Thanks - I actually read the patch note posted by Aye Pod and completely missed the line about the 50%!  Doh !

The piece that seems to be missing in the notes must be that it was nerfed to hard to start with.

Thanks again guys !!!

Edit for spelling.

There's a cargo exploit?  How come I never know about these beneficial, I mean dastardly, phenomena ?

Thanks Xstence!  I'll do some homework and try scanning down some fields ten go from there.

KK - thnx for the info !  This seems way better than dodging PvPers.

Any ETA ?

EDIT :: LOL - I just got in...

I have noticed something different.  If I use a RivelRepper to help activate a beacon, it WILL be targeted by the some of beacon spawn on the initial wave without ever locking anything.  My approach there is to take out anything shooting at my Riveler first.  After the first wave, what you say is what I observe.

I think I partially misspoke on sensor amps : I'm using ONLY remote sensor amps on my RivelRepper.  I have to agree that burning a head slot for internal sensor amps is not effective in the case of generating max DPS / max repps for PvE.

This is a topic that could get the discussion going around in circles.  With that said, here is my take:

In a twisted logic sort of way, getting Gamma back is like getting new content, except it's just a revamp. 

I think this would be good.  I was in A.S.S. corp and had to take a long hiatus due to work demands.  Before I left, as a corp, we were heavily involved in building up the Gamma base on Novaya Trava (IIRC).  That was immensely fun and provided a focus and direction for cooperative game play.  I particularly liked the group beacon pit events.  But whether or not we mined, harvested, or blasted NPCs for recyclable trash loot, most resulting resources went to building up the base.

I think the return of Gamma islands would allow this again.  I just hope such a land grab would not be dominated by the power blocks... I agree with those who have said that the Gamma issue should have been resolved before STEAM, which in my way of thinking, makes it the highest priority for Dev time.

kk - my follow bot is not Nexus capable yet - and I must devote EP to core competencies currently.  So, this represents a great longer term goal for my RivelRepper !!!

Now, going on my generalized experience with EvE, Omni Tanks, i.e., all universal hardeners, are more for PvP when you cannot predict with high certainty what damage type will be thrown at you.  For Rats, you know the damage type with fairly good certainty, so you can load up on the appropriate resists to maximally minimize incoming DPS.  Having said, it is certainly worth a try to fit as you describe and see how it goes.  I can test these ideas out while spawn camping, which is way less of a concern compared to 3-flag-beacons...

Thanks to all for your contributions so far !!!

kk guys - I actually was online and actually did a comparison of two main concepts from posts in this thread.

3 boxing Assignments versus Spawn Farming, with proceeds from Tokens/Beacons not yet accounted for.

Assignments : I ran LvL 5 combat with my T4 solo rigged Gropho, and LvL 5 Xport with two Argano's. Yes, there is efficiency to be had because two acct's are auotpiloting while the third is whacking NPCs or scanning or something, thus ameliorating the travel time issues.  But, you have to get through the first 5 assignments to get the max income buffs.  That would be trivial if amortized over 100 assignments.  Trouble is, at the 10th iteration (30 total or 10 each for 3 acct's) I could do no more.  I was burnt out on assignments due to shear boredom.  The good news is that the NIC and tokens flow in like clock work.

Spawn Farming:  set up my T4 Gropho with two active racial hardeners + ECCM and used two RivelReppers (one a basic T1 and the other a real repper maxxed out with T4).  With this set up I can pull the entire field as fast as they spawn and farm non stop.  The only break in the looting is respawn rate and the occasional need to collect the loot with the wimpy Riveler.  So besides many T2 and some T3 mods, the plasma collected is worth crap loads of NIC - way better than the cash from Assignments.  In the current market, I am unable to sell anything - and I'm not kidding.  So it's very hard to say what the loot/recycling is actually worth.

Bottom line : comparing the dependable income+tokens with plasma sales --> Spawn Framing wins hands down on an hour by invested hour basis.

Now trying to compare tokens versus loot is even harder because it's all market driven, hence highly variable.  So the answer is : buy beacons with the tokens and acquire/sell even more plasma !!!  This is what I have not tested out yet but I suspect will turn the tide in favor of assignment running, assuming you can handle the boredom.  Using beacons from assignments make it a hybrid endeavor, some basic cash flow from rewards, but loot/plasma from beacon whacking (spawn farming style).  Weekend is here, so I'll try this out.

Now, to bring this inline with the thread topic : do we need to Teleport to Terminals to make assignments go faster?  Yes and no.  We do need something to keep the action happening compared to autopiloting to and from the action.  I think it's a mistake to design a mission system that requires 3 acct's to maintain constant action.  Teleporting to terminals would improve solo acct assignment running, but as others have stated, the real fix is a (pending) mission revamp.

Spawn farming, as I have done it, could be done with a solo acct, but is simply more efficient with 2-3 accts - and the action is mostly non stop = more pew pew = more fun.  Travel time is a non issue compared to assignments so would not benfit from teleporting to terminals. 

So I've tried to listen to the more experienced players; I tested out what was discussed, and I've said my piece.  Hope you guys have fun out there on Nia !!

All this discussion has been very helpful for me.

Kinda looks like folks are talking a lot about fastest ways to make NIC utilizing the game mechanics "as is" versus game mods.  Like the idea of running assignments on 3 accts at once ping-pong-ing between autopilot based travel and handling mission objectives.   I'll try this.  But as someone else posted, single acct new players will likely get turned off by travel times, which is exactly what I experienced to start this thread.  I realized quickly that more time was spent traveling than pew pew'ing.  So the sooner the mission revamp happens, the better IMDAO.

I also read in this thread that an arti scan assignment can essentially ruin your income efficiency.  I have my son, who is a math major, working on this.  He's building a spreadsheet that takes the position and distance data from two scan points, does the trigonometry, and generates the two possible exact X Y coordinates to go to.  Our first tries only generated errors, but we will get this working, and once done, arti scanning will become a different ball game that does not rely on intuition at all --> efficiency.

kk fellas - see ya on the firing line !!!