Enemy NPC ships and the cheapness they are >:3

[GaryStargazer]

Ok so i combed through the forum and did not find anything regarding this so, either that or i over looked it, either way here is my rant.

So the NPC fighters are more challenging in this mod, great i can deal with that, infact it makes combat more exciting, but here is my problem. The NPC ships break the standard rules of engagement everytime i fight them.(AKA they cheat.)

How you ask? well for starters they use their B/B way more than possible for their ship class. Take when i first started playing, was fighting against some outcast NPC's in dagger ships. Now even your own wiki states a dagger can hold 15 b/b's so why is it during the course of the dog fight with said outcast i counted atleast 25 times that he brought his shield back online to halfway, by the way when i finally got rid of his shield he kept restoring his hull like another 20 times as well.

Oh but in the middle of the fight when i scanned him he had ... no b/b's? hmm ...

Let's talk about weapons for a moment.

Engaging some lane hackers in britonia area, i had ships consistently using mines on me in combat, i think they were razor mines but dont take my word for it. Regardless i scanned his hold to see how many he has left. shock and suprise he was 1 single mine in his hold. yet dropped atleast 5 more on me during the course of the battle.

Oh and by the way his guns were maxed, he had no mine dropper equiped. Also why do i get blasted with cruise disruptor missiles when half the ships have no launcher equipped as well?


Ok please understand i am not whining about the difficulty level of the AI, I just think NPC ships should follow the same restrictions as PC ships, If i went into a battle with all my weapon slots filled with cannons but was firing off missiles from out of nowhere how fast would i be banned for hacking?

Point being fighting NPC's is annoying enough unless you have them severely outgunned, skill is skill but having to over come an unfair weapon advantage is just a cheap pot shot at trying to make a game "Challenging."

This concludes my rant, i will now be accepting flames such as GTFO noob etc..

[Jinx]

the NPCs need every offensive buff they can get ( including higher grade weapons and shields ) - only the stationary battleships with their 3k+ and high refire guns are at least a little threat to a player. - if NPCs were equipped the very same that players are - they d be a joke.

however their bat / bot use is really chating - if a player could always only take 1 bat to replenish his shields by 20% - a fight would indeed last an eternity. - but that issue is being addressed in igiss' feedback at the moment - so we can expect to see a change there.

the problem with NPCs is that they need not only to be balanced against fighters like the original game, but also against warships. - so it cames that they might be impossibly hard to kill for a fighter ( or inefficient when it comes to the time it takes ) .... but they might be easy enough and a matter of a second for a gunboat.

yet, missions pay out the very same - so a gunboat can blast through a mission rewarding 700k in less than 10 minutes, while a fighter cannot even think of going after a 700k mission. - the balance there is off, but its hard to balance it at all.

low level NPCs are plainly frustrating for new players - high leverl NPCs when faught by high level players are mostly OK - but not really worth the time, unless the player is fixing his reputations. - but after all, they are needed. ... NPCs create a universe that feels alive.

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Shipdesigns made for DiscoveryGC

[Fletcher]

Once you get a ship cabable of mounting class 8 equipment and higher, the NPC's are a joke. Mount codenames with shield busters and they're flies on the wall.

The only real threat in the NPC ranks fighter wise are the Nomads and the Wild, oh and Freelancer ships with the hull of a planet.

They are frustrating, but once you hit the Super Heavy Fighters and Capitals, enjoy the free bots and bats.

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"Oh chuffing blimey, another day, another person being whiney!"
Fletcher's Feedback and Stories Thread

[Generation]

I like NPC's, I have no problem with em. They give me free nuke mines and launchers.

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[Thexare]

yet, missions pay out the very same - so a gunboat can blast through a mission rewarding 700k in less than 10 minutes, while a fighter cannot even think of going after a 700k mission. - the balance there is off, but its hard to balance it at all.

Er, actually... I've taken three 750k missions solo, and only failed one, in my Scimitar. That was in Omicron Alpha, I don't know how it is elsewhere.

high leverl NPCs when faught by high level players are mostly OK - but not really worth the time, unless the player is fixing his reputations.

I agree, not worth the time - so how's about dropping their CDs so those of us who don't want to waste our time dealing with Stilettos that must've been carved from Badlands asteroids don't have to deal with them?

[GaryStargazer]

Well i just think some of the lower level NPC's should be tweaked, this would help new players get on their feet better, granted i now have a manta and i see what you guys mean about cutting them up like veggies but i still think the b/b ration should atleast be lowerd on the easier ships in the low lv regions to help new players get on their feet.

I know when i started in my little starflier i had a hell of a time trying to finish missions without getting my butt kicked from them just raming me alone. Yea i know i suck XD

[teschy]

Er, actually... I've taken three 750k missions solo, and only failed one, in my Scimitar. That was in Omicron Alpha, I don't know how it is elsewhere.

Umm, I've taken a 700k mission from Gran Canaria, on my Wrath. The objective was to destroy...5 Osiris's :shok:

Ok...

[Thexare]

Umm, I've taken a 700k mission from Gran Canaria, on my Wrath. The objective was to destroy...5 Osiris's :shok:

Ok...

Yeah, that's like the one I failed - five BHG Battleships.

The others were a base destruction mission and swarms of Hammerheads.

[Screenlag]

I guess if you gave all fighters in the whole discovery universe ammo and bats then that would take some CPU and slow down the server. But Im not an expert.

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[bluntpencil2001]

NPCs are pretty good against certain classes of ship. Fighters and Gunboats, for instance, can be easily swarmed by Corsair Titans or KNF war parties. It's the random battleships that annoy me though...

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