jrichards

My comments were for comparison to how it worked in live. Ore is not plentiful in any regard at the moment. Sure its better than ST3 but its nowhere close to live. A good comparison to how it was in live would be Glenn. The gas fields northwest of F7 are as plentiful as they were in live. It is almost impossible for a single toon to clear these fields (have done it with three high level players all mining them at once but it took some work). The ores however are not. There may be less than half the ores (l5-7) in Glenn now than were in live. Yes there are approximately 6 ore fields but each one has no more than 6 'roids. That means a single player can clear all of these ore fields in less than 15 minutes. Try clearing the gas fields in 15 minutes. Implementing an AH has a whole other set of problems due to the fact that there never was one and with so little ore at the moment whats to stop a player from controlling all the ore? Not that Magoo would but I am sure that if he wanted to own ever piece of grail water placed on the AH he could. The only counter to AH overpricing and complete economy controls is keeping the supply high enough that it is not worth while to monopolize it. Now take Glenn as the standard and apply it to every other sector with ore. Zweinhander is a great example. A good quarter of the sector was covered with ore fields (l5-9).....right now.....nothing. Vendoring ore is fine and its a way for miners to make money but you are right in the fact that a user can either vendor or try to sell to builders but can't really do both due to lack of ore. Selling ore to other players is great.....but only if miners have enough ore to sell. This keeps prices reasonable, keeps both builders and miners doing what they enjoy, and gets the emu one step closer to live. I mean even my miner isn't going to sell ore to other players if all I have are 20x of an item (I wish I had that amount). If a player has 40+ of an item then selling becomes not only an option but an actual way to make money at a better price or in addition to vendoring. At the moment this simply cannot be done unless a miner has gathered ore over months worth of time and sells to the 'uber builders' for high level comps. I think this prevents new miners from wanting to mine and makes them wonder why they would want to compete with the top 20 miners for a few dozen roids in a few sectors. In live it was great to simply ask in market if you could buy 20, 50, 120 of any l2-l7 ore and actually have a few people respond. Try that now and see what you get.

removing key functionality from EMU so its not like the live game: Bad Forcing traders/players to have to seek out a miner when none is around: Bad Current lack of ore in game: Bad So guess what? When the player wipe occurs there won't be any players running around with over 1 billion in credits. Miners will be able to obtain ore and supply those that need it, including builders, but the key here is that a key system in the game is not working right now. Thats the amount, distribution and diversity or ore. If they fix that then all of the other stuff is moot because it will work as it did in live......which rocked.

Ah is a baaad idea. The idea of an AH is a great idea. However the implementation, in almost every MMO, is just awful. It destroys community, jacks up prices for everyone, and allows users to 'game' the system. Also nothing like this existed in the client. The problem that you are referencing is based on one thing alone: Lack of ores. With a decent supply of ores its not difficult to supply players with the ore they need to get the items built that they need. The whole point of e&b was to have users use each other to make the best gear possible in a cooperative manner. This currently exists in the EMU and I have no reason to want this to change but I can guarantee it would change with any sort of AH as it just destroys this idea. NOTE: the net7 DB holds the data on who builds what item. If you are unable to get the ores then you need to wait for he devs to make them more plentiful or find a work-around like every other player (purchase or loot comps that can be ripped to make what you need made).

[quote name='Yanshi' timestamp='1274735479' post='17398'] Any update on this yet? haven't done this mission yet to aquire the card as i try to use my vault space on my PW for ammo Thanks [/quote] I finished the mission yesterday and talked to him. He opens a trade window but there is nothing in it. A few people were saying in Market channel that some older players could access his items but that it was not working for any new players that do the mission. I love the idea of this guy. I would definately be a cool way to give non-rd factioned players a chance to up their RD rep (maybe make him a repeatable mission guy?). Even cooler would be only being able to purchase certain items based on rep.

or donate to the cost of keeping this server up. Gogo $5 dollar paypal donations!!!

Someone referenced progen playing like a terran in chat and that reminded me of this old E&B advertisement video. I am surprised that I still had it. Tried to add it to the post but that didn't work so its available via the link below. [URL=http://www.uploadmb.com/dw.php?id=1312749951]BoomBoom.rar[/URL] Enjoy

Amsterdam hosted servers ftw!!!. I am a DBA for a game production company and renting servers is definitely much cheaper over the long run especially if the service is good and the hardware is regularly upgraded. Hosting a high bandwidth server is a pain in the ass when it comes down. As others have mentioned the expense of rentals is offset by the piece of mind that someone else is responsible for any hardware issues. Since downtime costs these services money it also helps keep prices competitive, price comparisons, and the ability to negotiate service cost vs downtime. One thing that I found very useful is running virtual servers. This gives more flexibility, allows to spawn new and/or duplicate servers if needed, and has a number of other admin benefits. Also makes it very easy to move to a different/newer server if needed (wonder how often the Devs are backing up their DB?).

I notice two big differences in ore fields in the current version vs live. I include only a few examples that I have run across that appeared very apparent to me: 1) Ore is not very diverse nor very plentiful * almost all of the ore fields/gas fields in live had a diversity of asteroid types (not just 4 of one type, then 5 of another, then 4 of another.....the different types were mixed together) and had a decent supply. This meant that if you really wanted to clear a field you needed to have plenty of space in your hold as you were gonna pull a lot of ore (gas fields were not often mixed with ore fields). It would generally take my max level JE a good 10-20 minutes to clear a field barring mobs or competition. Except for the current gas fields in Glenn it appears that all the ore fields I run across can be cleared by a single miner in about 5-10 minutes. Generally if a miner couldn't find an ore they needed they could clear a field, head to another, clear it, head to another. By the time they cleared the 3rd field the first one was popping back up with new 'roids. Currently I can clear three fields in less than 30 minutes (only level 113) and not see any ore re-spawns there for quite a while 2) lots of missing ore fields (just listing a few of the ones that I loved to mine in live) * Zweinhander had some huge 'hidden' level 6-9 fields south of the TE station and circling below the planet * Swooping eagle and Xipe totec had a ton of ore (level 4-6 and 5-9) all over the place. Most of the Xipe stuff was beyond the 'line' and with the walking space ghosts and other high level mobs it was a challenge to mine.....but a ton of fun especially with the reactor drain areas out there. SE's fields were all around nav points throughout the sector. Right now they just appear to be a few south of the xipe gate and a few north of the glenn gate. * Freya had a large chunk of level 4-6 ore fields south east of Akeron's Gate and a few other decent fields scattered around the sector. Right now it feels empty with so little ore. * VT had some great ore fields along the navs close to the sun. Level 7-9 and many of the rarer ore types could be found here. Lowbies would have a tough time with their shields burning off and the sun divers but it was a fun place to mine especially if you had a skill that protected against the solar radiation.

A great bunch of folks. Can't go wrong with this guild....just watch out for Magoo's pants.

Right now a large number of mobs are not using all/most of their skills and/or weapons nor is their AI up to par with live. There were a lot of very tough mobs in live.....the gazers were a good example.....that used warp, huge damage, and grav link to really mess you up. Without a scan blind device the boss mob/group was very deadly even to well geared groups. The two skills that very few mobs used, which could drastically effect how the game is played, were warp and grav link. You start facing tough ass mobs that can root you and stop you from running and you are going to need to find some friends ; ). God forbid they use scan blind on you. In my opinion I would prefer to get mobs back to 'close to live' before adding new mob types/AI. Making mobs tough now is easy......but what will these tough mobs be like when all mobs get 'ramped up' to live status? All the skills/AI/Damage types are already in the game (though many are not yer working).......its just a matter of time before the Devs are able to really challenge all you uber geared 150+ players again.

I think from the devs that have been working on this project, and it has been several years, is to get the game as close to live as possible. Since almost every player played live most of us are hoping to get back close to that point. Currently there are still a ton of issues and the current state of the game is still considered pre-alpha so there is a long way to go. Also be aware that no new content can be added that doesn't match exactly what your client does. This means that the Devs are limited to what they can do from the server side. That being said there is still whole lot they can do....but changing basic game-play functionality is not going to be one of those items. Now go donate a few bucks, via paypal, so the devs can keep making this emulator better and not be forced to shut it down due to insufficient funds. = ]

I actually like the 'slower' tractor speed. It means that the Harpy device becomes much more necessary....not just for explorers.......which were the only class that used it in live. The other downside to very fast 'tractoring' is more ability for a single player to clear an ore spawn by themselves. Until the Devs get all the ore fields, especially the higher level ones, back to where they were in live this could negatively impact miners in general.

Good time to donate $5 bucks via paypal. We appear to be waaaay behind on the cost of keeping this emulator running. Would hate to see the server downtime increase due to that (not why it's down) so 'get err done!'

I had this issue, 'Earth and beyond is already running' in Windows 7. The fix was to make sure the client windows do not stack directly on top of each other. To correct this you can launch the first client, then shift+right client and select move. Move the client away from where it launched and then launch the next one. You can also select cascade, side by side, or another of the options as well. note: To make it even easier you can also create copies of net7 and the client, for each account, you want to run. Although this does not have to be done it makes the process much easier to deal with since the windows will stay in the same location when launched as they are treated by windows as completely different 'programs.' Hope this helps.

So I went to Net7 to get the first part of the A Choice To Be Made mission but when I docked it put me into 'null space' with no planets, stations, gates, or anything. After a few minutes I got a message to choose a hijack mission. After choosing one I was given the option to pay 20k or fight for it. I chose fight and that was it.......stuck in null space. I had to WH out and come back to Net7. The same thing happens when I re-dock at Net7. I do not get the draft card to take to Earth Station or Arx Magister. I visited earth station but since I don't have the draft card it doesn't give me credit. Should I forfeit the mission? Ideas? NOTE: I thought this was part of the level 75 upgrade mission but it appears not to be.

tried using virtualbox but the game acts as if there is no 3d card installed. It also will not recognize my soundcard. I have checked the settings and have 3D enabled and Directsound selected. Any ideas? note: Running x64 vista on both main PC and the virtualbox.

currently a GM or Dev has to spawn the fighters for you. Requires 8 killed to get to the next part of the mission. If you see a [GM] or [Dev] on ask em.

There should be a table that tracks the last time the user logged in. By simply setting your query to bring up everyone that has not logged in for a specific amount of time you can easily remove older/unused accounts. I totally support the original poster. At no point is a tester anywhere close to the level of a Dev. The Dev team must be able to do whatever they need to do to get the game to a state that they intend it to be. Testers have zero rights....you are donating your time. Further more if a "tester" is not testing, is not writing up bugs, or is causing issues with other testers (disseminating incorrect info, harassing players, violating the tos, etc) they can and should be removed. Games are not a democracy. At no point can a Dev be held responsible for testing new content and not alerting testers....that's the whole point. As far as the "player" with incorrect rights that "may" have caused this...guess what? It's a valid test. It makes the Dev team aware that they need to either automate, regularly check, or simply remove old accounts. In fact it is good that it occurred. The bad part was all of the bitching and moaning. That doesn't help anyone. Let the Dev team know the issue, give them all your information, and then get on with testing the game. Getting killed 30 times outside of a star-base that you know has a very high level mob is testing.....for the first 10 kills....after that you are being a crappy tester. And one last thing for those that think testers should have equal weight as a Dev. There are a ton of testers......you not testing the game will not stop it's progression. If a Dev leaves/doesn't do their work/is a pain in the ass it will effect the progression of the game. If you really need a good analogy it is like a sports fan yelling at a coach for making what they consider a bad call......your bitching doesn't help them do their job and in fact can harm it. How much time you spend "helping" the team matters not at all.

Was able to decipher it with the help of that website. Thank you for the help. = ]

lol, no, these were def not ships I killed.

Would have loved more varied trade routes. At the simplest adding 2 more items that sell at different prices based on the station sold to. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> The Somerled>Prasad Run: Somerled-Prasad is a 4 hop journey one way, 8 round trip. Each way nets about 450 a cargo spot, so 900 round trip per cargo hold. You can go one way in about 10 minutes, 25 minutes or so total. 900 x 32 = 28800 round trip. You can make two to three runs in the same time as fenris, so ultimately the money comes out to about the same for the time. Route: At Somerled Station (New Edinburgh sector in Tau Ceti system), purchase Spices. Take spices to Prasad Station (Xipe Totec sector in Serius system). At Prasad, purchase Jenquai Weapons Tech. Take Jenquai Weapons Tech to Somerled. Round trip about 16 mins, making about 500 credits a crate each way. Somerled>Fenris Run: The somerled-fenris run is 12 hops one way, 24 round trip. Going to fenris nets about 900 per item, coming back nets about 1400 per item. So for 24 hops you get 2300 per cargo space if you have negotiate level 4. It takes about 30-40 minutes one way. So an hour to and a an hour and a half of effort, for 2300 x 32 (size of 30th cargo hold) = 73600 credits per round trip. Route: Fenris >Valkyrie Twins/Varen’s Girdle>Aragoth Prime>Muspelheim>Odin’s Belt>Odin Rex>Jotunheim>Freya>Akeron’s Gate>Saturn>Glenn>Carpenter>New Edinburgh Because you run more somerled-prasad runs, the exp is much better on the somerled prasad run. You may feel great bringing in that load from Fenris and earning 1500 per unit but you're doing your trade exp bar a disservice making that run. Thats my 2 credits anyway.

You are asking for a number of database tables to be forcibly updated.....not to a higher number but to no number at all. This will affect every other table that interacts with these tables....and there are a ton. Removing values from a database, as said in previous posts, requires some very skilled coding to avoid corruption/unforeseen problems.....and for what purpose? If you want to level a different way just create a new toon and do it.....will it take a while? Definitely...but the time spent will be you testing all the stuff that players avoid when they use the fastest leveling mechanic possible...IE: testing what needs to be tested without a 'quick and easy fix' ....which is neither quick nor easy.

I actually prefer not to be able to move away when dead. There was a sense of danger flying or exploring in areas that were above your level. Players learned how to adapt to this by increases sensors and free warping through areas looking for mobs. If there were a ton you would swap out sensors for guns and slowly move into the edge of an area killing ships/organics as you moved in. If I did something stupid I may have had to spend the next 15 minutes, and run up a large xp debt, correcting my mistake......this helped ensure that players learned how to move through dangerous spots more effectively and kept lowbies from ore fields where they should not be. The final point to being "stuck" vs popping back up at a base was to really make a JE/PE helpful. If you were really really stupid you better find a good JE/PE to save your hide....which with my JE toon I would love to hear, "need help, stuck in a baad spot, paying for a good Jumpstart....in a nasty place." If you were in a dangerous place you likely also had equipment to get you out faster. Wasn't it the lazarus, or was it the Cat's paw, that increased how quickly your warp engaged? having dangerous areas and mobs/groups of mobs requires players to adjust their equipment to the situation.....and E&B was the best MMO, that I ever played, that really rewarded people for doing this. As far as damage goes I generally used explosive and energy on my terrans and jenqui....it did so much more damage then plasma. Impact for progens was always questionable since the cascade of "damage rain" caused by plasma was enormous. The easiest way to increase one type of damage, over another, would be via debuffs from equipment or weapons.....which again leads back to equiping for the situation. I wouldn't want warp speed to change. Leveling up reactors, shields, scan range, and engines were all a challenge (more so for some classes than others) for all players. At 150 though it was all fairly even to the point where there was less reason to bring along an explorer for warping in "no warp" areas, or for needing huge scanning range. It was usually just easier to stack up on four warriors and a TE....which really sucked. If I was going to change anything drastic I would say make the Explorers the difference between a group that can tear through bosses, mobs, encounters quickly.....and one that has to work it's ass off to make up for the loss of an explorer.

Los Angeles California......on the west side. = ]

I fully support Posfordan's first item. I think the best use of the Z axis was in Aquitaine. Especially in mining fields and or warping between nav points it was very cool to have to move in all four directions rather than just x and y. There were a enemy AI ships that took advantage of this too and made the combat feel a bit more of a dogfight than just auto-attacking.