Vinzent Zeppelin

At higher levels, particularly if it's buffed, Power Down is probably the best combat skill a Sentinel has.

There are some Progen-made beams around, but there are no unique Progen beams (or Terran beams, or Jenquai missile launchers, etc.). My PS has level 8 beams, and even with the best non-Jenquai setup out there (Pitbull Jr., Stone Cleaver, Harvester of Souls, and a level 9 Black Spitter PL), the damage output seems to be somewhere around 1/4 that of my level 9 PL setup -- I could probably do better damage using a set of level 8, vendor-bought Mortars. Choice in Progen missile launchers is even worse; the only one I would consider using is the Big Bertha at level 8, but it only has EMP and plasma ammunition -- neither of which are damage types a PS can debuff. (Level 5 devices and lower don't count.) In short: Missiles for Terrans, Beams for Jenquai, Projectiles for Progen. Anything outside this paradigm is, unfortunately, just a novelty at this point.

There are several fields in one sector in particular that are quite large and dense, so one can mine effectively with very little movement. The macro user will park at a spot the field and just continually mine out asteroids as they respawn, thereby preventing anyone from getting the field-clear bonus (including the macro user himself, naturally).

If memory serves, the "contraband delivery" jobs are/were in consideration for future updates.

Yep. I wouldn't have such a problem with it if the riff-raff didn't prevent legitimate explorers from getting the field-clear bonus, as was the case the numerous times Jam and I visited the fields in question. To those of you who do this, I would like to recommend a game much better suited to your tastes: http://progressquest.com/

I think that was an oversight on my part when building the distance plot. I omitted all the "isolated" sectors and all the profession-restricted sectors, but there is a non-functional gate to Ceres in Venus.

It's not the projectile energy debuff that makes it useless; it's the fact that the range buff doesn't increase with quality as it should. (I've heard that a 200% in Live accorded a range buff of about 70%.) Edit: I did a search, and found this page: http://home.swipnet.se/Hubba/devices.htm. Apparently a 200% Atrophy Novem had +61% projectile range, as did the Basilisk. No self-debuff is listed there, but most other level 9 Sparta devices had a self-debuff, so it may have been an oversight. The energy cost on almost all devices was reduced with improved quality as well, which doesn't seem to be the case presently. It seems like the Manticore device's activated scan debuff was another oversight; the level 5 and 6 have it as a self-debuff, and all other BlackSun devices have the same self-debuffs at level 5, 6, and 9.

I think I could help with this. Me, I'd like to see proper raids (and thus a way to obtain an 1M1HSW3LL).

What would ore field respawn rates have to do with "requiring" you to group? It certainly does not slow down the rate at which you collect ore; if anything, that would increase since the asteroids are respawning. Possibly getting the field-clearing bonus less often is far from being a game-breaker, and if you are that concerned that fighting off ore-field mobs (instead of, you know, cloaking or moving to a different area of the field), go explore. There are quite a few out there that are lightly guarded and completely unguarded.

Kassina's over level 180 and is my most skilled and well-equipped character; Zeppelin (TT) comes in at a distant second at level 153 or so (he still needs skill points to get level 9 shield tech and area shield recharge). Kassen (JD) and Hauser (PP) are both between level 70 and 90, though I haven't really given them enough attention lately. As for the Fishbowl, fortunately now Kassina doesn't get KO'd in one shot while gating as she used to, but I have noticed that using Power Down upon entering doesn't shake attackers off.

So compiling the given information: Cruiser would only spawn once all Frigates were destroyed; prematurely killing Destroyers reset the spawn progression Destroyers used beams Spawn locations: Rakio (apparently fewer), Mordana Tabernacle (bigger group) -- I'm guessing there were several others judging by the numerous spawn locations of the cruisers Frigate and/or Destroyer loot Type A missiles Mordana Talisman Golden Kimono Shield Frigate loot Shatter Septem Nova Lance Cruiser loot Veiled Oyoroi, Vulture Mk. VIII (Lilo spawn) Defender's Doumaru, Juggernaught Mk. VIII (Listening Post spawn) Crimson Force Barrier, Defender's Pride (Jushai spawn) Sting of the Mordana, Ghost's Edge (Tabernacle spawn) Vulture Mk. VIII, Defenders Pride (Rakio spawn [?]) Does anyone remember the levels of each mob? Also, that reminds me; the Atrophy Novem's debuff does not seem to work properly yet.

The Sentinel would be more competitive if its combat skills were improved and/or had more options for signature reduction. I will abstain from this poll since I've never played a TS, and only got my JE in Live up to level 50 or so.

My level >150 PS has completed two of the new missions (the level 50 bonus, and "Seize the Day" -- not sure where it fits) and there are still some major issues, at least with those two; the former being the worst. Even if it were possible for an overall-level-50-ish Progen to complete that bonus mission before getting level 7 weapons and shields, it wouldn't be remotely worth his or her time.

The other day I did a little bit of research into each ore level 6 and up and organized them into categories based on their applications, to determine which ore is typically only useful in its refined form, and which ore has no or few practical uses and should merely be sold to a vendor. Those in the "junk" category are those which are only used in a small number of vendor-available parts, those used for components which are not in the loot tables, and those which literally are not used in anything. The ore not in either of these lists should be kept raw. Of the gasses, six from level 6-9 are in the "junk" category and four are in the "refine" category. Junk Anthenicite, Barite, Boragon, Charon Crystal, Charon's Dust, Conorite, Cupidite, Demeter's Tears, Dark Matter Enriched Chalcophanite, Dark Matter Imbued Apollonite, Dark Matter Imbued Kronosite, Etherion, Firerock, Galactic Rimstone, Helvatha, Icy Pearl, Inderite, Neutronium, Krypton, Mica, Minosium, Osirium, Oxium, Pyrrhotite, Star Ash, Stojsavline, Vaneon, Voidgem, Wexeon, Wormstone, Xenon Refine Abaddon Ashes, Abyssian Dust, Acheronite, Alunite, Ambrosia Crude, Asmodesium, Astralite, Balderium, Celestial Ore, Chalcophanite, Charybdis Voidstone, Diamond, Duplium, Emerald, Emperion, Erebusite, Hadecite, Hafnium, Idunium, Khnumium, Kronosite, Leonite, Meteoric Diamond, Mirandium, Modredium, Morganium, Niobium, Noxion, Pagion, Persephonite, Platinum, Prometheum, Rutha, Scyllan Diamond, Star Ore, Stygian Blacksand, Tantalum, Tiberium, Tincal, Troseki, Vanirum, Yunieon

I'm liking the idea, Terrell. One thing, though; Arx Ymir is owned by the Collegia. Also, jobs should no longer be sending players to unreachable sectors; if this is still happening please make a bug report with the job terminal location and the sector in question.

The Sentinel does indeed have the fewest options for scan range, but the Roc line of devices work well at level 5 and up. GETCo also sells a nifty device I would imagine quite a few people overlook, the level 2 DataCom which adds 25% scan range for 400 seconds. As for signature reduction, the PS's only viable option whatsoever (short of über gear) is to get a Zenshai Nav Computer at level 5 (which also happens to buff scan range) and/or a Solar Sail.

Seeker, I like the amount of thought you've put into this, but: Kassina's mining gear already provides +212% tractor beam speed, +4.93 prospect skill, and +4.6 base reactor recharge, and nothing requires a large and constant supply of expensive-to-refine gas. The warp and combat speed buffs are also handily outmatched by the NOS. If you're aiming for über mining gear, you need to aim a bit higher, at least for the PS. (Also, this "Lao-Tzu's Revelation", is that an activated weapon turbo? If so, that would definitely qualify; no other item comes close.)

I highly doubt open player-versus-player will be implemented any time soon, if ever, owing to the fact that sweeping, game-changing modifications would need to take place in order to achieve a semblance of balance and fairness. Part of what makes E&B what it is, is that combat is not everything, and each class has activities at which it specializes. On the other hand, I look forward to the eventual implementation of the Arenas; even there, player-versus-player action was defined in terms of consensual duels between two individuals or teams. In the latter case, team strategy and tactics were involved and each class brought something to the table, maintaining the "cooperative" aspect of the game, and it was more like a game of basketball than a UFC match. That model was, in my view, superior to what most contemporary MMO games offer in terms of player-versus-player action.

I actually used another graph analysis algorithm to make the sector_distances table for use in job planning, the Floyd-Warshall algorithm, which can be used with another procedure to get the shortest path between two endpoint nodes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floyd%E2%80%93Warshall_algorithm#Path_reconstruction.

I can confirm the issue with the Paramis drones, and some experimentation showed that I could fight them normally, albeit not knowing their exact position. I was still able to fire upon them (and vice-versa), and /range yielded a normal value, while the client was showing them being 30, 50, 80k away off to the side or behind me. Typically when fighting them in this manner the corpse would appear where it should once they were destroyed. This indicates that, server-side, everything was all right, but that there was a loss of communication between the server and client in regards to the position of the mobs. If anyone can provide more information about this it would help; particularly if it's occurring universally or if it only seems to happen with particular mobs and/or groups or in particular sectors.

This would require modification of the client -- outside the development team's capabilities. Riia addressed this here.

Looks like I stand corrected then -- I missed that post.

I don't think this is so much a "temporary fix"; rather, a side-effect of the rewritten mob behaviour code.

As it is now, impact, energy and explosive all show up the same colour, yellow. To complicate matters, some mobs, especially higher-level ones, seem to use explosive beams. Something to watch out for.

Perhaps consider something like "Evasive Manoeuvres" -- an activated skill which reduces the chance of getting hit by enemies. Lowest levels would apply to the skill user only; higher levels allow the user to apply it to other players. It fits within the Scout's class ethos and would be useful for solo and group combat.