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Re: Artifact first Impressions

Items possible to find in a cache:

T0 items are great for getting newbies into using gear they wouldn't normal fit (Testing out new setups is the best way to learn). It's also not worth much so PVPing in T0 gear is even cheaper in some cases than T1 gear. Maybe we'll see more groups of people running around the beta island. Teach them a few tactics. Most players who already have a lot of T1 gear won't need the T0 but they can recycle it at least.

T1 items in caches are a great idea as sometimes you get an items that would normally need prototyping. This saves a lot of time and lets prototyping characters focus on making tiered gear rather than standard items.

T3- is an area I have an issue with. For players with T1 or T2 gears it's meant to be great but it's not. It has higher fitting costs and an increased weight. 9 times out of 10 a player fully T2 fit would do better than any player fully T3- fit due to speed and fitting ability. While it might be nice for a small select of people I would still favour T2 over T3- due to the speed issue. Either more weight or more fitting cost than T3 but not both.

Fragments are a nice litter item to add to caches. They make it look more realistic. I like them.

Cortex's. They're very very common and I can't see people ever needing as many as are available right now. By the time it comes to using the heavy mech cortex we'll have so many we'll probably accidentally crash the market with them. They'll be worth less than Level 5 Decoders pretty soon. Light robot Cortex are probably going to be in more demand as they're harder to find. I'd like to see the higher level caches container not only heavy mech but also light and assault cortex as well. This would overall increase the rarity of cortex's at a higher level and would help the over supply issue.

CT's. Awesome awesome awesome but most are crap and won't ever get used. Haha. I have more 25% Laird Mk2 CT's that I know what to do with. Can't trade CT's which is a pain and it would be nice if you could. I understand they're meant to have a limit number of runs but also having a low percentage is a bad idea. Some people might be willing to use them at such a high material cost but I'd prefer to see one time use CT's with a higher percent in the 80's. That would make CT's care more valuable but reduce the cost of production. It would level out. At the moment you're looking for around at least three times the cost to make a Mk2 Robot is not more and when a standard fit Mk1 robot could kill a stupid Mk2 or a small gang on Ewar could do the same I can't see people using them. Mk2 should have had an armour increase of at least 25% or something. For now they're for E-Peen. They're slightly more useful than a poke in the eye. If don't mind them being a little expensive for what you get but at the moment we'll stock pile them and stomp them around to look sexy but nothing more.

The Game
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Re: Artifact first Impressions

I hit the jackpot last night.

After many many caches with junk and a couple of good items, I uncovered 1 wreakage III cache with some great stuff. It had both of the new modules, the sensor ones that hide and detect, forget the names, but the detector module is selling for 4 Million NIC on the market, all told there was over 6 Million NIC in that one cache. And a Riverler MKII CT, which I have no idea of the price, but I wouldn't think it was actually too valuable right now, just because as Alex says, there just isn't a demand.

I did get a laird 50% CT, so there are some out there. But Yeah, a single run 80% would be much more useful for small corp or solo industry; I can't afford to buy a riveler, let alone buy one and all the mats to make the MK II.
Keep looking, they are out there.

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Re: Artifact first Impressions

Single use but high efficiency CT's would be great. People might start using Mk2 and they'd still be almost as expensive.

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Re: Artifact first Impressions

uhm no idea i don't find this new feature fun at all, but that's of course just my personal opinion
usefull? well in some case yes have to agree but still...i'm against any "non craftable" item, xpecially charges

cya

p.s. yesyes ok the game needed a NIC sink..so they added this...

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Re: Artifact first Impressions

This game has massive amounts of NIC sinks but really scanning is a NIC source. Using at most 3 5km charges (4,500 NIC) followed by at most 3 1km charges (900 NIC) you usually get items that their base recycle value is usually greater. Sometimes you do get a bad one and only get a handful of fragments but then other times you get 8 T4 plant seeds which covers weeks if not months of geoscanning.

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Re: Artifact first Impressions

Alex u'r talking of scanning on betas?
'cause even if i don't have maxed out extensions for scanning (just lvl6 and 7) i rarely use only 6 probes to get a spot on alphas, and out of 10-12 (yes i got bored pretty soon) spots i found..the best i got was some lvl5 decoder and some puny amount of imentium
but i've never been lucky @ games so meh eheh

32 Reply by Exomorph (edited by Exomorph 2011-03-17 16:50:44)

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Re: Artifact first Impressions

Freidal Shoveler wrote:

Alex u'r talking of scanning on betas?
'cause even if i don't have maxed out extensions for scanning (just lvl6 and 7) i rarely use only 6 probes to get a spot on alphas, and out of 10-12 (yes i got bored pretty soon) spots i found..the best i got was some lvl5 decoder and some puny amount of imentium
but i've never been lucky @ games so meh eheh

I'm scanning both beta and alfa. And many times alfa islands drops better stuffs. I found many Nian (t3-) items on alfa islands ... just keep up with scanning, someday you will hit jackpot smile

Ohhh and don't forget to come to beta sometimes tongue

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Re: Artifact first Impressions

I've been scanning Alpha exclusively and they did nerf the core drops to the point where they are now a rare item, but as to what you'll find in the cache its random.

Last night I changed from my Argano with a 92.5% accuracy to a sequar with ~80% scanning accuracy; the number of charges used went up significantly! At 80% your error can be off by as much as 1000m on a 5000m scan. But more important, as Alex pointed out, the discover distance for level III caches is 25m so even if your scan shows 100m, it could be 80-120m away.

I waypoint each cache in a 5km scan, so the 3 point triangulation applies to 3-4 artifacts, and than the same with 3km, usually I have at least 4 points... and then sometimes I just run around and click the scan button with 1k's loaded for fun smile

Don't concentrate on just the level III's, take the close I and II's on the way, III's can have that random AWESOME drop, but they can also have nothing. Quantity of discoveries will yield better results than quality.

There are always 10 caches per Island, so when you find one, another is randomly generated. So taking I,II's also gives a chance for another III to spawn. I rotate Islands too, just to keep it interesting.

I'm finding that a lot of the cache's, randomly placed or not, or generally around level 2 transport routes. So, if you are rolling with a Sequar, pickup the assignments and grab the artifacts of opportunity along the way.

TL;DR - Invest in a T3 Geoscanner and use an Argo (or Termis for the cargo capacity and shielding for getting to NPC areas), the extra accuracy will recover the T3 cost in scanner and time savings.

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Re: Artifact first Impressions

Exomorph wrote:

just keep up with scanning, someday you will hit jackpot smile

Ohhh and don't forget to come to beta sometimes tongue

yeh that's my problem, never (ever) been lucky

and about the 2nd point, if the game don't die in our hands...i'll be back yarr yarr
eheh