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Hulks! What now?


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Better loot tables sound good, I would like also that there is some good higher level trade stuff on the higher hulks that can be sold to vendor for cash and more importantly trade experience:)

Would also be nice for a few items that might only drop from hulks (other than prototypes which are great btw)

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Decreasing the hulk respawn times would be very very nice.

They are more or less camped by folks who leave their miners in known hulk fields in anticipation of server restarts these days, what with L7-L9 hulk fields having 24hour+ respawn times.

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Decreasing the hulk respawn times would be very very nice.

They are more or less camped by folks who leave their miners in known hulk fields in anticipation of server restarts these days, what with L7-L9 hulk fields having 24hour+ respawn times.

I totally agree with you on that.

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I agree decreasing spawn timers, longer spawn times in other games I played makes competition even worse.

I would have several "tiers" of hulks. You would get the main field of hulks with tier (just for example) 1 and 2 hulks , tier 1 have the trade items /junk and make up 80% of a field, then you have some tier 2 which will have an ordinary item +junk/trade items.

You then need to clear all the hulks to get another smaller field (up to 6?) with tier 3 hulks, these have items and chance for special item, and would be link to the person that clear most the field.

This means you have to clear a field to get most the good items (make sure there is not one poped somewhere out the way though). Would that help? Maybe smaller fields but more often and more places. Also the more dangerous (ie mobs guarding) the better ratio of fields?

One other way though not sure if would work would be to make lots of smaller fields (or linked hulks 6 to 12?) that are tagged to the first player to mine them, but have several distinct groups scattered about the area? I don't really like the huge fields and one person claiming it. This could mean more people could mine same areas maybe?

Oh another idea, how about make them into miners missions (miners only), get mission from where ever, miner goes out to where told and lo and behold hulk(s) x for Bovyne! this allows miners to mine (with no waiting for re-pops) the time to go back and forth from station and the amount of hulks you get can be tailored for whatever amount of exp/items etc you wanted to give? (plus exp and/or items from mission maybe?) Add different difficulties for better risk/rewards.. ie easy just find hulk(s) near non mob infested area, lower exp and mainly just junk, to patrol by high level mobs or in radiation area etc good chance of nice item?

I like my last idea best.

Edited by Bovyne
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  • 4 months later...
Anyone else get useless ancient artifacts. Picked up an L9 a couple of weeks ago, saved it until my JE could use it, then cashed it in today.

aa ehtang y L9 TE only

Not really what I was hoping for. :o
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  • 2 months later...
It still seems like something should be changed with the hulks. Currently, after a reset every other hulk has "goodies" in it (prototypes, devices, half eaten suits, etc.) The problem is that there is no real incentive for clearing all the "junk" (ie. debris, mah jong tiles, level-based yellow-bordered items) from the field:

[list]
[*]~2k xp for the field clear bonus? Roughly equivalent to a non-hulk field, but I doubt anyone is hitting up hulk fields for xp.
[*]A few thousand credits for vendoring the junk? More credits can be earned elsewhere.
[*]A fresh field spawn? Please, who is going to clear the field just so they can run the risk of forgetting that they need to be back there in 12 or 24 hours? (Especially if the respawn timer is random to prevent timing the camp)
[/list]
So what ends up happening because of this is that no one touches the junk items, so they stay in the field and prevent the hulks from respawning. Then someone else (maybe even a diehard "clear the whole field or don't touch it at all" -type person) comes to the field, sees only junk, and leaves, thus perpetuating the cycle.

Perhaps what could be done is significantly reduce the chances of getting "goodies", and at the same time reduce the respawn time of the hulks by the same amount? For example, reduce the chances of goodies spawning to 1/20th of their current rate, but have the hulks respawn 20x faster. That way, there isn't a huge influx of goodies, but there is at least more incentive to clear the field so that you can come back and do it again.

Independent of that idea would be increasing the value (xp and/or credits) of the junk to make mining it actually worthwhile, as well as reducing the amount of debris and wreckage slag (which is worth even [i]less[/i] than the level-based junk) in high level fields.
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i was thinking more along the lines of a despawn timer and lowering the respawn.
once you open or pull from a hulk the despawn timer starts and you have say 5 minutes to pull what you can from it and it then despawns or perhaps even pops like a poproid.
(anyone for an added element of danger while mining? ;) )
I would also lower the respawn but give it a bigger "window".
L9 hulks i think are currently set around 24 hours iirc. i'd like to see the respawn on those anywhere from 4 to 12 hours set randomly once they despawn.
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I would imagine that the spaceships that got themselves "hulked" are made out of some fairly exotic materials and that even their twisted wreckage would contain a significant amount of very valuable salvage that could then be prospected. Why not make several different types (metal based, hydrocarbon based and crystal based?) of salvage and wreckage at each level(1-9) and allow prospectors to refine it to retrieve the ores? Or perhaps the stuff could be turned in to the various shipyards in the game for some kind of reward, be it credits, factions, tokens or whatever else seems neat. I for one, being a prospector, would enjoy collecting shiploads of salvage to turn in to get some neat explorer only gear.

I also really like Cheezebaal's idea regarding the respawn and added danger. I think part of the danger could be a random chance to have a nasty creature "wake-up" once a prospector tries to "prospect" its new home! I know that if I was a deep space creature and went to all the trouble of pacifying a spaceship to make it into a home I would be extremely ornery if someone starting removing all those half-eaten spacesuits I was saving for later! :)
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Since this seems to be a 'make suggestions about Hulks' thread, I'd like to chime in, since my primary activity during live was hanging out on Dahin dodging lava serpents and looting hulks.

My favourite thing about them was the random stuff you could find. Old art, antiques, books, assorted bric a brac that wasn't useful for anything in particular except to sell. I liked it because it was like opening a treasure chest filled with wonderful strange things, and not necessarily useful things. Mind you I only ever got to level 5-6 hulks, so I don't know how the top end one's worked, but all this talk I've been seeing about farming hulks for turn-in items and such has me a little dismayed. If you want ore, mine asteroids. If you want equipment, beat up enemy ships. If you want weird little items that'll turn a good trade profit, risk life and limb to find some Hulks. Crossing the Line to delve into the debris fields was exhilarating, and crawling across the lava rivers to wait for the perfect moment to decloak and grab the hulk was heart-pounding. I'm not there yet, but I'm hoping that's the experience I'm in for again.

Speaking of The Line, is it just me or is it not nearly as dangerous as it was during Live? I remember when having an Environment Shield up all the time was critical, or you'd randomly lose all your shields, or your engines or weapons would go offline. I've nosed across a couple times, and all that happens now is piddly damage over time to my shields. I liked that it was a scary place that not many people could go because 'omfg dangerous'.

Anyway, I'm still new, so pardon my ignorance if I'm not grokking what's going on here. I've just got my memories of yore to go on, and they are fond indeed. :)
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[quote name='Yendor' timestamp='1307369586' post='41765']
I would imagine that the spaceships that got themselves "hulked" are made out of some fairly exotic materials and that even their twisted wreckage would contain a significant amount of very valuable salvage that could then be prospected. Why not make several different types (metal based, hydrocarbon based and crystal based?) of salvage and wreckage at each level(1-9) and allow prospectors to refine it to retrieve the ores? Or perhaps the stuff could be turned in to the various shipyards in the game for some kind of reward, be it credits, factions, tokens or whatever else seems neat. I for one, being a prospector, would enjoy collecting shiploads of salvage to turn in to get some neat explorer only gear.

I also really like Cheezebaal's idea regarding the respawn and added danger. I think part of the danger could be a random chance to have a nasty creature "wake-up" once a prospector tries to "prospect" its new home! I know that if I was a deep space creature and went to all the trouble of pacifying a spaceship to make it into a home I would be extremely ornery if someone starting removing all those half-eaten spacesuits I was saving for later! :)
[/quote]

I think this is a pretty good idea, would give something for higher level toons to do with the wreckage/debris that's found in hulks, since in higher level hulks there's minimal, if any, Trade XP for vendoring.

In Live there were pop-hulks, in addition to pop-rocks. In either case a mob could be spawned, shield damage, or a random buff or debuff. The only significant difference between Pop-rocks, and pop-hulks, is that an experienced miner could easily spot a pop-rock, a pop hulk wasn't as obvious.
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carrot or stick scenario idea.
just a thought, while i like the field clear bonus, i was wondering if the field clear bonus could be tied to a 50/50 chance of either a level appropriate hulk or mob spawning (50/50 chance). i was thinking that perhaps you could re-use the job mob code for this.
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[quote name='CheezeBaal' timestamp='1307409221' post='41796']
carrot or stick scenario idea.
just a thought, while i like the field clear bonus, i was wondering if the field clear bonus could be tied to a 50/50 chance of either a level appropriate hulk or mob spawning (50/50 chance). i was thinking that perhaps you could re-use the job mob code for this.
[/quote]

ooo, I like this kind of thing! You're right as well, if we wanted to spawn a mob we could indeed use the job mob spawn code. However having a chance of something cool appearing is neat. Why would we want a mob to spawn though? And if there's a group there what level should it be?

Having events occur when fields are cleared is a good idea but it needs to be something that's balanced (boring, yeah I know). I was thinking maybe if you clear a certain number of fields then a 'super XP field' is spawned which drops the same ores but not only is every asteroid giving better XP for mining the clear bonus is doubled.

Any other ideas? I like the hulk one, but I'm not sure how it would work in reality, or why. Maybe a temporary 'on a prospecting roll' buff which comes on and super-speeds your tractor beam and lowers the amount of reactor energy you need per ore.

We're going to need some alternative XP systems in place for when the job XP is balanced. We're still using the figures I pulled out of my arse a couple of years ago when jobs were new. The team are working on level balancing so hopefully that'll be fixed before too long.

Also player jobs too would be nice, but I guess they will be horrendously abused by mutl-accounting unless we're very careful.
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One way to get people to clear the fields would be to hide the identity of the hulks contents until it has been mined. Open a hulk and all you see is ship remains until you mine it. Once it's in your hold, it's true identity is revealed. Somewhat along the lines of ancient artifacts, but you don't need to take the stuff to an NPC.
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There is one thing not mentioned in the hulks during live...big stacks of ores. There was digi stuff and random items not digi, most the warp kaza was hulk driven, and yes many popped..but hulks didnt pop with mobs, just random buffs (some were really debuff in a weird way...like + 2k thrust that would make it hard to thrust and stop to mine), but there was also large stacks of ores...specificly high demand ores like ammo ores. They would be most ofter 19-30 units ,but I actually saw and pulled 121 units of appolo from one hulk in cygni 61.

It actually makes sense in a way to find ores..since hulks are suppost to be the remains of other unfortunate travelers...some of with would be miners that met misfortune. They got greedy and went for that last bit of ore and got killed with the ore in the remains of their ship :)
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[quote name='Tienbau' timestamp='1307507620' post='41858']
Any other ideas? I like the hulk one, but I'm not sure how it would work in reality, or why.
[/quote]

I could see this working this way, once you clear a field, there is a random chance of getting this kind of message: "Now that the asteroid field has been cleared, your scanners have detected a hulk which was obscured by the neighboring asteroids." A hulk is spawned and the prospector is rewarded. :)

It could also be an asteroid that was obscured and it could contain a random amount of a lot more of the field ores or even perhaps (very, very rarely) an AA device.
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[quote name='Yendor' timestamp='1307542273' post='41877']
I could see this working this way, once you clear a field, there is a random chance of getting this kind of message: "Now that the asteroid field has been cleared, your scanners have detected a hulk which was obscured by the neighboring asteroids." A hulk is spawned and the prospector is rewarded. :)

[b]It could also be an asteroid that was obscured and it could contain a random amount of a lot more of the field ores or even perhaps (very, very rarely) an AA device.[/b]
[/quote]

I'd clear a few hundred orefields for that. Many other prospectors would too.
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[quote name='Hober' timestamp='1307534541' post='41869']
One way to get people to clear the fields would be to hide the identity of the hulks contents until it has been mined. Open a hulk and all you see is ship remains until you mine it. Once it's in your hold, it's true identity is revealed. Somewhat along the lines of ancient artifacts, but you don't need to take the stuff to an NPC.
[/quote]

[font="Calibri"][size="3"]Please see my post on new mob AI. Clearing some fields now is next to impossible or uses more ammo than the hulks are worth. I think the new mob AI are encouraging picking. But that could just be me.[/size][/font]
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About "cherrypicking" from hulks, now I have no idea to what extent this is being done but I suspect it is fairly common. This might be a feature of the game that is intended and of course in that case it shouldn't be changed.

I have no idea how hard this would be to implement but a solution to this problem could be to have the more desirable loot to spawn in the hulk after you have emptied it, meaning either it would go poof, spawn something else inside or maybe buff/debuff you (as in live).
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good input guys, I like the reasoning too.

so we've got:

- obscure some contents of hulks (mystery item, only revealed when you pull it in).
- large stacks of ores in hulks (good explanation too). Gonna be a killer on the reactor ...
- chance for hidden hulk to be revealed once you've cleared the field (was somehow obscured from scanners). Chance for AA in said hulk.
- buffs in hulks if they pop.
- increasing chance of AA's dropping if fields are cleared? This kinda happens by default although the AA placement code is still needing a few tweaks - I want it to work so that the server maintains a constant number of AA's throughout the galaxy rather than just having a very low drop chance.

oh and to Mimir ... I need to get the adjustable respawn for mob guardians in there, keep meaning to do it.
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