With the Invasion mode active in open space, players in general are now subjected to onslaughts of random Alien invasions in various parts of space. Normally this sounds pretty good… unfortunately, its marred by Pirate spawn times.
An example.
As an Empire player, one heads out into the Imperial Transport Hub to complete a task i.e escorting a transport ship. This area has just been invaded by aliens and seeing as they spawned right nearby around 4000m and closing fast, one turns to engage with confidence that his/her ship is enough to take on the group of 3 Biomorphs. Nearby, a pirate station equipped with missile turrets are already pecking away at yours shields and making a snap decision, turn the ship to engage and destroy these turrets. With the turrets gone, refocus on the biomorphs whom by the way, took out the instant pirate reactionary force that spawned in as a result of those turrets being destroyed, and managed to successfully take the group of biomorphs out. As you being to reap the success of such an endeavor, the turrets respawn seconds later, not even a full minute and worse yet, all the abilites are still recharging. Left with no shield, the already beaten hull takes several missiles before yet again, you destroy them… which results in an instant Pirate reactionary force that spawns in that ultimately kills you…
One could say that its a matter of choosing the battlefield correctly, I would counter that a player doesn’t get to decide where its advantageous to him/her when fighting Biomorphs.
However, thats not the main point I’m trying to get across. The problem of insanely fast respawn times for Pirates in open space is absolutely unfair and results in little to no rewards. Not to mention that they have an incredible aggro range (around 3000m usually) with fellow Pirate squads nearby which makes dogfighting utterly suicidal as too much movement results in 8v1 scenario. And even if one manages to kill all 8, the amount of time that passes battling it out results in another Pirate group spawn.
Please, PLEASE consider reworking the Pirate spawn system and Open Space battles. Have more military police/ treasure hunters/scavengers to act as backup/cannon fodder in more dangerous space areas. It ultimately sucks the joy out of players after succeeding an incredibly hard battle in open space only to be screwed over by another pirate spawn.
I agree with the op. The spawn times are too fast, even if you count the biomorphs out.
Sometimes you kill a transport on the gate and a other 4 group comes to close, they attack you. So you take them out as well.
You can’t even finish pickung up all the loot and the transporter with his 4 support ships spawned again.
Fast respawn times are something nice, because you always have something to shoot at, but atm they’re too fast in my oppinion.
Maybe slow respawn rate of npc and make rewards higher to compensate.
The next step would be, to make loot stealing a crime and give negativ karma, or prevent it as a whole.
My reasons for requesting this: you take out pirat groups, take the beating for it, just so some guy in an interceptor, whom didn’t give a single shot can swoop in and loot al the containers until your slow frigate gets there.
Top damage dealer should have the only loot rights wenn solo.
In a squad, you could make the rewards automatically shared between all pilots.
Spawn times for non-boss units needs to go down, no question.
Part of the problem is a lack of proper design focus. These rapid spawn times wouldn’t be an issue in a team mode because 3-4 pilots of the appropriate tier should be able to lock down and defeat a Pirate squad with time to spare. However, Invasion is a single player mode and has been from the start. Every aspect of it is designed to cater to solo pilots, squads only work some of the time and there are no teams of any kind.
As a solo mode, the spawning is too fast. The fact the AI is also so lazily done is equally frustrating; pirates should give up on people now and then! It’s ridiculous that you can kite a pirate squadron across the entire map and they’ll never get bored and go home!
pirates should give up on people now and then! It’s ridiculous that you can kite a pirate squadron across the entire map and they’ll never get bored and go home!
Another equally frustrating problem with the AI… Especially in my experience when piloting a Interceptor with a Microwrap, one would believe it’d be enough to escape… only to be surprised to see a group of pirates and sometimes even Biomorphs trailing behind you towards the Jump stations…
Playing with a slow frigate is equally, if not more, frustrating when your sensor range for enemy ships is within the threshold of pirates/biomorphs aggro range.
I must agree with that thread. I’m forced to play recon in invasion (I mainly play LRF, but LRF out there is just suicide before the r13 implant…).
So if I want to survive while pilling stuff, I have to hide behind rocks, look for a pnj ally,… I really enjoy that kind of gameplay, but it takes time to kill a group of pirates and when I killed them, 10 seconds later they are back again.
uhu, then why aren’t the mechanics programmed to give the Players the Intention to Play in Groups?
Fact is, if Players are saying, they feel like Invasion is for solo play, then you’re doing something wrong. And most of the time, you only see solo pilots in that mode.
Invasion is a solo mode. There are no teams and squadding is unreliable at best.
Even PvP favours solo play. You are penalised for squadding (longer queue times, if it’ll put you in game at all) but if you’re not a team player the only penalty is ‘maybe your team will lose more often?’.
If you don’t think Invasion is a single player mode, I can only assume you’ve never actually played it.
Yes, players in invasion can play in a small pack to fight for a mission (often with the “Protect the cargo ship”). But without those missions, there’s nothing to say “Play together”.
Even better, on PVP maps, those missions where pilots are in pack create the fear of beeing attack from the back.
I’ve said it many times before, Invasion needs teams. I shouldn’t be afraid of other players in Warden’s Outpost; I should be afraid of a Jericho killsquad who swarm into the Sector to conquer it!
But no teams, no way to hold sectors, no corp mechanics, no permanency and not even a reliable way to get two pilots into the same instance all tell us one thing; this is single player.
