New Pop Rock whine

[Mattsacre]

Live and learn Dakynos..or maybe in this case die and learn it's as it shouod be..you take a risk mining over your skill/level you should be just that..taking a risk, and hopefully the rewards are appropriate to the risk, while curiosity killed the cat...they never say if the cat had a great time before curiosity whacked them

The mob drops..can confirm yes the L1 device equip buffers like heater/pavis/buckler and a L2 bio drop from spores (bad).
L9 bully bio parts like L9 heart L9 wing etc. dropping from leechs, (lvl appropriate, not mob)
Havent seen an other gear from either, what was the L7 gear item?

The buffs/debuffs, live as I remember were of 2 varieties, there was a moderate buff/debuff of 10-30 min duration. And a mega buff/debuff of 30 sec.-5 min. duration. A say moderate B/D would be in the -/+ range of 25 and the mega in the -/+ 55 or more, the higher being the shortest lasting.

There was one that was real cool graphically, if not really so practically. It was what we at the time called God Mode buff. You would take on this glowing all over radiating golden glow and would be impervious to damage of all types, but it only lasted like 30 sec. So cool looking, but to be practical you needed a mob right then and there to combat. Was alway good for a chuckle especially if you was mining with friends, would usually provide a chat line like "bow before me mere mortals!", then when the effect receeded, "*gulp* sorry guys...they power went to my head!

[ryleyra]

[quote name='Mattsacre' timestamp='1317163012' post='46767']
Live and learn Dakynos..or maybe in this case die and learn it's as it shouod be..[/quote]

I agree, when testing out what I can and can't take I don't care whether my "experimentation" kills me. That's the point; to test out what I can take. Once you've learned the limits, you'll avoid what you know is too dangerous.

Unless you LIKE blowing up. Sometimes the ability to self-JS can make me a bit giddy...

[Tienbau]

I guess the big changes you'll notice after the restart is the mob damage is more balanced, there are more mobs, each one with its own weakness and strength, loot is better and the BOOM rocks have a more balanced damage system (which means higher damage to the lower level rocks, as I messed up the equation before).

[wootage]

As this seems to be the discussion thread for poprocks, I'd like to share my first experiences with them last night, and see if this is working as intended? I was a L55 JE with L4 shields and prospect L5.

1. 5 rocks popped in my L50 mission field (gotten from the Charon station job term iirc). Two instakilled me (had never seen them before, just returned, although I recall 1 had appropriate level loot and didn't look odd). One popped a L18 mushroom which was no real threat so I just cloaked and waited it out, and I left two alone as they matched the poprock sig I'd just learned about (weird look, very high level loot). And one rock just disintegrated when I mined it, didn't notice any ill effects.

That normal for a single field?

2. None at all popped in any L50 mission I got from the Net7 terminal. I did L4-5 field clears in Ak's gate (many) and a couple in Jupiter and Uranus for those missions. I also cleared several L3-L5 fields free mining in Aks and roundabouts and didn't see any at all either.

3. I had a friend report that he got instakilled twice, one by a rock that killed his nearby partner as well, in Carpenter, and he saw many other poprocks while free mining. His words (after giving me friendly grief about my getting killed so much) were "Ok I believe you now. There's way too many poprocks".

Just wanted to get this info out here for your evaluation and to see if this is how it's intended to work. FYI, being instakilled at L55 with L4 shields doesn't seem right to me. It's not like I'm mining anything especially rare or valuable, which I would think would be where a risky situation would be justified.

[Ryle [N7R]]

Yeh. There is also the following issue:

Mining jobs will force you to blow poprocks. They glow blue, they have to be mined to complete the job. And they are almost always an instakill poprock, sometimes 2 or 3 in a field. Isnt this a little counterproductive? Dying 2 or 3 times to get 4000 experience from a job? Really?

[Terrell [BT]]

IMO pop-rocks shouldn't be instakill. Some should do shield damage, but IMO it shouldn't be more than 25% of your shields. Just my opinion though. I'm cool with all the other effects or mobs that come with the pop-rocks.

[wootage]

[quote name='Ryle' timestamp='1339195941' post='58567']
Yeh. There is also the following issue:

Mining jobs will force you to blow poprocks. They glow blue, they have to be mined to complete the job. And they are almost always an instakill poprock, sometimes 2 or 3 in a field. Isnt this a little counterproductive? Dying 2 or 3 times to get 4000 experience from a job? Really?
[/quote]

I did fail to complete a mining mission as I couldn't touch the remaining poprocks. I heard that they wouldn't be counted, but I failed the mission.

Can someone clarify the raison d'etre and intended workings of poprocks for me? I understand only that it's something to do with miners being able to get too high level stuff or something.

[Mattsacre]

Here is the possible problem, OLD job terminal lvls on NEW job lvls, it is on other type of missions (combat,trade) if you are taking jobs from terminal that were previously a differing level (for instance earth was 105) and you take a mission from there that isn't 105 now, while the rewards will be to the level of the job you took, the difficulty will be more than a normal type would be to that level band.

What is this causing? While the rocks and rewards and level of difficulty and number of rocks is to level, the pop rocks (and possible rock mobs) have the deletorious effects of the OLD level of the terminal.

Another possible problem:
The other problem is job terminal experience/difficulty band is much wider than a normal experience band would be from a normal ore field would be, if you were say a L50 miner mining a field way over your level you would KNOW that by the level of the ores, and the possible mobs present, as well as the difficulty and time it took to mine ea rock. The terminals are banded 50-75, 75-105, 105-135, 135-150 OL and you DO have access to them 15 level under, thusly the rock mining levels are actually nerfed down 15 levels in difficulty for MINING purposes, but the negative effects are NOT, so if you are mining L5 ores for the job...the negative EFFECTS are like a L7 field, from the job level that isn't as evident as it would be if you were actually in a L7 field.

[Mattsacre]

[quote name='wootage' timestamp='1339204841' post='58574']
I did fail to complete a mining mission as I couldn't touch the remaining poprocks. I heard that they wouldn't be counted, but I failed the mission.

Can someone clarify the raison d'etre and intended workings of poprocks for me? I understand only that it's something to do with miners being able to get too high level stuff or something.
[/quote]
Poprocks were in from live, they were to "spice" up the minng experience, if you were going to risk a higher than normal field than your normal experience band, then there was a risk associated with that, like possible ore field guardians (mobs that were evident) and "poprocks" the poprocks had both possible positive and negative buffs (sometimes in function the positive were negative like a +1k thrust would make it actually harder to mine) as well as possible "poprock mobs" spawning, if you were mining a field that was over your experience band that mob would be hard for you to handle since it was at a level to the field being mined.

In live there wasn't very many "hulk fields" like the hulks are now, the hulks were scattered throughout the ore fields, thusly high level hulk rewards were much more rare, and to combound that further, many of the hulks would pop as well, so you saw a uber rare item in a hulk and you started slobbering to pluck it out, hit the mine button and POP...NNNOOOOOOOO! all gone

Best way to explain poprocks to non miners is that poprocks are like to miners (only more often) are to named mobs are to warriors. Only the poprock mobs aren't having the higher chance instance of superior loot like live as named mobs do.

[wootage]

[quote name='Mattsacre' timestamp='1339257822' post='58580']
Poprocks were in from live, they were to "spice" up the minng experience, if you were going to risk a higher than normal field than your normal experience band, then there was a risk associated with that, like possible ore field guardians (mobs that were evident) and "poprocks" the poprocks had both possible positive and negative buffs (sometimes in function the positive were negative like a +1k thrust would make it actually harder to mine) as well as possible "poprock mobs" spawning, if you were mining a field that was over your experience band that mob would be hard for you to handle since it was at a level to the field being mined.

In live there wasn't very many "hulk fields" like the hulks are now, the hulks were scattered throughout the ore fields, thusly high level hulk rewards were much more rare, and to combound that further, many of the hulks would pop as well, so you saw a uber rare item in a hulk and you started slobbering to pluck it out, hit the mine button and POP...NNNOOOOOOOO! all gone

Best way to explain poprocks to non miners is that poprocks are like to miners (only more often) are to named mobs are to warriors. Only the poprock mobs aren't having the higher chance instance of superior loot like live as named mobs do.
[/quote]

If it's a bug in terminals that have had level changes, can we confirm that and spread the word? It does seem that the sheer number of pops in a single field looks like a bug that goes beyond the mission level though.

Re the rest, everything I was talking about was appropriate level for my guy.

Re poprocks being like mobs, I'm not seeing it. You can engage a higher level mob as a learning process, running away before you get toasted. That's not the case with poprocks, AND they're disguised as well, effectively making them like a minefield. If the rocks were to put out a damage over time effect, I could see that, and it would make good canon too (there's dangerous radioactivity or other emissions from the rock or hulk, so you might blow up by being near enough to mine it). But just kaboom your dead?

Also back to my original question - what is the purpose of poprocks? How do they enhance the mining experience or resolve a problem with it?

[Terrell [BT]]

They're supposed to enhance it, but they shouldn't be insta-killing explorers. They should do one of the following:
[list=1]
[*]Explode and do damage (but not enough to kill you when your shields are fully charged)
[*]Random buff
[*]Random debuff
[*]Occasionally allow you to mine (new to EMU in live they were unminable)
[*]Hostile Mob
[/list]

[Thrangar]

well in general I hate popers, but as the game sits right now I can live with them,since tows are cheap .

If tows are made more exspensive and hull repair also then they should be toned down abit
JS and HP should be made a more integral part of game.A game that would be much more interesting.

[Mattsacre]

Live tows cost, imagine when its up and going they will again, but mine jobs (until you get 150 mine jobs) aren't that far off to station, but consider being in the hinterlands like cooper (without QAR access) or antares, or Roc, it really sucks to get towed from there to have to return to finish up a field etc.

About the kaboom! effect poprocks, I'm thinking its a tweeking thing needed, kabooming a poprock live didnt instakill you if your shields were up, sometimes it did get into hull (there was a randomness factor to amount of dmg.) especially for JE if their shield weren't full.

But they do need things like poprocks, they can be a pain yes, but its a "spice it up thing" and some of the buffs from live were ha-freakn-larious like 10-30 sec of god mode, what in reality use would be a mere 10-30 sec of total immunity be? But a golden shiny aura around your ship with radient energy wafting off looked real cool. Or like turbo thrust cap upped to +1k, you go from 0-1k thrust in 2 sec. for a few minutes, now if you were mining that would be annoying to zipp past your rocks with just a mere tap on the gas, but if you liked to fool around, it was fun to zip-loopty-loos around the field for the fun of it, especially if you had spectators.

On the pop mobs, yes most times miners were mine geared and a popmob might be a challenge at that time, but with a little effort, if they were in a correct level field it was worth the trouble to kill them since they had a heightened chance of superior or rare loot. And if they didnt drop something cool, at least they got your heart thumping for a bit when they suprised you.

[wootage]

Hmm, after playing more with them, and reading the responses, I'm coming down on the side of "not completely working as intended". Popping a mob is a neat thing, but kaboom is just like stepping on a mine. That's not something that spices up my EnB experience lol.
Allow me to suggest keeping the mob pop, but lowering the levels? I've caught CL18 and CL21 so far, and my guy is CL10 and 12 at the time. Also, keeping the debuffs (environmental ones that reduce or remove your shields would be neat, especially in combo with the mob pops).
However, I vote for losing the kaboom entirely. I know they "had it in live" but I think we need to remember that live was really unfinished and unbalanced in a lot of ways. No insult intended to Westwood, it was early days and EA was in charge, so that's just the way it was.

[Mattsacre]

Got to go the other way, there does need to be a kaboom! just not so boomy ..for a JE it should be 75% of "at level" rocks and since PS are shield centric 35-50% of theirs, this lets them survive and continue if they live cautious and wait for recharge, of course if they like living the edge and push it and get 2nd kaboomer! Well they pushed it and the results should be as such since TS are in now, but are less shield centric like the JE ,they should be 75%ish as well.

I would like to propose something maybe to replace the KABOOMAGENESS! in effect, how about less dmg. but push back instead? Knock them off by 1k or so, making them have to reorientate to mine, or maybe even a stunnish effect, sort of not be able to target for 30 sec. or so. Maybe even if they are grouped toss members of group in random directions for a few K making them have to reform.
Or even to replace the dmg. have some dmg and push back, as well as sig+, attracting any near by mobs. they would naturaly want to know what the heck that was over there? And want to inspect. hehe Edited June 10, 2012 by Mattsacre

[wootage]

Why does there have to be a kaboom at all? What problem is that solving, or what is it adding to the user experience of mining? If you're trying to make mining more interesting, you need to add things that engage the player in a way that lets them respond with the tools they will have at hand (guaranteed ship items, skills they can raise, etc.). Kaboom doesn't fit that model at all.

For example, the suggestion you gave about poprocks attracting nearby mobs is perfect. A player can assess that situation and either time their action to avoid them, plan a response like cloaking or warping, or take action to clear them. The situation is set in front of them and they have multiple choices as to what to do.

My suggestion about environmental conditions applying within a radius of the rock, combined with the possibility of a mob pop, also fits the model. Say a rock had both an radiation barrier and a 5k radius grav well (hypothetically). Warp is out and the radiation will damage the shields on the approach, making a mob pop a much greater threat. A player can use their shields (Progen advantage), environmental barrior (JE advantage), or sheer speed of approach (Terran advantage) to get in and mine the rock before their shields are gone. When the mob pops, one can fight, hide, or run, depending on their situation.

The potential for a player incap is there, but the player can do something about it. So there's reward, risk, choice and gameplay going on.

Edit: just realized that if the mobrocks have actual guardians watching over them specifically, that's an opportunity to get some mixed mining teams going.

[Terrell [BT]]

I think part of that can be addressed with the items in the pop mob's loot tables. If there are some semi-rare or rare items, that drop occasionally from pop-rock mobs of apropraite level, that's an incentive to pop said rock in the possiblity that the explorer may find worth the risk. I think 75% of shields even for a JE or Scout is too much, but I could see 30-50% of a L8 shield as the most powerful Boom if we use the Veiled Oyoroi L8 shield as a standard. It's cap is 43029 and is the smallest shield likely to be used by a L150 explorer (JE/Scout get L8 shield at L130, PE gets L8 shield at L120, L9 at 140.). This would mean that the PE would take the same amount of hit points damage from such a boom, but it would be a smaller percentage of his shield since L9 shields have significantly more hit points than L8 shields.

If the random buff/debuffs are relevant to mining, as they seem to be from the one's I've encountered, it's worth doing as well. A Reactor Optimization buff is beneficial to miners, and it's one of the possible buffs from a pop-rock. One of the debuffs that's in also is relevant, increase ship signature. It effectivally paints the words "shoot me" on your ship's butt. The deflect debuffs (buffs?) are also relevant should one have to tangle with the orefield guards, or a pop rock mob.

It's also an additional risk, in addition to the usual orefield guardians, for explorers to deal with when mining. I do think that they should make pop-rocks indistinguishable from normal asteroids/hydrocarbons of the same level. Both now & in live pop-rocks stood out and were easily noticable from normal roids. Making them a surprise would spice things up a bit. If not the possiblity of getting more of a particular ore is also an incentive to take the risk, since in EMU pop-rocks can sometimes be mined.

[Mattsacre]

Perhaps you misunderstand me. The poprocks need to be undetectable from other rocks, in some instances I know they aren't, when the product is finished hopefully they are. Then the KABOOM! is a correct factor.

The principle is : Every time you put your hand in the cookie jar, you will have a slight chance of something other than what you expected, instead of the chocolate chip cookie that the jar is labeled, on rare occasions you might reach in and get: a different flavor cookie, a gee whiz neato toy, a melted chocolate chip cookie, a pocket lint coated cookie, a bug (hope its not a cockroach rather than ant..can handle a ant ), a soda cracker, or even wonder of wonders! a solid gold cookie (just don't bite to hard).

THAT is the principle intended, rather than the detectable poprocks, a "suprise" factor, not unlike when a warrior attacks a mob and didn't see or know they had cloaked buddy nearby, or the mob has a debuff they didn't see coming, or a hack etc etc.

Perhaps the instance of a KABOOM! resultant is to high for the poprocks ( I argue for more random effects, a couple of doz. would be awesome!), perhaps there are new and improved alternate buff/debuff to be rolled out, thats all a matter of tweeking and testing. I do see others point however, the only effect of KABOOM happening is stale, its sort of like getting a can of toffee as a gift from a known jokester, you just KNOW when you open the can, out will pop 3 spring snakes , so you start looking at the fine print on the can, or put it away for later so they don't get their guffaws off you.

[Ryle [N7R]]

[quote name='Mattsacre' timestamp='1339365137' post='58629']
Perhaps you misunderstand me. The poprocks need to be undetectable from other rocks, in some instances I know they aren't, when the product is finished hopefully they are. Then the KABOOM! is a correct factor.

The principle is : Every time you put your hand in the cookie jar, you will have a slight chance of something other than what you expected, instead of the chocolate chip cookie that the jar is labeled, on rare occasions you might reach in and get: a different flavor cookie, a gee whiz neato toy, a melted chocolate chip cookie, a pocket lint coated cookie, a bug (hope its not a cockroach rather than ant..can handle a ant ), a soda cracker, or even wonder of wonders! a solid gold cookie (just don't bite to hard).

THAT is the principle intended, rather than the detectable poprocks, a "suprise" factor, not unlike when a warrior attacks a mob and didn't see or know they had cloaked buddy nearby, or the mob has a debuff they didn't see coming, or a hack etc etc.

Perhaps the instance of a KABOOM! resultant is to high for the poprocks ( I argue for more random effects, a couple of doz. would be awesome!), perhaps there are new and improved alternate buff/debuff to be rolled out, thats all a matter of tweeking and testing. I do see others point however, the only effect of KABOOM happening is stale, its sort of like getting a can of toffee as a gift from a known jokester, you just KNOW when you open the can, out will pop 3 spring snakes , so you start looking at the fine print on the can, or put it away for later so they don't get their guffaws off you.
[/quote]

See Matt I get what youre saying and I do agree, except when the risk/reward is taken out of the equation because its a job roid. When I go out and take a 105 mission as a level 104 JE and the first two roids I mine are both instakill poprocks on a job terminal mission, I decide to not do the jobs anymore, as it would be quicker to level without the XP debt forced on me to finish a 4000xp job.

Get what I am saying?

"Oh, I have to die twice and get 10k xp debt and loss of item quality to collect my 4000xp job bonus, that makes sense" Edited June 10, 2012 by Ryle

[wootage]

[quote name='Mattsacre' timestamp='1339365137' post='58629']
Perhaps you misunderstand me. The poprocks need to be undetectable from other rocks, in some instances I know they aren't, when the product is finished hopefully they are. Then the KABOOM! is a correct factor.

The principle is : Every time you put your hand in the cookie jar, you will have a slight chance of something other than what you expected, instead of the chocolate chip cookie that the jar is labeled, on rare occasions you might reach in and get: a different flavor cookie, a gee whiz neato toy, a melted chocolate chip cookie, a pocket lint coated cookie, a bug (hope its not a cockroach rather than ant..can handle a ant ), a soda cracker, or even wonder of wonders! a solid gold cookie (just don't bite to hard).

THAT is the principle intended, rather than the detectable poprocks, a "suprise" factor, not unlike when a warrior attacks a mob and didn't see or know they had cloaked buddy nearby, or the mob has a debuff they didn't see coming, or a hack etc etc.

Perhaps the instance of a KABOOM! resultant is to high for the poprocks ( I argue for more random effects, a couple of doz. would be awesome!), perhaps there are new and improved alternate buff/debuff to be rolled out, thats all a matter of tweeking and testing. I do see others point however, the only effect of KABOOM happening is stale, its sort of like getting a can of toffee as a gift from a known jokester, you just KNOW when you open the can, out will pop 3 spring snakes , so you start looking at the fine print on the can, or put it away for later so they don't get their guffaws off you.
[/quote]

Actually, I understand your words just fine. I don't understand what you find fun about rocks blowing up unpredictably in your face.

Let me reiterate my point. This is a game, not a game of chance. If you want to introduce things to change gameplay, there has to be some gameplay in what you introduce.

There is no gameplay going on with rocks that explode in your face and damage or kill you. There is only the toss of the dice, and that's gambling, not playing.

I'm all for making the game more fun in any way, and making mining more exciting is a definite plus. The mob-rocks concept has lots of potential, your suggestion about having them explode (with no damage in this model) and call guardians to them is great, having mob-rocks guarded by guardian "parents" that need to be killed before you can get to the high-qual ores, having major debuffs like draining shields / reactors - those are all concepts with inherent challenge that the player can assess and respond to. In a word - gameplay.

[Mattsacre]

You have either not read what I have previously posted...OR missunderstood what I said. The question postulated can be summed up thus: Why does there have to be KABOOM! rocks? I don't like them.

My general gist answer was: they were in live, they are in now, they should remain in, its a "spice" thing. You don;t have to like a thing for it to be so.

Now here is the important part..READ HERE IF NOWERE ELSE:********************************************************************************************************************************************************

While poprocks should have a meriad of effects, they should be BALANCED. YES, I agree, instakillers should not be in! Thats something that needs a tweek. I said that SEVERAL TIMES, a 'sploder rock should do a small amount of shield to a shield centric miner (PS) and a MODERATE amount of dmg to a nonshield centric miner (JE/TS), if the miner pauses...lets the shield regen to full, they should be safe from any futher KABOOM! If they push the envelope and don't pause, then they run a RISK, and like all risks, sometimes you roll snake-eye s
*******************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

I think they need tweeking, I have never advocated they should 1 popkill, only if you push your luck and not slow down should you suffer if it goes wrong.

[wootage]

[quote name='Mattsacre' timestamp='1339383634' post='58700']
You have either not read what I have previously posted...OR missunderstood what I said. The question postulated can be summed up thus: Why does there have to be KABOOM! rocks? I don't like them.

My general gist answer was: they were in live, they are in now, they should remain in, its a "spice" thing. You don;t have to like a thing for it to be so.

Now here is the important part..READ HERE IF NOWERE ELSE:********************************************************************************************************************************************************

While poprocks should have a meriad of effects, they should be BALANCED. YES, I agree, instakillers should not be in! Thats something that needs a tweek. I said that SEVERAL TIMES, a 'sploder rock should do a small amount of shield to a shield centric miner (PS) and a MODERATE amount of dmg to a nonshield centric miner (JE/TS), if the miner pauses...lets the shield regen to full, they should be safe from any futher KABOOM! If they push the envelope and don't pause, then they run a RISK, and like all risks, sometimes you roll snake-eye s
*******************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

I think they need tweeking, I have never advocated they should 1 popkill, only if you push your luck and not slow down should you suffer if it goes wrong.
[/quote]

I read and understood every word. Let me sum up your position in return. "I like rocks that explode and do damage without warning." Regardless of how much or little damage applied, I think I've made my points that I don't enjoy that when it happens, we proved right here that there are way better ways to use jack-a-roids, and that the idea itself violates a core concept of interactive game design. To quote you back: "Just because you like something doesn't mean it has to be so".

And re things being as they were in Live, as I said in an earlier reply, it was early days, and everyone was taking guesses as to what would work. With the benefit of hindsight (looking over a decade of progress in the game industry), it is obvious that there are some pretty bad design decisions that were in Live and are perforce replicated here at this time. I could make a list pretty quickly, only I'm afraid to because of the high emotional nostalgia factor around this game.

However, I don't have to plant those flags on the battlefield right now, because the emulator is officially not going to replicate Live. There are changes that have already been made to the game design, and as it's early days for the emulator too, the process will be continuing for a long time yet. So we all have plenty of time to look carefully at what's going on and offer our perspectives.

And because of this process, when the emulator launches, it will be BETTER than Live.

I think we've reached an impasse, so I think we should stop here and just agree that we disagree on this issue. /wave

[Falstar [MOD]]

Personally my JE has died most of the times I pop a roid that explodes. I gather the idea is to make you really THINK about trying to mine that roid. I also am not sure if damage depends on roid level. As a dev has said before, there is inherent risk in trying to pop that roid when you are mining above your level. I know I was able to mine level 8 roids so early I laughed. Perhaps that should be addressed too...

As to weather poprocks should be in jobs, I don't know if that was intended or not. I could see arguments for and against that. Easy solution is to forfeit the mission if you see a pop roid in your job field. Do you risk death for 4k, or move on?

I believe the damage is tied to whomever tries to mine it. I think that should remain, but it should have a smaller chance of killing you, but it should still be there. Lets say a roid has a 20% chance to explode (vs mob, debuff or buff) Of that 20% chance maybe 10-20% chance to kill you, 10-20% chance for 1/3 dmg 10-20% half damage and so on.

[Ryle [N7R]]

As far as the job roids go, all the ones that have killed me were not different colored or all that weird looking or seeming. They would just pop.

[Mattsacre]

The old poproids most often weren't obvious, you had to stop and look, if you knew what you were searching for, you could see the difference. It wasn't the color or something obvious like blue/black radiant smoke. It was texture. The rock was the same color and shape as all the others, however the poprock had a slightly different skin pattern.

I can't remember ever being 1 shot killed by a poprock live, I always had to push the edge to get killed. My JE, a couple of times got slightly into hull one shot (but note, I was mining right at the edge of skill in those instances), my PS NEVER got into hull 1 shot, it took me chancing a second rock without pausing for shield recharge. Never did I get killed if I paused long enough for my shields to return, both on my JE/PS, even when mining over level.

So I guess my point is, that if it is tweeked correctly, it will be like live, you should never get 1 shoted, but if you are dumb enough not to pause for shields to refill, who is to blame really?