Amber.

the color is Amber.

I missed the memo too.

A small idea: I think a point being glossed over is this (and every time I point out something like this my TS screams in agony in unision) - it's a game.

This isn't a situation of: this is my life and I must live it and there are things I must accept to survive.

This is: this is a game and is a simulation of life and though there are things I could accept to survive in the context of the game, I'd rather also have fun.

The minute you institute the act of play into the model, it distorts, and does so randomly in ways that can only be predicted, as is pointed out, in hindsight.  It means that people can and will be 'stupid' or 'irrational' - and not because they are stupid or irrational, but because the immersion into a game to keep it a game requires a childlike mindset.  Humanity in general is domesticated (which means that some of our childlike instincts are preserved into adulthood) so this sort of behavior should come as no surprise.

Anyone who takes it all TOO seriously is granted one archetype, anyone who plays solely for fun is granted another, arguments rage back and forth about 'This is not who I am in real life' and the truth is - it isn't.

And the real "serious business" starts when the failcasacde starts - it's when each of us sit back from the monitor, run a hand through our hair, and decide if the 'game' is really worth the effort of swallowing one's pride, devoting ones singular dedication, etc, to continue along a goal, all the while being trapped in a 'play' mode of game immersion and not being 100% capable of applying 'adult' logic to a game.  There reaches a poibnt where it is just not fun anymore.

That's what the metagame is.

It's about making the game so not fun, that people stop playing.  Numbers win and the less they have, the more you do.

That is going to be an issue in any PvP game.  It was amplified and glorified in EVE to an extent that, im my opinion, is yucky.  to a point where all of us will do it without thinking because we all suspect on some paranoid level that -everyone else would do it to us without a thought-.

So.. eh.  I am a carebear, I believe in peace and love, but I also believe very strongly in psychology and learned behavior.

I can trade you for one that won't drain your accumulator.

...

/smacks own hand.  Bad Winter!

What kind of Pelistal bot?

Noooooo I don't wanna see Dev Calvin's boobs.

Well sure we can roleplay, and it could eliminate the need for ANY PvP, period.

If another roleplayer (or normally roleplayer, but not here) can see it any different, help me out here, but I'm not seeing PvP as viable in an RP sense -at all-.

Between something as simple as the advert video to the existing lore, the us vs them is us (as earth Agents) versus them (as Nia residents), not us (as earth agents) versus them (as other earht agents).

It's basically - earth is out of resources, there are 3 companies, theyre all functioning through one Perpetuum Project to get energy from Nia.  So there is no RP reason in the lore to PvP, period.  We should all be happily gung-hoing it against the NPCs, anything else is detrimental to the survival of our own planet.

The only people who would PvP in an RP sense would be extra-trerrestrial hippies who feel that we shouldn't be raping Nia if its resources, and so try to stop those who are doing so at every turn.

But keep in mind that CVA also happily roleplayed blasting the *** out of other groups for reasons that existed in the game lore, as did many of the other roleplaying corporations and alliances in EVE. 

Those reasons do not exist in the lore here.  In the case of Earth draining energy from Nia it is do or die.  There is no reference to this triad of corporations being at conflict with eachother at all that I have found - you could 'assume' a conflict of some sort - or at least a 'separation', but it does not exist.

Simultaneously, in a RP sense there is no sense of loss here, which is necessary, even if it is the loss of fictious  'baseliner' crew.  All you lose here is a bot 87,000 miles away.  this leads to in an immersion sense, 'senseless violence'.  It's not 'hurting' anything to blow up your assault bot, so why not?  There's no real consequence.

So atm there is no reason to ally or enemy anyone when roleplaying.  So, you'd end up with the same scenario.

That's not a deal... we come out to get blown up for free already!  You will need to sweeten it more.

Neh.  You just call one of them and say "I'll pay you 20M NIC to guard my mining operation."  Then when someone else shows up, your guards fight them while you drop teleport beacons and GTFO.  Easy.

And if you worry about betrayal, the same could happen paying off an alliance.

As it is, just call up any island owner, offer your 20mil, and hope they don't say that NIC is meaningless because they function in a communisitic society and blow you up anyway.

Large scale alliances are in direct conflict with PvP and corporate individual identity.  As a new player I can tell you the names of only maybe 10 of the many more than that corps out there - and the ones I can mention are likely proverbial 'heads' of already existing alliance groups or corporations with members who stand out in discussions 9either positively or negatively).

Also I do not support the idea of an autominer because "mining is boring".  Some people may find mining boring, I do not.  I am a former memebr of a mining/manufacturing corp.  Mining is not boring. 

The idea is mining is exceedingly risky to corporate and individual assets in comparison to the rewards, and in the current market it is painfully difficult to compete by simply mining lesser ores in larger quantities and sell it to purchase the rare ones you need.

And yes, there are political answers such as wishing for a golden age of mega-alliances, but they don't currently exist in the form you're wishing that they do.

Either way, as I said, the idea of an autominer is pipe-dreaming.  It's not as if I have any say in the matter.

I'm just thinking in regards to balancing risk vs reward, if the idea now is losing minerbots/haulers is too much of a risk, and a more invuln/safe autominer would be too much of a reward, something in between could work.  Basically that they are as vulnerable as, well, unattended drones, but ones that function.  I mean if you got fancy they could even function as drones (with a whole skillset), could be hacked (counterskillset) etc, but that's overcomplicating it.  As long as the prerequisite to making them function is indy skillset based, it also wouldn't invalidate being an indy (you still need the skills to use and place them - and it could even effect their efficency) but staying current with the 'balance' of indy being not easily defensible (unless youre crafty). 

runtime doesn't effect the idea either.  The longer theyre in the field, the more time there is to find them, the more work/manpower it is going to take to empty the can they generate. 

The only thing that's changed is a) the miner doesn't need to be in the field for the full duration - only to place the autominer, then to retrive the contents. 

There's no reason these things would have to run cheaply either, simply 'cheaper' than losing a mining bot at some ratio that's fair to leaving something blind deaf and dumb in the field as opposed to a living player.  Would just have to be fair.  My brain is thinking of the idea of - indy places autominers, combat ops guards autominers, even a single scout (could be the indy himself in a fast lightbot) can watch or check on them.  It sort of lowers the cost and amount of manpower required for beta mining -- or not -- depending entirely on the size of the op.  Heck a large corp could drain a field with them if they wanted, but at a lower efficiency and only a limited number of cycles per tile it would be counterproductive.

But meh, pipedreaming.

Though I'm not sure exactly what you're referring to with the wardec, I'm assuming you mean a mechanic, I must agree, even though I sense you're referring to NeX with: "I see posts about roamers going out and shooting anything that's not in their squad, which is large but not too powerful".

We just like to pew, what can I say.  People have been lax on AARs so idk if we've shot at any convoys or not.  TBH, I don't think so.

just a quick question - is it faster or no to harvest the 'potatoes' as it is to mine epitron?

As usual, I'm slow.