Terrell

That may work better, as you have more time to design content for new patches.  We've had monthly patches before.  Thanks for informing us of the change.

  For low level players I tend to agree, since the amount of XP to reach the next level,  in any particular type of XP, increases as you increase your level in that type of XP.  I don't see making a L3 since a player wouldn't need them for very long, before they're looking for L4 of that item, especially if it's a weapon, shield, or reactor.  I could see a few starting around L5 give or take, but most of the items would be L7 or higher.  Now it were a low level item, that was a key to entering a sector, like the maelstroms in the original game, I could see it there, since there'd likely remain a use for it for as long as a key was needed for some particular purpose..

I pretty much agree with 1-4, especially for Progen who are supposed to be slow.  I'd need more information for 5+, but I do think your points are valid.

  Yeah, that's essentially the idea.  Even if you can rip some of the ores for a particular comp, in some cases there would be ores that you have to get from an explorer, as well as alloys.   In the case of comps that require new alloys,  they'd mostly be non-vendor comps that are otherwise manufacturable.  If there are vendor comps with alloys required, they wouldn't share alloys with non-vendor comps.   The recipes for said comps could be obtained through missions specific to traders, rather than drops, so you can't farm mobs for them.   A TT, PT, or JT would do a particular mission, and the recipe for the components in question would be given either as a reward, or as part of the mission, where the comp is used in the mission reward.  This would also be a way to introduce more equipment into the game over time.    In some cases, as new drops are added into the game, alloys could be components in making those items.  Again you'd need a miner to provide the alloy, since you couldn't get said alloy from ripping comps.  Those things could be used in new equipment that's fairly nice, but doesn't have to be awesome.   For things that are fairly nice, but not awesome, simply make the new alloys from fairly common ores, and simply have explorers mine the ore, refine it into the alloy, and sell it to the traders.  By using common ores to make the alloys, it doesn't get to the point where getting the alloy is so difficult that the equipment in question isn't worth the effort required to build it for average to good items.  For items intended to be awesome or rare, then the ores to make the alloy needed to make the item, can be less common.   As for new drops, those items that use alloys as components in their construction, could drop like normal items, have their recipes as rewards for missions, or some combination of both.   This new addition of alloys to building, would probably apply for mid to high level items, so that the player's use of it is sufficient to the effort required. 

Hopefully the Agrippa missions will have some future benefit to those who have successfully completed them.  I don't know if that's the case, but they could be used as prerequisites for future missions that are more rewarding, or at some point unlock some other content.

  I pretty much agree with this.  Generally if there's a class that's underused, or unpopular, there's usually a reason for that.  Said reason is often based in some form of: "What benefit does this specific class bring, that I cannot get elsewhere?"

I would say that I play my JE & JT more than any other class.  I like to mine, plenty, so I like looking for fields, mining, and look forward to mining based content.  I do like playing my JT as well, though I mostly play her solo, as I'm more sure of my role in a group with my JE.  I can play those characters effectively, albeit patiently, in solo combat as well.  Of course there are limits, but generally speaking, if it's not part of a raid, and can't see cloaked, I can probably solo it. (It would to be able to knock my shields down faster than I can cloak, or have buddies to help it do so)  I have one awesome beam on each, the made to live, the other slots carry the Pitbull Sr.  The JE gets some activated turbo from an AA he found, the JT has none.  Each has their respective class shield, Cygnus 9, and otherwise mediocre equipment.  JT has 3 of her build skills maxed, and will build in addition to play.  I intend to raise my build skills on my JE as well, for the MCP, and any missions that would use that ability, but most building will be done by my trader characters.   I have 2 other JEs one who will get played although to a lesser degree than my main JE, the other can be storage space.   My Scout, for now, gets used as a device builder more than she gets played, but since she can mine, she'll have her day in the sun.  My PE is little, but in time she'll get played too for the same reasons. (and I do somewhat like the PE)   My JWs will get their time in the sun since I do like Jenquai play style for combat.   My TT will be used for the builds she has, as I'm not really feeling it to play her in the conventional sense.  If she ever sees 150, she'll be in shape to play, but likely be rarely brought out.   My PT will probably be used more than she's played, since she will be able to build Progen reactors when I get around to raising her build quality, and getting her a good recipe list.  I do see her as having some potential for play in a single group hunting scenario.  So far I'm just not that into my PW or TW.  If I raise one, they can be used for farming things, where I don't want to mess up faction on characters I like better.

I can't say for sure, but I suspect that it would require modification of the client, which the devs cannot do.

I think Mordanite was one of them.  There was a RD NPC on Chernevog that had a smuggling run to Paren Station, his goods might have qualified, but not sure since I didn't get caught transporting them. 

If I recall correctly, push missions in the original game could sometimes be local police forces scanning you for contraband, and fining you if they found any.

  I agree with this.  I think a better thing to do, is use refines as more of a positive instead of a negative.    In EnB Origins, there were missions & projects that required specific ores, or specific refining of ores (and in some cases drops like derfresser phlegm).  Use those as a template for new mining missions/projects with new refines.  Over time as equipment is added into the game, have some new components that require new refines.   While in some cases a trader could rip a comp to get the ores to make the new refine, he'd still need an explorer to do the actual refining.  In other cases, the ores would have to be found in game & refined.   There could even be, over time, some items (equipment) that need specific alloys or new alloys, as components in the equipment.

  Almost, only problem is that the TT should be the best healer & the best builder of the 3 traders, since the PT & JT are hybrids, while the TT isn't.   The problem, so far, is how do you make the JT's "other half" more useful, to make up for her lack of hull patch.   I think it can be done, but it's going to be partially a matter of new equipment, new activated buffs/debuffs, and what the JT's L135 skill is.  Same for the PT, and the Scout.  One of the things I thought of for the JT would be the ability to remove debuffs from players, I think that would help, as a line of devices. 

If a JT could patch hulls she might actually be more effective than the TT.  She'd have much more power than the TT to recharge shields & fix hulls.  The only problem for her would be agro from mobs as the result of her healing, since she's not as tough as the other two traders.  How big of a problem that is, would depend on the mobs' ability to see through her cloak, or interrupt it when it was powering up.  The PT, with hull patch, would be a beast compared to the TT.  The same healing ability, tougher, better reactors, & more firepower.

Daath, I pretty much agree as far as playing a JT as a solo character.  I have no problem fighting, solo, with mine.  I see her losing out, when it comes to what she can do in support.  Her reactor abilities are a start, but I'm of the opinion that she needs more to be a good support class (A JE can also play the battery bot role).  I suspect most of that could come through new equipment, especially things that are unique activated buffs for friends or debuffs for enemies.   Dragoncove.  I agree, the PT's missing skill should not be build devices.  I don't know what they should get as such a skill, but it should be unique, a legit combat support skill, and a L7 skill.  It should be something consistent with the role of "fighting trader"   I do think that the Scout & Seeker hurt in part for lack of equipment, as supporters.  I have a JT, she's one of my 2 L150 characters, the other is a JE.   If both the Scout & Seeker got a few nice new buffs or debuffs that were unique though their activated devices, they'd be better classes in support.  If the JT got a new 135 skill that was very useful, and kept Reactor Optimization the same as it was that would work as well.  I don't think that much has to be done in terms of skills to the JT, 1 more, whether it's L7 where Reactor Opt becomes the L135 skill, or a 135 skill where reactor opt stays as is, makes much of a difference.  What would matter, in either case, is "how useful is this skill for a support character?"

If you have a PT, go and count the total skills, including equipment based ones.  In doing so, you'll count 16, for every other class, except the JE and PE, you'll count 17.  I may not have been clear in what I was trying to say, but what I was saying is that the PT has an unused space for a skill.  I'm saying that if you added a L7 exclusive skill to the PT, he'd have the same number of total skills as the TT, TW, TE, PW, JT, and JW without having to remove anything.   I do agree that the PT, due to his firepower, is the class in the best position to help a group, when only looking at the 3 new classes.  The PT's firepower is only surpassed by the JW, TW, and PW (assuming equipment of similar level & quality).  I do think that he should get a unique skill, but I would agree that the JT and Scout need help first, with the JT being in more need of help.   What the TT does, that puts him ahead of the other 2 traders, is that his healing package is nearly complete.  The only heal he's missing is the warriors only skill, Repair Equipment.  The PT and JT aren't the full package w/r/t healing, so they need to get things from their "other half", explorer in the case of the JT, that make them useful in ways other than as healers.  The PT does this with firepower, the JT has battery help, but the JE can do that too, and can do other things.   I always thought that the JE's compulsory contemplation skill was less than impressive.  The JE's ability to JS others, along with his ability to drain shields from enemies and transfer it to the reactors of his group mates, in addition devices the ability to transfer reactor energy to other group members, and the Chimaera and Coma devices, to weaken enemies to plasma, and their scan range, made the JE a good group member.  It seems to me, that in this version of EnB that the Coma isn't as powerful as it was in the original game, but it does have a good use while mining.  I find that if a mob wanders over towards me, while I'm mining, I can coma him & teleport him away.  Seems like he then tends to leave, rather than try and close to see (shoot) what blinded him & teleported him away.

Each class got 17 skills, if you also count equipment in the original game except the PE & JE.  They got a L135 skill as their 18th skill.   So yeah, I do think that all 9 classes should get a L135 skill that's unique, and like the PE & JE's skills require you to remain affiliated with your starting faction.  The PT; however, is currently short one skill, even when compared to the original 6 classes, not counting the L135 skills that the JE & PE got.   In the EnB Origins, if your faction with your class got too low, you got booted out of your faction.  This likely also meant major adjustments to your standing with various factions, since each affiliation has a set of faction modifiers unique to it.  The faction modifiers apply in the emulator, but as far as I know, you currently cannot be kicked out of your home faction, unlike EnB Origins.  In EnB Origins, if you were a PE or JE, after the addition of their Affiliation skills, there was a mission you could do called "atonement" to get your affiliation back.  If you lacked Sha'ha'dem or Sabine affiliation, you couldn't get the Compulsory Contemplation, and Call Forward skills, respectively.  I think that should apply to L135 skills for the other 7 classes, if they're implemented.   If Reactor Opt were to become the JT's L135 skill, it should be as good as it was maxed, and the skill the JT gets to replace the L7 version of Reactor Opt should be a L7 unique skill, and should be a skill that's better than reactor optimization.  If it's not going to be a legit group/raid skill, that's better than Reactor Optimization, there's no point in doing it.

I pretty much agree on that Dragoncove.  If we were going to give the JT a new skill, the way to do it is probably by changing the Reactor Opt skill to the JT's L135 skill, have and give it the same effect as if you'd maxed it under the old skill system.*  That would free up a skill slot for the JT, take care of what her L135 skill would be.  New device buffs that she could use, that were unique to her class, while the PT & Scout get similar love in the equipment department would help.  If the JT needs more beyond that, she could always trade build engines for another skill, though there would be no Jenquai engine building class.  Not sure what to do to make the PE more popular.  My PE, Toria, is almost a red-headed stepchild of a character.  I don't think I've played her since around last Christmas.   On drones, I could agree to that as an idea depending on the specifics.  Putting it as a subset of the build devices skill, would mean plenty of people could build them.  Everyone except the TW, PW, and PT could then build them.  I'd expect that like other equipment there would be race/class restrictions on them.  If some drone recipes are obtainable only through missions, building of specific drones, could be restricted to specific classes.  I think if they were to be implemented, we'd have to be careful in doing so and restrict what drones can do, as to not make any class lose it's usefulness.   Edit: * forgot to give Kenu credit for mentioning Reactor Opt as the L135 skill.  He's the first person, I'm aware of, to have that as an idea.

Hmm, 3 improvements:   #1.  More ways to level up explore for non-exploration professions.  The explorer classes would be able to do these things too, for the most part, but explorers would remain the only profession capable of mining.   This will come at least in part, as the storyline progresses and more sectors/systems are added to the game.  An increase in the amount of explore XP awarded for the successful analysis of components or other equipment.  A few turn ins, in various locations, that give explore XP only.  The NPCs that accept said turn ins, would do a check against your explore level, before accepting the turn in, and if your EL is too low, relative to the turn in, the NPC would tell you to come back when your EL is higher.  This is so a player with a high level character, can't farm the L9 turn in drops, for their low level characters.    The Jenquai could accept them at Jove's Fury, Prasad Station, and Yasuragi.  They'd be mixed into the various mobs' loot tables appropriate to mob's level.  Removing the credit reward for explore jobs, in favor of more XP would work too.   #2.  More variety of endgame weapons, for all race/profession combinations.  These weapons would be alternatives to "entry level" L8 & L9 weapons.  These weapons would be nice enough that traders would seek the prints, and common enough to be mass produced.  They would not be so nice, as to remove demand for the really awesome weapons.  Their stats in terms of damage, energy use, range, etc. would be in the neighborhood of the Pitbulls, Archos, and Zets.  They would have buffs commonly available to the race that would normally use them.   Some would be race restricted, profession restricted, or both.  Some of the L8 versions would be usable by all with the appropriate weapon skill.   #3.  More things that are specifically profession or race tailored, in the forms of missions or projects, with nice rewards for doing so.  Mining missions/projects comparable to the MCP & the Lyle missions in E&B Origins for the explorers, missions comparable to the Zach mission from E&B Origins for traders and something for the warriors.  Rewards for such projects, missions would be comparable to the effort required, but could take one or more of the following forms.    Experience (Trade, Explore, Combat, or some combination of those) Faction Equipment given (player is given a piece of equipment, like Zeke's Solar Sail in EnB Origins.) Access to vendors you don't start with access to (missions in Ishaun & Charon Cloister do this) Recipes for equipment (Zach gave this as a reward, MCP did to for some items) Passes to a vendor for equipment (Heal the Maelstrom missions from E&B Origins would be an example, as would MCP)   In some cases, the missions, projects may be restricted to specific race, profession, or both.  This would result in some recipes that you'd have to go to specific races, professions or both for.   A potential example would be a mission that rewards a device print, but only a Terran Scout could take it.  The resulting device, would be something that if you wanted a you'd have to get a Scout to sell it for you.  (This would mean that each profession would ultimately have a few nice prints that only they could make.  The traders would go first, the explorers next, and the warriors last.)

  That's a good point.  I think we'd get a more accurate reflection of where the community, as a whole stands, if either the devs or the Player Advocate, would discuss this in game on the General Channel, multiple times over the course of a week or two.  This could apply to many more issues and not just the Paramis nebula effect.

This thread did inspire me to wonder, will we get to see this effect in future sectors such as Sho'da'kan Nebula or Eidenmist Nebula?  If so then the "flavor" aspect of the nebula can be elsewhere.  Eidenmist is mentioned in the maps in game resources, Sho'da'kan has a gate in Paramis.  Curiously I wonder if Sho'da'kan is within the confines of the Smuggler's Run system.

  Yeah, the only thing was finding Santa, which wasn't too hard once we figured out the places he could appear, and remembering to run away quickly after receiving your gift.  I did have one character fail the mission, my TW, Toren, said or did something wrong at F7 and didn't get the milk.  I liked those missions and look forward to them.    I can't remember if it was ST3 or ST4 but there was one Christmas where some people decided to kill Old Nick.  Wish I'd taken screenshots.

  Good point, the Christmas missions were fairly easy, and awarded 3 skill points upon completion.  IIRC the minimum level required was L10 to do said Christmas mission.

 I don't think that will happen, if they raise it to 2 it cuts in half the amount of overdings you need between L150 & maxed everything.  Instead I think we'll have to level them up in the original way, and look for the occasional mission like the Christmas mission that awarded 3 skill points as a gift.    At some time in the future, it wouldn't surprise me, if some missions were (rarely) added that upon completion gave you enough XP in one type to get you to the next ding or overding.  In the late part of EnB Origins there were some missions that did this.   I agree that in some situations for Jenquai and sometimes for the other 2 explorers, non-race weapons may be beneficial.   For a JE, JW, or JT in a formation with either Terrans or Progen they are at least situationally of some use.   This is the case where you're not the formation leader, and the leader doesn't want to get within 50% of beam range, where you can do maximum damage (leader wants to use kiting as a strategy).  Some of the Scout's skills such as Null Factor & Afterburn require you to be in formation to receive benefits from it (if you're not the Scout).  I noticed something about formation bonuses as well, though I'm not sure exactly what bonuses apply. 

Sounds like a good place idea.  What buffs you put on the weapons will matter though in their use, supporting buffs on other equipment, and having the weapons tailored to the race most likely to use them, if the main race that would use that type of weapon cannot.

I don't know if it's possible either, but if it is, it sounds like a nice idea.  It sounds like a competitive version of a mining raid,  it would work with the existing classes without need of gear or balance changes that wouldn't be applied game wide.  I'd want to see the non-competitive version of the mining raid introduced first, then the competitive version.     For the competitive version to work the way I think it should work, the server needs to be able to recognize teams of 2-3 groups, and handle up to 6 or 7 groups without issues.  I don't know if that can be done.  I'd have the teams appear on opposite sides of the sector and put a gate that only the victorious team could use to face the final boss.   If those obstacles could be overcome and made to work then I'd have there be minor differences between non-competitive mining raids & competitive ones.  In the non-competitive one, facing the final boss would be no different from the mining raids I talked about in the past.  In the competitive one, the competition is for the right to face the final boss with your team.  Both sides would be able to keep whatever items mined or looted before the winning team was decided.  The team that wins gets a key to another sector, where they gate there, after they gate they have 2-5 minutes to get ready, then the boss and his minions spawn.       The boss & his minions would be a little more generous in his drops, than the boss & his minions in the non-competitive version.   They would drop the same items overall, but the minions would drop 1 more useful item each, and the final boss would drop 2-4 more useful items as compared to.  In the lead up to determine who wins, the mobs would drop slightly more generous loot & the 'roids would have slightly more numerous ores.  Not a lot, just enough to notice the difference.  Again you'd have to complete multiple successful competitive mining raids, to get every possible drop offered.   I think it may work best if we add a system for these types of things.  Pick an IRL star that's not used in the game, Barnard's Star would be a probability, IRL it's a red dwarf star a little under 6 LY from Sol.   Some other non-storyline related star would work too, even if it's fictional.   There could be 4 sectors the sector you enter would have a starbase near the gate you entered through.  In the middle of the sector you'd have new mobs & drops along with mining comparable to Antares in difficulty & resources.  On the far end of the sector would be 3 gates.   The gate for the non-competitive version would be in the middle.  50K away on each side of the gate to the non-competitive raid would be the gates to enter the competitive version, one for each team.   The gates would need a key of some sort to access, the sector should be locked when in use, until the raid is successful or fails.  The competitive & non-competitive version could be run at the same time, if the server can handle it, but two of the same type would not.