New rat AI will not fix your terrible PvE

and the work on trying to make rats not boring is simply an exuse to say "we done something"

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.

There is, quite literally, no reasons to ever use heavies in missions except against very close-orbiting rats.

That is not really true though. True Scout drone operation gives 20 km to control range, but that is for scout drones not heavies. True electronic warfare drone interfacing gives another 15 km, but that is added range for using EW drones not heavies.

So the only range for using heavies (not explicitly said like above) is the base range of 20 kms. One should only use that range for heavies otherwise its a waste. Of course with you using drone nav computers that does help make them fly longer ranges.

you mean like remote armor repair or shield transporter?

I guess CCP wants us to quit the game, and perhaps I will when this change comes.
It takes a long tedious grinding with drones. Even with them not being targeted, each mission will take an hour to complete, also preparing the mission, and moving my ship there.
I guess this game won't be worth my time anymore if spending all these hours to lose ships in some L4 missions.
I am not playing this game as a labour, I played this game for fun.

- Drake can get rid of web/scram via Missiles but it's gonna hurt DPS
- CNR, SNI, Machariel,Nightmare and Marauders situationally DEPEND on their light drones to remove web/scram frigs

If light drones are shot down those ships will be screwed.

- Sentry Dominix and Rattlesnake will be able to deal but the constant scooping and launching will hurt DPS
- AFK Dominix with reppers might actually be the ship best suited for dealing with aggro switching - depending on the amount of threat generated by the reps

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.

Well, they ARE affected by webs right now. So far there is no indication that this will change, no matter how much you wish for it.

Also the difference in sig between your BS and your drones should cause every single frig to shift to your drones and let me tell you that light drones don't take easily to being targeted by multiple frigs. There will be nothing left to recover once you notice the aggro.

Webs are the only problem and I pointed it out several times before. They cannot affect drones to make it work. That is the *only* problem.

While this is good for anti Carrier ratting, this seems like a huge issue for ships like the Dominix, Ishtar, Gila, etc to rat. It makes NPC drone boats take a huge hit with no real options left but to train another ship. Are you comfortable making drone boats exclusively PVP?

Would it not be reasonable to ask for cheap t2 drone builds and larger drone bays as a result of this change?

A sea of tears over this... you should have seen what else we wanted the NPC to do.

Man, you really hate high sec, don't you?

The fact that drones ARE affected by webs today means they will be affected once this change goes into affect.

And what makes you think that?

Yeah, everyone knows the uncontrollable nature of drones is part of their charm. They're like dogs - adorable and generally can be trained, but will occasionally go mental and do whatever the hell they want.

I'm not whining, forecasting doom n' gloom, cancelling my 27 accounts, nor threatening to firebomb the CCP offices. I'm stating that the list of unintended consequences for this minor change far out-weigh the stated benefits (which honestly weren't very clearly stated beyond:

"to try and close some exploits, to attempt to make the PvE more engaging, and more."

it's fairly obvious to anyone who's ever seen an AFK-Domi fit this won't do a thing to that 'exploit', although it certainly will put a dampener on the FW 2x frigate thing... but that 'fix' could be fixed in much more elegant and FW-related ways (and is already being nerfed elsewhere)..

Adding the need to micro-manage a poorly designed and woefully out-of-date Drone AI doth not equate to more engaging PvE (except in the 'damn, this crap was boring before, now I have to pay even more attention' way... it's certainly that, and that's one definition).

You can thank all of team Five 0 for this. We all worked hard on it.

Posting to show support for any challenge CCP adds to spice up boring PVE.

Thank you team Five 0, your work is very much appreciated!

You mean posting as a null sec zealot who does not do any PvE and wants to destroy it for everyone who does.

Oh, and I can only imagine the null sec zealot propaganda teams gearing up in the Sisi threads telling CCP how wonderful the changes are, and if anything drones should get more attention from the AI, not less.

There will be hundreds or null players posting with alts saying how wonderful this is.