This is probably an invalid complaint but it is something I need to say. I read everywhere and have been told alot that as I became higher ranking I would get more Uncommon / Rare opponents in my NPC tabs. I have found this to be completly untrue.

It seems now that the overwhelming majority of my NPC opponents are Flamehawks and Stryll Assassins. The volume of energy it takes to kill them has made NPC hunting less profitable and frankly less FUN than it used to be.

I hate that, as excited as I was to attain higher rank, that the game is becoming less and less fun. Is more of this to come as I progress even farther? Or is it possible that for some reason RNG for me is offset somehow or maybe am I just completly unlucky? Who knows. Thanks for your time.

you get a wider variety of POSSIBLE elites

the flamehawks and assassins are meant to bog you down so you can't autorank

you still need to kill many , many npc's to find good elites

Understood, that seems to be a bit off to me though. Since the "pool" of uncommon / rare NCP's has grown does that mean the chances of getting say a "Blade Harvester" has deminished? I figured that since the number of possible Uncommon / Rare opponents increases the rate at which I run into them would increase. But I have noticed no such difference.

I don't understand trying to bog people down either. Doesn't research and planet production do that automatically? Honestly, I NPC hunt for the Artifacts and the more the game deminishes this aspect to "slow people down" the more it hurts gameplay for others.

I like running into Rank 400 players with Anti-Proton cannons. More cannon fodder for you big guys. LOL

EDIT: Thank you for the response though. I will stop whining now

It'll happen more after you level up; Flamehawks are the last real obstacle that appear that will slow you down, but once you get to the point that they're not too difficult then you'll be set.

unlike most games its not a good thing to be a high rank in this game in any area... well, maybe for missions... but not really. At high ranks pvp is less fun and npcing is less fun. which, youd think dan would fix, but it dosnt seem high on his list of priorities...

and yeah. specific institutions in the game were implemented a while back for the sole reason of draining energy and making players waste more energy than they used to use. flamehawks, rogue ct carriers, and stryll assassins are all members of this institution. they were introduced in great quantity, and absolutely killed npcing... it really sucks. but... we will persevere. no matter what new content dan trys to hinder us with.

Who ever said NPCing is less fun at high ranks? Tell that to Pheonix.

Still, Assassins, Rogue Tech Collectors are still a #$&*@ for us low ranks, and we also get Dark Warpers to deal with... You think you clear them and you have Rogue Data Analysers to kill, which when they first start appearing are a pain in the ass.

Nor do we have the firepower nor energy to do any form of autoranking.

From a personal viewpoint, for me, in my 100s, it's extremely hard to kill more than 10-12 NPCs/day. At high ranks you have far more energy, more firepower and it's not like us low ranks can duck beneath Assassins anymore. We want Troop Carriers too.

So, while I have no experience of Flame Hawks, I would say to you guys to consider yourselves lucky.

Well, Strm, you DO have a relativly small energy pool to work with. At rank 212, I can get through around 100+ NPC's a day, more if I rank up, or get a Shockpulse Charger.

flamehawks are pretty much the equivalent of a high rank dark warper... so we feel your pain.

sigh... the good ol' days back before flamehawks, assassins, and ct collectors.... we had to walk uphill both ways throught 12 miles of snow to fight them, but it was worth it.

True. I can at most have 1.1k energy, with which I kill a fair few more than what I posted.