Apocrypha - Sleeper AI (CSM)

Stats

Raised by: Ankhesentapemkah
Submission Date: 14-03-2009
Issue ID: To be indexed

Summary

The sleepers appear to be positively received by most players, nevertheless there are a few concerns:

• Sleepers being too eager to destroy drones
• Sleepers 'cheating' too much
• Neuting effect of sleepers favouring passive tanked, cap independent ships
• No effective way of dealing with a large group of battleships

Sleepers and Drones

Drone users are complaining that their sole means of DPS is negated by the sleepers quickly disposing of the player's drones. A contributing factor is the Sleepers ability to lock targets very fast, thus drones being fired upon almost instantly after deployment.

Sleeper Cheating

A large factor in the Sleepers being considered challenging comes from them cheating, instead of them actually behaving in an intelligent fashion. Sleepers currently cheat in the following ways:

• Fast lock
• Extreme ranges of their webs, scrams and other EWar
• Neuting ability on their weapons
• Extreme damage output

Cap independant ships

Due to the neutralizing effect of the sleeper weaponry, cap independant, passively tanked ships hold a massive advantage in lower class wormholes, especially in smaller gangs / solo play. There are fears that passive nighthawks are once again the optimal strategy.

Large BS Groups

It's not uncommon for large amounts of sleepers to spawn, and if multiple battleships are present, then they can easily kill most ships in a few volleys. It is quite possible for a small (Less than 10) fleet to engage and kill groups of Sleeper Battleships equal or slightly greater in numbers. Large buffer tanks, combined with capacitor injectors along with remote repairing modules, make it much more survivable. For damage, sniper setups involving tracking computers, sensor boosters and long range T2 ammo make the agro much more manageable. It has been noted that Marauders and faction battleships, along with faction tanking modules, further decrease the difficulty. (Examples include the Kronos, Golem, Megathron Navy Issue, Caldari Navy Raven) Target Painters have also been noted to be especially effective against the Sleeper frigates and cruisers.