Apparently some posters post before thinking.
They 'think' that it's some nerf ( deserved or not ) to hisec missioning making them harder to farm.

What are the most popular ships for L4 missions?
- Caldari Missile Boats ( Drake, Tengu, CNR and SNI )
- Pirate Battleships ( Machariel and Nightmare )
- Marauders
- Dominix ( Sentries + Rails )
- Rattlesnake ( Sentries + Cruise )
- AFK Dominix ( Sentries + remote reps )

Will those AI changes influence the most popular boats used for missioning?
No. Nothing will change here.

Missile Boats - unaffected
Pirate Battleships - unaffected
Marauders - unaffected
Sentry Dominix - unaffected
Sentry Rattlesnake - unaffected
AFK Dominix - probably unaffected ( depends on how many rats can target your drones at the same time )

Let's see you pull heavy drones in 50km without losing anything.

In this thread: a lot of people upset that the techniques they've used to AFK farm PVE content won't work and thatGÇôuntil some smart guide writer figures out the new way to farm PVE content-GÇôthey might have to be at their keyboards while they play Eve. They might even have to *gasp* change fits and strategies.

To CCP: the point that some people have made about new players in null sec is an important one, but can be easily fixed by ensuring that plenty of lower grade anomalies spawn in null alongside the forsaken hubs and whatnot.

Looking forward to these changes as part of a long road towards making PVE in Eve more fun and less different from PvP.

Why on earth would you 1) use heavy drones and 2) send them 50km away? You're using the wrong tool for the job, so it should come as no surprise if it works poorly. The only instance when you should be using heavies in missions is when they have to fly no more than 10k away from your ship (e.g. against angel BS).

So don't let them being shot down?

I said that drones shouldn't be affected by pve webs, which is the biggest problem here.
Light drones have small enough sig meaning they won't be targeted by all rats ( target switching depends on signature radius ).
Additionally they are very fast so if they won't be affected by webs ( something I pointed out several time already ) you won't have any problems keeping them alive.

warp back to mission/plex -> right click on your capacitor -> reconnect to drones.

RE:Caldari favoritism

"Internally we started with just changing all of the Gallente and Guristas NPC. This allowed us to run missions for the Caldari and go up against the new AI."

Suspicions confirmed.

It should be. The meta-game should be secondary to the immersion. Most the negative comments I read here are about the mechanics changing. Drones being targetted etc.

What would you do, if a drone boat warped in and started unleashing drones against you. (You are the NPC here, not the capsuleer) I would damn sure take out the drones if I could.

If there is a big ship out primarly protecting some smaller ships, and that protection is in the end nothing more then holding up a big sign saying "shoot me!" then yes, I would destroy the smaller ships. They are easier to destroy and those Manti's do more hurt then the Tengu's.

Say there is an air raid, if you have a choice of destroying enemy artillery or the tanks protecting that artillery, what would you do? I would sure as hell destroy those artillery pieces first. They hurt me more, they are easier to destroy, and once gone, I can bring my own artillery to bear.

Eve NPC's should behave the same. Target the highest threar, or easiest kill, or most expensive asset. If the NPC's can make me backoff because they intelligently attack my most valuable resource instead of the resource I want them to attack, then more power to them.

Why would they not attack drones? They are nasty buggers that hurt, but they are made of paper.
Why would they not attack intercepators? They are nasty buggesr that hurt, but they are made paper.

Show me one good reason why any sane enemy would attack a neigh indestructable foe when there are other targets to be had. We, players, don't do that, why would the NPC enemies?

I want them to behave like enemies, not like dull predicatble automatons.

So farming in Eve shouldn't be more enjoyable? Its main purpose is gaining isk, so it should just be dull because it's outside PvP and therefore not a DESIGNATED FUN ZONE? Eve is a game. I'd say making it play like one is more important than minmaxing your boring grind sessions.

A whole designated section of gameplay that exists not to be fun but solely to make PvP money is bad game design. CCP is taking a step away from that, and they shouldn't get cold feet because change is inefficient for isk/hr.

Simply wrong. The new AI does have aggro management elements. Try fitting some ewar on your main tank ship.


Also to those saying this kills solo drone PvE. Again simply wrong. There are tonnes of people who solo drone boat in Wormholes where sleeper AI is even MORE aggressive against drones. If they can do it, so can you

Like, no. Aggro management by taunting etc is something that I first encountered in MMOs. In most "old" games I played NPCs tended to just go for the one they saw first and then for the one dishing out the most damage. I've always thought this "taunting" mechanic to be artificial and terribad. I mean, really: some stupidly insane armored knight with 1000hp doing 2 dps managing to hold the boss' attention while the 2hp 2000dps wizard blows him up just by calling him names? Reeeeaaaaly?

"GIVE US AGGRO MANAGEMENT TOOLS"
"ok"
"THIS MEANS I HAVE TO CHANGE MY SETUP!! WAAAAAAAAAAAAAA"

For the moment, I'd like to ignore the actual affects of the NPC AI change.

Instead, I want to point out how well the Diablo III dev team is handling a massive PvE change. They are nerfing damage reduction skills and simultaneously nerfing NPC DPS (In the high end mode - Inferno). The goal is balance. You can read about it here.

They get to the nitty gritty with exact numbers. They show how the changes will affect certain classes and certain builds as well as equipment choices - objectified with numbers. They discuss battle strategies using all the above in the context of the changes. They state their rationale for making these changes. They even state their communications with the player base as part of their rationale.

It is clear that the Diablo III devs have played their game extensively, understand how the users play their toons, and have very carefully and thoroughly thought through their changes, after communicating with their player base.

If the EvE NPC AI change follows historical patterns, we will continue to test it out, offer feedback; that feedback will be ignored, and the change will happen whether we want it or not in, and in whatever half baked form it is in. (reference the UI changes or CQ's or many others)

After reading the Diablo III dev blog, I was left with a feeling of confidence that the upcoming changes will benefit the game a lot. After reading the EvE dev blog and this thread, the only feeling I have is a complete lack of confidence in the EvE dev team and a sense that this change is yet another bad idea that will alienate an array of users.

It seems so stupid to publish a piece of a change needed for a future change. It has to be the worst way to manage development. It reminds me of when we had our bathroom remodeled. Living in a compromised environment until the work was finished was unavoidable. This is avoidable in EvE, except for the inept practices of the dev team who do not seem to have any sense of how their changes affect the players and paying customers.

I wish they would learn from the Diablo III dev team.

What if when you ewar the npc, only that one npc out of the 30 comes at you? No one has said that the aggro is linked just because you use ewar. I guess you could keep chaining the ewar around the list, trying to keep yourself highest aggro, while also trying to kill the mobs, and micromanaging your drones, because they're going to steal aggro right back from you, etc.

- Drones need to follow a d/c player into warp or, alternatively, have an option the player can check to auto recall their drones before the d/c warp off happens. (It's not related to the topic at hand - but... come on already!)

That being said, I think that hoping for genetic AI, neural net AI, adapative AI or any such AI in a game like Eve, is not going to happen. So, I applaud changes that mimic these things. A real strategic AI would not be bothered at all by the aritifical concept of "Aggro". I would make decisions based on the constantly changing battelfield around it.

I do not like knowing exactly when a respawn is going to happen.
I do not like knowing exactly what a plex is going to contain.

And as for paranoid thinking, I just track the comments and actions of the dev's. The pattern is obvious. High sec is on its way out. It is death by a thousand cuts, but there is clearly an agenda to decimate high sec profitability.

TBH the Drone Proteus sucks.......... The Ishtar is just an overall better ship if your using drones, especially when you factor in the pricetag difference. My main used to fly a drone Proteus, It has quickly been passed off to my alt for use as a tank.

It's likely that I don't know what I'm talking about. I know nothing about afk playing, scept when I go to get a cup of coffee while mining. My theory is this whole thing is about making solo afk droning tougher since I remember reading that Eve isn't intended as an afk game when I first signed on.

Either way, I'm looking forward to smarter rats.

Lets say a ganker appears and attacks the initial ratter. Wouldn't it make sense that the NPC would not aggro the ganker as he is attacking what they were already attacking?

Your intention is to make the rats smarter isn't it? Making them switch to the ganker would effectively not accomplish your goal.

sentry Dominix without any turrets.