From: Timil Deepson, Captain of the Rocinante
To Whom It May Concern,
We are having an “issue” with one of our crew, a certain Captain Atoyot, our Combat Specialist.
Seems his helmet is fitting a bit tight these days. He’s been strutting around the cantina boasting about his combat victories and bragging about his new ship, a Guardian Blade, and how he’s using it to "cut up the competition."
With his shields at 2100 and his three Foreen A.R.C. Laser C3s, he now claims, “I’m invincible!” (We think he’s a looney.)
Don’t get me wrong. We don’t want to see his hull breached or anything, but could you maybe notify him of any new combat missions that might, well, bring him down a notch or two?
Sincerely,
Capt. Timil Deepson
It seems that we need to somehow scale the enemies, especially in the lower law level areas, to matchup better with the high level players.
One option may be to increase the weapon damage done by our enemies based on our shield ratings. There still has to be an advantage to better shields, but perhaps the damage could increase by a 50% factor to shield power. Something along the line of the random event factor that does more damage to higher level players.
Make a tougher version of the Bruwar-Class Turret for the lower law level areas. Can an enemy have a varaible weapon, based on our shields?
Shield < 700 Current damage of Bruwar-Class Turret: 25 damage
Shield > 700 Plasma Torpedo: 50 damage
Shield > 1000 Polaron Torpedo: 70 damage
Shield > 1500 Gravimetric Torpedo: 100 damage
Even at this increased rate, the Turrets don’t typically attack in groups, so you can retreat after about 3 shots have been taken. Maybe those number have to be increased at a higher rate.
Also, there are some ‘easy’ ships in the lower law level areas; Krakens and Death Dealers. They serve no purpose, my shields recharge faster than the damage from a Kraken. Replace them with Hogans Menaces or Kressler Pack Hunter.
Been a while since I made an ‘Official Post’ here, and as i spent a lot of time today with a slide rule my Dev toon and the database open ‘tinkering’ I thought I’d make a short update post.
There are a lot of rules that govern first who gets a chance to spawn in the Law Level Zones, How many and their make up. Then there is the rules governing ‘attacking’ with a sliding time-scale rule increasing chances etc and also the rules governing threat and grouping.
This alone make ‘fiddling’ with the enemy ships a challenging task 
I have started this change by adding a few more ships to the mix, (High level ones) restricting access to a handful of the ones that were spawning in levels 3 and below that were pretty pointless AND slightly rebalancing some of the higher ships stats.
Food for Thought : It was / is still not, our opinion that players should be able to solo play in a Law level 2 or 1. 3 at a push and four with some challenge.
The thing is we didn’t want to go overkill, so player feedback and monitoring where players got too was important. There was little point in making lower law levels totally impassable, otherwise no one would get these rare ores to build the shields and weapons etc that you need to survive there.
But… Now we HAVE players that CAN solo in these areas it was / is time for a rebalance.
Today sees the start of this and I would like to hear back from the senior players with highest level combat toon’s on the outcome.
As I say the ethos of PT was to never be ‘I’m under attack - yeah what ever’. It was to get players working together to work / fight mine / salvage together once you plunge 4 and below. Getting the rare rocks should be a challenge.
So apologise for those of you that these ‘edits’ will cause fresh issues with. But, with players posting ‘It’s tooooo easy’ it was way over time for a start to the toughening up of PT combat 4 and below.
I have also added new ships to EACH faction zones and ensured there is a Turret type for each Faction. I’ve also increased the range on some ships as they were missing most captains just due to poor locations.
There are also a FEW select ships that have had their fire rate altered. These will cause you some ‘Waaaaaa moments’ and that’s by design.
So Four and Below you now need to ‘reassess’ and be a bit more careful if your a miner or traders passing through.
Also: just to highlight that there are ‘General Mobs’ that can appear in any faction zones and there are Faction zone specific mob. Which means you may have to ‘look around’ and see where is safer for you compared to other faction zones.
Lastly : This was a small to medium database edit on about 15 of the ship types in the game with addition of a few more high level 4,3,2,1 ships. I will continue to tweak and add more AS I get feedback.
Footnote: Please - there is no point in a miner or low / mid level players responding to this post with ‘Waaaa I cant mine the low law levels any more’ Re-Read this post and understand that was never our intention.
Coops
P.S new ships wont have the chance to appear till old ships are killed. So you may not see an immediate affect in some zones where the ships have not been removed.
Combat Pilots : A request IF I may.
Can I ask those that read this post and are combat pilots to do me a favour and list your load-outs when doing combat. The following would be VERY helpful.
Ship Chassis
Weapons fitted
Shield Fitted
Reactors Fitted
Any systems fitted
Max Shield Rating
Roughly what Law Level you fight comfortably in this ship (of yours).
This info would / will save me a lot of time and would be really appreciated.
Coops
Tom Paris- Ice Miner
Ship Chassis: Grazer- Starbug
Weapons fitted: None
Shield Fitted: 500 total
Reactors Fitted: 5200 (2x Singularity Cell)
Any systems fitted: Class 9 Scanner, Prams Armour Repair PR1
Baron von Richtofen- Combat Pilot/ Miner
Ship Chassis: Polestar- Minotaur
Weapons fitted: 2x Foreen ARC Laser C3, Coyote Salvage Laser
Shield Fitted: 650 total
Reactors Fitted: 6500 (Singularity Cell, 2x Stellar Core- Kingu)
Any systems fitted: Class 6 Scanner, Melar Prototype Armour Repair, Defiant Combat Scanner DS-3)
Obviously every asteroid has a different combination of enemies. I found the follwoing:
Law Level 4 (some random Death Dealer & Krackens in all areas)
x3 Freelance Goliath
Q-Ship, Hogans Menace, Esosian Law Runner
A Q-ship does between 84-109 damage. My Miner can retreat without Armour damage, if only the Q-Ship attacks. If others join in, I’ll take Armour damage.
The Red Baron only slightly damaged a Esosian Law Runner before retreating with his shields down.
LL:3
Kressler Pack Hunter, 2x Esosian Law Runner
The Law Runner does about 30 damage, Kressler a little more. I fitted my 3rd attack laser, and killed one of the Law Runners.
My Miner has less trouble here than in the LL4, the Q-ship was the key difference.
LL:2
Hogans Menace x2, Esosian Law Runner x2, Q-Ship x2, Neptune Follower
Q-Ship x2, Hogans Menace , Esosian Law Runner, Kressler Pack Hunter, 2x Titan Turret
Titan Turret does about 90 damage. I was jumped in the second system by everyone, and got out with no shields and 51 Armour. No chance here, need much better Shields than I have.
LL:1
Kressler Pack Hunter x3, Esosian Law Runner x3, Titan Turret
No Q-ships, so this was actully better. Managed to mine a little before getitng chased out.
Thanks for the feedback @Tom_Paris. As you suspected and as we chatted about in discord, it will take a while before the rebalanced and new ships appear fully. I did clear out all of Luther for a Law Level 1 test.
We are looking at a few other tweaks, and to remind folk that this is just the first in many coming ‘tweaks’ to the bad guys agro range, fire-power (DPS) and HP. Not to mention there will be more ‘actual’ entities added as we proceed.
More feed back from more players is required though.
Coops
P.S i any one wants another other ‘Systems’ clearing of original spawned ships just let me know the system name, this would be for a clean test of freshly spawned ships.
Hello,
My fighter recently entered the orbit of a Level 1 Asteroid in Selby Point and found that combat has definitely been upgraded.
I attacked a new ship, a Q-type Raider, and it does almost exactly double the damage of the previously toughest AI ship (100-109 was the dmg / attack I saw). Wonderful! Quite the challenge now.
However, the defense capabilities of the ship might be too great. I attacked this ship for two full minutes and it’s condition went from Undamaged to Slightly damaged…then back to Undamaged. So with my ship layout (noted below) it is not possible to destroy a Q-type Raider solo. Unless new weapons have been introduced that I haven’t noticed, combat at the highest level of difficulty now requires 2+ ships.
Here’s the ship layout:
Atoyot - Combat Pilot / Miner
Ship Chassis: Guardian - Blade
Weapons: 3 Foreen A.R.C. Laser C3s
Shield: 2100 total (3 Krala Field Shields)
Reactors: 11,400 Energy (3 Spin Charge Joules)
Systems Tyrell Armor Repair Unit 3
Thank you for your Feedback @OpusGamer as the most senior combat pilot your feedback is welcomed.
We will be adding more weapons and shields (and more reactors) to balance these along with a few further tweaks to combat overall, but as per the thrust of this series of posts, I’m looking for feedback at this time.
Coops
Hello,
I didn’t respond so far, since I’m certainly not a high level player yet and have to work on shield/energy upgrades before going into LL4 and lower.
Today, while day trading, I was pulled into combat in Defiance system in a LL7 (seven!) by two Titan Turrets and got considerable hull damage.
Here is my stats:
Batalanto - Combat Pilot / Day Trader
Ship Chassis: Raven Scimitar
Weapons: 1 Foreen ARC Laser C3 / 1 Defiant Dual Pulse DP-1
Shield: 285 total (1 Civilian Shield System 2 / 1 Defiant Shield DS-1)
Reactors: 2200 Energy (Tokamak CE Series 2 / Defiant Combat Reactor DR-1)
Systems: Defiant Combat Scanner DR-3 / Prams Armour Repair PR1
[Quote=Battle log]
Titan Turret hit You inflicting 88 damage
Titan Turret hit You inflicting 104 damage
2 ships belonging to Esosian Syndicate attack Batalanto! [/quote]
Although I pushed retreat quasi immediately, hull was down to 440 (of max 525)
[quote=Coops on Discord]I’ve neutered the titan turrets ‘slightly’ and made sure they can’t appear above a 7
So 7 >1[/quote]
Thanks Coops.
With same ship as in previous message, I was pulled in combat in Gurun system in a LL6 by 3 ships this time:
[quote=Battle log:]
Zellarite Platform hit You inflicting 81 damage
Zellarite Cruiser hit You inflicting 38 damage
Zellarite Platform hit You inflicting 83 damage
3 ships belonging to Zellarite Aggressor attack Batalanto![/quote]
This time I managed to get away with still 18 armour and no hull damage. So these Zellarite Platforms are perfectly ok for me.
PS: and yes I do understand that I should be working on a shield upgrade
I worked hard on energy/shield upgrade, so now it’s time for an update on mining experience:
Toon 1: Batalanto
Profession: Combat Pilot / Day Trader / Rock Miner
Ship Chassis: Polestar
Weapon: 2 Foreen ARC Laser C3 -> safely in PSF while mining
Mining: 2 Needle Core Laser - Kali
Shield: 860 total (1 Krala Field Shield KFS3 / 1 Defiant Shield DS-1)
Reactors: 5650 Energy (Tokamak CE Series 2 / Bussard Generator Series 3)
Systems: Kryton Mining Scanner Class 5
(alternative systems Defiant Combat Scanner DR-3 / Prams Armour Repair PR1 - safely in PSF while mining)
Toon 2: Ministo
Profession: Ice Miner
Ship Chassis: Deepcore - Neptune
Weapon:
Mining: 2 Ferox Ice Miner Version 2
Shield: 650 total (1 Ossiri Defense Shield OD3 / 1 Rajoran Aegis Shield RA3)
Reactors: 3950 Energy (Sulimont Power Unit / Bussard Generator Series 3)
Systems: Terran Hybrid Mining Scanner Class 7
(alternative systems Vortan Auto Armour Repair S1 / Melar Hull Repair Stage 1 - in ship store)
Both are now mining in LL5 / LL6 fields and often get attacked.
When it is an attack by 2 Titan Turrets, the 860 shield is sufficient to retreat, the 650 shield is a bit too weak and that toon gets sometimes a light armour damage.
When it is an attack by 3 Titan Turrets (or similar), it starts becoming dangerous and the repair times become rather long. So I prefer not to mine in those fields.
When more aggressors are present, I certainly will not mine in those fields.
I deliberately focus more on number of aggressive and strong pirates than on law level, since I get the impression that even a LL 7 could be dangerous, if one would be unfortunate to face multiple titan turrets.
That’s great feedback - thank you very much appreciated and now closer to where we want the line to be drawn. Appreciate the feedback.
Coops
Yesterday, Tom and I did a joint combat in a LL3 at Angkor.
We eventually managed to kill 1 Neptunes Follower, taking ourselves considerable armour and some hull damage.
Unfortunately an extra turret respawned, making it now a more dangerous place than it was before.
Also we didn’t manage to salvage a lot, because we had to wait for auto shield/armour repair and then the salvage was gone.
Clearly we will have to reconsider our strategy.
Profession: Combat Pilot - Eve
Ship Chassis: Marauder
Weapons fitted: Defiant Dual Pulse DP-1
Shield Fitted: Defiant Shield DS-1
Reactors Fitted: Defiant Combat reactor DR-1
Any systems fitted: Defiant Combat Scanner DS-3
Max Shield Rating: 160 units
LL: 11 & 12 - Solo
LL: 10 - With help
With plenty of loot items added to the game, it was time for an update. I just safely killed a Q-Ship Raider in a LL4.
Toon 1: Batalanto
Profession: Combat Pilot / Day Trader / Rock Miner
Ship Chassis: Polestar - Pandora
Weapon slots:
Tuned Vortan Salvage Laser S-1
Flux - Beam Cannon E-45 (32-38, range:7, cycle: 5s)
Powered - Phaser E-47 (31-38, range:4, cycle: 4s)
Boosted - Cannon E-1 (20-26, range:4, cycle: 5s)
Mining: inactive
Shield: 2718 total (regen rate: 566 total)
Reactors: 15590 Energy
Expander: +13 Cargo
Systems: none