test content
What is the Arc Client?
Install Arc

Can we please have improved elite and advanced mode?

SystemSystem Member, NoReporting Posts: 178,019 Arc User
I like a challenge. All my friends like a challenge. What we don't like is stupidly overpowered tyken's rifts and torpedos.

I want to play on elite because of the improved NPC AI. I want the enemy to heal his shields, use energy and torpedo weapon reistance, etc... What I hate, however, is when my escort blows up because of a single HYIII that just ripped through my 75% shields with 60% resistance and right through my hull that was at 98% just because the NPC can have photon torpedoes that do six times more damage than player torps. Yes, that's right, six times more damage on average (based off of combatlog and the excellent if ugly STOIC analyzer). Dealing upwards of 300,000 DPS in a single torpedo spread or volley is just silly.

Dropping a tyken's rift that is eight times more powerful than my science toon firing a TRIII at 125aux and with 3 blue mk XI spacial anomaly consoles... give me a break. Actually, in this case, I think you should make player TRIII as powerful as the NPC ones. Make science officers something to be feared in a ship OTHER than escorts for a change.

But please fix NPC torps so that we can actually enjoy elite difficulty. Please?
Post edited by Unknown User on
«13

Comments

  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2010
    Good luck, we've been barking up this tree for a while now and precisely zip has come of it...
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2010
    SkyLeach wrote: »
    I want to play on elite because of the improved NPC AI.

    Are you sure they have improved AI? I thought they only had greater health and did more damage. I've been doing the new weekly missions on Elite (they're not bugged with the one-shot kill issue that most other ground enemies have) and haven't noticed them acting any "smarter".

    However, something has changed at some point as the medics on the ground are now able to chain heal themselves and everyone else in their little group making for some interesting fights. This happened regardless of difficulty level and is something I never noticed before. It's as if they didn't have a cooldown ( or a very short one) on their heals.

    It would be nice if the difficulty slider effected their AI rather than just jacked up their hit points... The dev team seems to equate spending more time shooting at an enemy with being a greater challenge. I'd rather see an improvement in enemy tactics rather than just making sure I have enough heals/DPS to compensate for greater damage/health on Elite.

    One-shot kills do not make for a "fun challenge" either... cheap shots add nothing positive to the game.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2010
    Unfortunately the OP is right. Difficlty in this game means the NPC just get to do ridiculous amounts of damage but act just as stupid. From the Breen encounters its obvious that difficulty can be upped by introducing several combos of skills in NPSs that can provide challenge. For the moment however ground combat is no go on elite or advanced because of the insane bolt pistol damage and space still suffers from the godlike torp salvos that people were complaining since beta.

    Make difficulty be a factor of the AI using its skills and not by allowing them to one shot people. I do not object NPC having a lot of health or shields but the damage needs to be toned down. At the moment we are not having a hard time because its difficult. We are having a problem because our skills mean nothing against a single NPC whose photon torps can outclass any player tricobalts. What is the point of skills and chalenging ourselves to use them wisely if no amount of resistance or playstyle can avoid those damage spikes that will kill you insantly?

    The difficulty slider is a very broken feature that needs to be looked into and made into something worthwhile.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2010
    The problem with making the AI "smarter" is that it's a loosing battle. The game AI is most likely a reflex agent which reacts to certain stimuli with pre-defined responces. It doesn't matter so much what those responces are as a human player will quickely learn the pattern and adapt.

    They could give the enemys access to more/better synergizing combos at higher difficulty levels, but actually making them smarter isn't likely to hapen.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2010
    Trueheart wrote:
    Are you sure they have improved AI? I

    You need to re-read his post, because he's saying thats what he WANTS, not what he GETS. Anyway, in regards to the OP space isnt a problem on elite. I can still win pretty much every battle without being in any real danger. The only thing that keeps me playing on advanced is the uber ground NPCs that will almost instantly kill you on elite.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2010
    wrote:
    The problem with making the AI "smarter" is that it's a loosing battle. The game AI is most likely a reflex agent which reacts to certain stimuli with pre-defined responces. It doesn't matter so much what those responces are as a human player will quickely learn the pattern and adapt.

    They could give the enemys access to more/better synergizing combos at higher difficulty levels, but actually making them smarter isn't likely to hapen.
    Even better scripting would improve the challenge. It's not like upping damage is an different. Learning a more complex pattern is at least some form of challenge. And if not all ships of the same class have the exact same powers with the exact same scripting, it might take a while to really "get" what the NPCs script is. Which is more challenging then hoping that this time, you don't get an insane crit with high yield torps.

    Of course in the end the NPCs lose. That's what makes them NPCs.

    As an example for one of those Metaphasic Shield Cruisers, give it a few more powers and this script:

    if (Shield.Percentage <= 50 || Hull.Percentage <= 75) activatePower("Metaphasic Shield");
    if (Shield.Percentage <= 50 && getPower("Metaphasic Shield").isActive() && getPower("Metaphasic Shield").getRemainingDuration_ms < 3000) || (Shield.Percentage <= 25) activatePower("Emergency Power to Shields");
    if (Hull.Percentage <= 75) activatePower("Engineering Team");
    if (target.GetFacingShield(this).Percentage < 5) activatePower("High Yield Torpedo");

    Now you got a mean Crimto Cruiser that uses the cover of Metaphasic Shield to restore shields and hull, and looks out to use its high yield torpedo to hit you when it will most likely really hurt you.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2010
    I like me a challenge too, but I think space combat is about right, whereas ground combat really needs more finetuning. We can survive the burst damage in space, sometimes we blow up. But with groundcomat, things just _scream_ ragequit all the time.
    So yeah, I'll gladly join you in barking up that tree: Difficulty slider is awesome, but needs more polish.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2010
    I like me a challenge too, but I think space combat is about right, whereas ground combat really needs more finetuning. We can survive the burst damage in space, sometimes we blow up. But with groundcomat, things just _scream_ ragequit all the time.
    So yeah, I'll gladly join you in barking up that tree: Difficulty slider is awesome, but needs more polish.

    No you can't survive it. You are talking from a solo perspective and chances are you are mostly running normal if you think there is not probem in space. NPC weapons crit for every othe hit with numbers that are orders of magnitude greater than anything you can hit them back with. Its a fact not an opinion.

    I play grouped with my fleeties and we can manage alright but people die regardless from spike damage that completly dwarfs anything you can resist even if any buff you owned was on. The developers really need to get the zerg mentality out of their heads. Respawning until something is dead is not fun or challenging, it is just tedious.

    I agree that synegies and skill combos would go a long way to introduce tactics depending on the enemy we face. Perhaps you can always adapt, but that is the whole point of facing an enemy you fought before. Even those fights can be still be interesting if the NPCs last longer (by using abilites more than once). Excessive damage is not difficulty, it is just a crutch and a bad one at that. The easy way would be to up their stats a bit and increase the number of enemies per spawn. Then they can then work on making different races and classes implement different skill combinations and tactics that in diverse groups can really pose an actual tactical challenge.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2010
    I'm a huuuuuge fan of giving the NPC's more powers! I don't care if they have more powers than pc's are allowed to have, because it will be more challenging than just having to blast through 600k shields.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2010
    I agree the combat needs to be fine tuned. I had a "rage quit" experience last night that made me frustrated. I shut STO off and player CIV 5 for a while...which is not a good thing if you want to keep your player base coming back for more.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2010
    Even better scripting would improve the challenge. It's not like upping damage is an different. Learning a more complex pattern is at least some form of challenge. And if not all ships of the same class have the exact same powers with the exact same scripting, it might take a while to really "get" what the NPCs script is. Which is more challenging then hoping that this time, you don't get an insane crit with high yield torps.

    Of course in the end the NPCs lose. That's what makes them NPCs.

    As an example for one of those Metaphasic Shield Cruisers, give it a few more powers and this script:

    if (Shield.Percentage <= 50 || Hull.Percentage <= 75) activatePower("Metaphasic Shield");
    if (Shield.Percentage <= 50 && getPower("Metaphasic Shield").isActive() && getPower("Metaphasic Shield").getRemainingDuration_ms < 3000) || (Shield.Percentage <= 25) activatePower("Emergency Power to Shields");
    if (Hull.Percentage <= 75) activatePower("Engineering Team");
    if (target.GetFacingShield(this).Percentage < 5) activatePower("High Yield Torpedo");

    Now you got a mean Crimto Cruiser that uses the cover of Metaphasic Shield to restore shields and hull, and looks out to use its high yield torpedo to hit you when it will most likely really hurt you.


    Sure, that would make them more difficult but it's not intuatively scalable.

    For example does that script belong in advanced or elite? And how do you modify it up or down for the other difficulty?

    In general I agree with the sentimint, but try to remember that Cryptic added the difficulty slider in responce to player demand (it wasn't in deveopment before launch). if they were to follow the carefully crafted AI for every ship ate every difficulty level approach they would probably still be working on it while we all whine about how the feature isn't here yet.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2010
    Yes but the truth is the slider as it is at the moment is hardly worth the effort. I avoid using it on exploration because of ground missions and with space I never do it unless in a group. The whole point of the feature was to provide an added layer of tactical play by forcing you to manage your abilities. On elite no abilities or tactics will save you from transpahsic tricoblat planet killers (or at least thats what they feel like).

    Therefore the feature is in fact broken. I hope for a fix in with season 3.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2010
    Yes but the truth is the slider as it is at the moment is hardly worth the effort. I avoid using it on exploration because of ground missions and with space I never do it unless in a group. The whole point of the feature was to provide an added layer of tactical play by forcing you to manage your abilities. On elite no abilities or tactics will save you from transpahsic tricoblat planet killers (or at least thats what they feel like).

    Therefore the feature is in fact broken. I hope for a fix in with season 3.

    Same could be said about ground. There's no point in using Elite mode if all the algorithm does is make the NPCs cheat by increasing their damage/health/healing. That's a bad way to mask the shoddy AI in the game.

    We could've had enemies that were a touch smarter and used more powers that required skill to counter-act. Have special attacks designed for advanced and elite but don't raise enemy stats as high.

    Instead, we got the algorithm applied to stats version of difficulty (which is generally not well regarded).
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2010
    Okay, this is based from a purely solo perspective

    I'd like to see the difficulty slider mix up the enemy groups somewhat... Rather than having the predictable groups of enemies we currently have (3 frigates or 1 escort/cruiser/battleship) the difficulty slider should give different group formations.

    Some of my more epic battles in PvE have been in the rare occasion in story missions when there's an escort and cruiser to be fought at the same time (Worvig and D7's from the City on the Edge of Never mission set, I'm looking at you), or in the Breen mission with the Comet and Mine, where the patrol routes of the ships actually cross over each other, meaning if you're unlucky you can end up pulling at least two cruisers, if not one of the group of frigates all within the same fight.

    So yes, rather than artificially jacking up the difficulty with stupidly high amounts of hull/shields and insane damage, lets make it more challenging by mixing up the spawns a little. Gimme a fight with two frigates and an escort, or a fight with a Battleship and a cruiser buddy. Make sure that their powers synergise to really make my life difficult... Lets not rely on stat inflation to make things harder, some inflation helps, but it really shouldn't be the focus of how the devs increase the difficulty.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2010
    This is what happens if a Difficulty Switch is thought about AFTER the game got released.

    First it was the dual wield pistol NPC's, now it's the Medics.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2010
    Z3R0B4NG wrote: »
    This is what happens if a Difficulty Switch is thought about AFTER the game got released.

    First it was the dual wield pistol NPC's, now it's the Medics.

    It all eventually points back to shoddy and lackluster NPC design, though.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2010
    I support this 100%.

    When the slider was first implemented I jacked it up to elite because I liked the trade off of the new injury system with the chance of boosted item drops. I was expecting to have some decent battles where the CPU did more than just circle around me firing until I blew them up. Instead, I got frustrated beyond belief by the insane amount of damage and health the enemies had. In the end, I was forced to revert back to normal difficulty to keep myself from getting blasted to smithereens by pistols and torpedoes dealing like 10x what I could defend against.

    Maybe its because I suck, but no matter how much time I spent grinding my stats and abilities, I just could not take out the swarming NPCs on missions with their uber stats
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2010
    I am gonna bump this thread until a Dev makes a comment on it.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2010
    Turtlewing wrote: »
    Sure, that would make them more difficult but it's not intuatively scalable.

    For example does that script belong in advanced or elite? And how do you modify it up or down for the other difficulty?

    In general I agree with the sentimint, but try to remember that Cryptic added the difficulty slider in responce to player demand (it wasn't in deveopment before launch). if they were to follow the carefully crafted AI for every ship ate every difficulty level approach they would probably still be working on it while we all whine about how the feature isn't here yet.
    There are tweaks you can do for difficulty:
    Let's assume we keep the script always the same, but add a few variables (that are not listed in my sample scripts, of course.)

    1) Execution Chance. At lower difficulty, there is a lower chance that the NPC actually does what it calculate it should do. (or it has only a x % chance to go through the script at all.) (Say, normal: 33 %, Advanced 66 %, Elite 100 %).
    2) Execution Delay. At lower difficulty, NPCs take longer to actually execute the action (possibly passing the window of opportunity). (Say, 6sec at Normal, 3sec at Advanced, 0sec for Elite).
    3) Different Cooldowns on the abilities. Normal difficulty NPCs are treated as having 1 rank in the BO ability. Advanced NPCs 5 ranks, Elite 9 ranks.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2010
    Yes but the truth is the slider as it is at the moment is hardly worth the effort. I avoid using it on exploration because of ground missions and with space I never do it unless in a group. The whole point of the feature was to provide an added layer of tactical play by forcing you to manage your abilities. On elite no abilities or tactics will save you from transpahsic tricoblat planet killers (or at least thats what they feel like).

    Therefore the feature is in fact broken. I hope for a fix in with season 3.

    Brace for Impact.
    Evasive Maneuvers.
    Attack Pattern Alpha/Omega.
    Polarize Hull.
    Aux to SIF.
    etc. etc.

    I run elites all the time, both grouped and solo. Yes, you will occasionally explode when a THY3 gives multiple crits in an escort ... which means you should have outrun those torps with EM. I've yet to give up on even a ground elite, and while sometimes I'm limping back to ESD with 20 injuries, the mission was completed. Space elites are marginally challenging at best, if you're properly equipped to deal with them.

    A ship build that excels on normal/advanced difficulty will usually do poorly on elite, and vice versa.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2010
    Heskolt wrote:
    Brace for Impact.
    Evasive Maneuvers.
    Attack Pattern Alpha/Omega.
    Polarize Hull.
    Aux to SIF.
    etc. etc.

    I run elites all the time, both grouped and solo. Yes, you will occasionally explode when a THY3 gives multiple crits in an escort ... which means you should have outrun those torps with EM. I've yet to give up on even a ground elite, and while sometimes I'm limping back to ESD with 20 injuries, the mission was completed. Space elites are marginally challenging at best, if you're properly equipped to deal with them.

    A ship build that excels on normal/advanced difficulty will usually do poorly on elite, and vice versa.

    Seriously...

    Thank you for remind me those abilities exist because I really did not know or used them. Its trully insightful to be told that not being "build for it " is to blame. I bow to your godly wisdom....

    Moving on, perhaps you find zerging on through a mission to be an acceptable situation. I do not. A mission should not kill you because of random spikes in damage you can do nothing about. It should kill you because you dont use your abilities well. Challenge comes from effective management not from one shot wonders. Every mission should not expect you to die to finish it. This is not Unreal Tournament, its Star Trek. I dont mind dying or being injured or anything else for that matter. I just dont see how this damage situation has anyhting to do with difficulty or challenge. Many people already agree and have reported this since before launch. It needs to be rectfied yesterday.

    So no more patronising posts about L2P unless there is a constructive argument for or against this notion.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2010
    Good luck, we've been barking up this tree for a while now and precisely zip has come of it...

    I've NEVER had an issue with Elite mode in space. Rarely I might be at 49% hull and get a crit hit that blows me up but its MY FAULT that I went under 50% or close to it. I pwn elite mode in my ship. However I feel elite GROUND MODE needs a lot of work.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2010
    Seriously...

    Thank you for remind me those abilities exist because I really did not know or used them. Its trully insightful to be told that not being "build for it " is to blame. I bow to your godly wisdom....

    Moving on, perhaps you find zerging on through a mission to be an acceptable situation. I do not. A mission should not kill you because of random spikes in damage you can do nothing about. It should kill you because you dont use your abilities well. Challenge comes from effective management not from one shot wonders. Every mission should not expect you to die to finish it. This is not Unreal Tournament, its Star Trek. I dont mind dying or being injured or anything else for that matter. I just dont see how this damage situation has anyhting to do with difficulty or challenge. Many people already agree and have reported this since before launch. It needs to be rectfied yesterday.

    So no more patronising posts about L2P unless there is a constructive argument for or against this notion.

    That's exactly my point. Random spikes in damage don't kill you. Not being properly prepared for random spikes in damage kills you. You can be annoyed at hearing something you didn't want to hear, or you can look at your ship, it's loadout, and it's bridge officers and determine what you can do to prevent it from happening. It's perfectly possible to complete elite space missions solo and grouped in an escort, and never die. If it's group, it might not be your fault. Your groupmates might need to work on their support builds.

    I only zerg my way through ground missions, and that's only because im not doing them solo, and the other people on my team want to complete it.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2010
    I've NEVER had an issue with Elite mode in space. Rarely I might be at 49% hull and get a crit hit that blows me up but its MY FAULT that I went under 50% or close to it. I pwn elite mode in my ship. However I feel elite GROUND MODE needs a lot of work

    If you read through the thread you will realise this is mostly a team issue and not a single player issue in space (although it does occur from the combat log damage reports). In ground its universal. The situation you describe is indeed your fault. We are here talking about the ones you are not responsible and can hardly avoid (like you experienced on ground missions). The spikes happen you see a lot more from multiple enemies who seem to crit far too often and for far too much on elite. Again this was not scaled properly and the result can be seen far more pronounced on the ground.

    So the real issue again is that elite does not offer a challenge and the damage spikes only offer frustration rather than difficulty. The jump also from normal to advance and elite are very irregular and need investigation. The scaling is all wrong not to mention loot drop rates and quality.

    The fact that you find elite so easy is because you most likely fly an escort and the NPCs hardly use any abilities to stay alive. Si in fact damage is not really the problem. Their survivability is (and skill AI).
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2010
    The only improvement I can suggest is adding a new mode, call it Insane for example. The idea is that this mode works exactly like Elite does now except for two differences:
    1. Enemy reinforcements
      Whenever you die, all enemy groups you've attacked but not yet completely eliminated, get reinforced by respawning their "dead" members. In essence, lets say you fought 5 Frigates, killed 4 and was blown up by the 5th, when you respawn and come back, you'd have the same 5 Frigates to fight, all over again.


    2. Losing Skill/BO Points
      Each time you respawn, you lose some of the SP you've gained fighting the group that defeated you. If you're at the max-level and no longer gain SP, you lose Bridge Officer points instead. Players will not however lose points that affect their builds or their BO abilities.
    Oh, this mode should be added, if at all, only after ground combat on Adv/Elite is fixed so enemies don't have insane damage like they currently do. ;)
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2010
    I have to agree with OP with regards to torpedos ,wiping me even through my shields. I am on Elite for both ground and space, and have come across all sorts of problems, and have managed to get through on the most part using tactics which I often cater for on each mission.

    However, IMO I think the torpedo damage is of the scale on some Boss ships. Most are ok, but in 'Cracked Mirror' for example, the final ship ISS Molly it feels to me like I need to fly a Cruiser or something, as my T4 Escort, as gimped as it is, gets close, then everytime, bang, through the sheilds. I never did understand how a crit can exceed my actual hull HP. I am used to dying, learning from the last time, rinse and repeat till I get it right, but I have come across a dead end on this I feel. Often, I go in dealing damage, then run to heal, and I don't/can't even see the torp coming, and I am now 20km away, and bam..dead Jim! :eek:

    Even with 'one'shotters' on ground, there are ways to overcome, but in Space, I have nothing but me and my cannons. No photonic etc. Maybe this is what Elite mode is all about, but if it stuff like this isn't mentioned, we will never know if this is a bug, or meant to be. Are scenarios not do-able as solo in certain ships or what?

    Thanks
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2010
    LordOfPit wrote: »
    The only improvement I can suggest is adding a new mode, call it Insane for example. The idea is that this mode works exactly like Elite does now except for two differences:
    1. Enemy reinforcements
      Whenever you die, all enemy groups you've attacked but not yet completely eliminated, get reinforced by respawning their "dead" members. In essence, lets say you fought 5 Frigates, killed 4 and was blown up by the 5th, when you respawn and come back, you'd have the same 5 Frigates to fight, all over again.


    2. Losing Skill/BO Points
      Each time you respawn, you lose some of the SP you've gained fighting the group that defeated you. If you're at the max-level and no longer gain SP, you lose Bridge Officer points instead. Players will not however lose points that affect their builds or their BO abilities.
    Oh, this mode should be added, if at all, only after ground combat on Adv/Elite is fixed so enemies don't have insane damage like they currently do. ;)

    I am still waiting for the improvement. This is just more frustrating, but it doesn't make the fight more interesting.

    I want to see NPCs react to what I do. I want them to use counters. I want them to TRIBBLE my perfectly planned attack run by them popping evasive maneuvers to get out of my firing arc. I want them to support each other. I want them to be mean, going after me with high yield torpedoes when my shields are down and not just because the timer is up. I want them to use a variety of powers that I have to counter to beat them.
    I want them to use Emergency Power to Engines when I try to run and heal up after taking a beating. I want them to run if they get beaten up and try to recover.
    Those 3 Breen Frigates? I want the first to Tractor me, all three rapid firing me, and when I drop the shield sof the first one, I want it to pop Evasive Maneuvers and then use Emergency Power to Shields and Engineering Team to fix itself up, and I want one of the other frigates tractor me so I can't follow it.

    I want to see behavior I might see from a human opponent. I don't want to just whittle down shields and hull in a static fight.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2010
    We are here talking about the ones you are not responsible and can hardly avoid (like you experienced on ground missions). The spikes happen you see a lot more from multiple enemies who seem to crit far too often and for far too much on elite. Again this was not scaled properly and the result can be seen far more pronounced on the ground.

    While i agree to the problems with ground/elite and some enemies there doing incredible dmg i do not agree that there are bigger problems in space/elite, i only admit it is really tough especially on a team and the larger the team is. To survive the dmg spikes one experiences when multiple enemy ships fire their torpedos at once is exactly what you can learn to counter within a team of players. At least elite is and should be extremely hard to beat, i think it is well balanced in space.
    Yesterday i was on a 2 ship team ( i've done alot 5 man teams with my fleet in b'tran space missions ) with my wife, both science (me with nebula, wife with DSSV) and we died only 2 times through the whole deferi dailys and i have to admit it was only because we became unwary.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2010
    ...I want to see behavior I might see from a human opponent. I don't want to just whittle down shields and hull in a static fight.
    In my opinion, PvE will always employ dumb AI because honestly, developing an AI that actually responds to what people do isn't the focus of MMO's. It just isn't justifiable on the business level and it'd probably be more productive to develop mission-based PvP scenarios rather than actual AI for PvE NPC's.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited October 2010
    I've found that if you are getting hit by lots of torpedoes you need to change your tactics...

    Try top or bottom attacks or from the sides only... don't fly into the forward or rear weapon arcs. It is your own fault that you get killed because you are using a flawed tactic.

    Picture the firing arc "cone" from front & rear of the enemy and stay out of it. Running away from a torpedo already launched will never work as the hit and damage is calculated "when fired" not when it finally reaches you.

    Sometimes I make mistakes and get BlownApart... that is why it is elite.

    I do agree with the need to improve the AI for enemies instead of statistical inflation.... but I realize that we have the usual half-baked implementation of the Difficulty Slider from the Dev's. Can it be fixed with some good scripting as suggested previously? Absolutely! We need some smart enemies with a chance for a variety of tactics & possibly some different mixes of abilities.

    It would not be difficult to have several standard "sets" of abilities for each faction and type of enemy ships that could be randomly selected for each encounter.

    Is this time consuming? sure... but you would never know what "exactly" any given ship might be running for skills and abilities.

    Go down fighting for a borg cube would be awesome. There are alot of possible combinations and scripts that CAN be effectively scaled for difficulty and the chances of skills being used under certain conditions can also be added...

    Will this ever be addressed anytime soon? Don't hold your breath waiting on it.. But maybe someday...

    Perhaps the scripting for NPC's in the new Foundry UGC stystem wil allow some creative "tinkering" with the way ships use abilities, but we don't really know much about that yet. It would be fantastic if we could do so & I would really like to do some experimentation in that area.

    I would like to see some smart enemies... not just dumb brutes.
Sign In or Register to comment.