Missions & Complexes

I would like people to stop posting telling people to stop crying about the new AI.

A bit on topic, but it's not just the drone AI, it's the AI in general. Full room aggro is a verified bug, not a feature of the AI change.

Stop crying about people crying.

Full room aggro is allowing me to simplify my mission running.

I welcome any additional challenges CCP wants to send me.

All you gotta do is put up your B ISK for your Mach and you can be badass too, blitzing those missions for 5M and some LP each!

All dual/triple boxing missions runners should know the fastest way to get money is to aggro all so i'll put that 'bug' on the + side. To bad for you solo missions runners.. don't cry too loud, it'S a confirmed bug and CCP WILL correct it.

Also, me never ever go AFK while missioning so sleepers like AI is another +.
Raping those AFK'er... Make me smile! :)

Drones?
I run the hardest lvl missions (understand LVL5) and guess what? my sentry got aggro only a few times for the past 2 billions income (not kidding, specific missions can make you billionnaire very quickly).
Must admit i didn't try lights drones (cuz sentry delivered!). NPC frig target lights so use heavy drone (with drone tracking module to speed up the process) to kill frigs.

So, after minor ajustments i resume pumping the isk almost at the same rate.

Oh and tech3 ships (Proteus for me) with its buffed ability to remote rep, attack and tank simultaneous is a winnner with the new AI!

My 2 cents

So it has been proven over and over that missioning with a character 3 or more years old with a DED fit faction ship missions are still easy. Well who would have thunk it?

I myself am able to complete missions easily while dual boxing flying normal T1 BS's. But all my toons have over 40 mil SP. They are even easy without multi boxing, it is just much faster that way.

The issue everyone seems to be missing is that CCP has been preaching for the last few years about reducing the learning curve, and making the game more accessible to new players. This update moves in the opposite direction while the new A.I..does not add anything for veteran players other than some frustration.

New players can not afford faction ships or faction mods, let alone DED or officer mods. So if your fit has any of that don't even bother posting. Anyone with the skills and isk to fly that does not need your advice.

Consider a new player trying to get into running level 4 missions with only 10 mil SP or less and only about 500 mil isk to spend on a mission boat. This would be a reasonable entry level for level 4 missions. A newer player should be able to complete these missions. Experienced players with shiny ships should just be able to complete them much faster.

Granted the massive agro and increased DPS many level 4 missions have shown since the update has been verified as a bug. But what did they think was going to happen? If you make NPC's smarter should you not expect them to do a better job of applying damage?

This new A.I. is based on sleeper A.I. which means they will not only switch targets from an unbreakable tank to your drones, but assist each other coordinating attacks with e-war, spider tanking, staying out of Smartbomb range, etc. Basically not only are they harder to kill but will be able to more effectively apply their own damage. Missions can still be done but are more challenging and will take longer. Which brings us to the real reason for this change.

Missions taking longer effectively reduces isk/hr of mission runners. Sure almost every veteran mission runner can easily adapt and continue to run missions. But what is your isk/hr now compared to before? If you averaged 60mil/hr before I bet you are pushing it to do 40mil/hr now. Many players are so involved in the effects this update has had on whether or not they can still run missions, the ones who can have completely overlooked the massive isk/hr nerf they have just received.

A 20-30% reduction in the isk/hr of mission runners is a massive reduction in the isk faucet pouring new isk into the game economy. Selling loot drops, tags, and salvage only causes isk to change hands. But NPC bounties brings new isk into the game. Making missions take longer was not the right way to reduce this isk faucet. But it was a clever way of hiding this nerf to the isk faucet without hurting the null sec dwellers. Reduce the isk/hr of high sec mission runners while the isk faucet reduction will benefit the null sec dwellers. I believe this was the real reason for this change.

I don't think mission runners were any real issue as an isk faucet.

The ISK is only decent, not "omg billions of ISK falling into my lap just by pressing F1". It was pretty easy, but not a faucet.
The people who AFK mission, didn't do as much ISK/Hour anyway, and the people who farm missions in 2-3B isk ships, would barely be hurt by the change if at all once the triggers on the buggy missions get fixed.

looks like you were just trolling .. and the only person i see whining like a pro is peeps like yourself ,,,, ironic isnt it?

you should still post up your pro tips so we can all lol at you.

New npc AI is not a bug. Neither it is challenging. It is just PITA of micromanaging drones via terrible drone UI.

Posting to confirm that the new NPC AI certainly makes life hard for a new (or newly-returned) player like myself.

The problem isn't so much the drones (though that certainly requires much more micro than what seems reasonable most of the time) but the fact that whole rooms aggro you as soon as you aggro one enemy. As someone with 7mil SP and a Tier 1-fit Maelstrom, I simply cannot manage that kind of aggro in many of the missions.

The ones that A-gate you directly into the fray are the worst. Now you have the initial pull -- that's right on top of you, possibly with Frigs that you need to kill with drones -- AND you have the other pulls bearing down on you.

It would be nice to not have to manage my drones so much, though what I would really like to see is a more intuitive drone control UI. However, the full-room aggro has pretty much made Level 4's inaccessible to a relatively new player like myself.