Test Server Feedback

Dismissing people's concerns outright is not listening. Namely I'm referring to how it makes no sense that NPCs would switch to a ship that's killing their previous target who was slaughtering them by the thousands. You didn't really address how several of us have stated that this makes things more secure for many players who run anomalies in nullsec for example, when this group certainly doesn't need an extra level of protection. I've looked through the tread and also haven't found anything addressing how this will make things significantly more difficult for new players who are trying missions with their more experienced friends, and significantly more difficult if not impossible for groups of players to tackle sites like Dread Guristas Fleet Staging Point 3 without ALL bringing the tank required to survive the station aggro.

You're introducing a lot of problems for exactly what benefit? Can you honestly tell me what the actual benefit of this is besides "it might make things more interesting" which is itself rather doubtful?

I've been away from the game a while as I have been putting in huge work hours,

But Okay - tested and reporting in now.

Feedback: the fun factor using my normal missioning combo of Snake with Drones + Repper Domi with self-armor-repper + drones = suckage.

My previous strategy was:
1) warp in the Snake, deploy drones, establish aggro.
2) Warp in with Domi with an eye on SNake and drones. Deploy Domi drones. Rep Snake/drones/self as needed

Specific concerns:
1) I did not test one of the missions with the extreme damping. I cannot imagine how bad it would be if you can't maintain a lock on the rats, and can't leave your drones out to fight.

2) Other primary DPS cannot be targeted by NPCs. Guns and missiles are not damaged and taken out by NPCs. Yet, my primary DPS, namely drones, can be eliminated by the NPCs. This is righteously unfair for drone boats.

3) I MUST carry extras. This means that I cannot carry a compliment of drones designed for efficiency and/or that fit the exact needs as they arise. Example: an NPC that requires Kinetic DPS cannot be handled by the kinetc sentries at close range, you must be able to switch to Gardes. But if I need to carry extra due to loses, I can't have full fligfhts sentries with different DPS modes. Or at least, I have to make a lot more compromises than I ever had to before.

4) I have no meaningful or realistic tools for the tank ship take and hold aggro. I spend almost all my time pulling in drones, waiting for aggro to switch back the a ship, then deploy drones again. NOT FUN.



Bottom line:
1) profound loss of fun factor for me.

2) feels like a lot more work, emphasis on work, not fun. If I wanted that much keying/mousing activity, I'd play a 1st person shooter.

3) I am heavily discouraged from using my drone boats.

4) changes feel like they are selectively nerfing drone boats which affects my attitude about the game.

As usual, this feedback will be ignored and the changes will be put in place.

Been wondering exactly the same.

All Guristas-anomalies and plexes will effectively help the PvE-guy by jamming the attacker. We'll need a blob of people just to get a tackle on.

DG Fleet Staging Point 3, the Maze, final part of Gurista Provincial HQ etc, all of those are usually tanked by a dedicated tank-ship, in first two cases you need to tank a station, in the latter you have a bunch of siege towers and alot of npcs to boot.

For example, me and some corpmate used to run the Maze with three ships. The tank having horrible damage output, but at least he took care of the station + whatever 30-40? odd t2 frigates. If you'd have to bring every-ship-fit-to-tank it, you'd have to scale up those three ships to nearly the triple. And then we havn't even touched the subject of people trying to attack you (kill your ship and/or fight over the plex) inside it, if they have to fit tackle it'll be even more ships. So you find these juicy targets running a plex, and now you need to wait for some ~10+ friends to show up in a specificly designed ship that you only use for these particular plexes, else you can't kill those players?

Like I posted earlier in this thread, it's really a major nerf to PvP, as well as it brings some unecessary bring-more-people-(with-gimped-setups) for PvE. Your last sentences sum it up well. CCP is introducing alot of problems, for exactly what benefit?

Do you smell that?
What is that smell?

Ah yes, now I remember what is is.
That was the same smell that was on the UI feedback threads before the UI went live on TQ.

I did some testing with a Paladin and a Damnation. Released the drones and they worked well. Most the time the npc were switching between the ships. Damnation went after the (battle)cruisers and Paladin went after the battleship npc. I sent my light drones after the frigates and they were okay. I did have to pull them in a few times and use remote armor repair on the drones after finishing a pocket. I'm guessing most of the people complaining about the npc are talking about large drones?

I haven't tested the large drones. Do you guys find tanking the npc battleships easier without smaller npc? Just wondering because, I'm thinking it might be possible to use medium drones first to get rid of cruisers and battlecruisers then using the larger drones on the battleships?



I like the idea of the return when attacked idea in the post above.


Edit: In the second paragraph I'm talking about using a single drone boat to do the missions. I think heavies would get killed. What happens to the smaller drones in those missions?

Edit 2: I've done a few more missions. Heavies don't die that much. I had to watch them and call them back sometimes. The only time I lost drones before was when spider drones webbed them and killed them before they got back. It'll be the same now except, no more afk missions with droneboats. Plenty of missions before where you had to watch the drones when a new wave of ships came. I just have to take an active role in drone management. I used to do that before anyway, telling them which ships I wanted them to go after.

If CCP leaves the current version of the AI intact (the one on Duality, because no one believes they'll go back to the TQ version of the AI) the rattler will be a fine ship. In roughly 60% of the missions you'll run you'll never notice a difference because the AI is just that poorly implemented.

In the remaining cases you'll launch your drones, and the rats will swap and you'll have to pull your drones in. Then you'll need to launch a flight of light T1 drones, wait for the rats to kill one, then pull them all back. Once that little maneuver has been completed you can use your standard T2 drones to clear the room.

If CCP further modifies the AI and inflicts it on the user-base without testing (there isn't *that* much time between now and then) then all bets are off because we won't know the new behavior.

I'm not sure that drone boats are going to be the worst hurt by this change...

The Golem in particular... Marauders in general already take a lot of micromanagement (select target, activate weapons, select different target, activate tractor beam, select different target, activate tractor beam, select different target, activate weapons, select different target, ativate salvager, select non-target, lock target, select different target...) and the Golem is particularly sucky in this regard because not only must the weapons be deactivated and a volley count kept but the Target painters need to be switched around ahead of the weapons. Not only that but unlike the turret Marauders it cannot attempt to remove all of the frigate sized targets while their transversal is low and is therefore particularly reliant on drones for anti-frigate work.

If, added to all of the micromanagement issues implicit in the operation of a Marauder, the drones must be constantly monitored and maintained, sent to specific targets and recalled...etc.

Light drones in use by a good drone pilot in a well-skilled drone boat are one thing, less well skilled drones without bonuses (or full Drone Durability) are very fragile indeed and regardless of how good the experience of killing NPCs might become the experience of constantly losing ships because a Guristas Koyukan or an Angel Viper has you scrammed and you have no way of actually breaking his tank is going to get old very quickly...