Elite: Dangerous PvE - Mobius

So admittedly, I'm only in my Dolphin. But I get a message from an NPC in an Asp Scout with the usual "I'm going to get you" sort of thing. So I think I'll have a bit of fun here. I'd recently taken down an NPC FAS (admittedly with a bit of help from local security) so I think this will be no contest. I arrive at Jameson, then he pops out of supercruise. I even leave the no-fire zone to take him on. But then it's "shields down!" hull critical (1%!) within literally two seconds and then "eject!", boom! What the f**k is going on here??? And it's rebuy time....he's killed my ship with two shots from an Asp Scout! How does that happen?

did you see its combat rank? what's yours?

if you were very low rank yes it could happen if RNG borked and tossed an elite at you.

Could be a bug too.. i once exploded in my iCourrier with 100% hull and 2/3 of my shields still up...

He's obviously elite at something.
And he was in a dolphin.

Perfectly possible the scout had shield breaching plasmas and rails.

I've never played with Rail guns, I was surprised to see how lethal they could be, even on a small hardpoint.
I'll put that one down to experience and not be quite so blase about what looks like an easy target!
My only Elite is exploration, combat is Master at the moment and is only going up very slowly. I'm mainly just messing around with trade and passengers until Distant Worlds 2 sets off. I've never done an expedition so I'm looking forward to it.

Only on npc's and with heavy engineering.
Like the shield bleed through effect.
And npc's still has that 0% miss rate for rails.

In actuality they are utterly pointless in terms of energy and ammo cost compared to damage out,
heck missiles do better damage per shot now,
unless in PvP with the shield cell breaker effect.

As for rank.
With Master in combat and one elite rank you will mostly see Master and over npc's.
Which is pretty much the area where the npc's start getting these "toys".
And interdiction npc's are also significantly heartier than RES site npc's.
If you also are doing missions the rank on the mission itself is what counts in the npc generation.
inow you can be ranked harmless if you take an elite ranked mission you will get hit with deadly and elite ranked interdictions.

TorTorden wrote:As for rank. With Master in combat and one elite rank you will mostly see Master and over npc's.

NPC ranked Deadly or Elite will be an Engineered "AI", correct?

Think they moved that down to master and up with 2.3 or 2.4. And higher level stuff on the last two.

Oh, thanks for the info. Unlimited Ammo and Long Range Rails would be nice, especially on the Chief.

tinnitus wrote:Oh, thanks for the info. Unlimited Ammo and Long Range Rails would be nice, especially on the Chief.

Shields on the chief are so non-existant it needs to run for repairs long before restocking issues...
Like the ship, but it's just utterly useless as is to me.

Armor tank you say ?
That's still so nerfed it's utterly pointless, unless you like flying without a canopy.

Chief nice to fly, nice view, combat not so nice, for me the Alliance Chieftain was a big combat disappointment my first fight Conflict Zone an Imperial Courier (sweet they are) the Chief is good at the escape. Doubtful if FDEV will buff it but nice for MATS and Planet-side harvesting.