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Hulks! What now?


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Hello,

Ok, one of the bigger things that is happening with the content push is hulk fields are finilly going into the game. 3 of the items you will find in the hulks a called Half-Eaten Space Suits. There is one for each of the 3 races in the game. Now what do you do with these suits you ask? Well we have setup a NPC system where you can trade in those suits and get faction towards the 9 classes of toons. You also get trade XP for them as well. Each suit is worth 50 + class faction 1000 trade points. So as an example, lets say you are a JE that needs good PW faction, look at the list below, go to that NPC and turn in the Progen Suits. Lets say you are a PP that needs good TT faction, you would turn in the Half-Eaten Terran Space Suits to the person for TT faction and so on. So to put it in a nut shell there is now a way to get good faction for each of the nine classes without having to do major grinding. The 3 suits are:

 

Half-Eaten Jenquai Space Suits Lvl 8

Half-Eaten Terran Space Suits Lvl 7

Half-Eaten Progan Space Suits Lvl 6

 

There are 2 ways to get these suits, 1 is from the hulks and 2 from ??? <Evil Grin> Come on can't tell you everything! lol

 

Ok, here is the list of NPC's for the 9 classes:

Class | NPC | Faction | Sector | Station | Where

JE | Fujiko Ohiya | Sha'ha'dem Explorers | Capella | Paren | Lounge

JD | Shou Shen | Shinwa Warriors | Sirius | Prasad | Main Lobby

JS | Master Sevti | Sharim Traders | Jupiter | Joves | Main Lobby

PW | Markus Kahn | Centuriata Warriors | Vega | Arx Tiberius | Main Lobby

PE | Vinda | Sabine Explorers | Endriago Pl | Pourvenir Mons | Main Lobby

PP | Zieg | Collegia Traders | Mars | Arx Magister | Main Lobby

TT | Lady deWinter | InfinitiCorp Traders | New Edinburgh | Somerlad | Main Lobby

TE | Stephanie Baird | EartCorps Warriors | ABA | ECS Dauntless | Main Lobby

TS | Admiral Herrera | Hyperia Explorers | Planet Zweihander | Jagerstadt City | Main Lobby

Now you will also start to find many usefull items in hulks as well. Like live, the non-stackable items will have a Quality rateing from 80 to 180% and a Structure rating from 50 to 100%. Example: you pull a lvl 5 RR out of a hulk, instead of it having a 100/00 on it it could be 150/75 (Quality/Structure). Now to get the structure to 100% is easy, just install the item and dock at a station and it will get repaired to 100%. The Quality rating will stay what it is when you pull them so you could get a Unquie, non-man item 180/100. You will find almost all Prototype items in hulks now as that was the way it was in live.

 

Now to save the 10 million question "Why are the hulks not responding" here is the timers that are set for the hulks:

 

Starting explorer/miner sectors (JE,PE,TS) 30 minutes

Lvl 1-3 hulks 480 minutes (8 hours)

Lvl 4-6 hulks 960 minutes (16 hours)

Lvl 7-9 hulks 1440 minutes (24 hours)

 

The reason for setting the timers on the long side was to make sure the game doesn't get flooded with to many new items. Now nothing is set in stone and we may decide to either shorten the timers or even make them longer. We are also working on the drop rates so you might see small changes there. I will also say that I am putting together a very long list of items that will drop out of hulks and you will find different items in Jen, Terran, Progan & Independant sectors. It will be kind of like the loot drops where there is a common drop list and a rare drop list. Ok, that is about it for the hulks. I hope I have answered some of your questions have you have or will come up with the hulks. Fell free to ask questions, but first re-read this posting to see if I covered your question. Now you may all go back your normal lives! TTYL :-)

 

Merlin

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Sounds great! I noticed tonight one of the Dev said the current AAs were for code testing - are AAs back in hulks now (all or most of them) or are they being added later?

Hello,

Not sure yet how those will be handled. TTYL :-)

Merlin

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yeah the AA handling will be in game at the next content sync at the start of October (hopefully).

We have to change the weighting system very slightly to make them less common, and make sure the actual ancient artifacts aren't in the hulks, only an unidentified artifact you need to take to Ayoko.

With the hulks spawning infrequently they are quite precious, just like in live.

There are a few nice surprises in store for hulk items later on too, I'm sure Merlin will keep you posted as and when they are added.

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I only have one question, why are you sending the Scout to the Terran Enforcer class lead to trade items? ;)

The equivalent person would be India van Helkein-Naverre for the scout. She is the class leader for Hyperia.

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I only have one question, why are you sending the Scout to the Terran Enforcer class lead to trade items? ;)

The equivalent person would be India van Helkein-Naverre for the scout. She is the class leader for Hyperia.

Hello,

I did do some checking and made sure that each NPC was part of the faction that they were giving out. To my surprise Admiral Herrea is part of TS faction so that is why we sent the players to him. If this is a mistake then it is a mistake in the NCP database that the server is reading. It would be easy to fix this if indeed a mistake has been made. Just let me know if you want it changed. TTYL :-)

Merlin

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Hmm... Neat!

Don't know if I like the 24 hour respawn timer tho. You could get a case where only people in a certain timezone get to see them. Maybe make it 22 or 26 hour just so the time of day changes as people prospect it.

/signed

I was just thinking the same thing, it was pretty late local time for me when the content push was done and its rare that I am on too much later than that during the week (even though I'm not ready for lvl 7-9 hulks yet, I will be soon)

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Shouldn't the Terran Scout leader be Loric DeGrey? In Live he was the one who gave Hyperia Missions. However he's an NPC that hangs out in space (Lagarto near Hyperia Office/Staging Area) rather than in a Starbase.

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Don't know if I like the 24 hour respawn timer tho. You could get a case where only people in a certain timezone get to see them. Maybe make it 22 or 26 hour just so the time of day changes as people prospect it.

May be randomize each hulk timer plus or minus 25% of the timer value.

i.e.

Hulks 1-3 8h timer plus or minus 2h

Hulks 4-6 16h timer plus or minus 4h

Hulks 7-9 24h timers plus or minus 6h

That way, if a miner clears the hulk field (which I've seen already happening) they can't just return a fixed amount of time later and farm the hulk field again.

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Just thought of something, on the suits are they tradeable? If so I would see how my JE might want to trade some Jenquai suits with a PE for some Progen Suits, in order to turn them in for the apropriate faction.

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<_<, Nice.

Gives me a reason to play the JE.

Any chance of seeing a new Item in game in

those hulks? (wink wink) <_<

I guess its like the Easter egg thing. :)

Phorlaug..

Looked in some low level hulks in Io and found some things I hadn't seen before. Also saw a Heart Shield. Good work Merlin.

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May be randomize each hulk timer plus or minus 25% of the timer value.

i.e.

Hulks 1-3 8h timer plus or minus 2h

Hulks 4-6 16h timer plus or minus 4h

Hulks 7-9 24h timers plus or minus 6h

That way, if a miner clears the hulk field (which I've seen already happening) they can't just return a fixed amount of time later and farm the hulk field again.

yes there is a random element in the respawn times, but because it's a static 5 minute thing it doesn't really affect these huge respawn times.

Having a percentage variance is indeed a lot better. I'll get that changed.

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Hyperia is the Terran Scout's faction. Admiral Herrera was being associated with Good Earth Trading Company, a.k.a. GETCo. He is in fact the EarthCorps Warriors Class Leader, same as Vinda for the Progen sentinel, or Merjan Kathrada for Jenquai Explorer. I will set him correctly now. It'll go across with the next patch. It's your system, but if you want them to go to someone in their class, then you'll need to change it.

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Hyperia is the Terran Scout's faction. Admiral Herrera was being associated with Good Earth Trading Company, a.k.a. GETCo. He is in fact the EarthCorps Warriors Class Leader, same as Vinda for the Progen sentinel, or Merjan Kathrada for Jenquai Explorer. I will set him correctly now. It'll go across with the next patch. It's your system, but if you want them to go to someone in their class, then you'll need to change it.

Hello,

Sounds good Kyp. In fact I will make the changes right before the next push and will get a list from the 3 race leaders (Kyp, Kenu & Freak/Mr :( as to who really is the class leader for each class. I probilly should have done that instead of trying to figure it out my self, but I was trying to get it done as soon as I could and was already holding everyone up. I am sure the players will not have any problem with changing who they give the suits to. TTYL :-)

Merlin

Just thought of something, on the suits are they tradeable? If so I would see how my JE might want to trade some Jenquai suits with a PE for some Progen Suits, in order to turn them in for the apropriate faction.

Hello,

Yes, suits are tadeable! TTYL :-)

Merlin

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Prob not a popular thing to ask but:

Weren't a small percentage of ruined hulks duds? This would be like the popper roids but without the monster.

You are correct Tyran. Some hulks would explode when you tried to mine them. The only difference between exploding hulks and Jack-a-roids is that exploding hulks weren't obvious, while Jack-a-roids were usually the wrong color for their level and type of asteroid. You could get a buff, debuff, shield damage, or a hostile mob in live from either exploding hulk or asteroid/hydrocarbon.

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After playing around this weekend I'm liking the new hulks... Just a few observations though:

  • It's a cherry-picker's dream. Many of the fields I come across have already been comed over and I end up just clearing the field just so it'll respawn for the next person in a few hours. I'm glad debris stacks. :)
  • I'm finding a lot of prototype equipment in the lower level fields (lvl6 down). In one field (Jove Ruins I believe) I found two lvl5 and one lvl6 proto-engine in addition to a bunch of misc proto-weapons + ammo. It just seems like they are dropping too much. Maybe seed in some more mundane items to thin them out.
  • Are the unidentified items in game? I haven't seen any yet and I used to like them in live. It's like unopened presents and you're just dying to see what's inside.

More as I think of them.

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After playing around this weekend I'm liking the new hulks... Just a few observations though:

  • It's a cherry-picker's dream. Many of the fields I come across have already been comed over and I end up just clearing the field just so it'll respawn for the next person in a few hours. I'm glad debris stacks. :)
  • I'm finding a lot of prototype equipment in the lower level fields (lvl6 down). In one field (Jove Ruins I believe) I found two lvl5 and one lvl6 proto-engine in addition to a bunch of misc proto-weapons + ammo. It just seems like they are dropping too much. Maybe seed in some more mundane items to thin them out.
  • Are the unidentified items in game? I haven't seen any yet and I used to like them in live. It's like unopened presents and you're just dying to see what's inside.

More as I think of them.

Hello,

The subject of cherry picking has been beaten to death and I for one do not like cherry picking, but I got such flack that I really don't care anymore if players cherry pick or not.

The % of the items in the hulks will be changing over the course of the next 6 months as I fine tune the hulks. Alot of the Dev's take big swings at things as to where I like to make small changes to try to get things right, of course this takes time I will say on the next push alot of items are being added to the hulks and that will make getting the same thing twice next to impossible.

Have no cule as to what an unidentified item even is! If you are talking about the "aa" items then yes they will be going in sooner or later. I know everyone is in a big hurry for stuff to get put into the game and work correctlly, but this is the real world and to get stuff just right takes alot of time. I spent over 50 hours over the weekend putting together the item list for the hulks and will spend countless hours seeding the hulks as well, so sit back and enjoy it now as once things get ballanced out you may long for the days when you could find all the good stuff instead of maybe getting 1 or 2 like in live. TTYL :-)

Merlin

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If you are talking about the "aa" items then yes they will be going in sooner or later. I know everyone is in a big hurry for stuff to get put into the game and work correctlly, but this is the real world and to get stuff just right takes alot of time. I spent over 50 hours over the weekend putting together the item list for the hulks and will spend countless hours seeding the hulks as well, so sit back and enjoy it now as once things get ballanced out you may long for the days when you could find all the good stuff instead of maybe getting 1 or 2 like in live.

I forget what they were called... All I remember is that you had to get them identified so it would "unlock" the item. It probably was the aa items.

We all appreciate what you're doing for the Explorer community. Things of this scale do take time and I'm willing to wait and watch it evolve into fruition. I don't know what the master plan is so don't take my comments the wrong way. I can only talk about what I've experienced since the patch. :)

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