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[Andy H.K.]

At some point during the 0.54 or 0.6 phase, I remembered people saying combat becoming too easy because the player is augmented by skills while NPC are not.

Now, at 0.65, with the possibility of meeting highly skilled NPC captains in Bounty fleet, we are finally properly challenged.

But why stop here?

Let's create some Combat level 15 or tech 20 captains, with all the per-level bonus along with unique perks locked out from players.

Maybe an Onslaught with damage control 15, with so much migitation and regenerating health, and weapons that cannot be disabled?

Or a frigate captain that is almost uncatchable with overlevel navigation and helmsmanship?

Even if this is unsuitable for vailla, how about opening it up for modding and see how modder go crazy with it?

[Auraknight]

I don't, personally, overly like the idea of having something the AI can use while we can't.
I'd be all for having it opened up for modding, however, that'd mean that it'd be possible to have the player fleets benefit from it as well.

[BillyRueben]

I don't, personally, overly like the idea of having something the AI can use while we can't.

I do, as it would level the playing field. It's the same reason that the AI gets faster resource gathering and building speed in RTS games: Humans can always out-play the AI, so they need to cheat to bring them up to our level.

[Hari Seldon]

I don't, personally, overly like the idea of having something the AI can use while we can't.

I do, as it would level the playing field. It's the same reason that the AI gets faster resource gathering and building speed in RTS games: Humans can always out-play the AI, so they need to cheat to bring them up to our level.

I don't think that's necessary.  Forlorn Hope makes you lose through overwhelming force instead of cheating.  With the buff to missiles this patch you can be heavily punished for mistakes, which I prefer over AI cheating.

[Megas]

I do not want the AI to cheat like this.  Combat 10 captains emulate a very high level character already (all Combat skills maxed, big fleet, and hullmods cherry-picked from everywhere).

[Plasmatic]

I do not want the AI to cheat like this.  Combat 10 captains emulate a very high level character already (all Combat skills maxed, big fleet, and hullmods cherry-picked from everywhere).

Maybe something to mitigate the difficulty drop once the player gets to the same point is to put in special variants that are made for maxed skills (taking advantage of the extra OP's and such)

Currently the variants are generally pretty crappy late game as they don't change to reflect the skill of the captain do they?

While the player can alter and adapt the fitting on the fly.

[Andy H.K.]

Well, it's not like I can handle a combat 10 NPC myself..... of course if they're spawning everywhere that's bad, but that's more like a design problem if the game turn out to become that.

However, I think overlevel NPC still makes a good "bonus dungeon boss" type of challenge.

Plus, I think this feature would be neat if modders want to add some type of "Emperor" NPC, eg. a lord of a faction.

Also, I have pretty good faith in us players, it's like whatever challenge is thrown at us, some of us can defeat it, however few there is...

[Linnis]

Lets not turn this in to a arcade game.

Lets just make them get more ships is okay...

[Megas]

While I like arcade action, skilled captains as implemented unbalances the difficulty.  Some of them are harder than the rest of their fleet combined, and will slaughter your fleet if you let them.  Often, I find that they are best handled alone, in a flagship vs. flagship duel; and after the enemy flagship is gone, the rest of the battle is usually a foregone conclusion, and the rest your fleet can be set loose to mop up.  Most endgame bounty fleets have a cruiser or capital with all max Combat skills.

It would be nice to have some gigantic fleets that make up for lack of (max Combat) skill with sheer numbers, like old Hegemony defense fleets, but with more ships.

[TJJ]

End game is still a walk-over for a high leveled player though; even 1 ship vs their entire fleet.

I want to see the fleets scale up far higher; perhaps infinitely so, forcing the adoption of unorthodox tactics (or purposefully designing counter-fleets) to be able beat them.

[Andy H.K.]

It's not like we can only buff up a single enemy ship in the whole fleet. Maybe we can have a tech level 20 captain with some weird fleet-wide perks....

[Megas]

Technology fleets with configurations that use extra OP for more flux, hullmods, and better gear would make each individual ship tougher.  Assuming large fleet (emulating Leadership and Technology), flagship should not have max Combat, and the fleet as a whole should be tougher, rather than putting all of the challenge on the killer flagship.  The only possible problem with this is the player can get plenty of rare hardware if he fights many such fleets.

Then there could be bounty fleets with high Combat and Technology.  Few ships, but the ships they have are deadly, not just the flagship only.

So far, endgame bounty fleets emulate high Combat and Leadership, with a faked minor in Technology for hullmods.

[Cyan Leader]

I don't, personally, overly like the idea of having something the AI can use while we can't.

I do.

Most games do this anyway, enemies you face in plenty of games use tools and characters not available to the player, precisely because they aren't as skilled and need some sort of handicap.

That said I don't agree with OP to much, I rather have unique AI hulls (or ship skins) than overleveled captains. Something interesting too would be a difficulty selection at the beginning of the campaign which would dictate the average AI commander level.

[Linnis]

Unique Perks sounds like a cool idea.

Onslaught with no flux cost on weapons.
Onslaught with unlimited shields.
Eagle with constant thrusters active.
Wolf with infinite phase jumps.

stuff like that could be okay.

[nohintofsarcasm]

I don't get this mindset at all. If the AI cheats or gets additional bonuses then it feels like it plays a different game than me. If I play chess against the computer I wouldn't want higher difficulty settings giving it additional pieces.

When I feel I've mastered something I find it much more satisfying to make up rules of my own and see if I still can make it. Like only gaining ships from boarding or only using phase ships or something.