So apparently the AI is all roided up after this last update.
There's a bunch of people complaining, and I'm sure they will be a nerf coming. The problem is, some of the AI have modded weapons and shields etc. So it's a entire new ballgame now. An imperial courier or cobra that you wouldn't have even blinked at, can tear you up. They are faster, more maneuverable, and more of a challenge. A lot of new players are having a tough time, and I kind of feel sorry for them.
Some of these new weapons, can drop an A rated shield setup with shield boosters, in no time at all. Interdictions are off the wall now, and it's Elite FDLs and Elite Anacondas every time. Commanders in big ships are having the worst time, the smaller ships are a handful for them, and people in pythons and anacondas are getting hammered by buybacks. It seems now your better off in something fast and medium/small, that can boost out and let your shields recharge, or just boost away and run.
My opinion, they are definitely a lot tougher, especially anything deadly/dangerous/elite. You need to be a lot smarter and wiser about what you take on in certain situations. As of now, taking on wings of 3 solo (even if they are sidewinders) is not a good idea at all. You'll be at 50% hull before you know it, and without thrusters to leave, no matter what your shield setup is. The police/law enforcement are also jacked up, which is good in a way. I noticed they jump in and help anyone getting attacked fast.
Haz RES are a lot tougher, if you go there, be very careful who you pick a fight with. Basically the way it is now, if you get ganged up on, you better start thinking of an escape plan, because it doesn't take long before your in bad shape.
Nav beacons are safe, you'll find wanted ships there, but the law enforcement presence is very high, and there can be 4-5 anacondas running around as police, so it's pretty safe, and if you get a couple shots in on a tough enemy, you get an easy bounty because they don't last long once the law gets on them.
I understand why frontier did it this way, we are getting scans from ships with the mods, that we will be able to use in engineers to Mod our ships. The same way with the materials they drop. You can see both of these in your inventory now, and the materials for engineers don't take up cargo space, neither does the data. You can hold 600 materials and 200 data scans, and they tranfer betwen ships.
I think the interdictions need to be toned way down, it's running new players off. I was trading all day yesterday, and I know how to get away, but I decided to try fighting an elite FDL that interdicted me, bad idea. He had me down to 30% hull in no time, and I barely made it out. Some of the new weapons drop your shields almost instantly, and they can take your thrusters out and then your really hosed, there's several different effects they have. I was getting interdicted constantly, they weren't damaging me when I ran, but it was annoying . Sometimes 7-8 times in a row before I could get to a station. New players in a type 7 or type 9 are getting destroyed a lot.
I did read on some of these mods we will have access to. ( once we do Missions for the engineers and grind for god knows how many hours.) Some of them will be really cool and make your ship godlike. You can mod your thrusters, make you more manueverable and faster. There's people can boost 500 now with mods. You can mod your shields to make them more resistent to a certain damage, or more resistent to all damage( you probably get more resistance if you pick a single damage, and if you pick a mod that resists all damage it will probably be a lower percentage of resistence against all), you can mod your PowerPlant to give you more power supply(perfect for some ships that have power issues). You can mod your FSD, to make it charge faster or make you jump further distances. And weapons of course.
It's going to be really neat once everyone figures it out. I've been collecting materials already and data scans. Even though it only comes out for XB1 this Friday.
It is a bit unfair for someone who isn't planning on buying horizons/engineers, because I think the way frontier did it is beefed up the enemy AI now with mods, so when we get modded up, we won't be super overpowered compared to them. That sucks though and it's not a practical gameplan, it almost makes people have to buy it to stay competitive. I don't think it will stay this way though, there's way too many people complaining about it. I don't really mind it, I like the challenge, but I've been playing for a little bit now, and can hold my own.
The biggest thing is, just watch what you do, who you take on, and know when it's time to GTFO.
