Tyran

Just back from IRL farming so late response but... C DEL you obviously don't understand this. Heirku is right. As for Kyp... Should a person be banned for loving to try to get people banned who break the rules? There is no abuse there, not even if I enrage people enough to swear in public channels. It is their responsibility that they swear and if anything the GM's should be happy that there is a watchful eye helping zem enforce ze regime. (I'd like to also mention I was doing geological surveying at a certain Kyp river the other day. You know what I did? I pee'd in it.) Going back to farming again now

I don't think you understand... I won't be doing anything else but filling out complaint forms all day - just to get people banned. Don't you see how much fun you can give me like this?

Aww man for ****** **** sake... Why the ****** **** are we ****** talking about some **** that can be ****** avoided with a ******-****** swear filter? GM's have nothing better to do? Maybe change your tag to [SS] instead?

GTFO pls

The dev team probably needs to be expanded with a dedicated balance team who deal with actual game balance. This is because an item dev obviously is not for balancing as Riia made clear. Also, a dev who makes a crazy scout sniper weapon also has nothing to do with balance (*cough* terran-lead-dev *cough*). Same for whoever is responsible for the blackbeard equipment - no balance taken into account. Ideally balance devs do not believe that WoW has great balance, and are or have been high end pvp players at dota, hon, guildwars or any semi-decently balanced game. WTB devs that know what balance is...

[quote name='C Del' timestamp='1302048177' post='38318'] Ha, true. How does GetCo write? I never had a reason to use anything GetCo, cep'n maybe some travelin' engines. [/quote] I believe all or close to all getco gear has the standard ''GETCo: Continuing our 500 year tradition of sustainable development.'' wording followed by a concise description of the buffs on the equipment.

[quote name='Alyseria' timestamp='1301969049' post='38256'] I've actually at multiple times considered lending myself to the project for the sole purpose of digging through the tons of NPC text and weeding out all the spelling and grammar errors. [/quote] Also the style of writing needs to be improved. Take the description of the TS sniper weapon - it sounds like something that Tada-O would write rather than Getco.

How dare someone attack The Byakhee? I want to see heads rolling now.

[quote name='C Del' timestamp='1301704007' post='38061'] people probably thought we'd be done by [i]now [/i]a few years back.[/quote]In October 2006 a staff member said 6 months till live state. At the time it felt like much :X I'm sure there is a lot of untapped potential around these forums and beyond... A lot of other people will agree with me that there is no easy way to see if you can be of any help. It would be nice if there is a job terminal-like thing that shows possible tasks so people can get an idea what help is needed. It probably already exists but it is too well hidden or not idiot proof to find. People may also be turned off by having to be a 'developer' to contribute (other than donations) because it gives a sense of commitment - a wall to climb. Are there no 'casual tasks' (writing as a random example) for those that do not feel they can commit frequently but are able to lend the odd hand? Also, there used to be a progress meter somewhere obsure, as in tasks that were completed were visible. I forgot about it really but can it be somewhere less obsure and not in martian code language so people can look at it to see the clock to completion ticking away?

It is indeed impressive how accurate the items are like they were in live. But don't you think you are being a bit stubborn? Copying the items from live is a noble cause but beyond novelty it adds little to the game. Balanced equipment on the other hand lets players make choices, something a game is about. If anything you could leave the old equipment ingame for novelty value and add upgraded versions. This would fit in logically because a company like Getco would keep releasing upgraded versions of their equipment while old gear is still around (much like cars).

Anyone else here still wondering when the emulator is going to be ready? Ready as in 'live'. This is usually a new player question with the cliche answer: ''It's ready when it's ready''. But I'd like to hint a guess anyway. Gut feeling says early 2013, based on no facts or knowledge. Anyone else care to guess? If anything I hope this thread can shed light on what is going to happen untill it is ready because frankly I'm clueless where the emulator is and the wait seems endless. The wait is nobody's fault ofcourse, because it's ready when it's ready, but when is that? Major reason for asking is that I'm in very real danger of getting an IRL life and being released from my basement. The devs could also see this as motivational - if the emulator is ready sooner, the chance that I reproduce is reduced

Thanks Will for rigorously explaining debuffs, I didn't notice a few of those things untill you said it. I can only partly disagree with debuffs giving a relatively small disadvantage. Scan blind (30% less scan range) would be the prime example of that not being the case since the area you have vision over increases exponentially as the range increases. Even 10% scan range reduction would be a lethal debuff for those that like to pimp their ship to the max - which is nearly everyone. The way EA devs added debuffs was as if they all were equally detrimental. But the truth is you would have to give a list of positive buffs to compensate for 'scan blind'. While nobody loses sleep over 'increased warp cost'. EA devs were obviously too overworked and underpaid to fix this. I hope the item devs here do something about that because debuffs are completely random with no balance in mind. Just to pick on a few devices to show how truly randomly debuffs were added: L8 Binder has Improved Gravity Link Increased Shield Recharge L9 Binder has Improved Gravity Link Increased Shield Recharge Equipment Damage Control - Shields Scan Blind Ok so, you gain equipment damage control - shields, a very randomly useful buff (maybe if you had a skull shield?) but get hammered with scan blind..? Or the Coma device, at L9 you gain 'increase speed' buff, but also 'increased mass' debuff - which reduces your speed. L9 telescopium. This line of devices is the best ingame at increasing scan range but it effectively stops at L8 because the L9 version has the scan blind debuff. And the list goes on... I hope the item devs take note of this. PS: on an unrelated note since you mentioned it Will, The 'vendor equipment should be inferior' argument is invalid nowadays for two main reasons I think. A lot of vendor equipment is expensive and it is/has been easier to just loot your stuff from a mob. So by the logic of more effort = better equipment, a lot of vendor equipment should actually be superior to loot only stuff. The second reason, if somehow vendor equipment is cheap and easily obtained (which it usually is not), is that you are likely going to buy the stuff from a builder. So you the buyer has not went through extra lengths to buy superior equipment. All that such grossly inferior vendor equipment does is narrow your possible setups down. That part of the game is being played for you basically.

[quote name='C Del' timestamp='1301618333' post='37998'] It would be cool, but at the same time it would make balancing items practically impossible. [/quote] I cannot think of any balance reason why debuffs are in this game in the first place. A good example is a lot of L8 devices being better than their L9 ones because of it. If debuffs were to balance, then L8 ones would always be inferior. You could actually remove debuffs entirely and let any balancing to equipment be done not by adding debuffs, but by making the buffs they have stronger or weaker. That would be real balancing.

Would be nice to have this............................................for a kiting macro.

Don't let Kyp's wording give you any hope OP, it basically translates to; ''auction houses are for fat WOW kiddies''. One of the main reasons why no AH in ENB is that it is just lazy and devalues the whole building process. Believe it or not a lot of people like building in person for others. And a lot of people like a personal builder building for them. Trade relations/friends are created. I'm sure a lot of old players here met some friends through building. Take away so much of the human aspect and you might as well remove building and make 200% equipment buyable from vendors.

Instead of an item having a fixed debuff, could it get a random one when it is built or dropped? Just to list all possible debuffs: Scan blind Cripple reactor Increase ship signature Weaken energy/plasma/explosive/impact/emp/psionic Slow beams/missiles/projectiles Increase mass Slow warp Cripple shields Increase warp cost Equipment damage magnification: Shield/Reactor/Engine/Weapons/Devices/Hull Missile/Projectile/beam friction Muddle Projectile/Missile/Beam As it stands a lot of gear is ruined by horrible debuffs like scan blind. This way a lot of L5-6 and L9 equipment stands a chance of being decent. Missile friction would hardly hurt a Jenquai now would it? Also this would be fun for builders by upping the value of devices with not too bad debuffs.

Out of all planets I'm sure most time spent by players was in Arduinne. That is even if you take time spent waiting for the warder away. Lot of gas ores and mobs in a relatively small area is prob why it was popular. So more Arduinne style planets PLZ. Just a little idea: [b]Jupiter Deep[/b]. Takes place very deep in Jupiter's atmosphere. Enviro shield is required otherwise you take damage from the crushing pressure. Some light is available through heated plasma particles but the sector is very dark nonetheless. Mobs are scary and black coloured with bright eyes (like deep sea fish). Ores are L6-9 gasses. Unlike other planets this sector is facing downwards so as you travel further from the gate you go deeper and it gets darker. The deeper you go the higher level the ores and mobs get, and the higher level enviro shield is required to not get crushed.

[quote name='Grendwal' timestamp='1301419101' post='37666'] 8. Learn a foreign language. Judging by some of the chat logs, for a lot of you, this would be English. [/quote] I rly dislike when people talk my native language ingame. As if in the 26th century (or so) they would speak that crappy language... People that talk anything other than English need to be hanged, drawn and quartered. PS: 11. Do something involving a Sundiver.

In live when you logged on you still had any remaining buffs or shield/hull/equipment & damage/reactor depletion from when you logged off - right?

Actually this might be possible because I've done it - but one of the devs will prob know this better. In the single player version of Net7 from like 3 years ago or so, you were able to freewarp and change direction at will. It was mainly during some lag-like anomaly. While warping between navs you could steer your ship ofcourse at all times. But when you would reach the next navpoint naturally, you were rubberbanded to it. Sometimes though, there would be a huge lagspike-like event that could last for many minutes. During that time you could freewarp the entire map - freely. Very cool experience, perhaps too cool. Maybe something to tie in with the 'Navigate skill'. Or even make an item that lets you do this?

[quote name='Kenu' timestamp='1301179523' post='37239'] well that and jenquai shields are generally lousy. They have some nice buffs, but the capacities are very low. With Jenquai having good devices, devices can usually make up those buffs. The only ones really worth building would be terran shields. [/quote] Kenu, You are the Jenquai zen master... Why are you letting Jenquai shields be so lame? Do you have an inferiority complex? Terrell, Have you watched Star Trek: TNG? U know when Lt. Cmdr. Data states redundant or out of place facts, or gives statistics with far too many decimals? After a while Captain Picard is fed up with Data's precision and tells him to shut up. I'm quite sure you've not seen that...

[quote name='Yuritau' timestamp='1301202235' post='37292'] The loot system used here IS a round robin system. Everyone takes turn looting corpses. [/quote]My bad you are right with the round robin being turn based. What I'm suggesting is very different to turn based looting of entire corpses.

[quote name='Foxninja' timestamp='1301293925' post='37496'] if you cant hunt with people you trust,say hunting for a bite then you shouldnt hunt with them.every time i hunted a bite or something uber,we all in the group understood before hand that this or that person was gona get that loot this way it isnt an issue. personily i think its a good system so why try to reinvent the wheel at this point. [/quote] That is not a system, that is more of a gentleman's agreement. I don't like that though, there's too much room for argument. The current round robin, if I'm not mistaken, gives you the entire corpse. Again not favourable because some corpses can be too good while others are too bad. This is because the corpses can drop a lot of items at once, or only one. While in the long run (weeks?) this may be fair, in a short time (playing with random group) this can be rather imbalanced. If every single item of a corpse was assigned randomly both normal mobs and bosses would be a lot fairer. Ofcourse there would not be true random - I doubt other mmo's have that. Instead it would be random that is affected by counters like: Mob drops an item Player 1 : 50% assign chance Player 2 : 50% assign chance Player 1 gets item Then another mob drops an item, because player 1 is a drop ahead his assign chance is lowered... Player 1 : 33% Player 2 : 67% Etc etc etc..

[quote name='gretl' timestamp='1301215297' post='37296']EA wasn't really annoyed to see that lots of databases [/quote] Not sure if this is indicative of being annoyed at databases but EA did shuffle loot tables several times. The great thing about shuffling loot tables is even if you did it with only 40 mobs it would mean those die-hard database ppl would force themselves to check every mob ingame. It would offer a counterweight to databases you know, keep them on their toes

Like the hunter and the hunted... There is the troll and the trolled.