7dragoon

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Hi, I have played miners since Live, as my mains.  My Current main is a L92 Progen Sentinel, who I was finishing up his EL /TL with a mining run in the L7 - 9 Gas fields of Glenn.  Imagine my surprise, when I jumped into the gas field yesterday to find myself a smoking hulk from 2 l47 manes.  I spoke with a Dev, who was very courteous, and told me that it is a temporary measure against botting.  Unfortunately, that means this field is now off limits to me, a non-botting toon.  Several people made suggestions of where I could mine, but I have found Mobs there that my CL 16 toon just cannot handle.    The message seems pretty clear, at this point.  "You must push your PS to CL50, if you want to mine for EL/TL".  That is 1st, just backwards of how I want to advance my toon, I want to max EL / TL for max shield / reactor before starting to push CL.  2nd, I like to mine... I dont want to run jobs, I dont want to run tours.  I also notice that most of the people that I suspect of Botting (there all the time, dont talk or reply to tells, will warp to a gas pocket I am mining, etc) apear to be l150 toons.  So, if they haven't already, they can just incorporate a script that says "if attacked, Vaporize mob, resume mining".  So, what we have accomplished is denying the mining to all who are not botting l150 toons.    I believe we need better solutions!  In my conversation with the dev, he pointed out the following things: (a) This is an attempt to fix a problem. (b) the devs / gm's cant police the fields 24/7, and if they police them when they are on, that leaves them less time to do other things for Deserving players. (c) this is a low priority for the admins, because they are trying to fix other things for us, the player base.   My answer is that WE need to not only identify the problem (botting), but WE need to offer the devs a solution that WE are comfy with. (I learned a long time ago that pointing out the problem = whining, unless an idea of how to make it better is attached)   I'm sure there are folk with more experience than me, who will come up with better Ideas, and I hope we can discuss this and arrive at a good & beneficial solution.  So far I have come up with 2 answers, 1 of which I do not think will be popular with the player base, or the GM's, and the other that I think many (including myself) will not really be comfy with.   Option A:  Let the botters bot.  I dont make a living off mining. I save things of use, gve them to guildies if they need them, and vendor the rest.  These people dont bother ME, and my goals with mining. As a matter of fact, in huge fields, they can get me a "field clear' bonus where i could never clear before respawn alone.  Dont think anyone else will like that solution, but if they want their PC to play the game, I hope the PC enjoys it. Option B: Self Policing.  Set up a program where, if you see someone mining and they appear to be botting, you send in a ticket that says, where, when, who, and what attempts were made to contact them.  When a GM logs in, and sees that 12 people all think "joeblow" is botting, then the GM can check on that toon, and if HE determines them to  be in a field, mining, and not responsive to tells (that is the important thing to me, to make sure the toon IS doing something, and no human at the controls), he can then issue a temp ban if he deems it appropriate.  This is NOT player enforcement, with all the potential for griefing that offers, but rather Players IDing "suspected" botters to make the GM's job easier (hopefully).   So, I hope someone has a better answer than me, and brings it forth in a reply.    Sevin Dragoon, Signing off  

Unless a more reasonable method (as in time / energy / credits spent) comes up, I think leaving the system where if someone wants to build 2K L1 beams to raise their weap build is fine..  I'd rather have it where each time I built anything, it made some difference.  I think if I craft a L5 PL, it should significantly affect my chance to build a L2 (ok, significant in terms of this games mechanics could be 1%, maybe 1.5-2% at most).  But something we have all butted our heads aginst since live is "How the &%%^* do I get better builds?" . Rather than call this an "exploit", I hear angels singing at the prospect of being able to spend 5-6 hours of time, and tens of milions of creds, just KNOWING that it will make some difference. Also, I get a regular message to "Not use exploits" in game, if you decide this is an exploit, please let us know before we get caught doing something that is public knowledge, and started with a dev comment that # of builds was in fact, a means to increase build %.     'nuff said    Sevin dragoon   (btw, you guys are doing a fantastic job, and we know it.. We just want More fantastic from you)

Sevindragoon fna Sevindragoon of KoWW on galileo, aka: Sevin, Dragoon, Artemusgordon, Jimwest, Drloveless, Searchnrescuetwo, Sevinhunterjd.   I used to run around with an Aussie from Canada (yea, I know), named Towtruck. Played a PS as my main. Anybody knows or see's Towtruck, tell him to give me a shout ingame under one of the Above names.

 Just another boring day at joves... Support crewman 2nd Class Jahkin sat in his quarters, reading a Jenquai gentlemans magazine, when the Intercom sqawked. "Jahkin, what are you doing"? Came support leader Ahhmmadd's voice from the box on his desk. "How does he know" wondered Jahkin... "Ahh.. Nothing sir". "Well then, get loaded up and ready to head out, we've got a new crew of Defenders coming out". Finally, some action! He headed down to the Support/Search & Rescue bay. Surveying the hold, he quickly got rid of the Sculptors left from the last explorer mission, and loaded a pallet of Roadrunner +'s, 10 new lasers, 5 Azure scale shields,a box of Aquila's and a batch of 200% reactors into the hold. Then, using his security ID, he loaded a Crate containing 5 new prototype engines aboard. When he was done, there was barely room to make his way forward to the cockpit for preflight prep. "Joves Fury, this is StarterJS, ready for departure". "Good luck, Starter1.. Don't lose anyone today". Starter1 is cleared for departure to Europa gate". Slowly, he eased the huge orange and white vessel out from the station, The Logo on it's side "Saving 1 life at a time" was visible to the tourists gawking out the station windows. Members of other guilds gnashed their teeth and shook their fists at the sight. Engaging Warp, he soon left the station behind. As he came out of warp, he saw the gate to Europa start to swirl and flash. 1,2,3,4,5 gleaming new J'nai class Defender ships.. Paint still gleaming.. traces of smoke from new component's burning off. One at a time, they docked, and he transferred their new equipment over. Then, he took them on a quick tour of Jupiter so they could get familiar with their new equipment, and raise their explore rating to the point that they could put at least the new lasers and reactors in. They went back through the gate.. And the most tedious part of his job began. He hoped all 5 would come back from their initial training, but he knew that with that equipment, they stood a much better chance. To be continued......              "You awake over there, starter"? Jahkin looked out the window to see all 5 of the Defenders arrayed of his bow. They all looked ok, except the paint was burned off 1/4 of Whoomee's hull, and he could see where hasty repairs had been made. He'd have to keep a close eye on that one... He set up formation orders, and they all formed up. He started with a tour of the entire Sol system, stopping occasionally in known areas to allow them to practice combat. They learned more quickly, as they could learn from each other's successes and mistakes. Soon, all he needed to do was keep their reactors optimized, and bring the occasional sheild up to snuff. Only once, when a Bio hunter ambushed them, and Whoomee fired upon him instead of running as set out in the mission brief, did he have to bring the great ship out of cloak and add his lasers to the weight of theirs. He thought for a minute that he'd be calling for Search & Rescue for all of them, but with some frantic shield repair, they managed to survive... But if there had been 2 bio hunters.. At that point he was glad for the fully upgraded systems on his vessel. With no need to build anything, he had all combat systems fully upgraded. Even the scanners were upgraded to the point that he could feed information, including cloaked objects, directly to their less capable scanners. For their part, they were intrigued with the possibilities that firing from cloak offered. As their holds filled with loot, he docked with them and took it into his own larger hold. They got experience in trading from this, and when they reached stations they distributed items needed for guild analysis into vaults, and he sold the rest, using his superior negotiation skills to maximize their profits. (The explorers were kings of this process... They mined ores, and stacked them in his vault for trade, then when they reached the station he gave it back to them and they refined it into materiel needed by guild builders and traded it back for more trade). As items needed upgrading, they docked at stations with Guild builders at them, and carefully revaulted their starter pieces for the next batch of trainees. In no time at all, he was bringing them all to Paren Shipyards for their level 30 hull upgrades. [So, you get the concept, I'm sure... Maximize Combat, Explore, and Trade on new toons by grouping them with a support vessel. As he helps them level more quickly, they add to his capacilities. And we get a crop of new toons in record time.] Ensign Dragoon, signing off  

Down again @ 1139 EST... Saw the message that problem was hopefully fixed.. Hang in there, gang!

L1-2 Executioners Finger / Hand w/ one PL-X7 for the Lazarus type Buffs. L3 Switch over to the Bayonet for Plasma Ammo to replace the PL-X7 and I'm still searching for best choice for the other 2 slots