Engineers 2.1 Beta - findings so far

[DruiD]

Played it for a bit...
+1 on Chaff and SCB spam on NPC - its out of the world insane.
+1 on NPC running as a GOOD thing. Makes it more interesting (but yes, a little annoying too)
Jury still out on the Mission screen and also the effectiveness of the so called "Engineer upgrades" .. only done a few and not impressed, but then again .. thats RNG for ya.

[Phillipus]

Regarding NPCs running away - lots of debate on this on the official forums. I don't think anyone is against the NPC AI being harder. It's simply that if the NPCs are running away all the time they're neither harder or easier, just annoying. As it is now, if I take down the shields of a fast NPC (FLD, Clipper) and it runs away, I then ignore it and move. Personally, I'd rather it stick around and dog-fight. After all, that's what I do when my shields go down.

Regarding Cannons - well, I've replaced all instances of cannons in all my ships with mult-cannons now. Basically, for me, cannons are now useless.

Fave weapons loadouts:

Cutter 1 - 1x huge beam, 4x medium MC, 2x large MC
Cutter 2 - 1x huge MC, 4x medium MC, 2x large beam
Corvette 1 - 2x huge MC, 2x medium pulse, 1x large pulse, 2x small beam
Corvette 2 - 2x huge pulse, 2x medium MC, 1x large MC
FDL - 1x huge MC, 4x pulses

Best loadout of all actually is Anaconda - 1x huge MC, 1x large MC, 2x medium MC, 2x large beam

[JohnLuke]

With the running NPC's it's going to be tough to generate a revenue stream from BH, and guys working on their combat rank are going to find it to be VERY slow going. I know that FD is going to change it, but from what I read some NPC's will still run away. Annoying as hell, IMO. I don't do any combat in beta as it stands right now. Way to frustrating for me to waste my time with.

I think that ground assault missions are going to change considerably. As Kharma noted, you can't attack a defense turret or skimmer from your ship anymore. Also, when your ship enters controlled airspace (so to speak), the security ships swarm your butt pretty fast. I lost my shields on an A rated Python VERY fast by taking defense turret fire, and 3 cops hammering me before I jumped out of there.

[pargyrak]

Anyone checked the powerdraw of the Huge Pulses? My Vette has birthday coming up and need a couple

[Phillipus]

Anyone checked the powerdraw of the Huge Pulses? My Vette has birthday coming up and need a couple

Yes. Tried 2 on my Corvette. Worked fine. I also had 2x small beams running at the same time for increased firepower.

[pargyrak]

Yes but what is their MW powerdraw? I have 2 Large Pulse that draw 0.92 MW each and 0.41 MW to spare

[Phillipus]

Yes but what is their MW powerdraw? I have 2 Large Pulse that draw 0.92 MW each and 0.41 MW to spare

Gimballed = 1.37 MW
Fixed = 1.33 MW

[pargyrak]

Thanks!

[Roger Wilco Jr]

Regarding NPCs running away - lots of debate on this on the official forums. I don't think anyone is against the NPC AI being harder. It's simply that if the NPCs are running away all the time they're neither harder or easier, just annoying. As it is now, if I take down the shields of a fast NPC (FLD, Clipper) and it runs away, I then ignore it and move. Personally, I'd rather it stick around and dog-fight. After all, that's what I do when my shields go down.

That may be fine for your bigger ships, but I don't think you'd want to stick around in a Vulture or you'll be sucking emergency oxygen.

A little balance would be nice.
Some run away and some stick around.
Some that run away have engineered thrusters and some don't.
Some that stick around are tanked and some are just stupid.
If they take significant thruster damage, they can't run away quickly.
If they take significant power plant damage, they can still run, but w/o shields & weapons.
And please limit the chaff & SCBs to realistic levels.

I think that ground assault missions are going to change considerably. As Kharma noted, you can't attack a defense turret or skimmer from your ship anymore. Also, when your ship enters controlled airspace (so to speak), the security ships swarm your butt pretty fast. I lost my shields on an A rated Python VERY fast by taking defense turret fire, and 3 cops hammering me before I jumped out of there.

RE: Defense turrets and skimmers. Can you shoot them with fixed weapons?
RE: Attacking a base and being outnumbered. Maybe it's not realistic for a single ship to attack an entire base.
It sounds like a wing of 4 might work out okay.

[Cmdr Kharma]

Defence Turrets and skimmers can still be taken out without targeting them.....I have done it with turrets because I know what they look like from a click up.....

Skimmers I would not be so keen on doing from the ship as they could be clean and you would end up in all types of crap now....

My plan was to take the turrets out with the ship and drop into the SRV to scan and take out the skimmers....But I had a CTD before I could get that far.....