rhobix

I keep a drop list on google drive open to the public. Feel free to use and contribute as you see fit. Just try not to mess up what's already there. It's nowhere near complete, but it may still be of some use. More info in this thread: https://forum.enb-emulator.com/index.php?/topic/8174-is-there-an-item-drop-list/

After leaving the starter sector at level 10, I did the next 50 levels or so almost exclusively mining and touring. Mining low level hulk field clear jobs was a great way to boost trade levels back then, since the debris quickly stacked up to a lot of trade levels. Unfortunately I think they cut those jobs out. If you play during non-peak hour, it may still be worth it to visit known hulk fields at lower levels for a bit of a trade XP boost once every play session.

The trouble I see with a currency this valuable is the risk of trading in real world currency, which is something I think is wrong in a game, but that's just me...

I'd say solve that by making the missions lengthy. A transfer of skill points should cost you time and credits, say 25% of the average time of active gameplay required for one overlevel and a few million credits.   If someone wants to run these missions 24/7 and transfer 20 skill points per day, I say let them...   I'm not a fan of risking loosing a skill point. If it is possible, it should be a very rare not to affect the transfer cost.   Also, put the most lengthy mission on the receiving character. It should be easy to give up a spell point, but hard to recieve them.   I also think transfer of spell points should be limited to characters on the same account, or bound to the same forum account, to stop these tokens from being used as currency. I don't know if it's possible, but one way could be to only allow transfer using the account vault function.

  If I were to design this, I would use two different weapons. I would have one with activated turbo 11% for 30 s (I believe the 11% has not yet been used, so it should stack with all existing activated turbo buffs), normal DPS for a weapon of its level and good buffs for the other weapon types. The other weapon would have nice buffs for its type and 30% more DPS than other weapons similar weapons. This would enable you to switch just one weapon for a few good buffs for your primary weapons and not much loss in DPS (11% dps increase is about what a TW/JD needs to make up for the lost dps in downgrading one weapon.) If you want to switch weapon types for tactical reasons, the second weapon type would let you do that and only loose about 25% damage, compared to 50%+ using currently available weapons. I think you should have to give up something for not using primary weapons, but a 50%+ cut in dps as it is now may be a bit much.

I do most of my leveling on my own, and I have no trouble leveling. When it comes to combat, I usually four tricks to get the upper hand on the mobs: Keep my TL and EL high enough to have at least +1 shield level compared to a level-balanced character of the same CL. I use Solar Sail engines for low signature. I don't hunt the highest level mobs I can take out for leveling. I settle for about equal CL mobs when solo and about +4 CL mobs when dual-boxing.  I use player made equipment.   From there it's race/class specific tactics to get the mobs down. Combat cloak for Jenquais, kiting for terrans and tanking for progen.   My terrans is about your CL, assuming your signature is up to date. I wouldn't mind teaming up for an hour of hunting a few times a week. I have kind of a tight schedule with family and such, so I can usually only play 8 pm to 10 pm CET on weekdays. That would be 2 pm to 4 pm EST or noon to 2pm PST unless I'm mistaken.

  Well, then the mission requirement code would have to be updated. Just updating it to return the first condition not met and just adding it to the "Sorry, I don't have work for you, check back later" response would be an improvement. It would still be a lot of work to update the chat trees, but it wouldn't be as complicated. Just copy the updated "Sorry, I don't have work for you, check back later" response to all occurances. Then again, maybe dynamic text like that isn't supported in the chat trees.

I usually make a speadsheet in excel whenever I have a lot of stuff to build, like when I've leveled device tech. I start by breaking the items I want to build down into components and summarize. I then break the manufacturable components into refined ores and summarize. The ability to do a shopping list like this on the portal would save some time.

  I believe it's the small icon pointed to by the red arrow in the attached picture.

I agree with Kenu. The 3d art look good, but the 2d art need some work. I dont know why you just dont recolor the original 2d art independantly of the 3d art, but i guess it's a limitation of the old engine.

I'll join in about six months or so when I'm of an appropriate level.

I have a somewhat different view on the matter. When you don't have enough people to bring a JE to a raid, another class should be able to help out to some extent with what usually falls on the JE. Maybe the stats needs to be tuned down to still give the JE the edge, but there are precedents, like the Martyr's Heart.  

  Well, the Antlia does much the same job. My intention with the device was to make a Phoenix-like device usable by all explorers, since the Phoenixes are JE only. Draining shields instead of reactor was to keep the Phoenix as the top of the line energy booster.The Antlia is also JE only, so it's no use to other explorers.

  Just when I had come up with a few class specific items to introduce new buffs to the game. Well, I'll just post them anyway.   I have three new item suggestions. Level 7 versions shown as reference. Scapegoat 7 Warrior Only. Transfer Threat (Instant)        -   Transfers 28% of targets threat to player Reduce Ammo Cost (Equip)         -   34% chance of not consuming ammo when firing   Silvertongue 7 Trader Only. Transfer Shield Energy (Instant) -   Transfers 34% of players total shield energy to target Reduce Threat (Equip)            -   Reduce threat generated by 24%   Emergency First Response L7 Explorer Only. Convert Shield Energy (Instant)  -   Drains 7927 shield energy from player and transfers 615.0 units of reactor energy to target when activated. Reduce Jumpstart Cost (Equip)    -   65% less energy used to engage jumpstart when equipped

  Were they that rare in EA Live? I had one on my JD back then, and I don't remember taking him to that many FB's...

I just had an idea. How about another base raid, this time mission activated. It could be played two ways, each with it's own mission. One mission would be an intelligence mission where you would gather intelligence and possibly sabotage a station to perpare for a hostile takeover. The final step of the mission would trigger the attack and you'd have to help take out the stations defences for the hostile take-over (and raid) to be successful. The other mission would be a counter-intelligence mission for the station, leading up to the discovery of an imminent attack on the station. The final step of the mission would trigger the raid, which would be an attack on the station where you'd have to defend the station from the attackers.  With a bit of coding it might be possible to set this up dynamically, to trigger more and harder mobs with better loot if the mobs are finished faster, making it suitable for anywhere from one to three full groups. If you wanted a bit of competition, you could even combine the two and have players fight for both sides. A special boss mob could spawn at the end of the raid for the side that kills the most mobs.  

I had an idea for a twist on an XP boost item. How about an item that when activated on a mob has a chance of replacing one item dropped with an item that yealds less credits but more XP than the replaced item? Chance would increase with item level and quality.   It may be hard to code, but I think it would be cool.

I live in europe too, and I have no problem with moving the patch time. I think a weekend lunch break is better than shortening a weekday evening, which it has been for me when I have had time to play on patch day..

I like this suggestion. I'd like to add to it. First off, I think the prospectables should start at a lower level and go up one level with each wave. For a raid with 4 waves for instance, it could be set up like this: Wave 1: L6-7 Non-hulks Wave 2: L7-8 Non-hulks Wave 3: L8-9 Non-hulks Wave 4: L9 Hulks This would increase the number of ore types to prospect, increasing demand for traders to haul it back to port. The asteroids should also be a bit richer in ore than normal fields, perhaps by a factor of 2 or 3, to make the ammount of ore gained somewhat useful. I also think mobs should spawn in packs, not whole waves, triggered by prospecting, to add another element to the prospecting, timing. If the explorers go all out on prospecting, the warriors would be swamped by mobs. On the other hand, if they're to careful, the timer will run out and the raid will be over. The timer should start when the first mob of each wave spawns. When the last mob of each wave is down, if the timer hasn't run out, the next wave of roids should spawn, and the timer should stop, to get a rest period for rebuffing, looting and trading to free up inventory for prospecting. It could even be one timer, so you get more time on the last wave if you finish the first waves faster. Controlling spawns by prospecting and making one continuous timer for all waves would also allow for smaller guilds/groups to do the raid. Basically, you get more waves the faster you are but as long as you can prospect the ore and kill the mobs, you can get something out of it, no matter how few or poorly geared you are.

I thought only the String of Heart line of shields had the heart ship graphic effect...

I think that the level times over all are ok. What I would like to see however is a better balance between xp types. I have the following opinion: Warrior Class,   Combat XP: Easy. Grinding solo or in a group I usually have the levels required before I have gotten the loot drops I want to analyze.              ,    Trade XP: Hard. Painfully slow to get. Trade runs seems futile with the limited cargo space and no negotiate. Jobs are very slow.              ,  Explore XP: Ok. Touring, leaching XP while mining and odd jobs seems sufficient, though not precisely easy to get.  Explorer Class,  Combat XP: Ok. I usually group up with a warrior class for combat (my own usually).               ,   Trade XP: Ok. XP from trading and refining ore supplemented with a few jobs and missions seems to keep my TL at a reasonable level.               , Explore XP: Easy. Mining, touring and odd jobs and missions makes Explore XP very easy to come by. Trader Class,    Combat XP: Ok. I usually group up with a warrior class for combat (my own usually).               ,   Trade XP: Ok. XP from trade runs, and missions seems to keep my TL up with out too much effort.              ,  Explore XP: Ok. Touring, leaching XP while mining and odd jobs seems sufficient, though not precisely easy to get.  In conclusion, except for trade XP for warriors, I think it's ok. We don't need to reduce the XP need to level. More ways to gain XP are always good though. If it were up to me, I would start with a better source for Trade XP accessable for warriors (or all classes). I would then move on to additional sources of explore XP and last combat XP.

I like the idea, but I would suggest making this mission based. It could work something like this: A mission NPC give one of several mission from a pool of missions on a rotating (or random) schedule. The missions would change say every 42 hours making 4 contests per week suitable for differen time zones. The missions would expire after something like 24 hours to prevent players from "saving" missions between contests. To make it simple, the missions in the pool could all have the same steps, but require different ores to be mined. The steps could look something like this: 1. Welcome to the Intergalactic Mining Championship! Today you will be required to mine [Ore 1], [Ore 2] and [Ore 3]. Please leave the station to start the competition. (Mission progresses upon leaving the station). 2. Mine 25 [Ore 1]. (Mission keeps track of number of ores mined) 3. Mine 25 [Ore 2]. (Mission keeps track of number of ores mined) 4. Mine 25 [Ore 3]. (Mission keeps track of number of ores mined) 5. Return to [mission NPC] to collect your reward. The rewards would be dynamic. The first player to turn in a mission each cycle would get the best reward. Rewards would then decline in desireability. After say turn in number 10 it would only award moderately useful items, like a common loot only item of a value suitable to the effort involved, so the missions could be made repeatable. It would also be good if the mission NPC could send contest announcements to general chat or something so everyone knows when a new round begins and when all the good rewards have been collected. I'm not sure how much functionallity would have to be added to the mission system to make this possible, but in the long run, it could be less work than making each event staff driven. As per previous suggestions, taking the mission could give the player a unique trade goods item, like "Intergalactic Mining Championship Pilot Badge", that would have to be returned at 100% quality when completing the mission to prevent wormhole use. The number of ores required could be tailored to achieve the desired contest duration, and may also have to be adjusted for each mission in the pool based on the availability of the ore required. Having the mission keep track of the number of ores mined would also open up for the possibility to let the miners keep their ore. I know I would be reluctant to give up useful ore like Aesirium or Balderium just for the sake of a competition.

I think a mission list should be a community project. The net-7 wiki would probably be a good tool for this.

I would start with the normal respawn time. As far as I'm concerned, It wouldn't really matter if it was the cherry picker or someone else who cleaned up. The field would respawn at the same time regardless, and if the cherry picker cleans up after himself, although late, he's not really a cherry picker anymore. The difference between the way I think it works now and the way I proposed is when the timer starts counting. At present I think it starts when the field is cleared. My suggestion was to start the timer when the field is touched for the first time instead.   I'm not sure it how it works now though. Since I've seen fields starting to refill before I've finished clearing them, There could be some per-roid timer instead/as well.

  Repetition would not be an issue. You only get the quick respawn the first time because the timer was started by the cherrypicker and the timer ran out while waiting for a cleaner to come clear the field. If you clear a fresh spawn in one go, you won't get a quick respawn since there won't be a time gap between the time of the cherry-picking and the cleaning allowing the timer to run out,