NPC changes in Discovery Mod

[Laowai]

Not sure if this is the right area to ask this but was just curious


I've been playing this mod and on this server now for a few weeks - i know that the NPC ships were made much tougher... but im curious as to.. how much? I know they use shield batteries and nano's now.

So I'm in omicron Gamma - Corsairs home system, doing some missions against the bounty Hunters there... ok... HOW ANNOYINGLY TOUGH IS THE BOUNTY HUNTER FIGHTER?!!!

as a disclaimer - i'm playing with a Lag that averages around 300 - 350, so i know that isn't doing my aiming any favours... but one example hit me today... If anyone else does those missions, you'll know the BH pilots do this annoying thing where they stop mid flight, (usually right behind you) shoot at you and then rush off in another direction... as i have a high ping, im trying to hit them when they stop... so today, this ONE fighter.. he's stopped, i hit him ....i can see the impacts on his ship... he has no shields, but his hull isn't going down... i hit him with a CANNONBALL missile... which apparently does nothing, and he shoots off.... i repeat said procedure, all the while his hull is the same... THREE TIMES... he was hit with no less than THREE missiles, all of which did nothing....

this seems to happen a lot with these ships..... so i was wondering, were they toughened up a huge amount? am i just rubbish with a high ping?

i know they are tougher... but... are you kidding!:)

Im hitting him with 2 tizona's, 2 codenames and a nomad cannon.... (when i say hitting him i mean, i THINK im hitting him)

anyway... back to it:)

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http://img686.imageshack.us/img686/3289/...047770.png

[Jinx]

from my experience, their defensive manouvers haven t changed - so they still fly the same patterns. but their firerate has gone up - significantly. a group of 8 titans can even take down a playercruiser now. they gained some more power by the upgrading of the CDs, too.

other than that, they regenerate at a very fast speed - for quite some time. but not sure if that has really changed. battleships have recieved a powerincrease, especially stationary ones - but also some mobile ones. the Nomad BB patrols are a lot tougher ( nomads in general are tougher ,cause due to the higher firerate, they can really hurt now )

but what really affects you is probably their aim. it has been improved, i think ( or maybe its just the increased projectile speed sometimes ) so, yes - NPCs are tougher - but compared to the x.83 version, i think that it has less effect on the highlevel players in VHFs etc. and is more noticable in the mid level range ( heavy fighter against light / heavy fighters )

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Shipdesigns made for DiscoveryGC

[X-Lancer]

from my experience, their defensive manouvers haven t changed - so they still fly the same patterns. but their firerate has gone up - significantly. a group of 8 titans can even take down a playercruiser now. they gained some more power by the upgrading of the CDs, too.

other than that, they regenerate at a very fast speed - for quite some time. but not sure if that has really changed. battleships have recieved a powerincrease, especially stationary ones - but also some mobile ones. the Nomad BB patrols are a lot tougher ( nomads in general are tougher ,cause due to the higher firerate, they can really hurt now )

but what really affects you is probably their aim. it has been improved, i think ( or maybe its just the increased projectile speed sometimes ) so, yes - NPCs are tougher - but compared to the x.83 version, i think that it has less effect on the highlevel players in VHFs etc. and is more noticable in the mid level range ( heavy fighter against light / heavy fighters )

for Nomad NPC......their gunboat using BATTLESHIP NOMAD TURRETS!!! WTF!!!and those NPC's ship's hull is stronger than the one that player can use....

and please move this topic to Discovery Mod Balance or Discovery Mod General Discussion

[Nanook]

Well, if you look at some of the Liberty ships in the Nomad zones, they have equipment that is too high of a level for their ships (I forgot what the fighters were, but they weren't the highest level versions).

It's better this way, though, since I remember that when I tried using my Rheinland Cruiser against Nomads in February last year, I felt safe. Very safe, except for battleship encounters.

Similarly, has anyone noticed that AI ships seem to have a lot of nanobots and shield batteries? It just seems like enemies will RARELY have less than a quarter of hull health if they're given time. However, it might be me.

(No, this isn't complaining. I'm asking if I'm just crazy.)

[Marburg]

I know EXACTLY what your talking about

You know for a fact that they are hit...yet you begin to wonder if a wet noodle might do more damage.

I had a major issue all day, about 56 hours ago...the bad guys were flying all zig-zaggey & flibbertygibbet, & it took me more than 20 minutes to begin to make a dent in the hull.

My ping shows around 156 yet that day, it acted like it was MUCH MUCH higher.

I made another post about it somewhere to get some advice on it, but, I figured that since it was announced that the server was undergoing some sort of test phaze till the 10th...I decided to roll w/ the punch for now.

Frustrating though innit?:P

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[SimonBlack]

Ah! I know what you're talking about! Let me quote myself, when I first encountered a NPC attack... Uncensored, so dont read, if you're not in the mood.

I wanted to make a bounty hunter reputation, so I flew all the way to sheffeld. Took some police missions, since I cant use Bounty Hunters stuff. Also the best I could do was buying 2 class weapons. ANd.. I found at that the bastards not only regen really fast, but also use nano bots and shield batteries. I tryed to kill two Wolfhound bastards for half a hour! Nooo! And if you manage to hit their shield in first turn, once you get around to finish them off, you notice that his shield restored while you were turning! No! no!

NPC's here are pain in the ass. I did some mission, but thy got me nowhere. Can we make petittion on regening or something?

To me, a player from server with no regening at all (players do not regenerate, NPCS do not regenerate, nothing regenerates) it was really annoying to get use to it.

They arent really tougher to kill, its just much more annoying to kill them...

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Character background summaries:
Red Hessians Major Matthias Schwarz
Golden Chrysanthemums Chusa Fumiko Shimazu

[downding]

If ships started teleporting for no reason and your hits do zero damage, that's when you know your lag is too severe for you to dogfight effectively. Other than being patient, there isn't much you can't do, or at least I never found any. I'm in the states and have been getting ping of 300+ on average as of late.

Actually there is, but you'll need homing missiles. Since the problem is the graphics of the targets being out of sync real time, thereby ruining your aim, the delayed impact of missiles give you a better chance of getting hits in. But fighter missiles haven't been terribly effective for me... maybe because of the severity of the lag. If anyone has any idea, I would love to hear as well since I regularly get red lag as well.

[Qunitinius~Verginix]

I noticed that the NPC's fire ALL of their guns now instead of 1 or 2 like they used too. Its quite dangerous and people of my flying style (bad) suffer alot from it. It doesn;t matter too much, and it makes you think more.

Verg

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[Envomni]

Not sure if this is the right area to ask this but was just curious
I've been playing this mod and on this server now for a few weeks - i know that the NPC ships were made much tougher... but im curious as to.. how much? I know they use shield batteries and nano's now.

So I'm in omicron Gamma - Corsairs home system, doing some missions against the bounty Hunters there... ok... HOW ANNOYINGLY TOUGH IS THE BOUNTY HUNTER FIGHTER?!!!

I know exactly what you mean - and I've seen it happen in a number of systems on even the easier mission levels. It ticks me off to no end to see my guns pummel the ship, and yet NO damage shows on the enemy. And my ping is 100 to 120 at its worst.

I rack it up to the mission itself. I think they're made to run a certain minimum length of time - so no matter how much damage you do, you just can't win it until the mission has been going on for a certain minimum length of time. It totally sucks to be honest.. because what's the point in having level 10 weapons if they can't wipe out an enemy in the few seconds that they should?

[Lightman]

I agree with the previous posters. I'm all for making NPC ships more lethal but making them regenerate health and shields at abnormal rates is just ridiculous.

Regen doesn't make fights harder it just makes them last longer when they don't need to.