Lars

Hello, The only problem right now is there is no way to put stuff in the hulks. What I want to do is to make up different lists according to the sectors the hulks are in, kind of like the ore list I make for each field. That way Terran hulks would have terran related items, Jen sectors would have Jen stuff and so on. Also, we need a way to organize the items so that lvl 1 things are not put into lvl 9 hulks and lvl 9 ithems in lvl 1's. The best way to do this is just make the ore editor susport hulks & items like it does the ores. As to the pop rocks, I have some ideas on these and I have already stated some of them. I agree that no pop mob should ever be over cl 45 as 75% of you miners are rarely over that themselves. I do like the idea about "Friendly mobs" and would like to see a version of that done if possible. If not we will live, but I have talked to some of the players about it and they really like the idea. I want to make mining as much fun a combat if possible. Adding as much to that area of the game will not only help out the mining end, but the game as a whole. Combat is easy, Ammo up and go kill things. Mining if done right can be a interesting part of the game. Right now I got alot of players excided about the mining side and want to keep them excided and by adding some fun stuff to it will be greatly excepted by the players. I already have a cool friendly mob picked out, but will wait to tell you if indeed it can be done. TTYL :-) Merlin

Hello, Ok so can I or we start placeing hulks in the fields? Does the ore editor now susport this? I will most likely start working on the Terran sector in the next day or as I am still running around checking out the ore fields. I will say that the problem with the large ore fields (75+ rocks) giving you a neg field clear bonus should be fixed now. I did find or should I say someone else found a field with lvl 2 Helium in it which was an over site on my part. As soon I am sure everything is A-O-K I will get back to the grind. TTYL :-) Merlin

Hello, Ok, I will try to answer to what I believe will happen when pop rocks will go in. 1st, you can kind of use the job mobs as a guide as to when pop rocks will go in. I think once they get all be bugs out of job mobs then someone will work on pop rocks. I am sure anyone who plays runs into someones job mob that is just wonderiing around with the player that spawned it log or kicked off. I find these every day, try to pm the player and who rarely there and then kill it. Now lets say pop rocks are now being put into the game. I too like these little bundles of fun as I have always been one who does ballance out the lvl's so I could deal with what ever "Pops" up. Here is what I think the pop rocks should be like: 1. To make it easy on the programmers at the start would be to just use a simple rule as to the lvl of mob vrs lvl of rock. Something like 5 cl's pre lvl of poping rock. Example: lvl 5 rock pops, lvl 25 mob comes out, lvl 9 pops a lvl 45 comes out. 2. In the ore sector editor I use to place ore fields in the sectors has a setting as to the % of rocks that will be poppers. Right now I have set most all of them to 0 since pop rocks are not in the game yet. Once David or Tienbau programs them in I will talk to the other Dev's/GM and most importainly the players to get an idea what would be the best settings to use. I know when I am useing the sector editor some people set the pop rocks to 50% which is silly and others set them to 0, so you see there is a wide range of what some people think it should be set at. 3. If I remember right didn't pop rocks move just a little bit? I think that pop rocks should look just like the other rocks in that there is a suprise factor involed here. Other wise you will come across fields with nothing in them other then pop rocks. The way the fields are setup now is that once the last rock is pulled the respawn timer starts so you can see the problem. 4. As to "Cherry pickers", I do not and have never cherry picked in the game both in live and here. I do not like this way of mining and will work with David on the best way to deal with these players. Sure there is no "Writen" rule to this, but there should be. One idea is that if someone does cherry pick and not pull all the ores out of a rock is to give that rock say a 50% chance of coming alive and popping! The only example of where I think Cherry picking is ok is if you need something for a mission. I believe the progans need to get something on there hull upgrade missions so in this case Cherry picking is ok. Don't worry this is just my opion and I will go with what ever the masses agree to. So don't worry, I will not wake up one day and say to myself, "Self, lets mess up the players and change it just because I think it needs changed"! 5. I think if a rock pops and the player runs away or just gets booted (I know, never happens right?) that the mob should just become part of the field and hang around. Someone will kill it anyway and since I put guard mobs in the fields acording to lvl of ore anyway it should not be a big deal to just let the mob hang out in the field. 6. Now for the "Merlin factor" and to give David a headack. What if there was a chance that when a rock popped that the mob that came out became you friend? It would just follow you around until you either gated, WH'd or logged off. This idea came to me the other night when a GM & I had some fun and spawned a couple of mobs and just followed a player around. I know, bad Dev/GM, but heck we need to have fun too. So here is an example: Rock pops and there would be say a 10 to 25% chance that it would be a frieldly mob that pop's. Lets also say that this frieldly mob is a lvl 60 to 66. It would just follow you around and keep you safe in the sector until you leave. Now once you did leave the sector the mob would just vanish. Another way you could deal with ending this friendship would be to click on this mob and say something like "Ok, I have to go now" then the mob would say goodbye, go puff and in it's place would be a parting gift. I know, wishfull thinking right? :-) Ok, that is about all I can come up with at the moment where pop rocks are concerned. We can chat about it for now, but when they are ready, they will work on them so just sit back and be happy in knowing that one day the pop rocks we all know and love will be back in the game at some point! TTYL :-) Merlin

Hello, Since the push did not go thru like I was told it would I went ahead and finished Regnarok which was the last sector in Aragoth. Here is the updated Orelist ORELIST.TXT With finishing this sector I will now be moving on to the Terran sectors and hopefully with the next push will have them done. Sorry about the confussen and at this moment the push has not happened yet, but should at any time. Once they push the new data to the play server all the changes I made will take affect. Happy hunting! TTYL :-) Merlin ORELIST.TXT

Hello, As promised, I am attaching a report of what sectors I have done and which sector the ores are in. I tried to post the report in this message but looked like an untrained monkey did it! I will say that the sectors as far as the ore fields go's will look a bit different. Here are some simple rules to follow when it comes to the sectors I have done: 1. Each field has only one (1) class of Rock in it. The classes are Asteroids, Crystals, Glowing Rocks, Gas Clouds & Hydrocarbons. The reason for only having 1 class pre field is to make it easier for the players to get clear field bonuses. 2. Different fields will sometimes over lap each other. If you see different classes of rocks it meens there is more then one field. 3. All group members now get field clear bonus, but not empty rock bonus. 4. Ore field mobs are now navtive to sectors! Also mobs are more ballanced for the level of a ore field. You will find some fields still have Manes, but not many. 5. Lvl 2 Helium should not be showing up in the sectors I have done unless it is a lvl 2 or 3 Gas Cloud. If you find any lvl 2 Helium where it does not belong please tell me when you can. 6. Remember, this is just a list of the sectors I have completed! You will still find these ores in the other sectors as you always have. Ok that is about it. Again sorry I could not post the report, but you would problie want it on your computer anyway. TTYL :-) Merlin FORMS.TXT FORMS.TXT

Hello, Ya maybe, but take it from someone who does alot of building, I don't make alot of engines and maybe only 4 or 5 aweek. I was just trying to come up with a way to use the many stacks of gas ore I get when I go out and mine. In about 2 or 3 hours I can get ove 100 of most all lvl 5 to 9 gasses in the game. I know it doesn't look like this idea will fly as alot of players are not excided to alot of changes or new things. I tryed to start a contest awhile back where I was putting together a prize package to give to the winner. It was going to be where the 1st player to get a PS to lvl 100 without doing any hull upgrades & could not group. Man, you would have thought I just told everyone that the server just blew up again! I know most players do not like any type of change and that is too bad. I like to try new things in both real life and in my game life. Heck my wife & I are going to learn how to scuba dive this summer and I am 52 & she is 51. About the only thing I will never do and anyone who does it has a few brain cells missing is bungy jumping! No way I would ever trust a bunch of rubber bands to keep me alive! lol TTY: :-) Merlin

Hello, Ok all you lucky players it is time for another installment of "What did Merlin do today"! I got 3 more sectors finished and they are: Nifleheim Cloud, Slayton & Grissom Planet. All is going well and Tienbau got some stuff fix that was messing up, so, now each field will have 3 lvl's of rocks/clouds in them. Each rock will have that lvl in which it is and 1 lvl lower. This applys to all the fields except for the fields that are classified as lvl 9 which for some reason drop 2 lvl's below, but I am happy with that. I did have to go back thru all the sectors and add in lvl 6 stuff to them, but it wasn't that big of a deal. Anyway, I think I will log on the play server and throw yellow Asteroids at the players before I go to bed. TTYL :-) Merlin

From what I remember you only got the prototype items out of ores/hulks. Not sure about the ores in hulks but debree was the most common item in a hulk. Each item can be given a % value just like the loot drops and it should be possible to say make a lvl 4 Briton eng at 25% and say a Cygnes express eng at 1% As to the graveyard idea my lips are sealed! Lets just say there will be very lucky exployers out there! I want to make it worth while to do some exployering in the game once you have gotten all the navs. One idea I am toying with is to have so called graveyards that once found and pulled they are gone. Then other graveyards will pop up from time to time. Kind of like an Easter Egg hunt so to speak. TTYL :-) Merlin

Hello, Well in a way it is, but it would come off a list. You see for each field I do I put in an ore list of minerals for the server to use. So you could say it is a controled random! The way it will work for hulks is to give it a certin % chance that it will put something into a hulk other than that exciding debree. What I would like to see is that it pulls from the whole item database and it would depend on the hulk lvl. Lets say it is a lvl 5 hulk and the % was say 5%, there would be a 5% chance of being any lvl 5 device, weapon, shield, reactor, engine in the game. I know there has also been talk about making it race depend it, but I like the idea of using all the items in the game. TTYL :-) Merlin

Hello, Oh ok, I remember those now. I know they will be going back into the game at some point, but not anytime soon. I think the V'rix need to be put in first if I rember right, but could be wrong. TTYL :-) Merlin

Hello, At the moment there is no way to put anything in the hulks (David needs to program the tool to do it). Ok, I have to ask, what is AA? TTYL :-) Merlin

Hello, The part of too many types of ore has been changed. I have split up each lvl of ore into 2 groups so that miners will be able to mine longer without have to run to the station all the time. This also makes it easier to go find sertin types of ores also. As to your problem with Arduinne, are you also clearing out the hulks in the field? They are part of the ore field and have to cleared along with the clouds. I know, don't say it, "Why did they put so many hulks in the field"! Answer is I do not have a clue, but that will change when I get to that area. Hope this helps. TTYL :-)

Hello, As most of you know I am in the proccess of going over all the sectors in the game and working on the ore fields. I have had an idea I have been toying with and after chatting with someone in the game decided to bring my idea you the players. Here is my idea. As most of you know gasses you mine are just for getting ex and money, but what if there was a way to make them even more useful? My idea is to make your toon ship use refined gas as fuel! The lvl of gass needed would depend on the lvl of engine you had installed on your ship. If you had a lvl 5 engine you would need lvl 5 gas. Now since there is mostly 2 or 3 lvl's of gass per lvl of ore you could have different grades of gas like in real life. Let take lvl 9 gas as an example: You have Noxion, Pagion & Etherion You could make Noxion as low grade lvl 9 gas, Pagion as med grade gas & Etherion as high grade. The better the grade the longer it would last. All the details could be worked out later, but you get the idea. Now you are saying, ok Merlin, lets say I run out of gas. Well as it was put to me, "You are now running on fumes" and your speed both warp & impluse would be cut in half! I personlly think it would put a nice twist on the game and make mining gas more useful then to just do it for ex & money which we all know there is alot of money in the game now. Now this is just an idea and if it is a stupid one I will just lower my head and go sit in the corner and go back to my ore fields. I would love to hear your resopnce to this idea and if it is something alot of you would like then I will see what can be done. TTYL :-) Merlin

Hello, Ok, it is time for my nightly player update as to what I got done today. I finished sectors VT, Odin Rex & Shepard today. So that brings the total sectors done to 10. They are: VG, Glenn, Fenris, Carpenter, Freya, BBW, Jotunheim, VT, Odin Rex & Shepard I do want to keep all of you updated as much as I can as to how the ore fields are coming along. I feel it is importain to stay in touch with each other as after all it is all our game right? I am hopeing to be finish with Beta Hydri, Aragoth & Smugglers Run by the end of the weekend. I have 10 more sectors to do and then will either start on the Terran or Jen sectors next week after I touch basis with the team leaders. I will be leaving the Progen sectors for last since Mr By is still doing his missions and I want to wait for him to finish before invading his space. I have been having fun doing the ore fields and I have been trying to make each sector different from the one before. An example of this is Jot. Without letting the cat out of the bag I did something to Jot alittle different and want to see how you all respond to the change. I am trying to make each sector a good place to mine with new places to find and make the game interesting for those of you that might be stuck on auto-pilot. Also, one of my plans is that once all the sectors are done, lets say once a month or 2 is to move some of the fields around to make things interesting again. Ofcourse the main fields will stay put, but you never know that field you know so well may just get sucked into a wormhole and come out on the other side of the sector! <Evil Grin> lol TTYL :-) Merlin

Hello, Ok, time for my nightly update. I finished sectors Freya, BBW & Jotunheim tonight. So the sector finished are: VG, Glenn, Fenris, Carpenter, Freya, BBW & Jot. I spent a bit of time on Jot and I think you all will like it. There is 2 nice hidden lvl 9 fields there and I put 3 large rings of Asteroids around the center planet that blends in with the rings that are there now. Tien showed me how to throw big rocks at players so I think I will spend the next hour before crashing running around in my dev toon and throwing rocks at players! Hey, us dev's have to have some fun don't we! TTYL :-) Merlin

Hello, Just a quick update. Ok, I am now done with VG, Glenn, Fenris & Carpenter! I am starting on Freya now and after done with that sector will be all caught up and can start on new sectors. Now remember, you will not see any of these changes until David does the push to the play server. TTYL :-) Merlin

Hello, Well we just might have the lvl 2 Hel gass problem figured out. In a nut shell it was a case of the left hand not know what was in the right hand! I will try to explain the best way I can. I put together a database of my own of all the ores in the game and put them into 5 areas: Asteroids, Crystals, Gasses, Glowing Rocks & Hydrocarbons. I did this according to different websites and what the icons showed as far as the type of ore it was. Then I put them or most of them into 2 sub groups so to split up the ores into the different sectors. Now the problem is that the websites and the server database do not have the ores listed quite the same, so when it was looking for one type of ore and found the wrong type according to it's own database it's would use a default ore which in this case just happen to be lvl 2 Hel gas. Ok, I just spent the day redoing my database according to the server database and now have the correct ores typed & sub-typed. This was no small job, but got it done. I am now re-going thru the sectors I have already done on the dev server and got VG redone and all looks good now. I will start working on Glenn, Fenris, Carp & Freya tommorrow, but all the changes I am now doing will not show up until after David does a push from the dev server to the play server. So for now you will still be pulling lvl 2 Hel out of some of the ores. I am hopeing when David does do the server push that I will have Aragoth, Beta Hydri & Smugglers Run finished. Also, with each server push I will post what I call my Ore list which will list which ores are in which sector, but will not list just where in that sector they are. Don't want to spoil all the fun of hide & seek! :-) Merlin

Hello, I will make this a short reply since it is very late and if I don't go to bed very soon my better half will cut off you know what! :-( As to your Discordite problem I just have 2 letters to say: VG I will be posting a complete list of all the ores and which sectors they are in (Not just where they are in the sector) after I am about 50% done with the sectors which should be in about a month to 2. It is a big job to do all the sectors with the right ores & mobs in them as I am sure you can all figure out by now. Our pressing problem right now is keeping that damm lvl 2 gass out of the ore fields where it doesn't belong. I know I am shaking things up a bit (well more then a bit), but change is good and I am sure when I am all done 90% of you will like what I have done or atleast I hope you guys like the changes. In the meen time and until things get all figured out if you can not find something feel free to ask and I will do my best to point you in the right direction. Now off to bed to work on my wife faction! <Evil grin> Merlin

Hello, For those of you that do not know, I am in the process of going though the ore fields in the game and getting the right ore in the right rocks/gasses. This will be a long process as I need to go from sector to sector. Also some of you already may have noticed changes in VG, Glenn & Fenris and if not go check them out. Now as to the lvl 2 Helium that I know everyone who has ever mined in the strest test has found in the wrong rocks, this problem is being delt with and with the help of David and other should not be a problem much longer! Now before you all ask what changes are going to be done to the ore fields there is another topic going on in the forms right now called "Ore Fields, what do you remember" where I am listing most of the changes I have done and are going to make so if you want to know go read that posting. I am sure all of you that do mine will like the changes and can let me know there. TTYL :-) Merlin (Ore Dev)

Hello and here are mine!

Hello, I will 1st and formost keep all the team leaders in the loop and will chat with each of you before going into a new sector. Right now I am working with Webby on the Independ sectors. I have some ideas and want to make each sector it's own and keep within the guide line for the race of that sector. (did that make any sence) :-) Ok, the changes have started to happen and the fields in VG, Glenn & Fenris have been change with a coupple of new ones added in. I will not tell anyone where the new fields are as that would take all the fun out of finding them, but the hunt will be will worth it. I am also trying to get the gass field in Glenn back to what it was in live. This field was the center piece for the whole game in live and I feel it is importain for it to be made as it was. I invite all miners to check it out and the other fields in VG, Glenn & Fenris and to let me know what you think. Now as to Mob's, I will be useing a wide range of Mob's for the ore/gass fields and will put the according mob to the sector it is in: Example is the gass field in Glenn, now even though in live it did not have any mobs I put Glenn Comm miners in there. They are mostly for show as they are non-aggro and mostly yellow to everyone, but they look nice there. In VG I used Titans and in Fenris I used mostly Zen's. Now even though I am going thru the ore fields and putting the right ore in the right rocks there still seems to be a small problem with the wrong ores and those pesty lvl 2 Hel gass showing up all over the place. I have talked to David and he is working on fixing this small problem and should be fixed soon. What those are/where were place holders so that lets say when a sector was first made they put those place holders in so that if someone didn't put ore in a field it would not crash the server by not haveing anything in them. This is hard coated into the code and has to be removed so it does not mess everything up. I know it is a pain in the you know where to open a nice juicey lvl 9 rock to only find a crapy lvl 2 gass in it. This will get fix as soon as David has the time and that is something that poor guy is running out of so be nice guys. OK, thats about it for the moment. I will try to keep all of you updated on what I am doing and how far I have gone. If you have any questions feel free to ask me. You all know the names of my toons and I read the forms everyday. TTYL :-) Merlin

Hello, I am adding new ore fields that out of the way and some will be unguarded. As to Pop rocks, well they will be put back into the game at some point, but not anytime soon. Now as to the ballacing out the gaurdians, this is something that is being done. Here is the lvl of mobs I will be useing: lvl 7 - 9 ores = lvl 35 to 50 mobs lvl 4 - 6 ores = lvl 20 to 35 mobs lvl 1 - 3 ores = lvl 15 & below mobs Now this is a guideline not a rule. I can promise you this that I will not be useing any Manes and only mobs that are native to that sector. Example: I added 2 new Ore fields to VG and in one of them is 2 lvl 41 Titans & 1 lvl 40 Titan. I feel it is importain to make it so that solo miners can mine without draging a whole combat group with them. If you are going to mine a sector then you should also be able to do combat in that sector solo. Now saying that does not meen that there will not be some fields won't still require bringing along some susport toons, but if that is the case then the rewards should also be worth it. I will leave it up to you to figure that one out. Merlin

Hello, I want to announce that I am going to be working on the ore fields in the game. I am going to try to get them so that you will get the right lvl & ore type out of a rock/gas and to place the correct fields in the game that were in live. Also, I will be adding new fields to the sectors and place the according mob lvl for the lvl of a field. With the new fields that will be going in will be changing locations from time to time to give all you minings out there something new to do. I will anounce when field moves will happen and it won't be soon so do not worry. Ok with all that said I would like to get your input as to "Fields you remember" that were in live and not a wish list! I remember some of them but not all of them! I know what some of the concerns are as I am an active player/miner in the game. So feel free to give me your opions/subjestions/wants, but remember this is not the complaint department, but just a place to talk about the ore/gas fields! Merlin

First off the chats are for chating about the game, not you smoking pot! 2nd, you are a guest here Homeboy and you are expected to act as one! If a GM asks you to please stop chatting about something in the game then you better do it! They are not doing everything here just so you can come on and act like a whinniey cry baby, but because they love this game and "Do it for free"!!! Remember that Homeboy. 3rd, Blacklung is a personal friend of mine and I know him well! He is about the most nicest, fairest guy I know and if it got to the point of him saying he was going to ban you then you must have push his buttons pretty hard. Stop acting like a 2 year old and start acting like someone who is glad the game is back and will give those who spend their spare time programming, developing and taking care of the players the respect they desirve! Merlin

Hello, sure! :-) but I hold classes every Tuseday & Thursday! lol Merlin