Kyp

Just thought I'd add: Option 3, we completely and totally randomize what appears in each belt. Then cherry pickers won't know where to go to pick their cherries, now will they?

Actually, there was a few small changes to mobs recently, one to make them spawn in their actual spawn radius because they were actually spawning elsewhere and wandering toward the center of it. (oops!). This is probably what led to less mobs for the last couple of months. There was a fix for that, and a fix for us internally to make it so we could actually have combination spawns without getting really inventive with spawn node placeme:). So just to get it straight, you are saying that with this recent change (when we restarted and hit the ores temporarily) the mobs have vanished? If so, I'll have to check our code, the new code should actually do quite the opposite. I will be happy to look in on it if so. As for the mob difficulties I would say you can expect that to start changing soon, we have someone working on setting them up and activating them so they should become stronger as time goes on. The problem for the most part is finding sources of data that shows what skills mobs had has proven pretty difficu:P. "Many changes are going on and it seems that the chief is just finding out what the Indians have been doing." Actually, that's about accurate, because the indian was supposed to be telling us chiefs what was changing; but was not, or at least not as was mandated. In any case, neither here nor there. Not here to cast blame, just here to fix it all up and get it back out there for you all to play wi:).

Because we want the person to be a full representative of the playerbase and to prevent abuses of the system. Staff both current and in some cases previous already have an inside view of most things and do not need nor desire such a position. This is designed to be a player only thing. In terms of the other questions about nominations and whether or not we pick anyone: Unless we have an exceeding number of nominations, I don't plan on any intervention. You will all vote on your advocate in a poll I place once we have at least 3 nominations.

Well, we could always wipe if you all feel that strongly, but I suspect the answer to that is "NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!". That would be something that we'd like to avoid as much as possible because we know people want to keep their levels and we just don't have any technical need at the moment to do so (at least none I'm aware of). There is no such thing as the magic pill that would fix it overnight, the money has to bleed out of the economy for it to become rebalanced, but honestly this is not the point. We're trying to collect testing data on how money is spent and earned, any data we have now has to be tossed out totally, it's worthless. This may as well have been the people that knew of it having printing press plates to print their own currency, there's no two ways about it. Many of you are looking at it (as should be expected) from a player point of view, while it is wonderful for you to have thousands of ores available at your whim, it does hurt. You very much should have to or at least want to involve warriors with you to play guardians for your group and you'd NEVER have found more than 2-3 ores from one position, in these fields you could find all of them (300 or however many happened to be there) were reachable WITHOUT thrusting or warping anywhere. This would not have happened in the live game and it's not going to happen here, not any longer anyway. The reason they did things the way they did in live was to try to encourage you to group with friends who played the different classes so that they could earn experience in the bars that were not their strong suits and in addition to let you see how they played to inspire you to make your own. On countless occasions I defended my guild's main miner types and I was never bored doing it, I always had a blast, even though I wasn't fighting constantly. But I digress a little, the point is, we must do this so that we can keep the economy such as it is under a realistic level so that things don't hit astronomical prices because too many credits are flooding in. Had these fields been stretched across the sector and interspersed with a few guardian mobs here and there, we wouldn't have had a problem but thousands of ores packed in a ball that's less than 1k across is patently ridiculous and no excuse that any or all of you could come up with together would justify that, not only does it cause an economy problem, it causes graphical glitches and could even lead to server issues due to packets flooding while you're mining or someone showing up near you while you are. We're already busy readjusting it, moving it around. I think by the time we get it all finalized you'll probably enjoy it more, even though you have to actually move around to get it. In turn it will reduce the ease of macro mining, increase the survivability of the economy such as it is, AND make it more like the live game was in terms of mining. We're not saying it won't be changed to be better, but the guideline given to the individual doing ore was to populate the sectors with ores but not to flood it. I guess that person though that they did not flood it but they might as well have sat at Net7 handing out free credits to anyone that stopped and opened a trade window. I know from a player perspective it seems like a nerf, but in the long run it's better for the game, and better for you. Kinda like taking your vitamins when you're growing up. You'll get many of your harvestables back soon enough.

It's not as easy as you'd think when you live all over the world, and the person who placed these knew well that this wasn't to happen. As for the threads, where? I've not seen any, but to be fair I don't really go into the player knowledgebase unless asked to, since that area is for you guys to compile knowledge so if it's there, that would explain why I never knew about it. These fields were intentionally hidden, didn't match anything we had in terms of reality. They're impossible to justify, no matter how long they've been there simply because they were parked on top of each other and had no guardians whatsoever. In any case, as I have previously stated, the person handling this was told if they entered anything into sectors that are mine, I was to be given a full write up on what was added. I received nothing in any form, yet these things existed in my sectors (as well as others), and I know I didn't put them there. No matter how you slice it, they have to go and/or be reduced to prevent them from breaking the game as it's meant to be played since it would essentially devalue the credit as you know it for all of them to exist in their current state. In terms of devs and gms you'd have to name them to me, because for sure everyone was surprised when it was discovered.

Temporary is until the next content patch in December that Kenu previously mentioned in announcements, when all the xmas stuff comes in. Could it have been done, possibly, but we didn't know they were there because we weren't receiving the required notifications that they were added, so we knew less than you did. It wasn't until we had a bug reported with a visual glitch while mining that led us to discover one such field like this (the graphic glitch was from the super-abundance of asteroid assets within a tightly confined space). At that point, not knowing how long these had been chomped on we decided it was in the game's best interest to do so. This overabundance of every type of resource, made manufacturing cost nothing for those that knew of these fields, thus allowing them all to control the economy directly. This is an unfair advantage over everyone who doesn't know these locations. Sometimes we have to do something like this to protect the economy, especially to avoid having to have more player wipes in the future. We're trying to avoid them, to avoid them we have to preserve the game in a testable state, which means most conditions need to be normal, the previously mentioned fields were HIGHLY abnormal. If you knew where the fields were, you could have manufactured any ammo you wanted for mere credits, possibly just an hour of your time and the cost to manufacture through the terminal alone. Also, why the quotes, are there euphemisms for temporary and economy that i'm not aware of?

Guys guys guys, Let's put this into perspective, it is a temporary change while we audit the existing fields. We know what they were all set to, we pulled a report, but you have to understand there were some fields that were in places that they should not have been, were not in live, and that had well over 300 individual roids that spawned in 30 minutes or less, I certainly never found any spot in live where there were 300 roids in less than 1k of diameter, and I'd say if we were to ask the original devs of Westwood they would balk at such an idea. This leads to an unclearable field, we watched these fields and it certainly seemed that only some people knew about them. I know full well that there were no fields in live that resembled small planetary bodies because the asteroids were packed so close together, yet we found them in very hidden places, if anyone can PROVE otherwise then I might be inclined to accept this, but I know better. What you're seeing is an across the board solution while we assess the situation. There was very very obviously some abuse, and it wasn't on your part but that of someone given the power to do this stuff or so it appears. You should always have to move some to mine, and there should always be guardians in fields of this type but neither was true. You could sit in one spot, and nothing at all would attack you while you mined to your heart's content. We do realize that not all the fields were like this and where they were reasonable we do intend to restore them where possible. We will make it fun, without handing the economy to you on a silver platter such as these fields were to certain people who knew where the navs were. The way this was it completely devalued the work of miners, the market could have been flooded easily.

Yes this could be done.

this initial election will last until we have the three nominees and I can post a poll for everyone to choose the most qualified for the position or a couple of weeks, if this initial election isn't setup within the first two weeks of december we'll just discontinue it. We believe this would be something of interest to someone out there that really wants to help make a change and get this game moving along much faster. Make no mistake, there's a bit of work involved, but in the end it'll be worthwhile. Let me know if there are any other questions.

Hello everyone, During our development meeting last night we discussed this as a pilot program. We're going to try something a little new. We want you all to come together and elect a Community Advocate. It will be this individual's responsibility to talk to all of you on a regular basis, and help us by providing input and guidance from you, the fans of Earth and Beyond. This position will require a nomination and a vote, just like a standard election (but there will be no vitriol or personal attacks like other standard elections ) Once they've done so they will bring these concerns to us and share them with us to assist us more with the big picture rather than individual complaints, they will also be allowed to attend most discussions and have the ability to visit the developers in the dev channels of the Teamspeak at will. This person will be required to sign an NDA for our content purposes and will only be allowed to release what we tell them is OK, so that we may maintain storyline secrets or future surprises we have for you when so desired. This person needs to be exceptional at communications to be considered, the development team reserves the right to discontinue this program at any time if we feel it is not meeting its expectations either with you, or with us. Also, final decision authority will always of course remain in the hands of the developers. No current or past members of the project staff are eligible for this position. You are not eligible if you have a past disciplinary record documented in our database. You must have exceptional writing and communications skills. You will be required to use teamspeak and have an operational microphone. To become a nominee you must have at least 5 backers that are willing to post that they would also nominate you for the position. You may serve a maximum term of 6 months (in 3 month increments), no re-election for at least 2 terms following a full 6 month term. You must make yourself available for this as much as you can afford, if you are absent for longer than 15 days it will be considered abdication and a new election will be held as necessary. These rules can be changed or added to if needed to prevent abuse of the system. In exchange, the perks are well.. pride I guess. You'll get a nifty tag in and out of game, get to help your fellow players AND direct access to developers to talk about issues and ask questions. Sound like a fun job? Post here and nominate yourself and find some supporters, once there are at least three Nominees we will hold an election for the Community Advocate. The election will be a poll for 7 days, and once it is resolved, the advocate will then be in place for 3 months and up for reelection 1 time following if the community wills by majority as incumbent. Let me know if there are any questions regarding this. ---- I have added the poll with the two eligible advocates. May the best one for the job win! I'll close it in 1 week's time as of 7:30pm EST on 12/22/2010 -Kyp Final tally with staff member votes discounted: Lannister: 40 votes TraderMagoo 16 votes Lannister is your new Community Advocate. His position will commence starting January 1st and will last for 3 months, at which time you can put forth another nominee or re-elect him as you so desire, so get your ideas to him as soon as you can, he'll need time to put all of his data together at the time of our next meeting. Congratulations Lannister

No player can travel through starter sectors that did not belong to their class, in live or emu. Well, I take that back when we first opened a public server you could use them but we eventually locked them down. It was not available in live though. This includes High Earth, Luna, or Equatorial Earth which belong to the Terran Tradesman, Enforcer, and Scout respectively.

Yes, but we don't want the game to be a perpetual work in progress, one day we want to release it for everyone to run their own so we can do other projects. No one wants to stay on the same project forever, at least no creative person I've ever met anyway We all love Earth and Beyond sure, but not enough to solely dedicate ourselves to it forever. Now you will all notice if you re-read my post before that I originally said before rabid replied that this was ASSUMING we followed EA/Westwoods live schedule when I said what I said. We might end up patching bi-weekly by the time all is said and done. It's hard to say for sure until it's "done". The content folks have wanted to follow the storyline since the content teams were created. The idea of storyline is not revealing it so as not to ruin it for those that want to experience it all again. We have considered that though, in fact its led to something in motion which you guys will see here in a few days. I won't give any other hint yet though. All games have milestones, these are the ones we chose to follow because they're common to the games industry. While we don't have to follow it, we want to so we can gauge where we think we're at and how close we are to being "done" so to speak. Most of those inconsistencies came from things being opened earlier than intended by developers who weren't following the plans in place at the time. I don't know why the fishbowl is open, I attribute it to what I said previously but how would everyone react if we were to slam it shut now? They would be very highly upset and I can understand it because it's one of the few end game areas. In terms of loot, i'm not familiar with these ballistae, what are they exactly and what did they come from? GoBB was a mob created by the previous independent lead, and the time for balancing has not yet come. I suspect we're going to raise more ire when it does. That will be in beta as we ramp up to release. Now, in regards to "And with no V'rix mobs at all right now, why do we still see V'rix related drops like the CH1NN2LFL4W? With Ardus closed, why are Dark Matter enriched ores available in roid fields? These were only available in Ardus during live." I would say that you shouldn't, and they're relics of the original loot system where we just populated it with stuff to make sure it worked. If these are identified they would be removed. In regards to dark matter and other high-end loot being available from ores/hulks i can only speculate as Merlin was in charge and constantly told the rest of the team that he was in touch with the player base and knew exactly what they wanted. Since he was populating most of the ore in all of the sectors, I would suspect its a relic of his time working with the ore. They'll get removed too. We're not so strict about what appears because we're not constantly searching for things that shouldn't be there, we're trying to put the things in that SHOULD. In regards to the next: Criticism is a good thing when you explain your feelings and not when you just attack which is what most people seem to be prone to doing. As long as it is constructive, the more the better. We want to open Mantis back to the public and let everyone contribute again but we have to make it clear that everyone will have to be very thorough. If you're not going to bother searching for similar/same bugs before posting, then you don't need to involve yourself as it would just make extra work. I am getting to rambling a bit, my apologies. Criticism is good, if phrased appropriately and well intentioned. Also, much appreciated, happy turkey day back, even if it's not necessarily your thing where you live.

Earth was the subject of an orbital strike if i'm not mistaken, I have to go check it out by Artemis Jericho of the very early Progen republic tried to teach Earth a lesson I believe. So it would certainly look a bit less pristine than Starfleet, San Fransisco

Rabidcajun, our goal IS and always was a working game, which we've more or less met. That was the initial goal laid out when this project began. The plans for the story only got started around 2 years ago give or take 6 months and they've been to start from a point shortly after the gate war from that time forward. For all those who talk about starting at sunset, that's not ever (that I'm aware of) come from the mouth of a developer, and if it has they were speaking on their own accord. It has been established in our meetings that this is where the story would begin. If players get bored and leave, that is their own prerogative, we're trying to build a game not pander to people who are helping to test it to keep them around. If its frustrating now, you can always come back later when you don't have to deal with the quirks of testing. The terms "Like live" don't mean the end state of the story, I can only assume that's what's being alluded to here. That refers only to the systems and functionality of the game. We've always also planned to fix things that were unbalanced and broken. I never said anything about no content or waiting for content during live, you're drawing your own conclusions. There will be content for every leg of the story arc. By the time we get through there'll be plenty to do, so I'm not worried about players leaving, honestly. The only thing players leaving hurts is donations, and in turn our ability to host a public server. In the long run, it's self-punishment for being unhappy with the game.

not a tool you guys can use, it requires being a developer. sorry. Programming is not a prerequisite to game development. Imagination is. Programming is a prerequisite only to the game programmer. The more of those we can get who can work with the team the better honestly; however, we can probably use more content developers. I'll set up an application on the forum soon.

Perhaps the database you're searching with needs a good solid kick, and perhaps there's a bug. I'll look, but it did show up in a vendor search on one of our tools.

Closed pending v'rix, to enlighten slightly for those who don't remember the story: Humanity and our persistence in screwing with Gate technology caught the attention of the Ancients, whom are the "gods" of the universe, at least in some form or fashion. They manufactured the v'rix as defenders of certain things, this technology was related to something used in the ancient past to cause extreme havoc and almost ended the universe. The shears are v'rix versions of a gate that carried them across time and space to investigate and do whatever was necessary to prevent the gate technology from being abused. Humans were too primitive to handle it.

See bold for comments.

Hexer is correct, they should have been rare enough so that each time someone picks them up they are bragging rights to everyone else. They are supposed to be exceptionally rare, that's why most of them have such great buffs.

@Yuritau: Example of loot that is only available in a closed sector which you think has nothing to do with story. Perhaps we can either enlighten or link it to story for you. @Jrky & Terrell: The only ones I can speak for are Ardus and Der Todesengel, they are the only ones that I have closed, and they become available at specific points in the story, the first being several months after live, the second being closer to a year. (assuming we follow the same schedule EA/Westwood did). To answer the question though, what we need are people that are willing to test and document, its boring as hell (the writing parts) but it helps us get things done a LOT faster. We have very few testers that are willing to put in the necessary work for that.

This is already a primary project at this time. Thanks for the suggestion.

Try again using default launcher huh? That's a new one on me, you are using the LaunchNet7 stuff linked above or linked from our FAQ at www.net-7.org, right? Can you give me a screenshot of everything on the launcher before clicking play? That might be a good starting point.

It's really much the same as the 300. When you updated everything, did you run the launcher as an administrator? (assuming you're on vista or 7) aside from that, you can manually install the client certs from C:\Net7\bin\, all *.cer files, then try to launch again. (let them install automatically to the location, unless you're very careful with your cert store and know how all that works)

See here...

Somehow you managed to complete the mission BEFORE you could take it. Great Scott!! Doc Brown would be furious! In all seriousness though, try again. You should be able to take your mission now.