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8 suggestions I've thought of since coming back to EnB


wootage

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Here's a few things I've noticed since coming back. YMMV, but I think these will be some decent improvements if they can be implemented.

1. Make "Approach" work for everything. When prospecting, looting or even fighting, it'd be a real help to be able to target it and then click Approach to line up and move towards it. (This is actually how Eve Online does it, and it works well for its purpose). Having it work at long ranges would be excellent too, as you could use it to line you up for a freewarp for when you don't want to use the navs for whatever reason.

2. Add some speed to warping by nav points. An extra 30% across the board would be excellent.

3. Vault filter - change from "hide" to "show only". Currently you can only hide a certain type of thing. Maybe I'm missing something, but why would you not want to just show what you're looking for, instead of hiding 1 out of however many things you're not looking for?

3a. Add more categories to the vault filter. The biggest use of the vault is for ore, refinables and components, so I'd like to see those as independent options.

4. Vault sort. MUST DIE arrggghh. Or at least, add "sort by type" and "sort by level" - preferably both at once, as that would pretty much work for everything. Example- you've got equipment, components, ores and refinables in your vault. Selecting "Sort by type/level" would instantly group everything of the same type together and line it up by level. How cool would that be?

5. Allow dead ships like 10% speed or something, so they can creep away from whatever killed them to get a jumpstart. We don't really have enough players in game to be asking for a group to kill something so you can get a JS.

6. Less NPCs, tougher fights. I personally hate "the grind". I'd rather have a few scary hard, but really rewarding fights, than a bazillion pwns. Also, this encourages grouping which will help spread out the xps. Combine this with the next item for real authenticity.

7. Change teh lootz to make sense. It makes no sense whatsoever for an organic to drop a complete, usable engine or weapon lol. They should instead drop refines. Mechanicals should drop a lot of components and items, maybe with some damaged so you have to repair them?

8. Lastly, rebalance weapon damage and deflects, and make it by the type of enemy (mechanical vs organic). Example, Plasma damage just rocks out, so there's really no point in using any other kind at low-mid levels. I suggest lowering Plasma damage and bumping the other kinds across the board (and I have a TE so this is a nerf to me, but it's for the best). Also, making Plasma damage do much less against a mechanical (metallic hulls resist burning pretty well) and explosive/impact do less against organics would be pretty authentic as well. With this change, you'd need to be prepared for the type of enemy you'd be fighting, instead of just going with Plasma 'cause it pwns all. We'd also see a lot more diverse crafting going on.

8a. Side note, why are Organics all shields? You'd think they'd be all hull (body) instead, with a lotta HPs. That'd make more sense, at least to me :mellow:

Thanks for reading this far!

W

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I agree 100% with the first five suggestions. Not sure about the rest. I've had a lot of fun with fast-spawning lower level enemies, such as the Chavez in Glenn. In a group with a JE and a TT, the enemies drop like flies but keep coming. The XP might not be as good though.

An additional suggestion would be to add more keyboard shortcuts for harvesting, looting, etc. This would be nifty for my JE.

Also, someone the other day in the game suggested that it would be nice to be able to select waypoints to warp along. I would definitely use this from time to time, as the default NAV routes in some systems are simply stupid! On the other hand, the current system was designed for balancing reasons I assume, because it allows only higher level characters with good reactors to free-warp wherever they want and risk running into higher level mobs.

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1. Yes! May require client work.

2. Yeah, probably would be a good idea. May require client work.

3. Good idea. May require client work.

3a. Probably would require client work. :mellow:

4. Probably would require client work but not sure... potential workaround in my head...

5. Good idea. It happens anyway with bugged incaps sometimes and it's amazingly useful. You can't gate or dock or anything so you still need a JS, but you can drift... hell, doesn't even have to reduce speed... crawling away on sublight is slow enough. LOL

6. Debatable.

7. Agreed, though this would take a lot of work rebalancing. That's always something that's bugged me in games. LOL

8. Probably a good idea.

8a. Yeah no kidding!

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Here's a few things I've noticed since coming back. YMMV, but I think these will be some decent improvements if they can be implemented.

1. Make "Approach" work for everything. When prospecting, looting or even fighting, it'd be a real help to be able to target it and then click Approach to line up and move towards it. (This is actually how Eve Online does it, and it works well for its purpose). Having it work at long ranges would be excellent too, as you could use it to line you up for a freewarp for when you don't want to use the navs for whatever reason.

2. Add some speed to warping by nav points. An extra 30% across the board would be excellent.

3. Vault filter - change from "hide" to "show only". Currently you can only hide a certain type of thing. Maybe I'm missing something, but why would you not want to just show what you're looking for, instead of hiding 1 out of however many things you're not looking for?

3a. Add more categories to the vault filter. The biggest use of the vault is for ore, refinables and components, so I'd like to see those as independent options.

4. Vault sort. MUST DIE arrggghh. Or at least, add "sort by type" and "sort by level" - preferably both at once, as that would pretty much work for everything. Example- you've got equipment, components, ores and refinables in your vault. Selecting "Sort by type/level" would instantly group everything of the same type together and line it up by level. How cool would that be?

5. Allow dead ships like 10% speed or something, so they can creep away from whatever killed them to get a jumpstart. We don't really have enough players in game to be asking for a group to kill something so you can get a JS.

6. Less NPCs, tougher fights. I personally hate "the grind". I'd rather have a few scary hard, but really rewarding fights, than a bazillion pwns. Also, this encourages grouping which will help spread out the xps. Combine this with the next item for real authenticity.

7. Change teh lootz to make sense. It makes no sense whatsoever for an organic to drop a complete, usable engine or weapon lol. They should instead drop refines. Mechanicals should drop a lot of components and items, maybe with some damaged so you have to repair them?

8. Lastly, rebalance weapon damage and deflects, and make it by the type of enemy (mechanical vs organic). Example, Plasma damage just rocks out, so there's really no point in using any other kind at low-mid levels. I suggest lowering Plasma damage and bumping the other kinds across the board (and I have a TE so this is a nerf to me, but it's for the best). Also, making Plasma damage do much less against a mechanical (metallic hulls resist burning pretty well) and explosive/impact do less against organics would be pretty authentic as well. With this change, you'd need to be prepared for the type of enemy you'd be fighting, instead of just going with Plasma 'cause it pwns all. We'd also see a lot more diverse crafting going on.

8a. Side note, why are Organics all shields? You'd think they'd be all hull (body) instead, with a lotta HPs. That'd make more sense, at least to me :P

Thanks for reading this far!

W

1. by approach do you mean autofollow?

2. Warp freaks everything out at around 6300 or something, currently the cap is around 5000 or 5500 so we aren't capable of making it much faster.

3. Not sure if this is possible

4. Not sure if this is possible either.

5. I'm not sure I like this idea to let them crawl away slowly, but it would be cool if stuff like summon friend or fold space ally worked on incapacitated people to help get them away from danger without having to clear the area.

6. Tough mobs would be awesome but could be hard to do. If we could pull it off...

7. Might work, though I feel like people would hunt organics a lot less.

8. I hope we do, but a ways down the road, it will require less balancing than you might think.

8a. It totally doesn't make sense, but the hull bar is so small it would be hard to see killing progress.

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Kenu, the cap has to be higher than 5500 unless it was lowered in the last 24 hours or so. When my Seeker uses her travel gear she can warp at 5800, though she slows down considerably when she approaches a gate. Her speed is reduced to less than half, around 2700 or so the last 30k or so. For Travel she uses a L8 Terran Engine the pink vendor one, a 200% L7 RR+, and a 200% L7 Charging Unicorn.

I think that there should be the option for easier or tougher fights, by mob selection. (basically the way it works now).

On damage types, I agree, but I would make it a bit more of an adventure w/r/t which damage types to use against mobs. Don't make it where you can say, I'm hunting ships, so if I'm Terran I'll use Explosive, Progen Impact, and Jenquai Energy, while all 3 races choosing Plasma for bio-mobs. Mix it up more, make it so the best way to find out what damage to use against mobs is trial and error. For the 4 most likely to be used damage types, Energy, Explosive, Impact, and Plasma. Have some mobs where 1 type of damage (not just plasma) works better against the others than the other types. For example there could be a mob that has resistances to chem and Plasma, immunity to Explosive, vulnerablity to Impact, and normal damage done by energy. of course that could be switched up for different types of mobs (The same type of damage that kills one Voltoi, will kill any other, but some may take more hits to receive the same damage). This would mean that all classes have ready access to at least two useful types of damage available in their racial choice of weapons. Jenquai have a good selection of beams in Energy & Plasma, Progen get a good selection of PLs that use Impact, Chem, or Plasma ammo, and Terrans get a good selection of MLs that use Explosive, Plasma, & Chem. (I intentionally left out EMP since it's at best highly situational for use)

Of course there would be some exceptional weapons in terms of damage type, for type of weapon, like the Silver Hammer PL which can do energy damage. They wouldn't be common, and often be more difficult to build than "normal" weapons of their type (beam, ML, PL) and level.

Some mobs should be tougher than others, i agree. Some mobs should attack if you do anythign to their buddies, some only if you mess with them, amd othrs on sight. Also having mobs with differetn levels of aggressiveness/ or alturisticallly.. Faction also affecting aggressivness/alturism of faction base. Mobs can help one another out by joinging in the fight, buffing but not joining in, (same for shield recharge0, both, or they may ignore their fellow mob.

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1. by approach do you mean autofollow?

2. Warp freaks everything out at around 6300 or something, currently the cap is around 5000 or 5500 so we aren't capable of making it much faster.

3. Not sure if this is possible

4. Not sure if this is possible either.

5. I'm not sure I like this idea to let them crawl away slowly, but it would be cool if stuff like summon friend or fold space ally worked on incapacitated people to help get them away from danger without having to clear the area.

6. Tough mobs would be awesome but could be hard to do. If we could pull it off...

7. Might work, though I feel like people would hunt organics a lot less.

8. I hope we do, but a ways down the road, it will require less balancing than you might think.

8a. It totally doesn't make sense, but the hull bar is so small it would be hard to see killing progress.

1. Yes, sorry, I meant auto-follow. Anything that gets my nose pointed toward the target and moves me closer would work though. I note that auto-follow kind of stops at over 1k though, so this would need to be much closer - say within .5 k or even less for prospecting, looting and close-range combat devices. The use would be in conjunction with key targeting - select the target and click the Approach / Follow button to be pointed toward it and start moving closer at best speed.

2. Darn. KK, it was just a thought, we are way past the point where an MMO "has to keep us playing" by putting in delays to gameplay.

3, 4 - kk, would be cool if it were.

5. The issue I see is that there aren't a lot of people on, so you take whatever you can get for a JS, and that may mean a low level char who WH's over just to help you out. I am totally in favor of any method that lets you get far enough away from whatever killed you to let someone else help.

6. That's my personal preference - give me a tough, rewarding fight over a bunch of boring pop-loot-repeat any day. Unless I'm all uber or specially advantaged against a particular enemy, make me group up for them too. This gives support roles a lot more meaning and will give them some combat levels.

7. I've never been one to hunt something that wasn't a threat to me or others, so I dunno about this. I just note that it's kinda silly to see whole, usable mechanical equipment dropping from an organic. Refines are worth a lot of cash though, so if they're good drops, that may be an incentive. Plus component makers would probably hunt them if they were "rare" refines, so there's a way for tradesppl to get combat levels and gather resources at the same time.

8. Cool.

8a. Yeah, the hull bar is small B) I just note that 'cause they're all shields, organics die really easily, and switching them to high-resist hull would make for a completely different fight. Shield Leech especially is an "I win" button atm.

Thanks for the replies!

W

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On damage types, I agree, but I would make it a bit more of an adventure w/r/t which damage types to use against mobs. Don't make it where you can say, I'm hunting ships, so if I'm Terran I'll use Explosive, Progen Impact, and Jenquai Energy, while all 3 races choosing Plasma for bio-mobs. Mix it up more, make it so the best way to find out what damage to use against mobs is trial and error. For the 4 most likely to be used damage types, Energy, Explosive, Impact, and Plasma. Have some mobs where 1 type of damage (not just plasma) works better against the others than the other types. For example there could be a mob that has resistances to chem and Plasma, immunity to Explosive, vulnerablity to Impact, and normal damage done by energy. of course that could be switched up for different types of mobs (The same type of damage that kills one Voltoi, will kill any other, but some may take more hits to receive the same damage). This would mean that all classes have ready access to at least two useful types of damage available in their racial choice of weapons. Jenquai have a good selection of beams in Energy & Plasma, Progen get a good selection of PLs that use Impact, Chem, or Plasma ammo, and Terrans get a good selection of MLs that use Explosive, Plasma, & Chem. (I intentionally left out EMP since it's at best highly situational for use)

Of course there would be some exceptional weapons in terms of damage type, for type of weapon, like the Silver Hammer PL which can do energy damage. They wouldn't be common, and often be more difficult to build than "normal" weapons of their type (beam, ML, PL) and level.

Some mobs should be tougher than others, i agree. Some mobs should attack if you do anythign to their buddies, some only if you mess with them, amd othrs on sight. Also having mobs with differetn levels of aggressiveness/ or alturisticallly.. Faction also affecting aggressivness/alturism of faction base. Mobs can help one another out by joinging in the fight, buffing but not joining in, (same for shield recharge0, both, or they may ignore their fellow mob.

I didn't want to go too far right off, but I agree completely with both of your points. The focus everyone has on the few "best" weapons just yells "unbalanced", and it also unbalances the market and crafting. NPCs that are flying around in spaceships really should be using their radios lol. Chavez mechanics that are out of range of you, but not their buddy should be using Hull Patch on their buddy, organics that can see your attack on a member of their social group should rally to save their herd member, etc.

Otherwise, you get that whole "stuff standing around waiting for you to kill them" mode. Which makes gameplay just stupid B) In the old days, the technology was limited and this is what they could do. Maybe this is still the case with EnB, but I think also that farming stuff has come to be expected by players because they're used to seeing it. And because of this, even devs of modern games have gotten lazy and just done it because it's easier on them and their suits don't know the difference to the gameplay.

For example, in LOTRO, you have a great, immersive time for the first 20-some levels, 'cause the quests are all purpose-driven. Then suddenly, while you still have "storyline" quests, a lot of the game changes to "kill x of this for this reward". You go out and there's tons of stuff stupidly standing around to be farmed, like we're too dumb to notice the difference ;)

But I digress. Thanks for the reply!

W

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I was kind of sleepy when I wrote the last part about mobs and alturism and I didn't word my thoughts very well (or type very well). I do think that mobs should tend to vary in their willingness to help one another out, some should be apathetic, others will open fire on anyone that opens fire on thier buddies, still others would simply hang back, and cast whatever buffs/heals they can on their buddy under distress. On aggressiveness it came out about right.

On factioned mobs, they should behave according to your standing with them. If I have neutral faction with a factioned mob, they should leave me alone as long as I leave them alone. Neutral mobs should never come to the assistance of players, or attack without provocation (you attack them or another faction member), but mobs that you have good faction with should occasionally help you a little. If you're an Explorer (of any race) for example fighting a Jack-a-roid mob, you have good PW faction and other Centuriata mobs are in the field, they should probably attack whatever you're fighting if they're close enough to see the fight. If it's one of the trader factions, that you're in good with, they should probably cast shield recharge on you if they see what's going on. If you're hostile in faction, they should join in the fight against you either by attacking you directly, using whatever skills, buffs, or debuffs they have either against you or to help your opponent, or any combination of the above.

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8. Lastly, rebalance weapon damage and deflects, and make it by the type of enemy (mechanical vs organic). Example, Plasma damage just rocks out, so there's really no point in using any other kind at low-mid levels. I suggest lowering Plasma damage and bumping the other kinds across the board (and I have a TE so this is a nerf to me, but it's for the best). Also, making Plasma damage do much less against a mechanical (metallic hulls resist burning pretty well) and explosive/impact do less against organics would be pretty authentic as well. With this change, you'd need to be prepared for the type of enemy you'd be fighting, instead of just going with Plasma 'cause it pwns all. We'd also see a lot more diverse crafting going on.

out of curiosity have you ever used, or seen in use even, a Plasma torch? Metallic hulls really wouldn't stop it much more than flesh

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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.

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out of curiosity have you ever used, or seen in use even, a Plasma torch? Metallic hulls really wouldn't stop it much more than flesh

Unless they're super-futuristic spaceship hulls :) Then I think plasma may have less of an effect, esp. when it's just kinda splattered over the hull. 'M just sayin'.

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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.

Re moving while disabled, I understand the dangerous exploration thing, I enjoy it myself, but I think that due to the nature of this effort, a little help wouldn't be a bad thing. I'm focusing on the point that we don't really have a lot of players to help you on your "corpse retrieval". I was just in a tour yesterday and lo, something pretty much teleported to us at a stop and wiped half of us in seconds. Fortunately, two of us were bugged and could move away under our own power, 'cause our tour guide went just about into hull getting the one remaining person out of there.

Add to this the fact that this game doesn't really have the typical progressively more dangerous areas the farther you move away. Pretty much everywhere has a real range of danger to it, so unless you're on the high side of the range, then in every sector there's somewhere you can get your butt shot off. And usually the flargin' mobs are at navs, so you get killed just trying to map through a sector :)

As a bonus, this idea would actually let lowbie JSers help out more, as they can warp straight to you once you're clear. Hadn't thought of that before.

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Re moving while disabled, I understand the dangerous exploration thing, I enjoy it myself, but I think that due to the nature of this effort, a little help wouldn't be a bad thing. I'm focusing on the point that we don't really have a lot of players to help you on your "corpse retrieval". I was just in a tour yesterday and lo, something pretty much teleported to us at a stop and wiped half of us in seconds. Fortunately, two of us were bugged and could move away under our own power, 'cause our tour guide went just about into hull getting the one remaining person out of there.

Add to this the fact that this game doesn't really have the typical progressively more dangerous areas the farther you move away. Pretty much everywhere has a real range of danger to it, so unless you're on the high side of the range, then in every sector there's somewhere you can get your butt shot off. And usually the flargin' mobs are at navs, so you get killed just trying to map through a sector :(

As a bonus, this idea would actually let lowbie JSers help out more, as they can warp straight to you once you're clear. Hadn't thought of that before.

I think a better option would be to add new equipment for all 3 explorer classes, and have some with a buff to reduce the time required to Jumpstart, increase the range by 1K or so, or both. Max JS range in live with L7 JS was 2.5K if I recall correctly. If you check Slayerman's database, there is already a GETCo device listed that reduces XP debt, called the Ebony Ward. Everyone will want one.

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I agree to an extent with some of them. Ones I don't are 5 & 6.

There isn't a huge need to slowly move away at 10% thrust. Not only would it take forever to get a safe distance away for a JS but it would really take out of the meaning of getting beaten down. Can't learn much if it's that easy to lower your xp debt, plus they would have to change the code so you couldn't dock either in that condition and get a free fix.

For 6, there are already a lot of different spawn points for different levels of enemies. Changing that to all harder enemies would just screw the lower levels that want to explore and possibly find enemies a few levels higher and not impossible for them to confront. The grind is part of the tedious yet fun parts of the game for many of us. It makes it that much more satisfying to ding.

IMO :)

Blake

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I guess I'm just old school on this but Dead should be Dead. You can't move. You can either tow, which is available immediately, or you can wait (and wait) for the JS and any area-clearing that might be needed.

NOW - that said I would very much like to see the return of the XP debt aging (sleep it off) that was part of the game in Live. So if you do end up towing you can switch to a different char (or, Jah forbid, even do some of those RL things) while the debt erodes on the towed char.

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I guess I'm just old school on this but Dead should be Dead. You can't move. You can either tow, which is available immediately, or you can wait (and wait) for the JS and any area-clearing that might be needed.

NOW - that said I would very much like to see the return of the XP debt aging (sleep it off) that was part of the game in Live. So if you do end up towing you can switch to a different char (or, Jah forbid, even do some of those RL things) while the debt erodes on the towed char.

He may be an evil Blackhawks fan but I agree. Pay for your mistakes. :)

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He may be an evil Blackhawks fan but I agree. Pay for your mistakes. :P

Hehe, are you just mad we beat you guys last night or for the playoffs last year? And "BOTH, dangit!!" is an acceptable answer. :) BTW Kiprusoff had a good game (as usual), really one lucky bounce that went our way was the difference.

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8. Lastly, rebalance weapon damage and deflects, and make it by the type of enemy (mechanical vs organic). Example, Plasma damage just rocks out, so there's really no point in using any other kind at low-mid levels. I suggest lowering Plasma damage and bumping the other kinds across the board (and I have a TE so this is a nerf to me, but it's for the best). Also, making Plasma damage do much less against a mechanical (metallic hulls resist burning pretty well) and explosive/impact do less against organics would be pretty authentic as well. With this change, you'd need to be prepared for the type of enemy you'd be fighting, instead of just going with Plasma 'cause it pwns all. We'd also see a lot more diverse crafting going on.

8a. Side note, why are Organics all shields? You'd think they'd be all hull (body) instead, with a lotta HPs. That'd make more sense, at least to me :rolleyes:

8. Is this not working in the current stress or something?

In live, this was already in effect. From the progen perspective, IE, tengu were impact IMMUNE, chem resistant, so PWs used plasma. Voltoi were all plasma. The early farming zones for CL50s

And then came Ardus/Der todesangel.

In ardus, chem reigned supreme against cloud riders for PWs + chem debuffer, I don't remember what the rocks/other dudes were, I want to say impact+grav link for the skinny things and chem for the floating rocks. When farming Bogerils in DT, they had tiny shields and MONSTROUS hulls, so it was back to to either pure chem, or if you wanted to be fancy, plasma, then spend time swapping your ammo to chem midfight.

BBW was a plasma/impact+gravlink fight for PWs farming drones as well, +swapping to chem on the controller's hull. I also distinctly remember as a pw having to swap my ammo twice during a Controller raid cause the minibosses were immune/highly resistant to stuff.

Because of the emu, and some of those sectors not in the game yet i believe? everyone is using plasma to level up as it was in live. I don't think there really needs to be massive ammo swapping for leveling grind.

The current state of things, mobs have big shields, and plasma works best on shields (usually), and swapping ammo mid fight to chem to kill hulls is REALLLLLLLLLLLYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY annoying, and buggy in the emu atm, least it was for me.

8a. I always thought of organic shields as their flesh or hardened space hide, eat through that, and they poof cause well... you just killed through their skin. >.> and mechanicals get both cause they have an actual shield, and then the spaceship hull.

Furthermore, if all organics had hulls and no shields, then we'd all be using chem (except jenpies, suckers), and your arguement right now would be to nerf chem cause everyone only uses chem and to buff plasma and other types. And Progens would be saying screw you, cause we get a chem debuffer that would actually be usefull. Atm, its kinda unfair that Terrans get their hellbore plasma debuff, jenpies get the chimaera, is the bullywere eye in the game yet? (even though the range sucked and the chance to hit sucked for it)

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Here's a few things I've noticed since coming back. YMMV, but I think these will be some decent improvements if they can be implemented.

1. Make "Approach" work for everything. When prospecting, looting or even fighting, it'd be a real help to be able to target it and then click Approach to line up and move towards it. (This is actually how Eve Online does it, and it works well for its purpose). Having it work at long ranges would be excellent too, as you could use it to line you up for a freewarp for when you don't want to use the navs for whatever reason.

Good idea! Select target then hit space for autoapproach. There should be a installable device making this possible.

e.g. Autoapproach Device lvl3-9 ;-D

2. Add some speed to warping by nav points. An extra 30% across the board would be excellent.

Then getting better reactors, engines, skills and devices would be pointless.

3. Vault filter - change from "hide" to "show only". Currently you can only hide a certain type of thing. Maybe I'm missing something, but why would you not want to just show what you're looking for, instead of hiding 1 out of however many things you're not looking for?

3a. Add more categories to the vault filter. The biggest use of the vault is for ore, refinables and components, so I'd like to see those as independent options.

4. Vault sort. MUST DIE arrggghh. Or at least, add "sort by type" and "sort by level" - preferably both at once, as that would pretty much work for everything. Example- you've got equipment, components, ores and refinables in your vault. Selecting "Sort by type/level" would instantly group everything of the same type together and line it up by level. How cool would that be?

No. Leave it as it is. Vault management is different for everyone, intelligent vault order is up to the player. Not essential to gameplay.

5. Allow dead ships like 10% speed or something, so they can creep away from whatever killed them to get a jumpstart. We don't really have enough players in game to be asking for a group to kill something so you can get a JS.

That is some form of cheating! To die is a result of overconfidence and carelessnes. Instead of blowing up and have to restart all over again, you get xp debt or can get help with JS skill. Leave it as it is! Really!

6. Less NPCs, tougher fights. I personally hate "the grind". I'd rather have a few scary hard, but really rewarding fights, than a bazillion pwns. Also, this encourages grouping which will help spread out the xps. Combine this with the next item for real authenticity.

No, definetly NO!! The "fishbowl" and other high lvl mob areas are the means for you. Many underlings and some bosses and big bosses are more realistic. And i wanna see how you take a "Zerg Rush" :D

7. Change the lootz to make sense. It makes no sense whatsoever for an organic to drop a complete, usable engine or weapon lol. They should instead drop refines. Mechanicals should drop a lot of components and items, maybe with some damaged so you have to repair them?

I agree...

8. Lastly, rebalance weapon damage and deflects, and make it by the type of enemy (mechanical vs organic). Example, Plasma damage just rocks out, so there's really no point in using any other kind at low-mid levels. I suggest lowering Plasma damage and bumping the other kinds across the board (and I have a TE so this is a nerf to me, but it's for the best). Also, making Plasma damage do much less against a mechanical (metallic hulls resist burning pretty well) and explosive/impact do less against organics would be pretty authentic as well. With this change, you'd need to be prepared for the type of enemy you'd be fighting, instead of just going with Plasma 'cause it pwns all. We'd also see a lot more diverse crafting going on.

8a. Side note, why are Organics all shields? You'd think they'd be all hull (body) instead, with a lotta HPs. That'd make more sense, at least to me :P

Again i agree, as long as game balance remains intact and is fun to play! This is EnB Emulator, not Simulator :mellow:

Thank you for your post, was really interesting :)

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Damn you! You reminded me of this comic. :mellow:

- Marco

PS: For the younger peeps, Zerg Rush refers to a tactic used in Starcraft.

I remember playing Starcraft first in 1998... my jaw hit the floor as wave after wave after wave rushed into my fortified marines and utterly consumed everything in their path!

Lookin for a video to demonstrate the terror, look here:

ps.

Zergs love Nukes

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