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Where is the promised NPC balancing for FW???

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Madbuster73
State War Academy
Caldari State
#1 - 2012-06-13 10:46:54 UTC  |  Edited by: Madbuster73
At Fanfest CCP promised to balance the NPC's in Faction Warfare.
So far I havent seen anything.
Caldari are still able to run a Major plex in a rifter because Gallente NPC have Blasters and have to slowboat to target from 70km.
While Caldari NPC have missiles and will always hit even at 100km away making it VERY unbalanced.
Also Caldari NPC still permajam you in Medium Stronghold, Medium Compound and all the Majors.
At the moment all the Caldari are farming Majors in their t1 frigates while that shouldnt be possible in a t1 frigate. (at least it isnt possible for Gallente Militia because of Caldari NPC missile spam.

My suggestions is: Remove all ewar from the NPC's and give all NPC's missiles.
Because really: blasters on NPC's that are 70km away from capture point is really ridicilous.
Madbuster73
State War Academy
Caldari State
#2 - 2012-06-14 10:49:15 UTC
Also CCP said in the FW presentation that this balancing was a "Major Issue" that needed to be adressed.

Any possiblity that a DEV can give any comment on when to expect this "Major Issue" to be adressed??
CCP Goliath
C C P
C C P Alliance
#3 - 2012-06-14 15:23:36 UTC
We're removing EWAR from NPCs in the upcoming Inferno 1.1 release. As to the weapon question - that's a factional thing I would think.

CCP Goliath | QA Director | EVE Illuminati | @CCP_Goliath
Eref Ataru
Kaos Studios
#4 - 2012-06-14 15:43:01 UTC
CCP Goliath wrote:
We're removing EWAR from NPCs in the upcoming Inferno 1.1 release. As to the weapon question - that's a factional thing I would think.


Is it factional for 1 set of NPC's to be stupid then, and 1 to be smart?

If thats the case, might be worth putting it up in big letters before we pick race.

Gallante - NPC's are stupid
Caldari - NPC's are overpowered

Then atleast we know at creation, and can have no complaint for yet another unbalanced working as intended "Feature"
CCP RubberBAND
CCP Engineering Corp
#5 - 2012-06-14 17:27:37 UTC
Rebalancing the Militia NPC in FW is not trivial. There are over 200 of them spread across tens of dungeons. We removed EWAR as a first step but we do intend to fully iterate on them. I wont go into details but CCP Ytterbium has plans to completely redo how they behave so that there is not this discrepancy between Factional Warfare complexes.

Please refer to posts by CCP Ytterbium as he has detailed the scope and time required for a lot of this as well as the work already done since Fanfest to bring FW to where it is now. We know everybody would like their fixes now, but we simply cannot squeeze things out this fast. We have not forgotten or abandoned plans to balance FW sites.

Feel free to poke me on: Twitter
Eref Ataru
Kaos Studios
#6 - 2012-06-14 18:20:30 UTC
CCP RubberBAND wrote:
Rebalancing the Militia NPC in FW is not trivial. There are over 200 of them spread across tens of dungeons. We removed EWAR as a first step but we do intend to fully iterate on them. I wont go into details but CCP Ytterbium has plans to completely redo how they behave so that there is not this discrepancy between Factional Warfare complexes.

Please refer to posts by CCP Ytterbium as he has detailed the scope and time required for a lot of this as well as the work already done since Fanfest to bring FW to where it is now. We know everybody would like their fixes now, but we simply cannot squeeze things out this fast. We have not forgotten or abandoned plans to balance FW sites.


Whilst understandable in a kind of we cant fix everything at once scenario, surely these kinds of updates should be released as packages where natural balance is sustained throughout.

Inferno 1.0 - Game unbalanced
Inferno 1.1 - Game will still be unbalanced but we are working on it

If you introduce and push for big factional warfare, I mean hell this is the Expansion that is all about Factional Warfare, yet only in the 1st "Patch" are we actively starting to begin work on making sure its balanced, then I'm sorry but the above cannot be used as an excuse.

When sitting down to Create Inferno, when sitting down to look at Inferno internally, that was the point where you should of started making sure it was balanced on release, not after its been released.
bassie12bf1
Republic Military School
Minmatar Republic
#7 - 2012-06-14 20:46:20 UTC
Madbuster73 wrote:
At Fanfest CCP promised to balance the NPC's in Faction Warfare.
So far I havent seen anything.
Caldari are still able to run a Major plex in a rifter because Gallente NPC have Blasters and have to slowboat to target from 70km.
While Caldari NPC have missiles and will always hit even at 100km away making it VERY unbalanced.
Also Caldari NPC still permajam you in Medium Stronghold, Medium Compound and all the Majors.
At the moment all the Caldari are farming Majors in their t1 frigates while that shouldnt be possible in a t1 frigate. (at least it isnt possible for Gallente Militia because of Caldari NPC missile spam.

My suggestions is: Remove all ewar from the NPC's and give all NPC's missiles.
Because really: blasters on NPC's that are 70km away from capture point is really ridicilous.


NPC's Overal have weapons that work nothing like the ones used by players.

Not just the FW NPC's.
Bienator II
madmen of the skies
#8 - 2012-06-15 00:04:24 UTC
bassie12bf1 wrote:
Madbuster73 wrote:
At Fanfest CCP promised to balance the NPC's in Faction Warfare.
So far I havent seen anything.
Caldari are still able to run a Major plex in a rifter because Gallente NPC have Blasters and have to slowboat to target from 70km.
While Caldari NPC have missiles and will always hit even at 100km away making it VERY unbalanced.
Also Caldari NPC still permajam you in Medium Stronghold, Medium Compound and all the Majors.
At the moment all the Caldari are farming Majors in their t1 frigates while that shouldnt be possible in a t1 frigate. (at least it isnt possible for Gallente Militia because of Caldari NPC missile spam.

My suggestions is: Remove all ewar from the NPC's and give all NPC's missiles.
Because really: blasters on NPC's that are 70km away from capture point is really ridicilous.


NPC's Overal have weapons that work nothing like the ones used by players.

Not just the FW NPC's.

and they have no cap, grid, or any fitting restrictions at all. But thats connected with the AI. They would just cap out themself just by shooting... So its basically unsolveable without a total revamp of the NPCs

how to fix eve: 1) remove ECM 2) rename dampeners to ECM 3) add new anti-drone ewar for caldari 4) give offgrid boosters ongrid combat value
Madbuster73
State War Academy
Caldari State
#9 - 2012-06-15 08:56:55 UTC  |  Edited by: Madbuster73
CCP RubberBAND wrote:
Rebalancing the Militia NPC in FW is not trivial.



So this whole Faction Warfare fixing was a lie???

How can it not be trivial as the whole point of FW is fighting over Sovereignty of systems.
But then say: oh hey, Caldari can take Gallente systems with their 1 day old alts in t1 frigates, while Gallente need two T2 ships to run it.
In other words: you created an unfair war fighting over systems.
As it is Caldari are taking over systems like its nothing because all their alts can run the Gallente Majors in their stabbed t1 frigs, While Gallente have to bring proper ships to be able to tank the overpowered Caldari NPC's.

Balancing the NPC should be your primary goal in FW because thats what it is all about in FW now.
Pinky Denmark
The Cursed Navy
#10 - 2012-06-15 09:16:27 UTC
All NPC behavior should be changed except Sleepers and Incursions currently having good AI and challenging ships...

I would love to see missions with fewer but stronger and smarter ships
I would love to see belt rats warping between belts being a challenge to people even in hi-sec

The new guy in a frigate doesn't have to be insta vaporized when warping to a 1.0 belt but the 3 months old player warping to a 0.5 belt should have to search a few belts to find rats and then have to fight for his reward. 2 frigates and 2 destroyers with solid AI and fighting like player frigates should be able to bring most newer players a valuable lesson and hopefully bring him a joyfull bounty and a few usefull modules instead of the stuff people varely want to scoop.

Yes FW deserve proper rats too - But so does the rest of Eve...
Incursions and Sleepers seems to have nice AI and with a reduced dps/tank they could easily be spread across Eve.

Pinky
X Gallentius
Black Eagle1
#11 - 2012-06-15 16:17:57 UTC
Madbuster73 wrote:
CCP RubberBAND wrote:
Rebalancing the Militia NPC in FW is not trivial.

So this whole Faction Warfare fixing was a lie???

Please calm down. They specifically stated how they were going to revamp before they executed. Gallente/Amarr will have to take it on the chin until they figure it out and execute. No big deal. Once the rebalance happens we'll take all our systems back. Big smile
Julius Foederatus
Federal Navy Academy
Gallente Federation
#12 - 2012-06-15 22:32:27 UTC
I trust CCP to balance things properly (more or less) when they put some time into it. I think the real question that everyone has is when are these changes going to come into play? Are we going to have to wait 5 or 6 months for a level playing field? Can we hold out that long? Some sort of time frame would be awesome.
James Amril-Kesh
Viziam
Amarr Empire
#13 - 2012-06-15 22:42:40 UTC
Pinky Denmark wrote:
All NPC behavior should be changed except Sleepers and Incursions currently having good AI and challenging ships...

I would love to see missions with fewer but stronger and smarter ships
I would love to see belt rats warping between belts being a challenge to people even in hi-sec

The new guy in a frigate doesn't have to be insta vaporized when warping to a 1.0 belt but the 3 months old player warping to a 0.5 belt should have to search a few belts to find rats and then have to fight for his reward. 2 frigates and 2 destroyers with solid AI and fighting like player frigates should be able to bring most newer players a valuable lesson and hopefully bring him a joyfull bounty and a few usefull modules instead of the stuff people varely want to scoop.

Yes FW deserve proper rats too - But so does the rest of Eve...
Incursions and Sleepers seems to have nice AI and with a reduced dps/tank they could easily be spread across Eve.

Pinky

NPC AI is difficult because it vastly increases the amount of calculations the server has to do. Having incursion-level AI applied to all PVE content would place a considerable strain on the server. I simply don't think it's possible at this time.

Enjoying the rain today? ;)
Lili Lu
#14 - 2012-06-16 03:36:44 UTC  |  Edited by: Lili Lu
Julius Foederatus wrote:
I trust CCP to balance things properly (more or less) when they put some time into it. I think the real question that everyone has is when are these changes going to come into play? Are we going to have to wait 5 or 6 months for a level playing field? Can we hold out that long? Some sort of time frame would be awesome.

Lol Judging by past performance and the pace of the player ship changes I think you are being optimistic.BlinkStraight

edit - But at least the ewar is going AS AN INTERIM STEP Attention See Ytterbium it can be done Big smile