And I see all the max-tuner fits are no longer usable.  I saw BeastMode's fit DB here in forums - many max-tuner fits in there...

So, where are the latest hot builds/load-outs that conform to the "diminishing returns" stated in the patch notes???

Did they ever fix the aggro issue?  Last time I logged in for some PvE, my follow bot (Riveler Mk II ) aggro-ed the whole field by activating a remote AR repper and was destroyed in seconds - no way for my combat bot to regain aggro...

So this time, before I enter the wild and woolly wilderness, I need some updated info.

Thnx in advance for for your help!

The servers are toggling between "online" and "standby mode" and I keep getting DCed.  Can't play the game.  Can't stay online long enough to complete an assignment.

What is going on?  Fix in the works?

3

(6 replies, posted in General discussion)

Ville wrote:

- snip - Then take your new EP and put it in Theolidical and then kinematics.  Use a machine gun Seth MK2 and put an active tank on it - snip - .

Ville, okay, color me stupid, but I don't see any significant difference in firepower or resists between Gropho and Seth.  The resists are the same magnitude although different, meaning to build a rat specific tank would involve equivalent but different vulnerabilities/strengths.

So before I drop the real cash and spend the in-game currency to buy a Seth MkII, can you explain how a machine gun Seth is better ?

I don't doubt your wisdom, I just don't see how the Seth is better after reviewing base stats and potential buffages.  Thanks in advance for your help!

4

(6 replies, posted in General discussion)

Just cam back after a long hiatus and (Surprise!) immediately lost a Riveller-repper follow bot due to unexpected aggro.  I had my main combat bot set up with a buffer tank.  And based upon previous aggro rules, my follow bot had no active repping (really no tanking at all except for buffer tank/resists skills) cuz when I took my game-vacation, repping bots did not pull aggro.  Yesterday, my Rivel-repper pulled the whole field and died way faster than my Gropho could kill them off.

Anyway, I need help with build and strategy suggestions for main combat bot + repper follow bot combo.  If you have specific info for Gropho and Riveller combo, cool.  I'd be overjoyed with generic info too !

Maybe the answer is simple: build active tankage on both bots with DPS on the Gropho and remote repping on the Riveller.  But what happened was that the Riveller pulled THE WHOLE DAMN FIELD aggro !!!  So whatever tankage I build on it, it has to survive the fight until the Gropho can take out PVE attackers and/or until they disengage - which they did not do until the Riveller was a smoking wreck.

For example, one thing I thought was to use the Riveller as a "post fight repair bot" and put an active tank on the Gropho - a time saver between fights.  Or, have the aggro changes made follow bots essentially useless in PVE?

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer!

Just returned after a long hiatus.  I see the roadways are really excellent now.  But I still like being able to spark teleport.  Sparking and roadways serve two different needs and make travel and/or moving commodities a flexible endeavor if you plan it out for efficiency. 

In my youth, I rode my bicycle everywhere (on purpose).  You must seriously plan your routes for a number of different reasons because at 15 mph, you do not have ANY time to waste.  The same level of planning can be realized with the system as I found it yesterday - accelerated roadways + spark teleports + mission teleports. 

I didn't even bother with field teleporters as the system is really efficient now.  I mean, blaze through a quickie mission from a field terminal and the whole squad gets to teleport! Compare that to pre/post cooldowns for teleporters...  That being said, I can see how when PVEing you could be out in the weeds and need a field device, or for long distance island hopping.

Overall, I'd say I love it the way it is now.  This is a radical improvement over the way it was before the highway expansion.  Please do not change it!

6

(25 replies, posted in General discussion)

Any reason why lag is so bad today (Sunday PDT) ???  Others in gen chat state lag id bad too, so it's not just me.  To be honest, I have never see it this bad.  So I'm wondering if there is a reason.

7

(24 replies, posted in General discussion)

Wait - do they actually get royalties of some kind ?

I saw something about this in a Dev blog, I think.  I also think I read that it was mostly complete.  So what's the holdup? Anyone know when this is planned ?

9

(46 replies, posted in General discussion)

Pegged my lolz meter!  BTW - what elevator were you in when you recorded that music?  I want to go there too with my portable recording set up.

10

(40 replies, posted in General discussion)

Aye Pod wrote:
Obi Wan Kenobi wrote:

Im betting perpetuum is some crazy Hungarian tax wright off

Or a front for Zooms side business where he sells hookers and blow.

You guys have it all wrong!  It's a money laundering system for the Hungarian mafia!

ICE = International Currency Exchange <-- see, you have to read between the lines to get the true meaning!

11

(8 replies, posted in General discussion)

Should be "Forest Dump" with a nickname of "Steamy".

12

(51 replies, posted in General discussion)

It's sad really.  The way I see it, you guys don't have an axe to grind, because the Dev Team is hording axes to use in the "balancing" process.  This series of axe jobs that seems to happen every time I get re-interested in the game again, are hardly balancing.  The next axe job will be to nerf the Seth; it has been out right stated by Zoom, as in "get rid of a head slot". 

So, I am trying to look at this in the "now" version, the view that a brand new player would have - starting from scratch.  What I see is a pointless progression beyond assault bots.  Because the capability gained is carp compared to lengthy training times and huge resources it takes to get big.

So, we all need to just give up on big bots and run around in assault bots.  Working as intended, it seems.  Yeah, I'll subscribe to ISBoxer and run 17 assault bot accounts ... my own army of Mini Me's.

Okay, so I'm being stupid.  But one last point, waiting for the new patch to settle in is rather pointless when guys like me and my 3 accounts just don't come back.  I am not going to wait for idiotic changes that set me back 6 months to "settle in".  Damage done.  I've been playing Diablo III HC mode and loving it.  So Zoom says the Devs have every right to disagree with the player base.  It's true.  Well, they cannot disagree when I stop sending them money.

It's sad really.

13

(56 replies, posted in General discussion)

Gooma wrote:

Guys  use your heads.   Syndic is 100%  correct.   You want to protest...  REALLY protest... STOP GIVING THEM MONEY.  Thats how you protest.  They make a patch to try and force you to change everything, dont give them cash. Its that simple ...  Here let me break it down.

1. Play the game

2. Don't give them a cent to play game.

3. If they have no money that's when they get the hint.

When my accounts time out, I won't be back.  I mean, just follow the chronology of axe jobs:
1) Gamma wipe - all that work gone.  Now, if Null Sec/Sov in EvE was wiped, I'd go back...
2) My two miner/follow bot accounts were rendered nearly pointless as they now take all aggro requiring rather huge investments of EP in combat/armor.  But wait - I need to spend huge EP on mining/harvesting...
3) I paid to grow my points pool faster - now I MUST spend it on new EXT's just to get what I already had.

I think my perspective is based a lot on the fact that I play for a while, then take a hiatus, then come back.  Seems like every time I come back, an axe job just happened that makes my game play experience less enjoyable and EP saving plan worthless.

So, I'm done X 3 accounts.  And I don't even care.  There are plenty of cool games to go play.  Yes, I enjoyed this game, but it changed so much that it is not what I originally signed up for.

14

(122 replies, posted in General discussion)

Gwyndor wrote:

Sodomy

thank God - somebody started the word association again!

Let me continue: lobotomy

yes - rollback X 3 acct's

16

(32 replies, posted in General discussion)

Rolafen Azec wrote:

I know that newbs have a very backwards understadnign of a lot of mechanics. I know this because I run contarary to them and make millions of NIC with it. What players want is not always what the players will need. This patch improved the impact newbies actions have but  in the same time required them to actually do actions and not just passively recieve a benefit. The EP gap migth seem like it worsened because the veterans could tank the new EP requirements. But this means actually that their future ability to tank such changes is lessened. Saying that the veteran EP should be damned up in not having any extensions to use it on would be artifical and move the game to a unhealthy direction. You can't hodl the EP useage model hostage and slave to the current amount of EP people have.

Why do you think only noobs are affected ?  I'm not a noob at all.  But I came back to the game thinking I'll have a rather large pool of points to spend, and oh, oops, I don't.  I MUST spend them to get skills/functionality I had before, let alone use my MK2 bots.  Now I am faced with another 4 to  6 months to start devoting points to what I wanted to do today. And not just for combat, but for my indy bots too.  The double whammy.  Good job dev team !

I'm sorry, and  say this without emotion or anger :: this game is no longer worth my time, as in "why bother".  I'll happily find something else to do where I can feel my invested time has an actual long term payout.  You really want to make it "even" for noobs?  Wipe the server so everybody starts from scratch.  Or, have seasons like in Diablo III, where you as assured that everyone starts in the same impoverished state, with separation occurring via knowledge of the game.

Oh wait, the goal is to help noobs.  So here is notice to all noobs :: it'll now take you twice as long to get into MK2s, except the Arkhe.  This is because harvesting skills are nerfed via new extensions so you will make less cash.  With the added benefit for noobs of heaps of newly required ext's.  ROFLMAO !!! The noobs are SO MUCH better off now.

I'd just like to know how/why the dev team got motivated to do something so utterly stupid for an MMORPG sandbox game.

17

(114 replies, posted in Guides and Resources)

Doek wrote:

Select the EP history, then hit shift again yarr

Just tried this.  It looks like a fake out at first because the game function generates what looks like an Xcel file to my system.  But I pointed Perp Planner at that file at it digested it perfectly.

Thnx for the info!!!

18

(114 replies, posted in Guides and Resources)

I hope it's okay to ask a question in this thread.

Is there a way to export a .csv file of EP data directly from the game?  I see you can export a .csv file of stored items, but that little floppy icon does not pop up on the EP window.

Sure would make imports to Perp Planner a lot easier ...

19

(34 replies, posted in Feature discussion and requests)

Thank you all for your comments so far.

Another thing has become apparent as I have run assignments over the last few days : you cannot make appreciable NIC due to the lengthy travel times, even if your bonus is up at 5.  Assignments are the loser when compared to mining or farming kernels/frags off heavy mechs.

As an example, I had a sweet set up Saturday as I found a Liquizit field very near a spot great for farming heavy mechs.  I set up my Gropho with a Rivelrepper while my Scarab guy sat there sucking up Liq and stockpiling mech drops.  When the Scarab was full - off to recycle and cash in! 

Now I don't always find such a sweet spot, but even without such an optimal situation, assignments are the loser in terms of income mainly due to travel times.  So I don't see a reason to do assignments unless you are farming relations or unless you want to be poor on purpose...

So, I'm back where I started : it would be really nice to be able to teleport back to the terminals with the goal of spending time IN the action rather than traveling to/from the action.  What Rex suggests (teleport to assignment spawn point) would be icing on the cake.  The benefits are many and I'm not seeing any drawbacks to this concept, barring programmer time/expenses.

EDIT :: I should tell you guys that Yojimbo is my mining/repping alt :: Mrs Pickerel (my combat toon) and Yojimbo are the same human.  I should have posted with Yojimbo's account.

I see some basic areas in this discussion that are not helping:
1) neither the scope nor the depth of the problem have been well defined.  Is the problem exploiting game mechanics or a basic imbalance/inadequacy of buffage applied to a primary target? 
2) Everybody seems to be focused on solutions but how can you find good solutions to poorly defined problems ?
3) Mr Zoom proposed what he stated was a simple solution: rewrite the follow mechanic.  Most of the player suggestions involve rewriting game mechanics extensively, except for the simple PvP flag = no follow (that seems easy to code on the surface).

There seems to be a basic failure : finding solutions BEFORE defining the scope and the depth of the problem.

Example: we were attacked at our gamma base by the 77th.  Khader has at least three kill mails with my indy bots in them.  Before Pappy and I could get our combat bots deployed, they dropped a beacon and popped off.

We can conclude that all beacon usage should be stopped if a PvP flag is active .... Is this really a problem or would it be ***/NTD complaining of getting our butts kicked ?

Honesty, there is NOTHING preventing a corp from having 3 or 4 bots supporting a single heavy mech on the field.  Is this the problem?  Corps refuse to organize their combat strategies to support a primary target - sort of like a cycling team ? If so, there is no problem with game mechanics.

So far this is all just opinion.  Where is the data that proves following causes problems and/or is being regularly abused to the advantage of multi-account players?

It's really easy to speculate on who does what and claim it causes imbalance.  But where is the real data that proves multi-account players using follow bots are winning a lot more in PvP ?

The "follow by approach" function is a really nice feature of this game that I happen like a lot, to be subjective about it.

I voted to keep the mechanic because I have seen no objective data proving it's a game breaker, and for the subjective reason that I like it and use it.  Without objective data, this sounds like fixing something that is not broken based upon subjective cries to nerf P2W.  Prove there is a problem BEFORE finding a solution.

22

(41 replies, posted in General discussion)

Bulldoze a direct pathway to the main terminal on Hershfield - knock down or delete all those barriers whose only purpose seems to be turning 50 linear meters into 1500 meters of travel path via having to switchback ad nauseum.

In general, this game needs more ways of rapidly getting into the action rather than spending time traveling to the action. I touched on this in the sparking thread.  I can almost guarantee that any players from Steam are not going to like traveling in a slow mech for 15 minutes to whack 5 NPCs, then do a return trip for 15 minutes to turn in and/or get a new assignment.  Which would be typical for part of the noob experience.

Oh - adding one more thing to my wishes:  make all windows remember their locations.  I think the position of the last closed window is saved on some situations.  Others never remember the positions.  How hard would it be for my corp containers and all my sub-boxes to remember wher I want them to open ?  It would just make for a tidy and more efficient UI.

23

(1,455 replies, posted in General discussion)

Faster movement in this game is a good thing; especially if there is a hope of retaining players from Steam. 

I returned recently to this game after a long hiatus (former NEX member).  I quickly remembered what I didn't like about this game: many circuitous pathways, including access to terminals, like the lines at Disneyland - they manage to turn 10 linear feet into 25 miles by going back and forth and around barriers and through gaps in the steepness.  Yes, this was improved with better freeways and xporter beacons, but not improved nearly enough for frustration free game play.  Also, even with the freebie speed buff from the former extension, the bots still move far too slow.  Travel time should be at a minimum so that the time spent actually involved in action is maximized.

Personally, I love how we can spark around - it allows us to take advantage of opportunities for fun.  Example: I'm mining solo on New Virginia; the corp announces a beacon slam: get to terminal, spark to gamma --> group fun begins ! 

Exploits ?  I think not.  If everybody has the same capability, what is the issue ?  Example: PvP corp projects 50 mechs rapidly into the theater of operations resulting in domination of opponent.  Um, what is preventing the opponent from projecting similar qty's of destructive or defensive power onto the battlefield?

Sparking makes the game more fun by minimizing time spent NOT actually playing.  So if you consider slow, plodding and lengthy runs to get to the action "playing the game", then vote for slower bots, and elimination of freeways, xporter beacons and sparking.

If you prefer getting into the action over traveling to the action, vote to keep the sparking thing.

Lastly, if new players from Steam are like me, they're gonna hate the slow travel and windy pathways that resemble the  lines at Disneyland.  Hershfield is a great example of this.

Kinda bizarre:
logged in and headed out toward Cadavria in my waspish for an assignment, followed by my repper alt in a sequer.  Engaged NPCs and got DCed when I opened fire.  Tried to log back on, and did.  Then my toon popped off the screen/map as if I timed out for some reason.  When I tried to log back on, I got "deploying to terrain" followed by a black screen.  My main toon was on the map again though.  My alt is there and remote repping my main to keep him alive.  A friend pulled all the NPCs away for long enough to see if some battle flag/timer was preventing an inactivity timeout, but no go.  I cold rebooted twice and tried logging on from a different computer with a different IP addr, no go.  I deleted both local.gbf and perpetuum.gbf but no go.

So my main toon is stuck on the map as if logged in but I cannot access my bot via the client - just the black screen (of death).

GM Shade reports no dev is available to log my main out or hard reset my session.  Note that my repper alt is fine and I can access my alt from either of my two computers without issues.

Sounds like a server side bug to me.

25

(9 replies, posted in General discussion)

To answer the OP's question: you must heavily specialize.

Juan Valdez wrote:

Attributes should get removed. We already have a great system for specialization in the form of EP distribution. Why add a layer of complexity on top of that in the form of an annoying setup decided before you've even played the game?

+1  :: to expect players to set this up well without prior game knowledge is bad.  Then couple that with the inability to remap attributes without severe penalties in some form or another, and the situation really sucks IMO.  Couple all that with the fact that there is only one EP pool that all toons must share, and now players are FORCED to have multiple accounts with a heavily specialized toon for each one, meaning pay out the nose.  No thanks. 

We should be allowed to remap attributes for NIC as often as we can afford, or just get rid of them.  EP accumulation is far too slow, and the whole system is severely inflexible.  Some like this stating the tired old argument that "choices matter".  ROFLMAO :: there are no choices as you MUST set a few attributes to max in your chosen area of focus, and spend EP on a few extension trees related to those attributes.  That takes a minimum of brain power.  It's far more fun to have sufficient flexibility to try out a variety of builds, and to see if you can up with something truly creative.  As it is: set two attributes to max, put one kind of cookie in the oven to bake for the rest of your time in the game...