Pilot Archive

If you make PC ships anywhere near as hard to kill as NPC ships, there's no way anyone will ever kill the really good pilots. It simply won't happen. Once you get to a certain skill plateau, you just don't get hit that often: so like Eaca said, reduce PVP damage too far, and fights between two skilled pilots won't really ever end, because I can't land 8-15 shots on an A-Wing with a good pilot before she's restored her shields. And I've been in entire battles where I've only been hit once or twice--and I'm not talking one on one, I'm talking 20 on 30--so she's not going to ever be able to dust me, either. On the other hand, NPC ships ARE super easy to destroy even though they can take five or ten times the punishment of a PC ship. Drop them to three-shot kills and I expect things will start to feel pretty ludicrous. Like picking on a couple of kreetles.

So if making the rules the same between PVP or PVE would destroy one of them, why must they be clones of each other? There's a world of difference between AI and human intelligence. It's almost a necessity that they have different systems for combat. If you can think of a way for them to share the same system, well kick ass, but right now I don't think either would do very well under the rules of the other.


As to your side note, though, I agree completely. Multiplayer ships are too big and bulky to avoid getting hit, and the fact they can currently only take one or two hits more than a heavy fighter is very disappointing, both for their crews and the pilots hoping for a challenge in taking them out.