We just wanted to get a post up to talk about some key issues that have come up in the community over the last few days and talk a little about some of the changes that are coming into effect from today and in future updates.
AI and NPCs
One of the most hotly debated topics in the community since The Engineers (2.1) is the AI and NPC changes. Theres no denying that higher ranked NPCs are now tougher to beat than ever before.
The aim of the AI and NPC changes is to ensure that there is a balance between having combat that challenges you and is exciting while not being so challenging that it spoils your ability to enjoy the galaxy and game on a day to day basis.
Were aware from your feedback that this hasnt hit that balance, either because of bugs or a number of other reasons, and so were going to be making some changes to help address those concerns.
The first change is that we will be removing almost all Engineers upgrades from the NPCs in game. There are a very few select upgrades that will remain for coding reasons but they will be low level and not combat specific upgrades. On the whole you should notice that the vast majority of upgrades are gone from NPCs which will mean that players will be greater equipped to deal with NPC threats and should be able to last longer in a combat situation, should they need to make a hasty exit. It will also mean that players who gather their own upgrades will have a technical advantage on the NPC combatants too. The good part about this is that these are all server side, which means we are able to make those changes today! Commanders will be able to see the changes taking effect shortly.
Staying on the topic of AI, we have also had a number of people discussing bugged or cheating weapons and abnormal, overly aggressive, NPC behaviour where NPCs are attacking Commanders without being wanted, being full of Cargo or for other known obvious reasons. In order to investigate these concerns more closely there are two new bug forum threads dedicated to these issues specifically. If you have any evidence or detail about these issues, we would appreciate you heading over to the Bugged weapons or the NPC aggro threads and giving us your feedback there.
With the removal of Engineers upgrades, even if the NPCs do become more manageable, we would still greatly appreciate any reports of AI attacking unexpectedly in the thread mentioned above as it will help us investigate the issues.
With the changes going out today the development team will be able to review the effectiveness of the AI on its own and see what additional balancing will need to take place. There are a number of additional changes that the dev team are looking at right now which could include balancing the frequency of higher end NPCs as well as other changes and well keep you informed with more news on those as we have them.
The Engineers RNG & more
Weve also seen a lot of discussion on the Engineers generally we are listening to feedback. Weve mentioned previously but in 2.1.1 we will be giving players the ability to exchange their experimental modifications for another modification but at a cost to your reputation with that Engineer. This will allow players a better opportunity to select what upgrades they receive. We are also very much listening to feedback on the Engineers and other updates too. If you have any specific feedback regarding the Engineers, the material gathering or any other changes, be sure to add them to the Engineers forum where the team will be reviewing and reading.
Bi-Weave shields
Many of you have noticed that Bi-Weave shields seem to have been taken off the shelves across the galaxy. This was the result of a bug fix which ended up removing them from circulation. These will be going back into game via today's server side update. They wont be available at every station but they will result in becoming available at stations across the galaxy, in the same way other items do currently.
Thank you again for your feedback, it truly is vitally important to us. Please do continue to give us your suggestions! Fly Safe Commanders!