because they rarely show up in groups of less than 3, give each NPC (guard systems excluded) only one or two CDs. The question here is which? One won't do much when there are three fighters, but 2 would be overkill when 12 ships show up. Also, increasing the effective range of CMs (because of server lag) would help. Finally, limit the refire rates of NPC cap razors and pulse weapons. A total nerf of NPCs is not needed if the above suggestions are taken.

[Baltar]

Or if you're trying to RP on the RP server? Or you know, mine? Or if you're being pirated?

Don't be obtuse. Just because you can beat NPCs when you're out killing things, does not mean some newbie who came here to RP and trade can.

Wow ... hmm ... I've got a character that I role play as a civilian. Yup ... I've got a character that is under level 40 ... Civilian ID ... in an HF (Kiith Somtaaw). Guess what ... the NPC's are pretty tough ... but not unbeatable. Give it a go.

Besides ... most "new" guys manage to get themselves into a battle ship in a couple weeks with no help from others. Tell me how they role played in a couple weeks to gain their fully kited battle ships? I bet none of them flew a gob of missions to get the money.

As for being pirated ... that's not an NPC issue ... and thus off topic.

As for "your" server ... make the adjustments yourself. You have the power to make all factions neutral or friendly to new players. When I installed 4.85 ... I made all factions neutral to me for single player mode. Oh ... and there's another server already running that is setup with all factions as neutral. So ... lets please try to stay on topic ... on THIS server.

[Benjamin]

Wow ... hmm ... I've got a character that I role play as a civilian. Yup ... I've got a character that is under level 40 ... Civilian ID ... in an HF (Kiith Somtaaw). Guess what ... the NPC's are pretty tough ... but not unbeatable. Give it a go.

Besides ... most "new" guys manage to get themselves into a battle ship in a couple weeks with no help from others. Tell me how they role played in a couple weeks to gain their fully kited battle ships? I bet none of them flew a gob of missions to get the money.

As for being pirated ... that's not an NPC issue ... and thus off topic.

As for "your" server ... make the adjustments yourself. You have the power to make all factions neutral or friendly to new players. When I installed 4.85 ... I made all factions neutral to me for single player mode. Oh ... and there's another server already running that is setup with all factions as neutral. So ... lets please try to stay on topic ... on THIS server.

When I said 'mine' I didn't mean my server, I meant mining. As in, sitting still being shot by NPCs. When I said being pirated, I didn't mean being shot by player pirates (why would I mean that?) I meant being shot by NPCs when you're being pirated, and you can't fly off because the player pirates will shoot you, and you can't shoot the NPCs in turret mode because you need to RP back.

Infact going through this, I think you've managed to misinterpret every single point I was making.

Yes you can kill NPCs in an HF under level 40. Why are you saying this? I just spent all day running missions in a hussar with no problems at all, that isnot my point. Can you kill NPCs in an HF under level 40 when you're sat still typing? That is the point I was trying to make.

And that thing about 'most new players manage to get a battleship in 2 weeks'. What? What point are you trying to make here at all? Is that because I said someone might join the server to trade and RP? Someone who gets a battleship within 2 weeks is not here to trade and RP.

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