JoeTheDestroyer
-
Posts
40 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Donations
25.00 USD
Posts posted by JoeTheDestroyer
-
-
As a builder with a TT and a PP, let me say that I really appreciate the alphabetized lists. It makes it so much easier to find the blueprint that someone wants me to build.
For the OP, if your complaint is that it is harder now to build ammo for yourself, you may find that the new "recently used" blueprint list will alleviate this somewhat.
-
In my case, it's primarily to fight the timesink.
I have limited time to play the game, and I don't want to waste it waiting around while I warp from gate to gate (or wait for missions to repost, or wait for my reactor to recharge while mining,etc).
So, instead, I switch to an alt and play it until my main needs attention again.
-
[quote name='Stanig' timestamp='1354337072' post='67576']
for the poor saps like me that have 16:9 natively, it ends up looking really wonky when you fullscreen it. windowed mode all the way
[/quote]
Running 4:3 windows on a 16:9 screen is a real advantage when multiboxing. I can slide the second window over and enough is visible (while I'm playing the other character) that I can see when a gate has been reached or when the jobs list has refreshed. -
[quote name='Kyp' timestamp='1354253183' post='67495']
The only things we could reveal would cause the formula to become clear to the people who are playing which would devalue the efforts and challenge.
[/quote]
From your and Stanig's replies, I suspected as much, that's why I tried to drop the matter. I have to admit though, it depresses me a little that the system could be broken by answering such simple questions...
If you guys ever decide to revisit this, I'd be happy to try and help you make something more robust...
[quote name='Kyp' timestamp='1354253183' post='67495']
Why would a real world analogy be irrelevant exactly? This is a game based on the future of humanity.
[/quote]
Because essentially, all the real world analogies boil down to arguing for the need for an xp system. I've never disputed this. What I'm arguing is that the game is internally inconsistent in that the combat system is based on a single xp system while the crafting system is based on this stacked dual-xp system (first TL, then this pseudo-xp system based on print and build count).
[quote name='Kyp' timestamp='1354253183' post='67495']
That being said, hauling cargo and trading teaches one to negotiate which is a vital skill for any manufacturer who is also the retailer. There aren't a lot of instances of this in large corporations, but definitely in small one-man shops, which you are in effect.
[/quote]
It's a vital skill for the manufacturer selling his products, yes. But this is already modeled by the Negotiate skill. It still has nothing to do with the actual production of a product (i.e. build skill).
[quote name='Kyp' timestamp='1354253183' post='67495']
I don't understand how this makes you 'dead in the water'.
...
This is something you will have to learn through experimentation and time.
[/quote]
Because I have no way of knowing if an experiment failed because I'm trying the wrong thing or because I didn't spend enough time trying it.
[quote name='Kyp' timestamp='1354253183' post='67495']
You can still play and enjoy, you just can't min/max building skills because you don't know the formulae involved.
[/quote]
Uhh, enjoy what? Min/maxing and roleplaying/story are all there is to an RPG. In this game the roleplaying element is provided by missions but those are exhausted pretty quickly. The majority of the time is spent improving your character (i.e. min/maxing)... If you take that out, what's left to the game?
Sure, I could go play my warrior or scout characters, but isn't that kinda missing the point?
BTW, I want to thank you for saying "min/max" instead of "exploit", misuse of the word exploit is a bit of a pet-peeve of mine...
[quote name='Kyp' timestamp='1354253183' post='67495']
The coy attitude is the prerogative of a game developer. No game developer that I have ever seen reveals all...
[/quote]
We're talking about two different things. Yes, it is [i]absolutely[/i] the developer's perogative how much they want to reveal about [i]their[/i] game. However, the coy attitude is a personal choice. It's the difference between "and that's all I feel like telling you" and "and I can't tell you any more because...". You're initial reply read like the former to me, resulting in my comment.
As I said above, now that I know it's a matter of "can't tell me" rather than "won't tell me", I'll drop the matter.
[quote name='Shaddex' timestamp='1354259358' post='67497']
small point..
<snip>
guess what.....
you have to work it out.
[/quote]
Missed point... I never asked for intricate details, just general information. There's plenty of detailed game information that you (or rather, the client) does tell us. I wouldn't have thought the questions I asked would have been revealing enough to break the game, but it appears I was wrong, so I've retracted them.
Don't get me wrong, figuring out the math behind systems like these is something I have a lot of fun with. It's just that in this particular case, the independent variables are so many and the dependent variables are so few that I would have liked a little help narrowing the possibilities.
[quote name='Prrekoorb' timestamp='1354266454' post='67501']
Things were far to easy to build at 200% in the past (beta)
[/quote]
Absolutely, and honestly I was surprised at how easy it was in current live before the faction bug was fixed. However, I think that things have now swung to the other side of reasonable. I don't expect something for nothing, but am I the only one that thinks it's ridiculous that a lvl 5 builder can't build a 200% item 4 levels beneath him (lvl 2) without using a complete set of 200% player made components? It just feels like the build skills themselves have been devalued. I'm told I need to work to get good builds, then what was all that time I spent leveling the build skills to begin with?
[quote name='Prrekoorb' timestamp='1354266454' post='67501']
just about anyone with the build skill could walk up to a manu term and pop out a lvl9 weapon first go ( and other items)
[/quote]
So? Anyone with lvl 9 weapons skill can slap in a lvl9 weapon and tackle the big mobs. Why isn't this a slap in the face for all the players who bother becoming "warriors"?
---
Geez, sorry for the wall of text... -
[quote name='Stanig' timestamp='1354247861' post='67490']
How about this one... we dont want to reveal specific mechanics so people can just exploit the hell out of the system somehow? ...
[/quote]
This is the security-through-obscurity argument. Ask Microsoft how well that works...
If you take this argument to its logical conclusion, then you shouldn't tell the players anything. You should keep weapon damages, shield/hull strengths, enemy health, xp earned, even levels secret. If you did that then it would have been much harder to find the exploit you mentioned... It's also utterly ridiculous. Who want's to play a game where you have no feedback on how well you're doing? (to quote Kyp, oh wait!)
Besides, it would probably take about five minutes for someone to post about such a glaring flaw at which point you can fix it. By obscuring all the details you're simply making it more likely that such bugs will go unfixed, and that the few who learn about them will exploit them for an unfair advantage.
To be sure, I fully understand that you guys have to be careful, since we are live now and you can't wipe if something goes awry.
---
Anyways, I think I've wandered well off-topic so my apologies to the OP. And I don't want to waste any more of the Dev's time arguing about something they clearly don't want to change. I'll just end by saying that I agree with the OP that the recent bug-fix has exposed what I consider a balance issue with low level crafting.-
1
-
-
[quote name='Kyp' timestamp='1354241904' post='67488']
How about this argument? Guns don't require ingenuity or skill really, you just point and pull the trigger. Sure some people are better shots than others in the real world, but that's because of a lot of practice. (Oh wait!
)
With a starship, or fighter jet, you rely on computer systems to target and fire generally. This is why this makes sense.
[/quote]
I guess I didn't make my point well enough. My point was that real world analogies are irrelevant. The mechanism under discussion is inconsistent with other systems [i]within the game[/i].
However, if you really want to be more consistent with the real world, then the TL requirements on build skills need to be removed. After all, what does hauling cargo and trading have to do with manufacturing skill?
[quote name='Kyp' timestamp='1354241904' post='67488']
The system takes into account how many recipes you've learned versus how many times you build an item overall, and your faction with the station's faction as a seed value for the equation
[/quote]
I suppose that you're being willing to atleast talk about it is better than nothing, but I'm still pretty much dead in the water. Without knowing a ballpark figure to get an effect, I can't know if a failure to notice a change is due to not building enough or building the wrong thing. And in the meantime, I can't play the game (the whole point) for fear of influencing the experiment.
[quote name='Kyp' timestamp='1354241904' post='67488']
but that's about as much as I'm willing to reveal there.
[/quote]
I just don't understand the coy attitude. I'm not asking for inside or detailed information, just a level equivalent to what we know about, say, the combat system.
To be clear, I don't mean this as a personal attack, it seems to be a general attitude and not just in this game. People just seem to start getting elitist when the topic of crafting comes up. -
[quote name='Darkk' timestamp='1354111754' post='67395']
Just as you have to gain experience to level, you in-turn need crafting experience to gain better results.
[/quote]
I am gaining experience, otherwise why am I spending all this time slogging through Trade levels?
The warrior classes can use their abilities/weapons to their fullest extent as soon as they upgrade the skill level. They don't have to fire their guns some number of times or try a number of different weapons in order to fully use their abilities (except insofar as that increases CL).
It's inconsistent to expect builders to first increase build skill (via TL), then increase some nebulous "craft" experience in order to fully use their abilities.
However, I understand that this was a game mechanic from live (origins), so it's unlikely that it will be removed. I just can't accept arguments like the above for why it makes sense.
---
That aside, my main problem with this is the lack of transparency. All I know right now is that to increase my build quality I'm supposed to "build more" and "get more prints". Beyond that I, and pretty much everyone else, am shooting in the dark. How many things do I have to build to get a noticeable effect? Does the level or base cost of the item matter? If I were told how much "craft" experience I earned for these actions, I could figure this stuff out myself. However, the only indicator I have is the quality % in the build screen which is too granular and relies on too many changing variables for me to devise a reliable experiment.
Although it would be nice to have exact formulas, I would settle for just having rough numbers. To get a 10% increase in build quality, do I have to build 1,000 items? 10,000?
In comparison, a warrior knows exactly how much xp they earn from a given kill [i]because the game tells them[/i]. They know how many levels they need to improve their abilities [i]because it's right there on the skill screen[/i]. They can easily estimate which mobs to kill to get them there most efficiently.-
1
-
-
Looks like the Local-Cert workaround is failing for me now:
...
SSL_CTX_use_PrivateKey_file failed
That's caused by replacing the old "local.net-7.org.cer" with the new one in the net7 bin folder. If you restore the old, expired one, then local-cert will work again.
It's actually not needed in the bin folder anyways, the only thing you really need to do with the new cert file is import it into the Windows certificate store. (i.e. you can leave the old cert in the bin folder with no ill effects, I do. Just don't ever use the net-7 install certificate option, or things will get messed up and you have to use the windows certificate manager to fix it).
-Joe
-
+1 Been playing fine w/o local cert, logged in earlier today (around noon) no problem. Now all I get is INV-300.
was able to login using Local certificate + Packet Optimization.
make sure the Net-7 Launcher and Client are running with admin rights. XP SP2 compat mode might help i guess.
That's fine, but you can't use local cert when dual boxing.
-JoeTD
-
Ok cool, was wondering because im going to try my hand at "Modding" the ships. If it works the same way with the ship designs then it will be much easier to do quick changes.
Nice, I'm looking forward to seeing it!
I would be incredibly surprised if it didn't work the same way for everything. If you look in the common folder, you'll find the devs have already modded a number of things. This was how they added the "christmas" background music, for example.
-Joe
-
Did you repack your DDS file or just drop the new DDS in the common folder? Does the game automatically use the new one instead of the one in the mix file?
Nope, just the plain file. Yes, the game automatically uses the files in the common folder over the ones in the mix file (you'll find that most games work this way, if you can find the right place to put the file).
-JoeTD
-
Thanks for the instructions Joe, I'm going to have to try this.
Your welcome!
Just to let ya know your Link to the DDS Converter dont work, here is the correct address: http://eliteforce2.filefront.com/file/DDS_Converter;29412
Fixed, thanks. (I thought that last bit wasn't important, a session id or something. That's what I get for thinking, I guess...)
-JoeTD
-
Success! Here's the instructions...
Warnings:
This is a client-side only mod! Only you will see the new decal!
Furthermore anyone else using the same decal "slot" as you, you will see as using your custom decal too.
Tools you will need:
Steps:
- Create your decal. It MUST be 64x64 pixels (yes I tried bigger sizes).
- Save as a .dds file. When asked, select "BC3 / DXT5" for Compression and make sure "Generate mipmaps" is checked.
- Check this page and find the decal you are currently using (i.e. the one you want to replace). Rename your .dds file from the previous step to match the listed name EXACTLY.
- Copy the .dds file into <your E&B install>\Data\common
- Enjoy!
For reference, I have attached my custom decal to this post. It replaces the "star" decal with my own.
Also, the decal orientation is 90deg off from what I expected. The top-bottom axis of the image is aligned with the front-back axis of the ship, in game. Scratch that, on my JS the top-bottom axis of the image is aligned with the front-back axis of the ship. However, on my TT the left-right axis of the image is aligned with the front-back axis of the ship. Weird. Nevermind all of that, the orientation of the decal shifts for different ships, just use the normal orientation (top is "up") and everything will be fine.
Alternately' date=' if I knew what tools to use to look through the .mix files, then I could dig around for it myself.[/quote']For anyone that is curious, I used "Mix File Extractor" from here to pull out the files. Thanks for the pointer, Kyp!
Also, I used DDS Converter (2.1) to convert all the decals from .dds format to jpeg when I made the decal list.
-JoeTD
- Create your decal. It MUST be 64x64 pixels (yes I tried bigger sizes).
-
I was just wondering if anyone happens to know what files I need to edit/replace to change the image used for a decal (the star one, to be specific). I know this would be a client-side change, and only I would see it, but I'd still like to do it.
Alternately, if I knew what tools to use to look through the .mix files, then I could dig around for it myself.
Thanks!
-JoeTD
in Suggestions
Posted