626 Reply by Ludlow Bursar

(109 replies, posted in News and information)

The more I think about these industry changes the more I like them and the less I feel the need for an EP reset in the related areas.

I really like the all the factors that effect material efficiency (extensions, CT, facility, relations etc) will be measured in the same units - although I do think we need a sexier name than just "points" (suggestions?) - simply add them all together. No more mind-boggling spreadsheets.

My 10-10-10 production is brilliant now because it means that I don't have to build a super-dooper whizz-bang  facility on Gamma or put so many upgrade points into a Beta outpost, or use lvl 9/10 decoders all the time - all of which save me a lot of time and NIC. I can sink that time and NIC into cool stuff like PBS defenses.

Mining changes are great since mineral fields will spawn within hours (max) of others being depleted (does this happen with plants too?) and you don't have to wait for two weeks for replenishment - you will never run out of epri again! Sure, you've got to go find the new ones and they might not be in the most convenient or safe place but that just adds a new role for people to fill - and a role which very new players can play.

Bit worried about fragmentation of fields, particularly on Alpha (on beta a corp/alliance could easily implement a "total depletion" policy) but I've yet to see the new Geo-scan interface (sneak preview of this maybe DEVs?) so my concerns are put to one side for now.

Good work DEVs, just a couple of things I'd like to know:

Will harvestable plants obey the same mechanics as ores/liquids? (i.e. amount per island regularly checked and re-spawned randomly when below a threshold)
When new mineral fields spawn will they be instantly full or fill over time as they do now?
Can we have a sneaky preview of the new geo-scan interface?

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627 Reply by Ludlow Bursar

(109 replies, posted in News and information)

DEV Zoom wrote:

but I don't really see why a full reimbursement of everything would be justified. All the indy extensions still have the same roles, if you had good extensions before, it will still mean an advantage to you over the less skilled players. Granted, the advantage will be now less harsh, but that's the whole point.

I think the point people are making is that if they had known that Expert Efficent Mass Production was only going to gain them a tiny advantage then they would have decided to spend the 30,000 EP elsewhere where they could have gained a better advantage.

Now, new players get to make that choice and older players do not.

I'm all for making Industry a good profession in which new players can compete relatively quickly and I think these proposed changes will definately help that but as a 10-10-10 mass production toon I do feel a little bit miffed about not having the choice.

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628 Reply by Ludlow Bursar

(109 replies, posted in News and information)

Ulviirala wrote:

Also I'm concerned about fields spawning on "passable terrain", but being close or exactly on an NPC spawn

I believe that all NPC spawns will now be roaming so this won't happen. When I'm mining now and a roam comes through I simply run off and hide for a few minutes and then come back to my can. AFK mining will be a more risky option.

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629 Reply by Ludlow Bursar

(109 replies, posted in News and information)

Knowing exactly how much is in a particular tile would be really helpful with these changes.

That way completely depleting a field would be easier and the patchwork of itty-bitty bits of minerals everywhere that might result after time could be avoided. (spotting little green bars can be hard on some terrain)

Now, how to include that in the interface. A zoom function on the scanner results where numbers show? Numbers pop-up on mouse-over terrain?

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630 Reply by Ludlow Bursar

(24 replies, posted in Feature discussion and requests)

-1 for any buying of EP but the thread did give me an idea ...

What does a trialist start with these days? Is it 15K. Lets assume it is.

So after 15 days trialist has roughly 36K.

How about reducing initial EP to (say) 12K then giving a 10K EP bonus with first sub of at least 60 days. A subscribing trialist effecitvely starts on 43K EP.

If you've played for 15 days already that 10K EP is going to be pretty tempting for just 15EUR.

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631 Reply by Ludlow Bursar

(31 replies, posted in General discussion)

Inspiration wrote:

Any of the suggested changes will just make more progressed players abuse it.

err... how? Can't see how any of the proposed by Arga or Binary could be abused.

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632 Reply by Ludlow Bursar

(135 replies, posted in General discussion)

Zoom's Devblog wrote:

... we can scrap those old island texture masks too, and that means less memory usage, smaller patches, and a smaller datafile.

So I'm guessing that Gamma 1 and 2 islands can be HUGE. \o/

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633 Reply by Ludlow Bursar

(135 replies, posted in General discussion)

Annihilator wrote:

If i remove X matter in one location, IMHO it should be necessary to place it somwhere else again.

This. Definately this.

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634 Reply by Ludlow Bursar

(35 replies, posted in General discussion)

When researching kernals I'd like a choice as to what modules I put the research towards. This would almost certainly require a large reduction in the amount of research progress for each kernal for balancing.

Combine this with a research "pool" within corporations (as suggested by previous posters) and corporations can plan which members should research which modules to end up with a useful portfolio of manufacturable higher-tech. This would make newbie smaller corporations more viable and fun whether PvP or Indy.

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635 Reply by Ludlow Bursar

(13 replies, posted in General discussion)

I'd like to see ALL the market seeds disappear. When you get popped you get a free arke with a small gun and a small miner module. If titan could be mined without charges and miner charges were made from just titan then any player should be able to make anything from just these meagre starting pieces.

Are market seeds really that vital as economy sinks?

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636 Reply by Ludlow Bursar

(11 replies, posted in Feature discussion and requests)

I think the key to this is a context menu from ammo/charge in cargohold. For example right click>Distribute>[Module Type]. Not too hard to put all fitted modules that require charges/ammo in a little sub-menu of a context menu.

In fact, only really a need to put a sub menu if there is more than one module type fitted that can be loaded with the relevent ammo; right click>Distribute is all that would be needed in most of fits.

... and I really want to be able to drag ammo/charges to a module while in the field. Just saying.

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637 Reply by Ludlow Bursar

(11 replies, posted in Feature discussion and requests)

Drag ammo from cargo to a particular slot.
Then when ammo is low you can split stack in cargo and drag.

If the cargo stack is more than module capacity then default load to full. That would make choosing the correct geo-scanner charge when surveying much nicer and switching damage type less fiddly too.

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638 Reply by Ludlow Bursar

(41 replies, posted in Feature discussion and requests)

Annihilator wrote:

I'd rather see plants growing MUCH faster, covering most of the islands with a dense forrest.
The server can track player movements  to create pathes where plants do not grow as fast.

I like it. Naturally seed the whole island and plants don't grow on the paths most trodden or excavated. Combine with a mechanic to remove non-harvestable plants and have certain areas where the plants that grow don't impede your bot and I think Nia will be a really interesting place to roam and fight.

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