Overtkill

Some excellent replies. Thanks for taking the time to address some of these issues, and to all for taking the time to further the discussion to enhance our knowledge on the turbo's. Thanks to TB for addressing the warp issues as well. I realize that geography also plays a major role, being in the western U.S. I am also curious to know what the average load is like on the server hardware (being a SysAdmin in RL). I'm not sure what else can be done on the TCP/IP side to optimize packet handling, and also to handle retries to prevent disconnects. Some (not all) of these warping issues in relation to mining can be dealt with by miners equipping their ships properly. Meaning for some types of mining, remove the RR+ and do not activate turbo warp, and mine with a Laz and Paw. A lot of issue is with the turn rate vs. the higher warp speed applied that a ship cannot turn the required amount vs. the warp speed. Maybe on the lvl 7+ paws, raise the turn rate some to help? I can't wait to see what TienBau comes up with to correct the remaining issue. Lately I seem to be able to face a targeted roid. and try to warp to it, only for it to still stop short by almost 2k, so 3-5k from the target is what I am seeing commonly as the stop distance. The bounce is understandable, but annoying in that the distance should simply stop, and not bounce at all. But that's my opinion... lol. Additional sites to mine would raise the quality of the game for many of us who like mining and hulking. Taking away from that only creates boredom and disinterest. More low to mid level sites in the noobie sectors would be cool, and further utilize these sectors as well. I do not understand the need to lower the quality of the game for us by removing or altering these fields. Many of us miners do our best to supply our guilds and the builders with what we mine and find in hulks. Lately, there is not only a lack of anything decent in hulk fields, the junk loot in them (landing gear struts, shield emitters, weapons - This has a direct correlation with loot prices) is not worthless, so they are frequently left behind. By making lowering the prices in game, it lowers the quality of game play in that we have too hard of time scraping together enough to properly equip our toons, and help others to do so as well. Please consider restoring the prices again to live levels, and also to put in more places for us to mine all levels of items... The dev's in live addressed this by adding them to the primary sectors like earth. and so forth... Putting them back in a similar fashion would serve to better our experiences in game. As it is now, the areas being removed or modified means less to go around, thus forcing many high level miners to move into the same few quality area and fields, and more frustration for everyone in that we can never get what we need, because someone has already pulled those resources. Again, thanks for reading.

Hello. These are some comments and observations others have voiced in the past that have not been addressed. With a couple of ideas dropped in. They are: - Thrusters.... In live, it seemed like the acceleration of a player ship at impulse was based on a performance curve, and not so much a linear value. This would mean that the ship would reach top speed quicker for using devices such as the cats paw were installed, along with the added speed benefit. - Also, something that would be nice to see would be the effect of using reverse thrust to actually slow your ship at a faster rate. So if you want to stop, reversing thrust should stop your ship quicker than drifting to a stop. I think t does this to a degree, but not like it should IMO. - What I refer to as speed mining (warping from roid to roid), the stop distances are still too far away. As an idea, can't we consider to stop using the "bounce" effect altogether as a possible tweak for the warp distance glitch? This issue sometimes confuses the client enough to allow opening of a given minable without being at the correct distance, likely because of the bounce. -Stopping closer to the target, opening the roid, then bouncing back occurs. - And again, please increase the tractor beam speed to what it should be (nearly double than what it is currently). This one shouldn't be more difficult than taking a second to adjust the value assigned (from what I recall seeing in the older code). Other comments/ideas; - When will the turbo's begin to stack? - This ones related to the enhance devices, such as the Intolerance. I have some high end lvl 9 beams thanks to a kind and good friend. Some have the enhance weapons effects as the intolerance does. However, wouldn't it be feasible to stack this effect with the intolerance since I want to use/burn a device slot for this effect? Such an effect wouldn't be class specific. Thanks for reading... -Overt.

I say this so it get said again.... It would be nice to see what was updated in the launcher window, even the mini-patch. It would be nice to be kept informed on what things were being tweaked. Also, if the server is down, please consider using the launcher web page to display information regarding the issue. Even a useful "we know about the problem" message would be very helpful. Thanks.

[quote name='Knix' timestamp='1315491835' post='45897'] Mobs native to those regions may have adapted, like the sundivers in VT. [/quote] I agree here too. Native critters should be nearly immune to any local effects.

Pop rocks are in the right direction. However there needs to be a timer put on the critter that pops out. I was in VT the other day in the morning, to discover such a critter let loose by someone who thought they would give the ridiculous a try. And they left it there for the rest of us to admire... FOR THE WHOLE DAY! I don't know about the rest of you but I don't go out mining with my combat gear plugged in. I showed up at the same field later that evening to find that special someone's critter being around, but someone else decided to play asteroid craps, gave it a whirl and spawned him a friend. Luckily a well equipped TE showed up looking for them and took care of said critters. Something I saw here I disagree with is the pristine field effect. I don't like it. But I know its not going away so how about we compromise and maybe lower the effect rate? Seeing it, is not only distracting me, but those who have to hunt around them, and this can get annoying. The Rogue Progen issue: The killer field in Lagarto, is, well, too killer. You guys might want to check on the mobs there periodically. The Rogue Progen patrols are borderline psychotic and are too high in number. The craziness was on no less than 3 or 4 times in the past day there, I was greeted with the howl of the lvl 48's beam, but after I cloaked, they decided to hang out instead of continuing on their merry way. One actually sat in 1 spot spinning and rotating. I found this amusing as if to hear him saying: "I know your still there little JenPie, come on out and fight you coward!" Well after a few laps around the field, he became annoying so I purposely de-cloaked to get him moving... Thats when I discovered the next issue: The shield nova on those wayward progen does not deactivate when you cloak. And the dampening field over this place sort of makes it a real bugger to get away before being fried. Also, I mine with a -0.0k sig, and yet these things can see me from over 6k away? And hit me from there with a beam? Wish my lvl 9's shot that far. Anywho, thanks for reading. -Overt.

I was thinking about the $$ donations for skill points this past week as a matter of fact... Great idea if the EMU needs the donations. It would greatly enhance the experience in game and keep the servers running. I am all for it! As mentioned above, We should put up a poll for this excellent idea. And its not like you are getting paid for work... Its still a donation and not a requirement to play the game. It only helps everyone involved. No different than giving to a cause and getting a t-shirt or a coffee mug as a way of the charitable groups' to say thanks for your help. Thanks for reading... -Overt.

[quote name='teclo' timestamp='1315492783' post='45898'] A miners job is never done.. So many ores, so little time.. [/quote] and oh sooo few good fields and items left for everyone...

I pretty much agree with the others Dakynos. The current prices are too low across the board for loot and ores. They should be put back to what they were in live or better. You have to take into account that there aren't as many players as there were in live, and its real tough to eek out enough credits after hours of hunting, or mining. Lot I think hit it on the head with his explanation, and the clarifications made by the others are valid too. Right now you have about 2 classes of player in the game... The super rich and then the rest of us that eek out what we can from what is available. We spent a couple of hours in VG today for example as a hunting party of 3... The organic loot used to be worth a hell of a lot more then. All we are suggesting is that they be put back to what they were then, or near that level. I also wish the ore values be restored too, and more hulk fields be put in that spawn like normal fields instead of the field clearing requirement BS we've been dealing with. As it is now, I am real luck to find anything that that hasn't been cherry picked to death in both ores and hulks. I have a sneaking feeling that many high level miners are getting there, finding the choice items, and vending for creds because these items are worth a hell of a lot more than the junk shield emitters and other junk loot. I am not saying everyone is doing this as there are many great giving people who are giving these items away for printing by others, but you always have the feeling that there are simply vending, and are not wanting to empty hulks because the junk shield emitters, landing struts, and other junk are worthless, and they are level 8 items. Same goes for organic loot... These should be restored to make them more valuable to the rest of us. I see the game economy as a whole is shot right now. Bringing value back to these items will put an influx of credits in for everyone and make things a heck of a lot more enjoyable as a player. In the end, that is all that matters is we enjoy the experience in game, and sapping the value of stuff only serves to take away from that. Thanks for reading.... -Overt.

See at least you leave items of value for the next guy. I suspect a few miners take anything of value and just vend for the credits. I look for things generally for the builders, my friends, and guildies. I keep an active list of what they all are looking for and sometimes go on the hunt for them. I wish everyone would take a little risk and responsibility and clear them if they leave behind if there is noting of value so the field would at least reset. Though I'm sure the dev's have this on their list somewhere.

Something funny to watch that I've noticed is how the mob's check each other out as if to be asking "what the hell is wrong with you?!?!" before they actually see you and begin to aggro on you. And the behaviors between them greatly.. Some to seem to check you out but not aggro while others just seem nasty and attack on sight. The aggro indicator isn't always accurate I think but generally I like to give myself at least 5-6K of bufferage before de-cloaking to mine. Though I can usually empty an object before I take a hit to my shields and have to cloak. In combat mode, the swarming of the mobs can be annoying. But I have learned to use that to my advantage and changed tactics to deal with it, which I am sure many here also have done. I like taking on 6-8 of the right mobs at a time, and get the XP jump from hell for it.

A good read Matt... Utah tried the mandated state controlled emission stations a decade or so ago and the whole idea went to hell in a hand basket real fast once the lines and probably the bureaucrats themselves had to wait in them. So they slowly went back to dynometered stations (The stations that require us to pull your car's drive wheels onto those long rollers, and running your vehicle around 30MPH... Those have given way to OBD2 (The computer interface within 12 inches of your steering wheel) reading. Dyno testing I think is still required here for older vehicles. The oil disposal fee seems to be a federal thing as we collect on that well. What you pointed out does indeed suck, since they are not really disposing of anything. I'm really envious of states that have real oil recycling refineries that restore the oil to a usable state. An old mechanic friend of mine waived those recycling fees in winter months because he would use the spent oil in a great way. He had a heater in his shops that ran on the used oil combined with natural gas. Believe it or not the heater had very low emissions, and to be honest I thought the system was a brilliant idea! Speaking of Vegas... My wife grew up there. Something that grinds my gears there is that they are complaining of a lack of water when they have gold courses, resorts, and lately many homes have grass there. They should be a bit smarter about their water management (especially the Governor), and think of the policies they had over a decade ago that mandated that everyone had to have desert landscaping. I recently had a look at the area in Google Earth, and man, talk about sprawl! I remember when the area between Vegas and Henderson was a barren drive. Now its all medium density residential. It looks very mass produced from that perspective. We've been meaning to take a trip there again. I hope that water project from Vegas to Lake Meade goes well. Its nothing short of amazing! BTW, was the abnormally wet winter here in the Rockies helped refill that lake much? I know Lake Powell has recovered for the most part. I want to go when Nellis AFB. has their open house to catch the airshow. I've known several pilots that have trained there for Red Flag (the Air Force's equivalent of Top Gun). My Uncle used to be an old F4 Phantom pilot during the Vietnam war, and later converted to fly F-15's, becoming an instructor in aviation battle tactics, often flying as the adversary. Some of his video/cockpit cam footage was pretty awesome to say the least. They even give their planes alternate paint schemes as our real life adversary countries might choose to use on their planes. They flew everything in their group from F-15's, F-16's, A4's, F/A-18's.. Etc.. Pretty cool stuff to watch. I never got sick of watching those videos, and he never gets sick of talking about it. lol... He's a real hoot to be around.. Anyway, back to what you said.... Does Questar manage the natural gas production there? or is it PG&E? Questar is our local energy monopoly... There are big issues here with drilling and production because of the many national parks, monuments, and the uniqueness of the scenery here. Most of the gas underground is near those places so there is always a fight when they talk about drilling. Questar as a company do the 2 steps forward and 1 back game on our bills. So early in the year, they announce a reduction in their billing 1 tick, only to up it in the fall 2 ticks. This shit is getting expensive be it natural gas, which does supply about 85% of our power (rest is imported through Pacificorp), so you'd think our power bills would be lower than they are, but guess again.. Good old Utah "Flicker and Flash" (my adaptation of the old name: Utah Power and Light) still sees fit to up the bill exponentially above certain limits... A limit that is complete BS since running a refrigerator alone for a month would surpass it. Ugh! The insult to injury here is that they always ask for a 15% increase and never seem to go back.. And when the state limits them to say 6% they complain and say that recovery from damaged lines will take longer after bad storms, crying that they wont have enough money to pay for crews on active standby to make those repairs. -Complete B.S. and man what a racket they run. I also wish they'd really do something about speculative commodities trading in the stock market, which is the main culprit in jacking our gas prices globally. -But that's another post all together.. Again, A very therapeutic thread.

Something to add... The world as aawhole should be after major polluters like China, Russia, etc.. -for not better controlling their emissions. The US by comparison is a bed of roses compared to their Cities, and I know they could do better. Remember what the air in Beijing was like before the Olympics? ...and what it was like during because the world gave them grief for it? The Olympic comity threatened to cancel the games unless they cleaned up their act.. And they did during the games, that's it. Those counties can do better, and the world should pressure them to do so. Instead we try imposing harsher restrictions on in our own countries that do an excellent job by comparison. Complete nonsense. Hell, my brother has an restored 1968 Chev Camaro that I know runs a hell of a lot cleaner than many cars and trucks on the road today (it recently passed with today's standards on with a carburetor). Those people should actually give a crap that their vehicles stink to high hell rolling down the road, smoking out everyone behind them. It all boils down to each owner taking his or her responsibility to maintain their vehicle, and using some common sense. Example of modern vehicle waste: Those guys who are compensating for something by skyjacking their over-sized Ford diesel's, and feel like they have to floor it at every intersection, leaving a huge cloud of black smoke everywhere they go. There isn't a restriction on exhaust pipe size when it comes to a diesel for some reason here, so it gets pretty bad. And Mimir, I live in Utah, and my neighbor owns his own shop and does do inspections and emissions. Believe me when I tell you that this state has some real screwed up laws. But they do give perks for clean burning vehicles. I just wish they would get it through their thick heads that ethanol is a horrible idea! our 2 vehicles run like crap on the 10% ethanol blended gas, the emissions are greater, and the millage sucks the big one as we lose about 50 miles per tank. And the drinking laws here are practically draconian. lol.. /end rant... and thanks for reading. (Note: This is a useful thread! I feel a little better about venting a little. )

To add to your discussion here, I am really sick of these people who cherry pick the fields. The least anyone could do is clear the field do it will respawn... That being said, if the cherry picking morons don't clear the field and one of us ethical miners comes along and finishes the field/hulks, why shouldn't we get the XP from clearing it? Its us, not the cherry pickers who are keeping these fields from regenerating. Also, we need more fields and the regeneration of these fields should be increased! Mining currently blows because of the reasons above, plus the lack of fields plus the miner 49'er are many now. Some of us choose to mine to help the builders fill their requirements to build components. I am tired of going the distance to high level fields, seeking high level ores or hulks only to find them emptied of anything of value and cherry picked. Hulk fields and roid fields should simply regenerate instead of waiting to be cleared by someone, and they should regenerate randomly and not in loops and circles as I have seen them planted. I believe you have this figured out in the code now, and I have offered my help in content dev to fix issues like this and rebuild sectors. This is not simply a rant but a former actual dev in RL and the Emu's past who is passionate enough about this game to see it improved. I am interested in sector content development in restoring them what was, and bettering them to their fullest potential. Thanks for reading. -Overt.

Maybe the best way to go since we do not have the amount of players as in live would be to restore the actual prices in loot, items, and ores. These shouldn't have been lowered in the first place. I used to hunt solo in VG with my JE when I needed cash, now its hardly worth anything short of tagging along with someone to Cooper or Antares. As I see it now there are the mega rich and then the rest of us. Have you ever tried outfitting a JE without raid money? Not everyone goes to raids all the time, and not everyone can solo huge mobs. Please restore the prices to as they were in live. Further, buffs as they stand should be fixed. In live, I remember hitting anyone with any activate buff I had whether I was grouped or not. Please try to take in account that there are not the same number of players there were in live. I used to like buffing the hunters that were near the risky areas I was mining. Thanks for reading. -Overt. Edit: Additional... Hulk fields have been sucking lately. The lvl 7 though 9 junk loot are currently worthless to vend. Landing struts, shield emitters, etc... Putting a higher price on these items would encourage players to finish off hulk fields so they would regenerate. I can tell that some do not respawn new hulks until the field is cleared. Another bad idea...! People cherry pick the good hulk fields, never bothering to finish them off since the stuff left is not worth anything. Make it worth the risk of mining these items, and people will empty them. Far better than coming up to a lvl 9 hulk with nothing in it but debris! It ticks me off to go out of my way to these fields to find them cherry picked and emptied of anything valuable.

The same goes for loot. I posted this in the mobs section... What players used to get for loot was a lot higher than in this incarnation. It wasn't unheard of for me in live to leave Varen's with 3-6 Mill in loot after soloing mobs there. Something should be done to correct pricing to realistic levels across the board IMO.

Something else to add as an idea... Would it be possible institute a system similar to Eve, where a builder can put what ores he wants into a market system at whatever price he is willing to pay? Thus miner 49er's could look at that whether the builder is online or not, and still get the guy his ores? Either that, or work on something along side the Net-7 DB that would have the same purpose? That way we could also track what is always in demand and look for those ores. This way also would negate any client limitations. On this subject, my vote is to keep the ability to strip ores from comps in place. If you think about what a builder already has to pay to do this between buying the comp to strip and the actual strip, he's paying a mint for higher level comps that contain the rarer ores. Thanks for reading.... -Overt

Something else to throw in on top of this dead horse... This idea may be nothing more to some than a way to stroke one's ego because of the sheer number of prints a builder has. I have witnessed many that are obsessed with getting missing prints, but build nothing to very little for other players. There a few great exceptions to this, like Lannister (and a few others), who are always at the ready and are willing to help people with their building needs. But there are those who merely collect the prints, and seldom build for even those in their own guilds. That being said, I don't judge how great a builder is by the number of prints he has, but rather by how he utilizes what he has for the greater good of everyone. Those who help others deserve this recognition a hell of alot more than the collector egomaniacs who only collect prints. Thanks for reading.

[quote name='Alessan' timestamp='1313866663' post='44962'] By chance if you guys are aware of the problem you could put it in the lauchnet7 window so we know you are already aware of the issue and we don't need to post it? Same when you are doing patches or content updates( http://www.net-7.org/launcherupdates/ ) [/quote] Seconded...! I asked this very question in TS a while back... Good idea!

And no one to be found in teamspeak either...

[quote name='Kenu' timestamp='1312861563' post='44488'] and it's up [/quote] Nope.. Still can't get in.

Yup... Mine has the rigor mortise at the map screen too... Its still broke.

[quote name='Smallyoda' timestamp='1312419541' post='43966'] Donated 10 bucks... Not a lot but if everyone does 10 bucks every 6 months they will have more than enough money to keep this thing going through the testing phase. 1000 members x10 x2 they get 20k a year.... some decent servers and bandwidth can be purchased with that. [/quote] I was thinking the same thing. Being a Systems Admin, I am curious to know more as to where the server is located (hosted), and what its specs are... It seems to run pretty decently from here in Utah.

[quote name='Kyp' timestamp='1312412246' post='43947'] Overtkill, No we are still pre-alpha, we do have downtime but they are getting considerably more rare each and every day. [/quote] I am well aware of the game status (Used to help out, remember?). I'm not knocking you guys at all. A short message saying you knew about the issue, and what was happening earlier would be helpful. I am simply amazed at how far you guys have really come with the game. Keep up the good work devs! You guys rock!

[quote name='Smallyoda' timestamp='1312420106' post='43969'] I would have to disagree. If you have two players in a field with slow tractor speed, and equalivent other skills and gear they get half each, if you speed up the tractor they both still get half each. Yes it means a solo player can clear a field and we used to be able to do that too. It just removes a bit of the time sink currently in the mining. The tractor beam used to be faster in live probably 50-75% faster, it takes so long to tractor an ore in that you dont bother starting to prospect the next item until the last ore is 90% of the way back to you or you drain your reactor waiting for the tractor beam to become available. Even with an increase tractor beam device it is still slower than live was The tractor speed used to be faster in the emulator as well when I played it 6 or 7 months ago iirc. [/quote] I concur with these posts. I had a new harpy made yesterday because of this very issue. And it was indeed slow even though I had the new harpy plugged in. Should be an easy fix though.

What? Does the server need to be bounced? Isn't it monitored by anyone? Now if I could only remember my new guild's WWW address... lol..