Ive had it happen to me too, they have no bots or bats and their hull/shield still comes back, its annoying when it has 1% hull left then magically 100% shield.
Im just glad my Juggernaut is impervious to Train CD's, otherwise I would have lost it a long time ago.
' Wrote:I like that they use bats/bots. And it's not infinite. Just scan their equipment to see how many they have left. It adds to the In-RP-ness of the game, so you can't turn on the meatmower and chop through 20 fighters on your own.
They use these regens one at a time, and seem to be able to use them in the time it takes me to turn around and commence another pass. Which means I have to drop their shields 20 times. (It is impossible to stick on the tail of a Drake, they simply maneuver too well.)
Not challenging in the least, simply boring, tedious and painful.
I seem to remember the community asking that spawns be made weaker. So instead we give Nomad fighters more TCD's than any other mob, so much so that anything smaller than a gunboat is stuffed as soon as he sees a pair of Nomad LF's. I have no problem with them using TCD's, but let's bear in mind that not everything has a CM and they barely work as is. I think I read somewhere that they have 12 CD's each. Any reason why they need four times more than any other NPC in disco, when they're already among the most numerous and powerful?
I think its' possible that the Devs intended Nomad space to be dangerous, and for people to think twice before going in there unescorted. Would be nice if it was the same for the Badlands, they have a reputation after all.
With the CD's it's not so much dangerous as a killzone. Anything that can't pop out CM's fast enough is doomed to be swarmed by countless Nomad fighter, gunboat and battleship patrols. It's not just going to be an issue for transports, I can see even Battleships struggling to make it through Kappa/Delta.
Now the question is, do the transports and battleships and whatever need to be passing through those systems? If you want to be safe, fly in a safer part of Sirius. If you want to live through Kappa/Delta, you best be getting in a more manoeuvrable ship, like a fighter or a smaller transport.
Well... Yeah... Hunters, Order, Corsairs and Zoner all have an established inRP presence. It's just behind the front of the Order/BHG war, what with the addition of Dabadoru station, which needs to be supplied. There's also a Freeport in Delta, and Zoner planets in Kappa, all of which need supplies. Plus Yaren in Delta, which belongs to the Corsairs, and a few others, but I think I've made my point.
I seem to remember the community asking that spawns be made weaker. So instead we give Nomad fighters more TCD's than any other mob, so much so that anything smaller than a gunboat is stuffed as soon as he sees a pair of Nomad LF's. I have no problem with them using TCD's, but let's bear in mind that not everything has a CM and they barely work as is. I think I read somewhere that they have 12 CD's each. Any reason why they need four times more than any other NPC in disco, when they're already among the most numerous and powerful?
/rant
Ask Treewyrm.
Igiss says: Martin, you give them a finger, they bite off your arm.
All I think is that really good nomad NPCs need to be restricted to Iota and 99. 12 CD's and X number of missiles? Sure. Just not in public systems please. That would be a bit like me asking hyperion nicely to code praetorian patrols and insert them at every landmark in Omicron Gamma, Omega 41 and Omega 5. Sure, it would be okay for that to happen in Omicron 91, but not in public systems.
Actually, Bomber patrols in Gallia need to be removed aswell. They -really- rape anything larger than a fighter, and its not fair that they royally spam SN's. Replace them with additional VHF patrols, since I think that VHF patrols are pretty sparse there from what I've seen. It seems that there are a lot of LF and HF patrols, so I think the bombers need to be replaced with VHF's. It would be suicidal for a task force of council players, for example, to mount an offensive into GRN territory if they got owned by GRN NPC bombers half way there.
Apart from that, I think NPC's are okay. Regarding the VHF NPCs and below, you just need to have some decent aim and dodging skills, and maybe also a pattern in your head of NPC behaviour. Just find when they EK in a straight line and lay into them. By the time you empty your powerplant into them, they should be dead.
Sure, I lost about 5 bots facing 12 Hammerheads at the same time in a Titan, but come on. We are the elite pilots when compared to NPCs, but we cant be so elite as to not lose our shield against 12 "normal" pilots. That makes very little sense.
NPC's using b/b one at a time is also very annoying, but it doesn't affect high level NPC's so much. It's worst with drakes, hawks, dragons and falcons. I spent 3 hours missioning on my fighter to get the guard rep so I could finally buy my destroyer thats in my sig. Im only half way there, because each mission is prolonged by the silly usage of bots and bats. NPC's should use enough to fill up their entire health bar, but have a delay of 10 seconds at least between uses. This will make higher level NPC's harder to kill than low ones. Right now, the hardest to kill in a timely manner are the medium level NPC's. The lowest ones get insta'd by high level guns and the high level ones dont gain enough hitpoints from using b/b one at a time.
Regarding traders and CD's, there are two ways you can get away from NPCs. One is repeatedly turning on your cruise engine and waiting for the NPCs to waste all of their 3 CD's on you. The other is, well, a failure of the AI, really. Just gotta figure that one out for yourself or ask around.