[Dev Feedback] - Hudson bomber lane interruptions

[Skorak]

This ties into the general IW rework but in this particular thread I am looking for feedback on these bomber disruptions. How are you faring against them? Are they too much or too little of a threat? Please tell us your encounters with them.

Also about the frequency please.

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[Emperor Tekagi]

So far I only ran into them on a Frigate. A literal "What the f***?" moment when I noticed they deal actual damage.
The idea is cool, I like to see some actual threatening ambience here and there. Not sure how well you fare encountering them as newbie (or generally a smaller transport) but given you can easily escape them, it should be ok.
Massive "punishment" when you semi-afk and forgot they spawn there, I bet.

[Toaster]

I haven't actually tested the Hudson bomber encounters yet myself.

However, NPC lane disruptions should generally be reworked. In their current state, they do absolutely nothing except annoy players passing through the lane. The NPCs kick you out, fall into a coma, and just force you to cruise 8K to the next lane ring. Completely pointless and mere annoyances. Players should not be getting annoyed.

Assuming the Hudson disruptions actually work well, roll them out to more systems. Make disruptions an actual danger. Not enough so that a player not looking at the screen at that moment gets instantly nuked, but threatening enough that a transport might actually need to fight back. This would give battle transports an actual reason to exist again. Heck, player escorts might even need to be hired in order to fend off NPCs. Lord knows there isn't any need for them with player-only piracy in its current state.

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Olivia Sable

[Gutek]

I have meet bomber squad many times already becouse I am taking part in current event ( that is great!).
I did not noticed in patch notes that those encounters are limited to Hudson only and I think that such bombing squads should show itself Sirius wide to make traveling throu space more extreme and exciting. But so far the only diffrence is that when those bombers break the trade line they may take your shield down when you are in 5ker - thats all. So moving those 8 K to next trade line is pretty much the same.
I remember the times when all "pirate" npc were using CD's - and that was anoying. At this moment such bombing squad is realy dangerous only if you go semi-afk. That makes em dangerous in simillar way as planets atmosphere.
So maybe NPC trade line encounters could be less frequent in general but more demanding? Maybe "Elite" groups consisting of fighters + bomber with high lvl pilots. Such groups could be rare but cappable of using CD? Also such bad ass npc could be the way to get some rare loot from it? That would give some nice money reward or even some chance to drop some uniqe equipment. World of Warcraft, you know. They have it tested for quite some time.

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Its nice to back on the trade line.

[Skorak]

Bumping as this is not the usual forum people check.

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[All Worlds]

So far, it appears I've fielded the only 'too weak' vote but with a reason:
The most intense NPC experience I've had so far in this game was in Leeds with the Molly group out there - traveling in a mid-size trader. They were using CDs, which, in my opinion, make the encounter that much more intense, as you can't just cruise to escape. I managed to escape and take down a couple alright but the worry for my cargo after a lengthy run was there. I'll admit - I was underequipped weapon wise - never again!

If you are looking to have people choose between 'the dangerous but shorter' vs 'the slightly longer but safer', there has to be danger. Give the NPCs CDs to force the threat to be dealt with, add a note on the entry buoys indicating 'Dangerous area - proceed with caution' (for new players etc.) and you'll see more transports that brave that route either going in heavier rigs or bringing escorts.

From the buoys feedback:
"Right now these buoys can be found in Bering, Hamburg, Hudson and Texas if you wish to take a look yourself.
In theory these could even contain notes about contraband or such things."

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[Saronsen]

if i wanted to play against NPCs i have twenty other space and fighter games with better combat AI and engaging gameplay to pick

thats my feedback

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[Armageddon]

My two pence on this.

I'd like to see some dedicated cruise disruption ships in the patrols that would be identifiable and easy to target during the testing phase. This would give people the opportunity to escape relatively quickly by destroying the CD ship or deploying CM's but lead to the patrols being a bit more logical. Realistically factions aren't going to send out ships with the intention of piracy without the ability to disrupt a target.

Perhaps a custom CD for the NPC's that has a long reload time to prevent CD spam. Other than that, the bomber squadrons appear to be relatively well balanced in my opinion. Able to do damage but not to the point where it might be a blocker for newer players with less well equipped ships. Realistically in earlier times you would see player pirates with some frequency but given the numbers of players we have now it would seem logical to supplant some of these player driven piracy interactions with some NPC ones.

These are certainly better than the current batch of lane disruption NPC's which are only annoyance causing you to need to cruise to the next lane.