2.1 NPC AI - my findings so far

[Falcon_D]

Hello,
Anyone know what this Twitter message from SJA is?

Heard it had something to do with retweaking the AI.

Have fun, fly safe. o7

[anikaiful]

Sans a few bugs, the AI is beginning to be actually fun to fight against now and not beatable with AFK-turrets.

[smartroad]

Isinona has a load of FA-Off videos, here's a link to his training one A Flight Assist Off guide

Yeah I have seen videos like that, but I find it very hard to match what I see in a video to what I am doing. If I follow an example and can't get my ship to do the same, there is no one to then show me how my technique needs modifying.

With some form of simulator in game you can practise with a fixed example that can hand hold you though the tutorial (full throttle HERE, FAOff HERE, boost HERE, fire HERE), which could then give less instruction as you perfect the maneuver. Not to mention the fact that it wouldn't cost you any loss of ship when you do go pop

I have simply changed my tactics now and in safer systems use the police presence as my wing! I am trying to use my lateral and vertical thrusters, along with faoff to get a better bead on ships. I just wish NPC ships didn't all come with turreted guns and at least just used gimballed (especially higher level NPCs)

[anikaiful]

With some form of simulator in game you can practise with a fixed example that can hand hold you though the tutorial (full throttle HERE, FAOff HERE, boost HERE, fire HERE), which could then give less instruction as you perfect the maneuver. Not to mention the fact that it wouldn't cost you any loss of ship when you do go pop

FA-off in-game tutorial ... post that to the official forum's suggestions section

[Kaligos]

Well, so far, I have somewhat mixed feelings about the AI.

It is tougher now to kill them, which is something I'm totally fine with.

They seem to spam chaff way more frequently which is a total nightmare for those who always use gimballed.

What I don't like is that the NPCs in RES zones and in CZs still give the same amount of credits as in pre-2.1. In order to get my interest in bounty hunting and/or flying in CZs again the rewards need to be at least doubled. Else it isn't worth the risk anymore to engage a deadly python or anaconda.

The overtoned NPC ships (not the AI itself, mind you) are a reason why I gave up on combat in general for now. Yesterday I lost my corvette to an elite python with multiple disruptor pulses, which caused my ship to have multiple module malfunctions at once. Thruster malfunction, life support malfunction, FSD malfunction, malfunction malfunction. I was cannon fodder and it ripped a 16 million hole in my credit balance. Also I fought against elite type-9s which were able to outmaneuver me like they had 6 pips in ENG. I couldn't even get a lock-on on those when I had 4 pips in ENG. A corvette is way more agile than a type-9 no matter where the pips are. So why was I constantly outmaneuvered by those?