Far from simple (though not rocket science.. or is it?), but it wouldn't be incredibly difficult.

You could edit loadouts.ini so that all your NPC's had real shields, not those non-regenerating heaps. You could also increase their firepower by altering their weapons, adding better guns to their loadouts. While you're at it, you should run through weapon_equip.ini and beef up the hull_damage / Rate of Fire for all the Capitol ship guns, and ESPECIALLY base guns and defense platform turrets. Frankly, they're completely too weak IMO. You shouldn't be able to piddle around a hostile base fearing no consequences from it's defenses, even with measley class 7 shields.

I've been giving this considerable thought, and have come to the same conclusion that multiplayer NPC's are too dern easy.. not because the AI sux, but because they've been intentionally crippled.

Give the Nomad fighters the same gun they (occasionally) drop, then see how easy they are. Most people don't realise that the guns they use are actually much different, having some impressive damage numbers, but only firing once per second. In fact, I also think they should get a pretty healthy armor boost to make up for their lack of shields. Would definetly make Nomad guns a bit more precious, and hopefully keep people with 3 hours on their account from having a full compliment of Mad Cannons.

If no one else does this, I may eventually do an Ace Multiplayer AI mod.. but that would likely be much further down the road unless enough people asked for it.

Edited by - rcohks on 17-03-2003 17:07:15

How would you beef up the AI ?

I have seen the different manouvers that the AI can choose from would you just play with those.

Anyone know where the setting for the different patrols store i have been playing around with the encoounters ini, but see no percievable results?

Has anyone played around with the different zones difficulty ratings?

what I was saying is, the AI isn't that bad as is, but their ships are poorly equipped. Fix the loadouts and even lower level NPC's should be more difficult.

if you replaye the npc shield with the player type shields would this mean that they would also be lootable?

what is the last section of the following equiptment line, all of the shields are the same?

equip = npc_shield03_mark02, HpShield01

i am planning a review of the loadouts for all the ships, i will post it up when complete if that is ok?

Punisher,

Check out st_equip.ini:
[ShieldGenerator
nickname=npc_shield01_mark08
ids_name=263766
ids_info=264766
DA_archetype=equipment\models\st\li_refractor_shield.3db
material_library=equipment\models\li_equip.mat
HP_child=HpConnect
hit_pts=4215
explosion_resistance=0.5
debris_type=debris_normal
parent_impulse=20
child_impulse=80
volume=0
mass=10
regeneration_rate=1
max_capacity=5404
toughness=54
hp_type=hp_fighter_shield_special_8
offline_rebuild_time=12
offline_threshold=0.15
constant_power_draw=0
rebuild_power_draw=10
shield_type=S_Graviton01
shield_collapse_sound=shield_offline
shield_rebuilt_sound=shield_rebuilt
shield_hit_effects=0, gf_rh_shield01
shield_hit_effects=100, gf_rh_shield02
shield_hit_effects=500, gf_rh_shield03
separation_explosion=sever_debris
LODranges=0, 20
lootable=false

This is a typical NPC shield readout. What I did for the difficulty on my mod is set the regeneration rate for each NPC Shield class to about 1/2 the rate of the equivalent player shield.

If you want to make the shields lootable then flip the flag for lootable=false to lootable=true.

Other things I've done:
Increased MINE hangout to 60 seconds. The mine will not seek the owner for the first 50 seconds (it will only go after other ships). After 50 secs it'll go after anyone. I'd love to figure out if there is friend or foe capability built into the mines. I'd like to see mine's ignore people that are grouped.

Decreased the costs of missle ammo GREATLY.
Decreased Shield Battery from repairing 300 units to 150 units
Increased Shield Battery cost from 200 to 400.
Decreased Nanabots from 200 to 100

In your c:\documents and settings\yourname\my documents\My games\Freelancer there should be a preference.ini or performance.ini (durn I forget) but there is a difficulty level setting that you can change to make it higher. I haven't played around with the server however to see if the server reads this value out but the single player does from what I've heard.

-V
The Nets Edge
Freelancer .INI File Parser
Freelancer IDSName Matcher

Edited by - vovin on 17-03-2003 18:27:10