Specops

The title says it all. Because the server is pretty unstable at the moment, we are getting multiple crashes a day. If I correctly understand what people have told me, every time the server reboots itself, all those rare mobs spawn, along with hulk fields, raids, etc. Because the named pirates, for example, are supposed to be hard to find, I would suggest that they not spawn when the server restarts. I don't know if this is feasible, but if the default thing is that the mobs will respawn, perhaps disable the spawns of rare mobs on server restarts and manually spawn them at a certain time (for example, the devs can determine ahead of time based on some random roll that they will spawn 3 hours a 37 minutes after a restart, and change this number every time).

[quote name='Kyp' timestamp='1354336272' post='67568'] Bah updating visibility lists when someone was moving, and someone logged out/got d/c'd at a very bad moment. D'oh. This may take a while to sort out guys, sorry. We'll get it back up as soon as we can. [/quote] [img]http://s11.postimage.org/92snuy9pf/bart_simpson_generator_php.gif[/img] <3

[quote name='Kyp' timestamp='1354336272' post='67568'] Bah updating visibility lists when someone was moving, and someone logged out/got d/c'd at a very bad moment. D'oh. This may take a while to sort out guys, sorry. We'll get it back up as soon as we can. [/quote] Poo

[quote name='Stanig' timestamp='1353977637' post='67308'] I just want to ask a really simple question of the players. Why do you have to be guaranteed 200 percent quality on every build for crafting to be enjoyable? [/quote] While I have not tried building anything since the patch, I do like the idea that it is harder to get 200% quality stuff. It does mix it up a bit and its cool that everyone cannot easily expect 200% gear on L1-L8 stuff, unless its L9, in which case 190%+ is the standard. I think, however, OP makes a good point about casual building. While this does make waiting to see how the build comes out more exciting (as opposed to here's 200K, gimme my 200% L6 beams now), this does risk making the established builders even more necessary as they will be the ones who will (may?) reliably start hitting 200% on most items again, while casual builders cannot. The best fix I could come up with, given what I know of the game mechanics and therefore what would be possible, off the top of my head would be this: Keep the system where building an item more makes it more likely that future builds will be of higher quality. But institute a counter system where builds over a certain quality (say +15% over the average player build) causes a faction hit in that station. There would be a floor to how low your faction could go this way, for example, not below +6000. This way, a dedicated builder could improve the quality of their builds because they are building so much, but would be limited based on the faction hit. If someone really wanted a 200% item, they could give (or pay) the builder the required, for example, half-eaten jenquai suits, and they would bump their faction to +12000 or whatever. They would thus be able to get the highest quality builds because they both have the requisite faction and the experience from building the item, but because of the faction hit, their faction would decline (however quickly or slowly as the devs would want this to be) so that they are not much better than a casual builder all the time, but can be if someone is willing to pony up the money for the faction boost. An alternative model would be the builder always buys more faction items so keep his build quality up but charges his/her customers more because he/she had this added cost.

Oh yes, I forgot perhaps the most important part. An easy solution would be simply put less debris in hulks.

I hate to say it because its made leveling my JE so much easier, but debris from hulks gives really way too much trade xp and also perhaps gives a little too much cash to low level chars. At one point I jumped from TL18 to TL22 when I traded around 5 stacks of debris to another char. Debris also gave me so much cash early on that, when my TE was struggling to support himself through hunting, just selling my JE's debris alone gave me enough cash to support both my chars. The credits debris gives is not as out of whack as the xp issue. While very low level hulks have only several debris, part of the problem is that JE's and TS's, and I don't know about PS's, start with neutral RD faction, so that you can immediately go to very high level fields and (reverse?!) cherry pick the debris from those hulks, which range from 20-60 per. Mission grinding sucks so to the extent that debris gathering is an alternative to it, I like it, but I still think it allows explorer chars to level a little too quickly.

Is the server down? When I click login on the launcher I am getting "server failed to respond to login attempt"

Yes, login server appears to be down for me as well.

[quote name='Yuritau' timestamp='1340319483' post='59343'] Personally I hate EA because they purchase, exploit, and disband otherwise great game companies just to turn a buck, instead of trying to just make better games. [/quote] This. Look what they did to Westwood. The Command and Conquer series is now just a bunch of bland games where the focus has moved to churning out new titles for minimal work done and watered down game play that lacks the complexity of the original games.

I would like to add that I have known about the emulator for years, but never played because it previously appeared too cumbersome to install and the game did not look so complete. I think if there was some way to spread the word to former players that (1) it is easy to install, (2) is substantially complete and has active developers, and (3) is free, former players would give it a try. May I also suggest that if the word could be spread on fansites related to Eve Online that this game exists and is free, a decent number of people may want to try it simply because it is another (rare) space MMO and it costs absolutely nothing to try.

[quote name='Taallonn' timestamp='1352607469' post='65672'] This is really an odd topic here. Most games i have played, including this one, players in guilds typically make gear for others in the guild at no cost or reimbursement for the build cost only as they figured charging hundreds of thousands of credits to press a button one time was a bit silly....Small player base doesn't really matter, if you know where to get the better drops then its a matter of farming a spot til you get the print for yourself, an alt, or a guildmate. I'm not understanding why you have an issue with players wanting to work for tips....This shows that it is not a greedy community and one that wants to be helpful to those that need the help through better gear. This practice does not take away content as building leveling gear is not content. Most of it can be bought from a vendor and rebuilt (there are exceptions, but most leveling gear is only useful for a week or less). The recipes obtained through the grinds, yeah that i can understand if someone wanted to charge due to the amount of time invested to get those patterns, then again that would be totally up to the builder to decide if they wanted to charge for that. [/quote] I do think your own guild is different, and agree there is nothing wrong with your own guild not charging you. I do not also think there is anything wrong for working with tips, my concern is that builders do not work for a set price or tips, and in fact often refuse tips even when offered. I do not think it is a good thing that the community is not greedy. Greed is good because it makes the game more interesting. If older players could somehow bestow L150 on new players and get them the best gear on day one, EnB would get very old very fast. Similarly, its part of the MMORPG experience that you need to work at getting better gear. Do the extent this element is taken out of EnB because of the good nature of the game's players, I would say this is not ultimately a good thing. On the flip side of this, building is something a decent number of people in any MMORPG like to do. To the extent players are discouraged from this because all the established builders give out most things for free, this again takes away from the ultimate game experience, good intentions notwithstanding.

[quote name='Terrell' timestamp='1352598957' post='65638'] Canman pretty much nailed it. Most of the game is about what to do next, which means content. It's good to see more content than before, looking forward to things when my toons are bigger. [/quote] This is exactly my point. My suggestion is not whether items/services are being traded for credits or other items, but when there is no 'trade' to speak of and instead services are given away for free. I think it handicaps content in the game if it is not viable for someone to be a builder as a profession (i.e. content) because there is a norm of people getting their stuff for free. It removes content from the game if you are not confronted with the challenge of where your next set of gear is going to come from, because you are effectively given it for free. With my initial post I am not talking about an economy of credits vs. bartering. I also don't quite understand how an unusually small player base figures into this. Having a small player base would mean it is harder to find people to build stuff for you because there are less people around. But thanks to the services of players like Vaden, we don't have this problem because they are often online and glad to make stuff for people. I thinks to a large measure because of dedicated builders like him, we don't feel the effects of there being a small player base. I don't follow how items/services being given away for nothing factors one way or another into a small player base.

[quote name='Mattsacre' timestamp='1352528624' post='65488'] Welllllll if you found it to easy and it took the fun out of the game having them build you 200% for nothing....that it made it too easy, you know there is a way you can "self correct" that. Simply use only vendor bought gear or looted only gear that you loot. Then it would be at or near 100% with all its inferiority built in that you desire. And since nobody is giving it to you "free" you are buying it at inflated infinicorp rates...well that will at least self correct YOUR economy [/quote] "self correct" wouldn't be the same because I, and others, would have to voluntarily restrain ourselves. I want to give it all I got, I just don't want the 'rules' to be such that it is so easy.

[quote name='Stanig' timestamp='1352527339' post='65487'] Vaden is a good dude, however I have always felt the freebies are what kill the game economy. There is no market for crafting which leads to no market for resources which leads to lost content and worthless credits. Not to mention the scramble to get every new map all of the time. The major builders being able to do anything all of the time for free and basically monopolizing the market, is a detriment. Now dont get me wrong, when we were in ST, Alpha, and Beta there was no worry because eventually all of that stuff was intended to go poof. I am optimistic that the balance changes made to drops and raids will be sufficient to stifle the freestuff mentality at endgame. Early and midgame? Harder to fix because its much cheaper and easier to resource hoard for. With the wipe and reset, I am confident the changes will keep the economy in a state where Market may actually be useful again, and trading will involve more than just logging in a mule and giving away uber item X for basically nothing. [/quote] This I agree with. I have been playing for a few weeks and hardly saw any player economy to speak of. Too much stuff is given away for free. Stuff is manufactured for free, no one charges for wormholes, no one makes you pay for a call forward, people give away ores if someone needs it, old gear that is no longer used is happily given for nothing in return, etc, etc. I reached level 91 and had not paid one single credit to a player for any gear (I had L5/L6 gear), any wormholes (I had taken at least a couple dozen), or a call forward (I had two). In response to Overtkill, I agree that EnB is lucky to have someone like Vaden who is dedicated to getting prints and regularly makes himself available to the player community. But I think for the health of the game economy, everyone would get more out of being a consumer or a supplier of player made goods and services if it wasn't given away for free to such an extent.

Mostly because it makes it too easy to get. I reached up to level 6 gear on my char before the Live wipe (though some stuff was from guildys which doesn't count), and while I appreciated the free builds, it made it far too easy and cheap to get and therefore not challening. I think it would add to the game if you really had to think about how you are going to pay for or come across your lower and mid level gear. Getting my hands on it so effortlessly just reinforced the notion that the lower and middle levels are just part of the grind on the way to end game content rather than enjoyable in and of themselves.

I began playing on the emulator a few weeks ago (I previously played in live) and noticed that no one ever wanted to charge me anything for getting player made gear (provided the mats of course). I understand that for high level builders, a tip for low level gear is basically chump change, but is it good for the game that players can expect to buy comps and get it thrown together at 200% quality without it really costing the player more than buying vendor made items (even less if the comps cost less than the item?). Maybe its just me, but knowing that stuff short of high level gear someone will make for me for free, even if its a drop only item they have analyzed, makes the game less enjoyable, than if I had to pay for the superior performance. Food for thought as the server gets wiped and all the builders have to start from a clean slate. P.S. the same goes for wormholes. If you are not a JE than there should be some downside to being able to go from Carp to VT at the drop of a hat. JE's should consider charging for their services.