Life expectancy

[HazCat]

I can attest - cargo or no cargo, the NPCs are barking mad right now. I've lost two fully kitted Python since 2.1, and been interdicted multiple times - but successfully high waked out of most of them, with shields down and 50% or worse damage. I've had one encounter that wasn't a lunatic NPC - and that was a FAS with some of the special weapons and a Master rating. Still took me five minutes to take him out.

You get close to the bubble and I'll sign up for escort, too.

[HAMM3R]

Damn, sounds like things have really gone fubar back there. I'm picturing the situation in my head as a riot-like chaos with escapees from an asylum for the criminally insane running around screaming and attacking anything and everything in sight

But no cargo aboard my ship. I even stripped the cargo space to a bare minimum. Computer says the capacity is 2, whatever that means. Tons?

[HazCat]

Hopefully by the time you get back FD will have toned things down a bit. I get the feeling that they wanted to significantly elevate the challenge of facing the upper rank NPCs. I rather appreciate that - before 2.1 it was fairly rare to get a serious fight from even an Elite. After? It's mostly the weapons that are killing us. Yes, the AI is improved. We can learn to fight that and even welcome the improvements. But there's nothing we can do about single shot weapons that strip our shields or blow us out of space. A situation made even worse by the lack of parity.

I fly a python with 5A shields and two boosters. There's simply no way a courier or some such should be able to rip me apart in a couple shots.

So... even if things get balanced? Don't take the risk until you sell your data. Depending on where you come into the bubble, and how much notice you can give, it's pretty probable that an ad hoc wing can help you for the last part of the trip.

[Orkekum]

Class 5 on python? Class 6 biweave and we start talking. Shields on this has always been weak.

https://coriolis.io/outfit/python/2prtk ... nterdictor

[CapitanAceRimmer]

Beware, they can still attack you even if you have no cargo, no power play affiliation, and no missions assigned to you.

I've been destroyed in a taxi hauler before that didn't even have a cargo rack.

[Orkekum]

I am power aligbed, and i usually carry few limpets. So i know

[TorTorden]

Hopefully by the time you get back FD will have toned things down a bit. I get the feeling that they wanted to significantly elevate the challenge of facing the upper rank NPCs. I rather appreciate that - before 2.1 it was fairly rare to get a serious fight from even an Elite. After? It's mostly the weapons that are killing us. Yes, the AI is improved. We can learn to fight that and even welcome the improvements. But there's nothing we can do about single shot weapons that strip our shields or blow us out of space. A situation made even worse by the lack of parity.

I fly a python with 5A shields and two boosters. There's simply no way a courier or some such should be able to rip me apart in a couple shots.

So... even if things get balanced? Don't take the risk until you sell your data. Depending on where you come into the bubble, and how much notice you can give, it's pretty probable that an ad hoc wing can help you for the last part of the trip.

I see two main problems with ai.
For one I see nothing but deadly and Elite npc's now unless I go out of my way looking for one.
So if you are high ranked in combat, you might as well stay in a tanked up A rated vette.

The AI fucking cheats.
I'm seeing type 9 npcs pulling moves that would impress clippers.
It's like they get a 2x on manoeuvrability.

Larger ships also spam shield cells like there is no end.

It's a known fact npcs do not get heat biuld up from anything aside from external factors.
So no heat from scb spamming (and they do A LOT) or railguns or anything.

Seriously firing a railgun just twice on my courier would push me to 120% heat.
So why should a dbs be able to spam it like a cannon.
And to top it off npcs doesn't have an ammo count either so they never run out of cells, chaff or munitions..

Dial back on the spawning of the higher ranked npc's. And make them play by the same rules as the rest of us.

[HAMM3R]

Don't take the risk until you sell your data.

That is my main concern, dying before selling the data. I would seriously hate losing it all. After selling, not so much of a big deal.
And I have a Viper stashed away at one station, although its guns are probably obsolete by now.