Mattsacre

What I don't get is what is "balance" on those turbo weap buffs? I hear primary warrior players saying turbo should be primarily warrior buffs (I have a warrior or 3), I hear non-warrior players saying they would like turbo also and its a rip that they got nerfed out (I have a few traders and explorers as well). I've seen no concise explaination from anyone on dev team why turbo for one type is not inbalancing but is for another, I understand completely the argument that if there is to much that is stackable that inbalances to the players advantage vs. mobs and they don't want the headache of having to retool all the mobs to account for it (or the lack there of).   Please explain, in little words, what is inbalancing about a non-warrior to get turbo to X amount for any reason other than because it's that way. What says that a warrior only gets this buff simply because they are warrior and non-warriors shouldn't have it? I know in some corners just that simple utterance is utter heresy, but why? Well because isn't a answer. We aren't 3 yr. olds being put off by a parent saying "because I'm the mom and I say so!" We are "hopefully" adults :)   The argument that "well warriors should do more dmg, because they are warriors and turbo lets them and nobody else should have it", is patently flawed logic and silly even on the face of it. Turbo only lets you do what you do, only a fraction faster. A PW with 6 slots of dps and it's combat enhancements (combat trance, crit target, sting etc.) is putting out that same amount..only faster! A JE with 3 beams is putting out their dps, with turbo, only faster. Turbo don't enhance shield leech, it don't enhance eviro shield, it don't enhance repulsor shield, it don't enhance menace, it don't enhance ahck, biorepression, befriend, gravlink, psi shield, summon anything other than WEAPON FIRE RATE.   A warrior will always fire better than a nonwarrior period. A warriors  combat enhancements , be they stealth strike, crit target or +% dmg etc. are built into their base dps and turbo only enhances it, in fact if you want to talk "balance" turbo at some point is "unbalancing" for them, a non warriors dps gap will only widen ever further for a warriors due to turbo, a non-warrior will have an artificial dps cap that a warrior will not have and the disparity causes inbalance.   If there were devices that let non warriors buff to say 100% resistance that a warrior could never get and never had placed on them, would that be "balanced"? That would let a non warrior tank with never a scratch, and eventually kill the mob that the warrior would be subject to all it's dmg. and never be able to handle....that's sort of what the "turbo only warrior" mentality is doing. I'm not arguing they should EVER be over shadowed by a non-warrior in their niche, I'm pointing out the flawed logic, turbo only enhances 1 thing ROF.   Warrior Base Dmg of  X + 20% turbo = X( X * . 20) = N1 Non-warrior without turbo is X1 non-warrior with turbo is X1 + 20% turbo = X1(X1 * .20) = N2   Even if you give non warriors the exact same level of turbo, N2 will never be greater than N1, because X starts greater than X2. If you don't give then the exact same turbo buffs then the disparity between N1 and X1 only gets wider and wider and breaks the game.

Not knocking your memory or your screenie Stanig:   The jobs out of VT (explore) netted a total of approx. 48k xp a run of (5x) (it fluctuated because of the actual 2 items you took gave a tad difference). The Exp quote didn't take into account the tad of trade xp you got. When combined they made that 48k (5x jobs). So that 7500 you remember 5x = 37500, add the trade xp and that sounds about right for 48k.   As to the credits awarded, your screenie show L100 jobs and the credits. The jobs out of VT gave enough credits, that with 5x jobs you got 60-70k, leaving you enough to give a WH providing JE 50k tip trip and still make a decent wage per hr. yourself.   The jobs however weren't grab n goers, if you were luck enough not to have to compete for the available jobs, optimally this is what occurred:   You could take 2 jobs, then a jobs accepted timer played in for 2 minutes, then you could take 2 more jobs, once again the timer kicked in, then you could take the 5th job and you were full, so a full jobs load took 4+ minutes to achieve if you didn't get stuck without a refresh etc. The jobs list refreshed approx. every 5 minutes.   Crunch the numbers..add travel time and WH time, docking time and terminal stall a round trip took approx. 10-15 minutes. Since the jobs now are grab n go, I imagine a little toning of the total xp is correct, haven't done a job yet since patch..anyone else? Are you getting 193k total xp an hr from max level jobs? That's about what a decent warrior should be to earn ion a hr if its done right and the loot drops are right. 1 mob at their level every 30-45 sec. for 1k xp, counting recovery time from fight (shields, reactor recovery) that's about 1 a minute =60+k in a hr. add the drops (if loot is right) you should get ~60k in trade= 120k xp. the jobs giving 193k would be optimal (they never refresh right, and there is always some wait) figure it a little down say 180k..there is a 60k discrepancy there.   So the terminals "should" give a "little" less xp total, the mobs "should" drop a little better, plentiful loot. And for the risk on the combat there should be  a little risk vs. reward of better pay. Since some of the drops (rare) go for millions there is, just how frequent that is though may be a problem.   *side note, the tad extra xp in explore on other jobs was because everyone but explorers had a hard time getting EL, that helped them out, the explorers had time getting trade, so explore jobs gave trade also. Perhaps with all the new sectors to explore and field clear bonus the explore isn't now as hard as before and the side xp provided by jobs can be eliminated and added back to the job taken type and be "pure" xp. Might that not mitigate all the complains a bit?

See that's sort of the point....it's a mission they are supposed to be able to do at their level with their skills. Not some other miners ores, not some other miners credits, not some other miners skills. Even if the other miner was nice enough to help (which is great btw..helping hands are happy hands). It shouldn't be dependant on another miner doing so. It's the mission takers mission, not someone elses.

Thanks for the post/rant 7Dragoon, this is another fine example of past posts of mine in other threads. Agrippa tips thread  probably is 1/3 full of my complaints or highlites of problems :) with content either not being consistant or out of level, or even mobs AI dynamics having changed to the negative impact of past written content.   There are actually 3 problems highlighted here, and you have touched on it well.   1. There is a "end content bias" problem, there are a bunch of folks with 150 toons (I'm one of them). Sometimes folks concentrate and get tunnel vision with their L150 and forget what it took to get there in the first place (and yes some had easy mode with a guild or something/someone holding their hands getting there). Unfortunatly there are those that are so raid centric that all they worry about is the new and shiny and what it takes for them to get what they want and never consider what it's like for others, the other players are "on the way" to end content and the L150's can't be bothered by anything but what it takes for them to get their  new and shiny, this is selfish and sad.   2. Content written out of context, content is written with level or skills or requirements not truly taken into consideration, that L9 grail water in a L5 device, with a L50 mission that requires at least half your levels invested in a bar (of which there are 3 bars not 2) is a good example of a inbalanced content write. Like Agrippa with drops that are out of loot progression level or ingredients that are acquired out of appropriate skill tier.   3. Alterations to mob AI, loot table alterations, resource field modification, or resists/buffs etc. after the content write, negatively impacting that content, with no content revision added to take those changes into account. If I remember that duct tape one right, way back when, you got the L9 grail from the rip, It was one of those "doable" missions at the level, but it was a credit sink. The Agrippa has had problems added into already a intended difficult mission arc with mobs that when the content was added were hard with rudimentary AI and no resists, now the mob is smarter and resists the dmg you have access to, the content hasn't been revised to take into account the current state of the game rather the state it was when written.   I don't know what the solution to the 1st one is other than patience, just understand that there will be people with that tunnel vision, and if you are someone at L150 try and remember what it was like getting there "walk in their shoes" and lend a hand if you can, be patient on not getting the new shiny, this game isn't all about you but the whole community, their contnent needs to be addressed as well not just the few at the end stuff.   The only solution to #2 I see is CDevs taking great care when writing it, and when testing and tweeking it don't take the lazy, run it solo with a "at level toon" that would actually be doing it, without the advantages of foreknowledge or endless credits or another higher level toon to help or even WH etc., do it with the type of gear off the shelf that a player might actually have instead of all 200% stuff etc. I might suggest that content that you actually intend to be a forced group to do (BTW I detest forced group content) actually say "you will need a group to do this" right at the beginning of any mission arc. It's a real let down and frustrating to get 4 missions into a arc and find out that the last mission is going to need you to scrap up a bunch of people to do, tell people up front so they don't get in that deep and get the door slammed on them.   The solution to #3 I think is that CDevs will have to revise now and then their content they sweated and worked so hard over. As game dynamics change their great content unfortunately get effected, maybe a review now and then is in order to tweak the perimeters that have been altered. *remember, don't re-tweak with a L150 toon! Run it with a "at level" toon with all it's limitations.   When all is said and done, this game is fantastic! But even the every day needs a spring cleaning now and then...   Keep up the great work!

You can, without a ticket get player help to solve your problem, otherwise it takes a ticket.   Player help solution: The named mob miner joe L24  at legrange nav in north west of carpenter. The named mob erm..arun? L25 at legrange nav in south (just south west of OMP)   Both of those mobs have a chance of dropping the infini report that you need to turn in for that mission, you of course will need to enlist a fellow player to help you kill those mobs since they will be over your experience level.   Whichever route you take good luck and take greater care in the future, since many mission have sellable items and you can screw them up that way, also make sure you have a slot or 2 open in hold when doing missions since a mission can screw up if you don't have room for the item to get loaded.   GL

Now see here is a fine example of a solution lacking a problem....     As SiSL says this opens up a whole slew of griefing possibilities (I think that can be worked around if the remains of the roid was treated as a corpse and then no others not grouped could ninja loot) But then it opens up a whole huge arena full of exploitation, namely, a high lvl toon mines clear a area and other grouped come pluck it up....being able to mine that is a reward for the work of leveling up, why should L0-120 toons be able to pluck up what a L135 toon does, they didn't do the time and effort...   It's been beaten to death, the horses corpse is not only dead, there are maggots crawling in and out of the rotted flesh, bury the freakn remains and stop flaying it....cherry picking is a game dynamic and is working as intended, you don't like it (heck, I wish I beat someone to the sweet loot myself) you don't have to like it, just live with it, it's something that is, and always will be WIA.   The only thing I take from this good is, if the roid breaks off "chunklettes", that you mine item X out and then it's lootable only by you and can be in the process of being tractored (or not) when you start breaking off another chunklette of items in the roid. That your mining beam isn't interrupted by tractor pull OR by mob dmg either. Once you finish breaking off that chunklette you can turn to killing the mob and either come back to loot your chunk or tractor it while you fight. This would eliminate the warp/drop loot dynamic of exploiting roid as well (many wouldn't like that I'm sure).   I don't quite get how it opens other options for pop rocks.. currently you poke a popmob/rock with a mining laser and they respond. Per your solution how does that differ? You poke them or enitiate some action on them and they still have to respond in some fashion.

Yeh about the "lazy miner" thing, we aren't asking for easy mode, not "lazy" by any means, any more than warriors are "lazy" killing CL50 mobs with a group of 6 are. In live there were a few spots were there weren't guards on fields, usually they were out of the way so it was a time sink to go vault them etc. Leave a few for the relax miners to enjoy and not guard ever freakn thing.   Also  Yendor was right, there were scads of fields were there were 1 or 2 guards of correct level, that once killed had a nice window before they returned, so you or a friend could clear them out and then (with always a eye on respawn) mine for a time without being hassled. Right now, guards have fast respawn rates, most like any other spawn lvling spot, if that was altered to a long respawn timer it wouldn't be so onerous, miners that were CL lite could play dodge em if they didn't want to kill them, and those that did could mine in peace for a bit.   for the warrior types that feel the miners are whiners and want it easy, maybe we should add mining to their combat, make them clean out 20 nodes or so of stuff while being disrupted by mobs, that they got no credits or loot that amounted to spit until they had emptied those nodes of junk first, of course the emptiing of those nodes would have to be intereupted in mid stream every time a mob nicked them just like miners have to put up with also....feel our pain before you dismiss opinions out of hand as "whining"

Hate guards at every field also, and for those that relax/mine there should be spots as well. Forcing players into a mold to mine isn't correct also, 7dragon freely admitted that they were CL lite and El/Tl heavy, they shouldn't be forced to group or Cl up to mine. Don't know much ideas on how to fight Botters if they are deemed to be a problem now, dragons idea about a report to be confirmed by GM has some validity, allowing botters to run rampant...I agree I feel a bit unconformtable about that, especially if its warping game.   My only idea for a fix: Design a mob like that yellow dragon thingy they had in live that popped up now and then in areas that people Botted for rep/loot, that when their bot auto targeted and shot it owned them. When they returned to check on their bot all they found was a smoking ruin and xp debt.   Design a resource node that is obviously not a node by a human eye, but by a bot appears as just another ore. When the bot opens up mine pane and starts mining, it aggroes it to a firey death for the mine bot. The player base can be warned that targeting that mob isn't death, but mining it is, beware! Then they will avoid mining it when it's in their mining window.   Just an idea, I loved watching bots in live when that yellow dragon swung through and all that was left behind was smoking ships :)

Well your response sort of makes my point. You had an opinion, I had a opinion. You found the things that bothered you and posted, most of it don't me and in fact find much of it actually improved things rather than RUINED it, I posted with concise reasons why I found it improved (or not).   A joke? I didn't intend a joke, I felt I was rather concise. Talking like you were a child? Hmm, your post seemed to me like, I don't like A,B or C it's ruining everything change it back now *stamps foot*!  "Ruining" because I don't like it! seemed childish, maybe I lectured too much towards that stance.   My opinion an actual miniority, hmm don't know, didn't take a poll, but seems to me..and of course it's based on nothing more than opinion, that there are far fewer fan base in the "hard core raider" category and far more in "getting there" category. There are less 150 all geared or near end gamers than otherwise. You like (per your post) the old raids with timers and drops etc. you seem to like (maybe not so, if I'm wrong, sorry) the  "good 'ol boy" network of the same 2-3 large guilds "owning" raids. We out here not of that group, actually like activated raids of course it just an opinion.   AA rarity..your opinion was they weren't rare enough, my opinion they are plenty rare enough, after 8 toons, over 5 months of play and only acquiring 1 L5 AA, seems rare enough to me *shrug*. Not having the actual DB stats before us to show the actual stats of how many AA are floating about we can only base it on opinion. You of course presented it as fact, one you didn't back up, it was of the category of "well everybody knows!" This "anybody" don't know, there are no facts in that assumption. Like I said if you felt you have too many, share them, let someone else enjoy them..barring that toss em and insure some more rarity.   Of course multiboxing is a preference! Like mining and building and jobbing and missioning is, some choose to do so, others don't. I fail to see how a single person with 3 toons linked is any different than 3 players with 1 toon grouped. How is it ruining the game, so 3 multied at a nav kill faster than you soloing, so would a group of 3 players, your argument boils down to " I don't like it, stop". You provide no evidence how multiboxing is ruining the game, you don't like it, that's an opinion.   I do acknowledge there are problems, I don't feel the ones you mentioned are as serious as you seem to think they are. I feel a few are actually trivial in fact, that they boil down to a opinion, there are things I don't like, but I don't go so far as saying they are ruining the game. They are an annoyance.   Close minded? Not hardly, disagreeing with you is not an indicator of closeminded, it's a indicator of a differing opinion. Gat a group of 15 people together and you will have 15 or more differing opinions, just because not a one may agree with you don't mean they are closeminded, I concede that given statistics it's probable that at least 1 is.   I feel I'm being a asset furthering the game, I pitch in. The game don't adhere to everything I wish it would, and it seems it don't to you either, but I don't take the stance that its ruined because I don't get my way.   Turn my attitude around and contribute to the discussion? Who is belittling whom? I disagreed with a few of your points, explained why I did, and offered a opposing view point. Because I don't agree with you lockstep, my "attitude" is wrong and I'm not "contributing" :) Hate to bring politics into this...but that's like the intolerant, "tolerant" leftists calling people names like " backwards or un-evolved " when all the "backward" individual did was disagree with them, when you have to label others for their differing viewpoint, you have lost the argument.   So take my "joke" as you will, because I have a different opinion does not make me less.

Right now the only thing to recommend a PS over a TS/JE is Call Forward. Everything else that a PS does explorer wise can either be done by another, even done better. The other 2 explorers have something(s) that most select over a PS..I mean WH, who don't want a WH explorer that don't need ammo and can cloak? :) TS..who don't feel the need for speed or the most efficient exchange rate of refining/trading? who wouldn't like to kite mobs when they are to buff? lol   Putting just those 2 things in: essence and gene maps as they were would really help..and if the content concerning maps/essence should be added/expanded that would really be a boon. Running a PS solo (without alts/multies) to support is near impossible, the ammo costs alone make it hugely hard, that's what the gene map reward was really about, covering expenses of being a PS. Further tightening the TT to a PS was the need for essence of various levels in builds (like profiler device for instance)

*sigh* I always love the "this game sucks because x,y,z isn't the way I want it" posts. Not.   Just because you feel triggered raid isn't to your liking... don't for a moment think that an exponential amount of other player's liking isn't true. It hasn't "kiiled" the raids, it's opened them up so that everyone can experience them if they so choose, not some select, elite few. The rarity of the drops for the trigger device you complain about? Odd, one breath you complain it's triggered not timed and it's taking the special uniqueness away do to commonality of it, but then in next breath complain that the rarity of drops is making it hard.. to you not see the illogic there? It's to common...but rare..can't be both :)   MMO thrive on end content...are you blind? End content driven MMO are always a troubled MMO...there are always the min-maxers at the end of content wave, and they're always wanting new shinies, those players, when they don't get the shinies the way they like or fast enough are cut-and-run players, they bounce for months on end and float to some other MMO for it's new shinies..they maybe come back when word of mouth gets to them, that there is a major content patch. What are they "contributing" to a MMO by their absence? Nothing. So the Devs are always under pressure on those MMO to make new and ever increasing shinies for the short attention spanned MMO jumpers, all that effort wasted on them that could go to making other players experience better. So you have what 10% (at best) of a player base driving the effort and wave of content, that the other 90% NEVER have a shot in hell of catching up to. When they finally get to that stage it's a ghost town, those "oh look..shiny" players can't be bothered to extend a hand to those other players, after all they are off chasing new shiny.   Make tado back to timed...have you even looked at the page after page of just why people DON'T want timed raids and want a activated raid? Most of us are just a bit older than the former teens we were, we have jobs, and kids, and spouses. We can't depend on mommy and daddy paying the bills so we can stay on line for days to do a timed raid. The whole point of writing content is so that someone (hopefully everyone) can actually experience it. With the majority of the fan base having RL limitations on their time, they will never get to experience that content without it being activated.   AA rarity...hmm you must be really lucky or an exaggerator, I don't know anybody with a vault full of them, with all the mining I do I have run into exactly 1. That's 1 in 6 months? I found them live like 1 every few months.. I'm mining about as much as I did then.  If you do have a lot of them, kindly tell me where you are getting them, I'm obviously doing it wrong :). If you feel there are to many, then by all means pass them along, let someone else enjoy them instead of gathering dust in your vault, if your actual complain is there are to many floating about for your taste, there is a simple expedient you can be proactive on, destroy them...there ..at leat that many isn't floating around... I'm sure that will make you feel better. hehe   Multi-boxing is "ruining" it . You don't want to multi-box, then don't. Maybe someone else derives pleasure from multiboxing, is it really my call to tell them they can't? No, you play your way, they will play their way, and I'll play my way...if you get some urge to tell me how to play, stifle your urge.. I'm not poking through your trash, looking over your back fence, looking in your windows kindly return the favor and mind your own damn business, your game play is yours, mine is mine..... butt out.   "But I don't like that they can "solo" stuff with a multibox". Notice the noun there? " I " it's your feelings, if it's a problem, it being you with the problem, it's you. Maybe someone likes to multi, maybe they were driven to it from desperation, maybe it isn't all or part multiboxed.  Maybe they are a hermit or antisocial, heck maybe they can't speak English. You don't know and once again, it's none-of -your-freakn-business! For the record I like to group sometimes, sometimes I don't, sometimes I multi, sometimes I don't. And not one minute of me not or doing a multi "ruined" the game. It's in your mind, alter your perception and you will be a happier person.   Raids need to be harder...hmm once again illogical. You don't like the drop rarity etc. Isn't that in it's self "making it harder"? It once again boils down to perception, you perceive that the raid isn't hard enough, well maybe you being on the leading edge of content have all the shinies that makes it easier for you, perhaps for another that don't have all that, it's a much harder raid. Maybe you being that hard core raider with a select group of fellow raiders really are that good and it's a breeze for you, especially of your group is geared and had the past experience of the raids knowledge to help you....ever think that maybe someone new to the raid might have a tougher time of it?   So, an idea: for the "make the raids harder" crowd. How about a "tour of the raids" raid that's timed? Call it something like "defending the universe" raid. You have to do X,Y and Z raid(s) to get the opportunity to run a "elite" raid, that's timed and can only be done once before have to run the cycle of raids again to reset your opportunity. Would that be hardcore enough for you? It would be timed (for that crowd), and time consuming (for that crowd), By virtue of having to do the prerequisite other raids it would be rare (for that crowd) and the raid itself you would need the stuff and tactics learned from other raids (for that crowd) and for those that complain there is to much "rare loot from raids" floating out there, that having to run the other raids to reset it, and timed should constrict access enough to make loot extremely rare for that crowd).   I'm not trying to flame or attack anyone with this, but time and again people post the game is ruined, simple ruined because of A,B and C. When in reality it isn't ruined. Maybe it's not exactly how they want things to be..but then what in life runs just like you want it? Most of these types of posts are a misperception on their part, they are slightly irritated by something and over react because it's well ruined don't you know >.<

JE couldn't pull it, they could see it, so could everyone else. The mine effect you remember was if PS were refining or distilling it (I.E. stepping up the essence lvl), pulling it without doing that was a instant looting, refine/distill just added a second or so to the loot, it didn't use reactor or get disrupted when moving or taking a mobs hit.   I remember when my guild was getting set to do the linked RD in inverness for feathers etc. They were killing the manes at hasters point and the corpses were piling up while we waited for group assembly, they asked my little PS in to clean out all the essence and refine it for them for their alt PS's to use. It was a good source of trade xp and explore xp when refining essence.

You could have the ammo dropped in hulks in the same sector of the boss and not throw stuff off that way...could be like..unexploded ordinance in the hulks of the ships the boss killed..

Apple is made in USA. China bought us when we borrowed money from them, the terms of the loan was secured with land. Since China owns USA..we are China...so apple is made in USA :)

That line, if it's the build engines chain (the one from the npc in the lounge) should inevitably end up through whatever talk tree you take to her knowing you're stalling her, she points out that its to late and she already has the engine built, after which you go break the news to the npc in the lounge and they break out in hysterics then resigned compliance. They send you to I think Judy Bristol in Earth station, (the build npc there), can't remember if they send you with an item or not..someone else answer that one.

Was doing L48 RD in cooper for the testing of Agrippa stuff, have a L150 PW doing it, he had L9 gear (shield, reactor, guns) and it seemed that he never resisted menace..not once. Menace hit every time and his L9 guns didn't break the skill, (neither did skills interrupt it...GL, enrage, shield sap, devices) any and all combinations.   It's max menace so turn and run with no other actions, however it's only like 5 sec. so not as long as a PS's menace.   I know that damage is supposed to interupt it now and then, and figure a L150 PW ought to be able to on a lower lvl RD.... I distinctly remember that skill+dmg had a cumulative disruption chance and even more so with + device mixed in.   This may be due to the skill timer, almost every skill (both player and mob) had a activation timer and enough dmg, skill and device hits within that timer disrupted it. The mob menace timer seems to fire off real fast, you barely see the bar before it's firing off. Of old dmg types did disrupt or slow down the skill firing, Chem had a "stutter" effect, it didn't keep them from firing the skill on it's own (skill+ device paired with chem usually did) but it increased the fire time for the mobs skill fire.   If, as you say, there is supposed to be a resist chance, with the L48, 46 and 40 you would think I would have resisted at least once in the 35ish of them I killed, and more importantly disrupted it firing with dmg and skill...considering enrage is specificly to get them agroed on you and "forget" to use a skill.

That something new you put in? I sent a mail to another of my toons to test it and it didn't show that...does it have to be from another account maybe or perhaps it was a refresh thing.   Even with that, a good percentage of people never access the home page *shrug* that's them. Even more don't use the forums (that's well known). So if people are trying to use the home page and builder list to aquire a build, it don't do them squat if the builder in question isn't one to check home/forum pages....it's the nature of things.   Other than that "message" thing I don't see a way around that, it is what it is.   Just like I keep 2 e-mail accounts, one is for family and secure business, the other is for everything else, I only access that 1 time a month (if that), and mostly it's so full of spam crap that I toss almost all of it. That's sort of the nature of the home page mail, if they never go through there they aren't getting it, it's basicly spam.

Well I don't have physical proof....and my memory sometimes plays a trick or two. But someone that was prebeta to sunset and practicly lived more on the game than RL might remember something right....but here goes:   SD never had a RTB function in Old Live (tm)...never.   The only RTB it had was a actual true tow. You had to be incapped and take a tow, not a fake incap.   When you punched SD it had a count down of 10 and actually started showing numbers over your ship starting at 8, most but certainly not all mobs tried to scramble away from you and get out of the blast radius. (any mob that had enrage on them usually didn't run) They did not stop firing at you as they fled if they had none directional fire (i.e. missles, shield inversion etc.).   The SD was cancelable by pressing the button a second time, but was subject to a 1 minute CD timer to re-engage.   You did not have to remain stationary to activate it, but you became immobile after it exploded. It reduced your reactor and your shield to zero, but not any hull you had prior to explosion, so if you activated it with full hull, you still had full hull after engaging it (minus any DoT or none direction fire you were taking at the time of activation.)   It did not immobilize you the full 60 sec. they are now putting in, it was actually half the re-engage CD...i.e. 30 sec. and after the 30 sec. your reactor/shield began recharging at its normal rate established prior to the SD activation. (i.e. buffs didn't wipe)   The damage dished out was a static amount per level + random bonus amount (based on the pool of your reactor) and could crit a mob. The damage dished out increased with ea level and also had a larger radius at upper tiers (most of those mobs running could get out of low tier range, but unless they were real fast they didn't get out of upper tier range.   Now about Now Live (tm), it has been repeatedly said that "this isn't old live, we will do what we think works better if we feel the need". If this change is somehow trying to be true to Old Live (tm), that argument don't fly due to past statements and stances. However, I personally don't have a problem if this is the new "balance" they feel is needed to preserve a JD only skill for New Live (tm), just don't use the "this is the way it was" argument, that flies in the face of past decisions and hypocritical.   Which leads to the PS stuff...Old Live (tm) if you ARE actually trying to preserve it as it was long ago....   PS unique stuff, you can't say you are preserving a JD only thing and then say PS don't get PS only stuff. (well you can, but then that's a mixed back of crap your asking folks to eat isn't it? )   PS were the only ones that could turn in gene maps to the repository. The maps paid good money to the PS and gave them sabine rep as well. They didn't get XP for them, they got credits/faction. The upper end ones were in the millions of credit ea. The L8 was 2m credits and the L9 was even more. This was a item for story line and to help PS offset their ammo problem. PS can't build their ammo, however they go through copious amounts of ammo, especially at the upper end. Since they couldn't build their own ammo, they had to beg others to build it for them. The gene maps having to go through them to be cashed in gave them a in with ammo builders, most often if the PS supplied his ammo parts (or ores for PM comps) the builders would engage in quid pro quo, ill eat the button costs on the ammo, if you go trade in my gene maps for me and give me the proceeds. It worked.   PS still have to beg ammo builds, now TS do also, however TS have negotiate to offset their enitial costs of comps, PS don't. The gene maps have been dumbed down currently, and everybody and his sister can trade them in for a bit of centriata and sabine rep, xp and credits. The credit return is paltry currently, the gene maps never gave centriata nor xp.   The PS were the only ones that could loot manes essence, they were the only ones that could fit concentrators and refiners as well, to step up the level of the essence. Currently  (just like the gene maps) everybody and their cousin can loot it, nobody can concentrate it. While everyone could see the essence in a manes corpse, only the PS could pull it. All the upper tier mining devices and distillers the PS had access to, had essence and refined essence in their device recipe. So, nobody can manufacture a distiller, since they can't refine the essence to build it with.   There was storyline and missions for PS concerning the essence, it was a side line of them exploring and improving the progen genome.   If the new party line is, that we need to stay true to the PW SD skill of old, to preserve JD uniqueness, then kindly do the same for other classes, be true to their uniqueness as well and restore their niche of functionality, return the PS only gene maps, restore the PS only essence gathering!   JE would like to have their  unique compulsory contemplation.....   /my 4 cents (inflation you know :))

The mail thing, tried the mail (not item send) the other day for first time. It is rudimentary at best. if you send a portal mail to someone they never get it unless they actually click on the characters name and do a mail search. how many actually is anything more than DB or account vault or flow through to the forum? Nobody clicks on their toons info page, unless they do they will never know they have mail for that toon.   So for someone to look up on the DB and get a builder, then try and contact them, unless the builder knows someone sent them mail they aren't clicking the toon mail.   I there was some way to notify them that one of their toons had a mail so that they could actually go click toon info page and retrieve it, or actually some way to consolidate it to the account and notify them, then it is actually a near useless service. I seriously doubt there is a way to deliver it to client or even send a notice via the "message" key in game, since that seems to be a client alter. But could there be a way to use a linked account check and send a mail notice to the main forum account? Even if you can't consolidate it to the forum....can it at least give of "you got mail on toon X"?   About the follow thing Algaron says...I know its a client mod and a nono....but in EVE that was one of the true joys of combat that I loved, the variable follow range scale. You could have a preset range for your ship, and with a little tweaking alter it on the fly, that way you could attempt to stay in optimal range for weapon type, or a flight n flee range etc. Many would be in sure heaven if the follow range was alterable :)

Well most other skills in this game have some devicage that improves its hit chances or effectiveness, I'm not going to say that this skill shouldn't also have something. But consider , yes 25% can be huge, another 10% even more so, but it's not just the shield cap thing you know, look at his screenie there and see. +10% to all resistances, so a +5% or more would also be very important. The increase in shield charge rate also can be situationally huge, +20% at that level means your shield self heal 20% faster. In a group that could be the difference if the healer uses a targeted heal (less agro) or a area heal (much more agro).   Outside a group that buff lets whomever fighting to get back in the action 20% faster, not even mention all the devices that play of shield recharge rate...PS have a bunch of shield rate buffers and several BOOST!, those BOOST increase a heal rate for 10ish sec in large percentages, with a TT buff on them that would be a net increase in that time frame. Think of warrior heart reactors...that swaps shield recharge rate for reactor juice by exponential amounts...that buff effects that. etc. etc.   So a device out there that gives a skill a little love that hasn't to this point...don't see the problem, it at least will be more worthwhile than a befriend buff :)

They don't list the prints for a reason, several of the missions that you learn the recipe from are like this:   Go get some L6 parts from ce3k,focus,evolver,nebula,black box and k3 and bring them back. Now go put them in your hold and go to VT nav that's radiated. (some of the parts will dmg or destroy). Return to npc and the 3 of the  part types that are undamaged he says will be what we need for the recipe. If they list all the recipes that you get, you could look up what the item is, see what's in it and not buy 14 different L6 parts to lose all but 3 of (and have wasted all those credits and time gathering them). You wouldn't get to "experience" the "joy" of Agrippa "research" if you know what's coming.   They want you deliberately ignorant of: A. all the resources you need in advance so you can preplan. B. just what the eventual rewards are, you are suppost to "discover" them C. what credit/time sinks are built into it (to keep you from short cutting via market or alts)   So I would imagine if someone listed all the recipes for you, that  thread post would be deleted. The only thing I can suggest to help a tad if you are masochist enough to start it, is that when you go to something that they require you to build for a recipe, that sometimes you can look it up on the DB to get a clue what you are going to need...so if you are making a L5 shield for instance you can look on DB under L5 shields and see the one with a weird latin name and get a good idea what you are going to need etc.

Can't remember what the actual debuff was , someone that's numbers cruncher or access to the code will have to tell you that, but GL5 is comparable  to a L5 device, paired with a taniwa (L5 loot device) that stacked, you got around in debuff what a L9 was for other debuff devices..somewere in the 55-60% range like a basilisk L9 or a chimera L9.   As to the effects other than debuff impact/explosive, yes it's a effective tool, especially while kiting or mob crowd control, now that it actually does agro when you hit it, it is also a decent pulling method. It debuffs mob for maneuverability while slowing their thrust as well, so a terran loves it becuase they dodge missles less, they do more dmg with explosive missles, can kite more effectively when its a fast mob, as a jenquia they also should like it, the number one tactic of a jenny is cloak and get behind a mob, and shove some plasma/energy up the mobs tailpipe, while it don't increase energy/plasma, it does widen the window of engagement for a jenny, the mob being less maneuverable take much longer to turn around and return fire to jenquia if they should  gain agro from the progen.   Yeh the 3 device slot is the burden for a PW, as many active buffs as you can get you do before wading into combat. You almost always want a ivory ward when you actually fight, as well as something that buffs combat trance. good thing sting and other items are activated buffs you buff up and switch devices, having something that increases engineering helps in speeding up this process, it cuts down in the online time for equipping items.

Yes, that sort of highlights what I'm saying don't it? It is suppost to be A....singular....1... PP testing a L8 PL, A, singular, 1 PP can't do it solo, not even if they get someone to make them chem/basilisk they are stuck if they don't go to 150 and get L9 skill of gear. The chem ammo for the L8 PL don't come in until after this stage, so they can't be truly having it without "cheating". And by going to all L9 gear/PL is also "cheating", and as the talk tree is also sending the PP alone to test it, grouping is also "cheating"   I finally did it with all L9 gear/ L150/L9 PL and a L150 JE along for buffs...It was hard and took 2 days to do it, since the 53 are clumped in with the 51s and you don't just kill 1 blight. you got to kill 1 blight, then 3 blight, then 5 blight, then 7 blight and then 9 blight. If you get DCed on any of those steps you back to 0 in that stage (I did, 2 times  :/) so the 25 I would have had to kill turned into like 35, that's why 2 days since the kill rate was real slow, and it took 2 1/2 full cargo holds of ammo to do it, (had to go to OMP to refill like 3 times..add that travel time back and forth).   I'm not saying it should be easy, but astengu are all buffed up now 51 are way out of line for this, the L45 or 47 are more inline, especially since the previous steps are L42 RD and only 5 of them. 45/47 tengu with all their tricks is appropriate, especially if you have to drop 25 of them.   edit: that and the PW(that kill much more efficiently) that are testing the L8 gear (shields/reactors) are killing L50 mobs in niff and L50 tengu..the L50 fish are the high end mob were they are, and much less nasty than the L51 (the L50 fish only neighbors are lower lvl) and the L50 in niff are solo mobs (although they are a slow spawn rate) you don' have to kill their neighbors, but if you want, they are much lower level and fairly easy.   My whole point is, "in game items" have now began to negatively impact content written in ST4, what was appropriate for ST4 is not now, and perhaps a retuning of what is now currently appropriate be applied. Go try and solo kill a L51(mixed in with L53) fish with L8 gear/guns and impact ammo and tell me if I am off in my assessment, oh and add the fact that you have to do that at a minimum of 25 times to your own calculations.

your memory is correct, PP last device slot at 135

Kk , now the weapon mission line may have to be retuned because they have significantly enhanced L51 blight tengu. When a PP is sent out to "test" the L8 PL they are paired up against L51 blights and in multiples to get a drop from them. A at level PP can not do a L51 @ L8 guns.   A.They either have to go all the way to 150 and get L9 guns/L9 shield/L9 reactor and only equip 1 L8 fletchette and 4 L9 PL (kind of out of the spirit of the idea of testing a L8 gun if they need L9 skill with all the L9 gear to do so).   or   B. Gather up a group of other players well over their level @ L8 guns/ L8 gear to guard them and hold their hand while they kill the L51 and gather the drops. (really? You need a group of people over L8 gear to protect a progen who is testing a L8 gun....that seems a little bit redundant)   I remember doing the ST4 version of this, and a L8 PL wielding PP could do it with a little caution and some good effort, but like I said the tengu have been altered since then. For one thing they now have their impact resist in, they are highly resistant to impact, of which at the point of weapon test L8 fletchette a PP only has impact to load into them, it's later that they get chem to feed and would have a shot with a chem/basilisk mix. The tengu now have their suite of nasty tricks like gravlink, menace, better scan and now are clumped up with several L51 and a few 52-53 also. Even a very L9 geared PP is going to have to take care on L51 blight now.   Might I humbly suggest trimming down the CL to a L45 tengu for L8 PL test? Those tengu still have resists and tricks at L45 so a PP with care is still going to have a fight of it. And if they want to go the group route they can take on the L51 with their increased drop rate of the drop item.   I tested trying it with a L143 PP (so to have L9 shield) grouped with a L150 JE with plasma beams/coma/L8 shields etc. With them multi boxed and on a L51, despite several different tactics tried, I could never get the L51 blight under 2/3 shield. And had my PP disabled 2 times doing so.