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Wel i guess CCP is not sure themselves if the current NPC AI is working well for us, otherwise they would not make this thread.

So we need to be contructive like some of you already did and make a pro/cons list. If we just get angry in here it would not help any of us.

So for me this is the pro and cons list:

Pro's List

- Makes it more challenging to achieve something PVE wise (although i lean more towards the relax play rather then the stressfull play to make some isk)

Con's List

- Doing missions with using drones is way to stressfull for actualy the little isk you get for it. Doing a mission will earn almost the ammount of isk to replace the drones i lost. Even when paying close attention drones get killed although i directly retract them when attacked. Also NPC using EWAR (especialy in caldari space) makes mining hard now since drones jam and stay out of locking range so they cant be taken out) This is also the case in PVP, you realy dont want to loose a ship simply couse a rat decides to come to the gate and jam you...

- I never thought by just changing the NPC AI would have that much influence trough the entire game.. Makes it to stressfull now to do stuff instead of having a fun time to play a nice sci-fi game. All i want to say is that i already got an intensive job in real life, and so i want to relax a bit after doing a mish or so, or when i want some action i go out and do pvp. Please don't let this game feel like a job... or i convert my wallet into pvp ships for one last blast and seek my fun in other games.

Now that the whole room doesn't argo, the missions seem easier than before. I mean, the rats seem afraid to attack. I actually enjoyed being attacked by the whole room, especially on the missions where the baddies are too far away for my nerfed missile range to hit.

Is there a balance between now and before? Make PVE more of a challenge, but not make the droners cry?

I usually don't post in the forum, but after this ai patch even I as the noob that I am want to say something.

I have an alt char for lvl 4 high sec. mission running mainly used to grind standing to npc fraction and Corp.. for R&D. A year ago, according to CCP advice: „even new chars can be good if they speciales their skills“. I decided for this char to train for a drone boat (rattlesnake). (this char completed the last of the four drone specialisation skill 3 weeks ago … yhea lucky me; lol)

But back to the topic:
In my opinion it is a good idea to make missions more fun, because they are, imho, as fun as mining. (maybe a bit more content or something like that.)
But implementing the sleeper ai (in a changed form ... ok) to the high sec. mission npc's, let me put it this way, did not bring so much more fun.
If there are more then 8 frigs in a mission its quite like working on a production line to kill them:
1) pull out drones
2) let the drones attack one time
3) pull drones back into dronebay
4) goto 1
Then there is the command delay: if I hit the „return to dronebay“ shortcut it takes 2-4 seconds until the drones react. Which is quite a long time.
In a mission with many figs like „Intercept the saboteurs“ 2-4 secondes plus the return way to the drone bay is like a death march even for fast tec 2 scout drones.
I counted in the last mission (it was „Intercept the saboteurs“) today how many times i had to pull back the drones and relaunch them … 38 times! (It was not really so much fun …. )
When heavy drones attack a target that is 30km or more away and the npc aggro is changing it is impossible to get them all back in time.

So Overall for me mission are not more fun now (maybe other people like the new system … or according to the last posts not). To me mission are more stressing … or better (sorry to put it this way) more annoying.
When I want this npc enemy behavior I hunt sleepers with some friends in a fleet or do Incursions. That is another kind of pve and its fun, but for normal grind pve missions that you have to do over and over again to reach an R&D Agent, grind the fraction standing for anchoring a pos in high sec., bring down the texcharge for an alt or whatever this ai is a bit over the edge.
It is like you came up with the idea to make mining more fun by making the asteroids moving away from the mining barges with a 100 m/s …. lol. (In case this would be fun for a short time :P ?!?)

If i had known about this change a year ago I think I had decided to go for missile or direct damage ship for my standing grind alt …. .Anyway I have to deal with the useless rattlesnake now, my bad.

PS.: Maybe you guys could implement a drone behavior like „attack & pull back“ according to mining drones command „mine rapidly“ which attacks a target by going over the 4 steps I mentioned above … :)

PSS.: Why i'm writing here something …. don't really know … … nothing will change i guess, maybe i am just stupid! (& my english is so ******* bad)

Don't get me wrong, I really like the rattlesnake.
She is a 1.95k EHP shield reg per second omnitank and even the artwork of ship skin is imho very cool but she has only 4 launchers so she needs the drone damage to be effective indeed. I hate to say it but the alt char I have been talking about is more effective in a pve HAM tengu for mission running atm.
Anyway I like the rattlesnake so I will keep her, sorry mate. Have a great festive season, new year & fly save.

inb4 afk playing is not playing

Not that you cannot do it pretty-much afk in a Tengu.
But as a fellow drone user I understand not wishing to swap for that.

It will continue to perform exquisitely ... with guardian/archon support for both cap and repair in fleets...

EVE can still be fun, but (for some) gamebreaking changes like these without giving something in return...
Wonder how it would have been, if the rats had been behaving like this from the start?
Incursion rats do, but that was indeed aimed at groups, with the reward accordingly.
Sleepers can be soloed, but the sites have been also designed for them - and those sites are even done with drones.

CCP has addressed this, and the 'feature' you've noticed is by design. You either A) have friends kill the ratter before the rats kill you. According to CCP this is perfectly acceptable. Your ship should last long enough to get your friends on-grid. Unfortunately for you the frigates on you are probably warp scramming you... or B) you up-ship into a larger ship that doesn't have to worry about frigate + ratter aggro. According to CCP this is also perfectly acceptable.

Your call, I guess?