I doubt this is really a bug, but I'll go ahead and complain anyway. :-) Many seriously nifty upgrades in 1.0.5, but now the botting missions are very tedious as several of us are getting bots that are 3-4 systems away.

EX: A (level 5) combat mission from Arta J-12 to find and destroy a Aputech-17 Gaurdian, and the nearest one I could find was in Verasi, 3 systems away. Is this intentional?

I plan to redo that mission before release. Never fear! (And yes, I realized this would be a problem, with more types of bots being crammed into the same space.)

Man do the new bots make me feel like a noob. I was working on the level 5 combat mission before the update and I could kill 10-15 of the bots before I got bored of hunting for them. This time I've been smashed before I could get to 3 kills. These bots are now hard to find and harder to kill! :)

Yes, the "Step-and-Fetch-It" aspect of the combat missions has gotten MUCH
WORSE rather than improving. This is gonna be a major drawback unless it
improves soon. Very frustrating, very tedious, very boring and very NOT FUN.

if the bots are harder to find and harder to kill, maybe lower the number you have to kill to gain big bonus xp?
(kill 3 uberhard bots without dying in a bus! you win xp for .2 of a level!)

I'll add my comments here. Missions have gotten really out of control. Levels 4/3/1/0. Trying to FIND an ApuTech-17 bot is hard enough. Then trying to actually KILL it is next to impossible. The few that exist are always in a cloud of other tougher bots, making it impossible to isolate the target. This is on top of having to fly from one end of nation space to the other with forays into other nations space besides.

This is not fun. It's frustrating. Going from Orun and Dentech collectors in the entry level botting missions to ApuTech-17s in the early levels of the advanced missions is not a smooth or logical transition. I spent a couple of hours trying to get 4 lousy bots and gave up. I would be able to get the 2 Artimus Collectors and even the Aputech-5 Guardian but that bleeding ApuTech-17 Guardian.... ARRRRRRRRRGH!!!

Yeah I can tell this to Ray but it is Waylon who is in charge of addressing this issue. I'm becoming resigned to always being a lvl 4.... sigh.

Might not be as big a problem if there were level 1 large port weapons available in-game. I've looked in multiple stations in Serco, Itani, and NT space. Ray swears they exist, but I can't see them. I've asked others and they are not seeing them either. No point in buying a Warthog if there are no large port weapons available at level 1 heavy weapons.

You could do solo group missions for now. At that level you will only get to demolish krannik collectors, aputech5 guardians and sometimes something else I forgot. They give you about 350-250-250 every 3-5 bots.

Thanks for the idea mr_spuck. I'll give it a try. Can't be any more frustrating that what I've had to deal with on the Advanced combat Missions.

*trophy*