Hum, how i can say that... you are right i was wrong. Maybe i just didnt farmed the good ones. And even in that case i admit i didnt think about the fact that artifact scanner can only get the first step. But i tough someone said he found a distress beacon rank 3 no star in an artifact... i tough every lvl could be looted in stashes. Considering all this, i admit ive 2 solutions: OR i want them badly by myself without buying, in that case i train geoscanner OR i dont really need them and can buy.

Your right about that patch, its too early to take conclusions.

BUT i insist on the fact ratter life is getting less and less profitable and easy. And the game world, the market, everyone need them just like prototypers/mass producers, miners and artifact runners.
I farm considerably and since many time. Ive done mining with friends alt, ive also participated in artifact etc...
Ratting sucks more and more and more, until nobody will do it anymore, except for finishing knwoledge base of corp prototypers.  You see many farming on beta? Not worth the risk.  On alpha?  I feel like i see less and less...
Biased opinion? certainly.

Please dont talk risk/reward about those beacons.  I just spent 3 hours farming in BETA for those, killed around 20 elites, none dropped.  I spent 3 hours risking my bot just to discover the droprate of these (and i didnt), seems my efforts are not ended.

Artifacters got em cool, but the poor fighter that spend hours praying for his life dont deserve some love?  In that case just say "Its an artifact improvement", dont sell it like the "so fun pve now" because ive seen nothing atm. Remember that artifact scanners just use light bots and geoscanner, minimal investment. They can get so much highly priced, obviously essential items i wonder why i continue ratting, even with a HM MK2 on the high end spawns, i feel like im losing my time...

And some wonder why theres no farmer on beta. 3 words: NOT WORTH IT. 
May i be clear, nothing gone worst since yesterday.  The game has improved, new feature, everyone happy.
But:

Since beta, i feel like every single decision is made against ratting.

*Kernels drop nerf: ok was needed to handle research rate... but who was impacted? One single playstyle thanks
*Dynamic spawns: well... im sure 95% of the peoples that came to the forum to say "thanks dev so fun cool cool" are NOT farming at all.. Anyhow with those spawns profit loss at least 40%
*New AI: frustration, 90% of spawns are in building or hard LOS terrain, come on get out of there little npc... when you go search them behind their wall 15 times in a day, you start to lose patience.

I could find more im sure...

Today, i launch the game just after the patch , discussing in gen chat:  15mn after server restart, some begin to talk about those distress beacons... im farming, time passes, i check gen chat.  Many peoples start to talk about their beacons, almost all (except one that told me otherwise) received them from artifacting. Time pass and situation still the same. So 2 solutions: almost everyone is artifacting, then you can understand where the problem lies, if nobody ratting anymore... oh ok that why nobody can buy kernels... logical.  Or the other solution, at server start peoples started to do what they usually do, some got to arti, some to farming. In that case that means those new funny items are far more easy to get while artifacting than farming.  Why? please explain me why? In 3 hours of artifact scanning, someone would have gotten at least 1 or 2 of them no?
OR i didnt shoot the right npcs (rabid elite M/HM) they are almost the strongest elites so what now? OR im such an unlucky whiner. Well i wont set a poll i know what 99% of you would vote...

Frustration mode deactivated.

All in all im happy with the fast paced patching/feature development rate, its very nice to see the game improve.
But sometimes i feel like im gonna rage for real. Exactly like when elite mobs where added. The spawnrate at the beginning was so low, that was almost *** (one in 200 or maybe twice... or maybe half?) Im just hoping that will be somehow balanced, because from what ive seen so far, farming mobs =/= getting distress beacons.

Wow so much text just for ranting

TLDR:  Droprate too low for the new items, at least in comparison to artifacting. IF the item is REALLY RARE, then it must be hard to obtain by ANY mean. If its NOT SO RARE, why didnt i looted one in 3hrs of gaming?

Please feedback from other "dedicated NPC hunters" about droprate please.

ELECTRONICS:                                        200726

Accelerated target locking lv10
Complex jamming electronics lv10
Data processing lv10
Jamming electronics lv10
Long distance EW lv10
Long range targeting lv10
Optimized electronics lv5
Sensor connection lv3
Targeting lv5

ENGINEERING:                                        34311

Accumulator expansion lv5
Energy management lv5
Reactor expansion lv10

WEAPON USAGE:                                     18764

Critical hit lv5
General firing lv5
Improved falloff lv5
Precision firing lv5
Rapid firing lv5
Sharpshooting lv5
Target analysis lv5

ROBOT CONTROL:                                    194714

Advanced robotic lv10
Basic robotic lv4
Navigation lv10
Nuimqol robot control lv9
Spec.ops.robot control lv5

TOTAL:                                                     448515

With that skills you can pilot a vagabond MK2 and maxxed ECM/suppressor strenght/range

An EA account possess around 515k

So you still got 66k to choose from

Basic 5 + Advanced 10 cost:

magnetostatic  = 53k or lv9       = 31k
kinematics        = 40k                 = 23k
optics               = 53K                 = 31k

You can then have at least two medium turret weapons at lv 9.

Really you should take the problem the other way around. When i have maxxed all my ECM skills + enough fitting/accu, where do i spend my EPs?  If i choose to spend in weapons, i have 3 choices if im on turret side (vagabond).  I have only one if im missile side (Ictus).

I dont really think that need balancing, just i want that everyone admit that this game is complex enough to have cross speccing and "hybrids" not totally useless.

i tought it was:
(((Shield ratio/(1+robot bonus+extension bonus))/(1+hardener1))/(1+hardener2))/(1+hardener3) etc...

Sorry i sucks badly in maths but it give me good number if rounded at 3rd decimal:

In the case of T4 medium shield, 50% gropho bonus and lvl5 ext (+15%) and using 2 T1 hardeners:

(((0.5/1.65)/1.25)/1.25) rounded 3rd decimal each calculation  = 0.194 AP/HP, its the number i get ingame.

With 6 T4 hardeners, Penik shield and maxxed extensions:

(((((((0.5/1.8)/1.375)/1.375)/1.375)/1.375)/1.375)/1.375) = 0.041 AP/HP  its the max AP/HP you can see ingame imo (should change if bug is fixed and you put an evasive module on a gropho.

I dont know the last part of the formulae about hitsize, but this formula does work with a 10m shield radius on a 10m hitsize, so imo you just need the last part that is "transparent"(*1) for me.

PS maybe your formula is the exact same but written the other way around. If thats the case well, i told you i sucks in maths

Wise decision.

In 5 years when we will be 40k subbers, you ll like us be amongst the Nia elders .  Oh and youll have fun too, but you already know all that

To keep it clear about this topic, when did the debate moved from "yes or no balance needed" to "how to give balance".

I mean peoples should be clear about their opinion.  Arga i assume you admit theres a balance issue if you try to find solutions for it?

What would close this debate is if someone of  the deciding side (read DEVS) could explain us why turrets and missiles related extensions have been separated. And if there is a reason; how it is balanced (in my case for example).  Or just say its not balanced this way but in another way. In that case just explain.  I love greens more than blue tbh. Better for a solo pveer like me. BUT one need some logic behind arbitrary decisions.

FACTS:

3 factions, 4 weapon types, most of weapons related extensions applies to 3 of the 4 weapons type, and the last one is left alone.

QUESTION:

Is it balanced?  Will we green have access to more versatility and weapon options?

I dont understand your question, but im sure the answer you gave is not backed up with actual knowledge. EA account are 500k more EP now. Give room to max some *** no? Atm ive adv rob, pelistal bot to 10, missile dmg to 9 and all related missile ext to 5 min. Add all the mandatory ext like fitting, accu stability, all the targeting extension to 10 etc...  I miss 100k EP from a 2nd reset that i will soon(tm) get back. All in all i didnt do the math but i was expecting it could be maxxed yes.

If by "training of turret heavy mech" you ment training BOTH nuimqol and thelodica to 10, and all the related turrets extension to 10, yes in that case 500K EP is not enough i guess. But what does this have to do with our discussion?

You all consider weapon = heavy mechs = max dps = lv 10 extension.  That has nothing to do with cross training.
Not 100% of bots that have turrets/missiles slots have faction weapon robot bonus. Got it?

So like OP said, YES, cross training between turrets is viable while between missiles/turrets is not. I DID it.  I had lv 9 nuimqol, i used mesmer to farm (yeah with EM obviously). But what i liked was vagabond MK2(and i had all jamming maxxed), so i used it often too. With my turrets extensions i had pushed to better farm with mesmer, i just did pushed laser AND firearms to an acceptable level (7 and 8 if i remember correctly) Sure its not 10, but guys 9% and 6% less dmgs is NOT a gamebreaker imo. Peoples that say otherwise...well... nm.  And i did all this with a somewhat LOW EP investment.
I never added one single level in other faction extensions.

So, cross training weapons = noob??  Believe what you want but the OP balance reclamation is valid imo.

^Answers in bold^

Arga your mostly right, what i was saying is there is some cases where fitting other faction weapons is a viable option. I tough you had more the "sandbox" spirit of being able to do whatever you like, not being restricted in "cookie cutter" builds or fits that makes games less interesting imo. Im not talking of obviously gimping your bot, just give some efficiency for more versatility.