I have been playing this game for a little while now, long enough to learn that NPC Battleship and cruiser patrols do squat against anything save other NPCs, which kinda defeat the purpose of having them. So here is a few changes I'd like to see to make them a real deterrent.
1. Vanilla style heavy and multi barrel turrets.
This would be the simplest way to enhance them, just give them a load out that fits the ship the best. ex. All battleship load outs reflect there stationary counterparts, Rheiland and Liberty cruisers to reflect there SP campaign counterparts and everything else what fits best on the weapon slot.
2. More escort fighters.
Doesn't it seem a little odd that a massive and expensive Battleship has only two fighters escorting it? Double the fighters for the Cruiser patrols and triple it for the Battleship patrols.
3. AI
I've look at the ships behaviour and it seems that anything larger than a freighter runs on a transports AI, which the programmers never intended to be much of a threat. I'm pretty sure a freighters AI would work work better for gunboats and maybe even the cruisers so they could break formation and peruse the enemy, battleships are to big to be able to run on any AI other than the one they have. Of course this would be difficult and have to be tested to make sure they weren't bugged.
4. New locations.
Now, I haven't been outside of Rheinland much, but I do believe that in the Corsair and Outcast home systems they have no battleship patrols? It might be a nice addition to add them there to discourage certain undesirables from camping the planets.
I would love to see at least one of these thing implemented.
Yes, the NPC caps are horrible, and do nothing against other caps.
However, NPC caps still cause a great deal of damage to anything gunboat and smaller, so the question is, how to make it so they won't automatically wipe out fighters/bombers and yet make them powerful enough to prevent planet camping?
Well, what I was thinking was making the foward cannon on the cruisers tons more powerful, especially agaisnt caps. This is becuase the NPCs can't aim their forward cannons at all. However, agaisnt a target as large as a battleship, it's hard to miss, so fighters could easily avoid the forward cannon while larger caps can't
Also I thinking giving the battleships (battleships only) more powerful, but much slower projectile speed cannons. This way, fighters can dodge, but larger ships will have trouble.
I think the optimal level should be that a single Osiris could take out one House battleship military patrol, HOWEVER, it will take down the shields and cause minor hull damage. This ensures that cruiser+ ships will have doubts about fighting these patrols. In this manner they are not invincible and far from it, but at least they will prevent some planet camping.
' Wrote:TDL Dark pretty much hit the nail on the head..
I personally think NPCs need no boost. It takes away from the player's actions when the NPCs do it for them.
Keep them the same. Players can do the policing. NPCs are a single player element that cannot be eliminated, there's no reason to make them a bigger part of Disco.
Funny, the way I see it, anything less that a fully supported attack group should not be able to contend with a planets defences, I'd also like to see that same situation outside of major pirate bases.
EDIT @ Orin: This would keep players away from hostile planets, but the Battleships only cover planets, players would still need to deal with tradelanes, stations and large attack groups.
Besides, show me one player faction that is on duty 24/7.
' Wrote:Funny, the way I see it, anything less that a fully supported attack group should not be able to contend with a planets defences, I'd also like to see that same situation outside of major pirate bases.
In my opinion, that's absolutely right, but the players should be the planet's defenses. Not the NPCs.
EDIT: Well, another thing. Ever accidentally splash damage a friendly with a CD or torp? Not fun, and really annoying. Making NPC patrols stronger would only increase the irritation levels.
' Wrote:In my opinion, that's absolutely right, but the players should be the planet's defenses. Not the NPCs.
EDIT: Well, another thing. Ever accidentally splash damage a friendly with a CD or torp? Not fun, and really annoying. Making NPC patrols stronger would only increase the irritation levels.
Yes I have, but I find it more annoying to be stuck in a Wraith, alone with no backup against two pirate gunboats outside of New Berlin with 3 battleships sitting near by not doing much of anything.
atm npc caps are impressively useless, at the exception of the invincible base battleships.
otherwise, it just serves pirate purpose of claiming they captured a lawful admiral with a gunboat... they are fairly easy to kill with some patience.
if anything, pumping up the npc caps will enhance the gaming experience! I tried grouping with npc's for safety once only to be pwnd by a single player gunboat... The npc was a gunboat and two bombers and I was in a bomber.... They were firing at the player but with zero effect... The fight should have been a no brainer!
One thing tho, fighter escorts that come with battlegroup are more effective than rest of group itself. Actually, if area would be patroled by that strong ships, they would eat player caps. For instance, bret dessie + 2 gbs + 2 templars is more than able to bring down gunboat shields. Most of damage coming from templars, but patrol as whole is rather useless because it is in formation, and refuses to break it. So you can slowpace behind and take out rear turrets, and then just glide with them and shoot them.
Also do not foget that even if cap patrol is useless on its own, they tend to spamm in huge numbers after some time bringing in more evil fighter escorts.
Also it'd be nice to not have them ram planets like Leeds.
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