Combat Anomaly?

Project Terran PT Q&A
1

Hi,

Yesterday I took a combat mission in Kits End at the jump gate nexus (LL6).

My contract was to destroy 6 Bruwar Class Turrets. After about 2 hours I had destroyed 4/6 and things were going fine, but then something “new” happened. After each kill, the destroyed ship or turret was replaced with the same type of ship, only Ossiri Raiders.

I had destroyed a few of these during the combat, but now there are 4 Ossiri Raiders and no matter which one I attack all 4 attack as one group, immediately.

I have seen plenty of group attacks while fighting or mining, but not an immediate attack by all four each time I re-enter the combat site and begin to attack. Usually, upon leaving and re-entering I can start up an attack and the other similar ships would join in more quickly than before, but not all of them immediately.

I tried logging out and back in but all 4 still attack instantly. I even waited overnight but today they are still attacking instantly once I attack.

Group AI attacks by similar ships make sense, and I have had to handle many groups of 3 similar ships, but usually they progressively join the fight. However, this time the AI ships always attack immediately once I do, and the fact that there are 4 instead of 3 means this mission can’t be completed solo, even though I had made good progress at 4 out of 6 required kills.

So it seems that the AI ship replacement code is set up randomly so that you can end up with 4 (or even more?) of the same type of ship. If this is intended, that’s fine, but if it’s also true that they will now always attack as a group immediately instead of progressively joining the fight then please let me know and I can just cancel the mission.

Thanks!

2

TOPIC UPDATE & CLARAFICATION

First, I really like the idea of grouped AI attacks, it makes sense as they should “take care of their own.” I like the “wolf pack” idea of it and it’s very challenging. This was just the first time I had seen 4 attack not just as a group, but always immediately.

Mission Update: I went back in again and a 5th ship had shown up, so I destroyed it and eventually it was replaced by a turret which I needed for the mission. So I was eventually able to complete the mission by destroying this 5th, non-Ossiri Raider AI ship a few times until I got 6 turrets.

Interestingly, after destroying the 6th (and last) turret needed for the mission, the replacement AI ship was…(wait for it…) yes, another Ossiri Raider! So now there are 5 Ossiri Raiders and they attack as a group (good for them!) even while I was salvaging and had not attacked them first! What fun!

So I don’t know if this was a RNG anomaly (all 5 replacement AI ships the same type), but it certainly changes things in terms of combat expectations! :slight_smile:

3

So killing have also farming part - you have to keep biodiversity high. Assuming those ships have crew, ofc.

4

Aaaaalright :smiley:

First of all, for each combat field, the list of possible enemies is quite limited - defined by local faction, law level etc. It is indeed possible that for certain locations the list effectively consists of just 1 or 2 entries. In your example it could be 1) Ossiri Raider and 2) Bruwar Turret (and maybe something else, the “5th ship” you describe). Again, it is possible that the “biodiversity” is unintentionally too low in some fields. I’m sure more and more enemy types will be implemented over time, increasing the balance.

At the same time, the spawn chance is equal for all enemies on this list. Meaning, if you keep killing one specific enemy type (e.g. for a mission), you’re effectively increasing the population of “everything else” in the field. In you example, you kill all Turrets as soon as they spawn, which results in more and more Ossiri Raiders over time. Actually, an interesting side effect of combat missions :slight_smile: Aside from the possibility of group creation^^ you have to start killing other enemies in order to allow mission targets to spawn. Though it was stated many time already, that exactly this is intended: combat missions provide an additional motivation/reward (especially faction xp) for combat you would do anyway - similar to hydra missions. You’re not meant to be able to kill mission targets in quick succession.

As Ossiri Raiders belong to the same faction, they act as a group. Meaning, aside from the standard random chance of someone attacking you on their own, the group uses its combined combat strength vs. your ship as decision basis.

Now while one Ossiri Raider is a rather mediocre enemy (~ medium tier1 player ship) and probably wouldn’t attack (often), 3 or even more are a very dangerous pack, especially considering their high DPS - they can inflict significant damage to any low-mid level player and they know it :wink: As group attack is way more promising than a personal attack, it is very likely to have higher priority - resulting in a massive attack (almost) each time.

Hehe and imagine how surprised other players will be if they enter that “trap” :slight_smile: Well, you would either need a group to clear that field - or you can wait long enough, they’ll eventually be replaced (though we’re speaking about many days here).

Now, the repeated word “immediately” was a little bit confusing. The general drag-in cooldown should still apply. That is, if you were attacked, have just retreated and re-enter a combat field immediately, the chance for an immediate attack is exactly 0%. It then increases over time - relatively fast in combat. Though in few minutes it reaches a significant value - and if enemies are much stronger than you (group^^), they are very likely to attack. That is, “immediately” cannot be literally upon re-entering, but it’s probably a matter of few minutes for the above constellation.

5

Keeping the spirit of this post in mind, I consequently eliminated the strongest pirates in a LL5. Then I waited each time for the next one to spawn and picked again the strongest target.
After some time, there were only 4 Kracken and 1 other pirate.

I think this could be a valid strategy to make lower law level a saver place for all of us and allow for some more easy salvaging.

Of course the hardest part still is to eliminate the first hard ones…
(I tried the same strategy in a LL4, but I’m not capable of solo defeating one of the three neptunus followers in there)