Constrictor Mission

[Gimi]

In all fairness, this is supposed to be one of the first missions a new player takes on. In my view, giving it stronger shields and a faster recharge rate, combined with adjusting the AI so it doesn't run away all the time, allowing for more of a dog-fight, would be perfect.

[Eric Walch]

If people are feeling really strongly about it, I suppose we can beef up the Constrictor... in 1.74 we can add all sort of equipment to it, in order to make it more of a challenge for the player.

Any opinions?

As it is a general feeling that the ship is often too weak, you could add something in the ship script of the constrictor like:

Code: Select all

this.shipSpawned = function ()
{
	if (player.score > 100) this.ship.awardEquipment("EQ_SHIELD_BOOSTER");
	if (player.score > 250) this.ship.awardEquipment("EQ_SHIELD_ENHANCER");
};

This is not matching the player combat strength but the players combat experience. If he than is still using pulse lasers, it is his own fault.
I have no idea at which player scores the strength should rise but I like the idea of conditional strengthen it a bit so that it stays a challenge for more experienced players.

In my view, giving it stronger shields and a faster recharge rate, combined with adjusting the AI so it doesn't run away all the time, allowing for more of a dog-fight, would be perfect.

The constrictor uses the same performAttck like any other ship. Running away only happens when the energy drops below a certain value. Increasing the strength might prevent the ship from running away after the first blast of laser.

EDIT: Just played it once with both equipment added to the constrictor. When hitting it well with my military lasers until they overheat, I still could get his energy down to 20%. It probably means I would have killed in one burst in its normal condition. I still could kill it reasonable well so it would not generate an invincible ship.
In 1.74, NPC ships use their fuel a bit more economical, so it took a bit longer to let him run out of fuel. I don't think you can kill it before as he always will try to escape on low energy and with stronger shields you can't kill it in one go before laser overheat.

[Cody]

Good idea to beef up the Constrictor… it needs to be invulnerable to an energy bomb, as well.
I might have to start a new Commander and do it all again, though.

[Eric Walch]

I was surprised it didn't put up much of a fight though. It fired one missile (destroyed by my ECM) and kept on fleeing when I shot a few rounds at it (military laser)

What you saw was no fleeing but preparing for an attack.

After doing some more fights I also noticed the constant "fleeing" of the Constrictor while he still has plenty of shields. However, on better examination the Constrictor was still in attack mode. Its a bug in the code that only affects ships that have both military lasers and injectors. Probably a high maximum speed also helps.
Part of the fight tactic of ships without aft laser is to fly away at maximum speed until a certain percentage of the current weapon range and than turn around for a new attack.

For the Constrictor this max speed with injectors is quite high and because of the long weapon range of its military lasers it tries to turn around quite late. To late actually, so he runs out of the targets range before the turn is completed.

When lowering this maximum speed the ship makes already a better battle without the "fleeing" in an early phase of the fight. I try to maximise this speed in an optimised way for a future release.

(Looking in the 1.65 code it seems it always has behaved this way )

[Commander Tricky]

I was expecting the Constrictor to be tough so thought I'd soften it up a bit (by running away from it and targeting it with my rear laser) - one sustained burst from the rear laser and he was dead!!!! I thought he was going to be more of a challenge!!

Still, onwards and upwards

[JazHaz]

Its an early mission, so its levelled for someone with a beam laser I believe.

(edit - I might be wrong though )

[Commander Tricky]

Well, it was jolly good fun following the clues to find it

First time I've ever made Dangerous in an Elite game too. I think after another month I'm going to have to uninstall the game because I have no willpower and hence I am doing nothing other than play Oolite (((((.

[Bugbear]

First time I've ever made Dangerous

Right on, Commander!

[Smivs]

...I have no willpower and hence I am doing nothing other than play Oolite...