Testing to see if any of this is really an issue is needed. CCP said it will not be nearly as bad a W-space. I fly a Thanny in W, so I know what sleepers are like (solo: terrible, 3 ships: no issue).

It hasn't worked perfectly for a decade. It's been ridiculous, broken and exploitable for nearly a decade, now they finally fix it.

Sleeper & Incursion Sansha AI, which is what the new AI is based on, is just more fun and challenging than vanilla empire PVE, now you can enjoy it too :)

This fixes one of the stupidest mechanics of EVE Online, and has been on my short list of dream fixes since I started playing-

"Tank & DPS" ships. It's hilariously ******** that you drop a tanking ship to a site, and then the rats just keep shooting it, and neglect all the other ships that are actually killing them. Props to CCP for fixing this!

This also means that a PVEr is not automatically worse off in case someone jumps you while running a site. In w-space attackers have to account for the sleepers, which makes it more interesting and challenging to everybody.

As what comes to drones getting aggro, it's a non-issue, especially if it's even milder than in wormholes. I've soloed C 1-3 anoms and sites in drone ships and it's perfectly doable. Yes, you have to be alert, but that's why I play, to have an immersive and involving experience. I've never worried about waiting for aggro before dropping drones, when running k-space plexes in Ishtar I always drop sentries right away, and start one-shotting frigs. By the time the poor rats realize they are getting obliterated and start locking my drones, I've done a lot of damage. Then recall them, drop again.

HP bonused drones don't instapop.

Drones today are very powerful for their raw dps, range, tracking and damage application, this change prevents drones from becoming completely OP compared to other setups in PVE.

ITT someone is actually silly enough to believe that mission rats are worth the same amount of ISK at the end of the day as incursion and WH rats.

wow.

Not only have I never even touched wow, aggro-control mechanics have existed since the days of MUDs, many of which, if you want this to be a "EVE is so hardcore and so am I hurr durr go back to wow" pissing contest, were far less forgiving than Eve is. Enjoy your cookie-cutter fits.

It means is this;

The Eve economy is ****** and CCP wants more PvP deaths. They all but stated this in their QEN's. As a matter of fact they did state it, just without the F word.

So Sleepers, Incursion Sanshas, and now mission boats will have fits that induce a more PvP like setup from the player, in an effort to get them to PvP.

I use drone ships in both wormholes and incursions without losing any.

Glad you did your research before posting.

That is a good motive, PvP is fun and CCP wants their customers to have as much fun as possible, instead of AFK-grinding or botting all day.

Yes, it is so much fun watching your drones evaporate and watch your ISK/ hour reduced to nil.

My point is that this aggro-switching rat AI already exists in EVE, and most people agree it's more fun than the idiot version.

Why are we doing this:

There are plenty of reasons for doing this. Trying to bring everything up to date, to stop maintaining old code, to give us new options for what we can do in missions, to try and close some exploits, to attempt to make the PvE more engaging, and more.

Sentries have always been preferred choice for PVE, but ideally you would have both.

A complete lie.

This change would simply kill drone boats.

All new NPCs I create will have player like fits and hopefully one day I will have time to go over the older NPCs.. this is a lot of work though ;)

You want to make PvE more like PvP? Guess what, not many people jump into a battleship and try to solo 30 to 50 other people in PvP. So what are missions going to become? Jump into a battleship and try to solo 2 to 5 NPC's (hopefully they are faction fit so they have a chance of dropping something)? And use this to fund PvP? Are we going to have to fit a point to hold the NPC's? Will we have to probe them down if they jump away? Or will this end up really like PvP where I have to bring a bigger blob to counteract the NPC blob. - You, really sounds like fun to me.....

Here's a suggestion CCP, you guys don't live in highsec, you don't run missions, neither does the CSM. .

While this all sounds so well and good, I wonder what CCP is going to do to the petitions where someone has lost their drones and is scrambled in a mission by an NPC or two (which can't possibly kill them), and are stuck there until the next dt.

Here's a suggestion CCP, you guys don't live in highsec, you don't run missions, neither does the CSM. Every "change" to missions has nerfed them and infuriated mission runners. Give it up, now.

The average mission runner doesn't read these forums, nor does he really want to be 'challenged'. Missions (and other forms of PvE are mostly 'the grind' necessary to fund PvP activities, so why on earth are you thinking of making 'the grind' harder?

You want to make PvE more like PvP? Guess what, not many people jump into a battleship and try to solo 30 to 50 other people in PvP. So what are missions going to become? Jump into a battleship and try to solo 2 to 5 NPC's (hopefully they are faction fit so they have a chance of dropping something)? And use this to fund PvP? Are we going to have to fit a point to hold the NPC's? Will we have to probe them down if they jump away? Or will this end up really like PvP where I have to bring a bigger blob to counteract the NPC blob. - You, really sounds like fun to me.....

https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=1990692#post1990692

Null sec explorers (especially those with experience with the MAZE), does this strike anyone else as odd?

You assume I don't active play my 960 dps Rattlesnake. Or my 1.2k dps Navy Dominix.

I understand and am aware of AFK drone boats being hit by this. But not all drone boats, and not all drone pilots are afk pilots.

None of the CSM's representing HI SEC is HI SEC's fault for voter apathy for the most part. If we as the majoriy of EVE don't vote it is our fault. I'd perfer the CSM being more representative with electoral districts but any system that tried to base its its reps from where they 'appear' to be from probably would be highly susceptableto gaming.

I don't think none of the CCP DEVs lives inHI SEC but itdoes often appear to be true and I believe a majority are NULL or WH residents . I am positive they do careabout HI SEC though I'm sure thegame designers such as CCP Afinity do read these posts here. That said I know it is tuff to notbe overly negitive ( I'm oftenguilty of that too ) but stating that improved AIs as being a negitive just is silly...

I believe making mission AI's in the long run will improve the game and hope Incursion AI's ( whom I fight daily) in the future too become smarter even though in the long run my ISK generation would be reduced; why? because I enjoy the challenge of a goodfight in PvE even though they are rare & usually are because of DC's of logi

Yes I do read the posts :) and lots of us devs do live in HI SEC - but we have to move forward.. we can't just never update the NPCs because people are scared of the new challenge it might present.

Well I'm not afraid of new challenges. My concern is that currently, the drone boats only niche is PVE. They are very rarely used in PVP because missiles/guns are far more effective and reliable at applying damage.

If this new AI is too aggressive towards drones then it will only serve to make drone boats even more redundant.