Spurious arguement at best in that post, and also has no bearing on this topic.

Actually, you have plenty of risk.  Your whole production cycle is based upon a material that you have no control of, and at any time, that faucet can be shut down, or jacked up so high as to make your production unprofitable. 

Currently, market PVP between those who do control the epiton flow is pretty fierce, so prices are low.  Also, there is an alliance that basically said, hey all y'all, come to our island to make your wealth.  So now, instead of 3 or 4 corps controlling the flow, you have multiple ten's of corps, all trying to fatten the wallets. But if, and when, that changes, and it will, you may be singing a different tune.

Well, you got one right.  Yup, really should be a total stranglehold atm, but as stated above, market PVP - who can grab most of the market share.  But I reluctantly agree with you here...

Because when you are self sufficient, you are not dependant on the market, and surplus can be used to add to the corp wallet.  Sound economic sense, in a properly run corp, there should be little to no need to buy anything, if you have a slice of the beta pie.

Ever try to hit a moving jeep with a tank?  By the time you have aligned the weapon, the target has moved.  Granted, the jeep can't do much to the tank, but his "friends" might be able to.  Same with any weapon platform, just because it is bigger and has larger armament, does not mean it is suited for all situations.  Otherwise, why do we still need infantry?  And, btw, some of those infantry do carry "tank killers". 

Stop thinking in terms of 1 vs 1, or the " I haz the biggest toy, therefore i iz imperviouz!".  Tactics, strategy, teamwork, can ALWAYS pwn a more powerful opponent if properly applied.  Mechs should not be fielded without support, and that support should have the capablitiy of intercepting smaller and faster opponents. 

As far as stEVE, yes, smaller ships could take out larger, and should be able to!  That battleship has no business being out solo without support, and if he was, he deserved to die.

Looting the field is the only NIC reward for PVP.  Most Dangerous Agent ratings just shows who does it more often ( if even that, due to the "arkie farming trick. is not accurate - Neoxx showed that with his post, and we all know Texnik was doing it, cause he loses more than he kills...) and is not a reward, it's a reputation.

In order to justify risking personal assets in pvp, there has to be an incentive.  Territory control, for assets and outposts, as an incentive, is not a reward, it's an ongoing risk.  There is no real benefit to controlling an outpost, merely a dangerous luxury, and slightly improved industry slots, and the only thing you can't get on alpha is epiton.

Pvp is a huge part of this game, and unless you want another Hello Kitty Online, it needs to be unrestrained and offer sufficient rewards to justify the risk.  Without loot drops from bots, and cargo, that reward is non-existant.  Yes, regardless, the target still loses their cargo, you still have an economic impact on your foe, and yes, you do it often enough, and you look good on the kill ratings.  But you make squat, and the time you spent hunting down that kill could have been applied to making nic, and been far more profitable.  There needs to be an incentive to pvp, other than incursion events, to keep the game interesting and dynamic.

Cake or Death?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZVjKlBCvhg

And again, F- , and your comments still have nothing to do with any factual data or analysis to support the arguement of the thread.  This is the "Balancing" Forum, not the BizzyFatBoy forum...

But not because of the "mirrors"...

According to the popular account given by Plutarch, Archimedes was contemplating a mathematical diagram when the city was captured. A Roman soldier commanded him to come and meet General Marcellus but he declined, saying that he had to finish working on the problem. The soldier was enraged by this, and killed Archimedes with his sword. Plutarch also gives a lesser-known account of the death of Archimedes which suggests that he may have been killed while attempting to surrender to a Roman soldier. According to this story, Archimedes was carrying mathematical instruments, and was killed because the soldier thought that they were valuable items. General Marcellus was reportedly angered by the death of Archimedes, as he considered him a valuable scientific asset and had ordered that he not be harmed.

Valerius Maximus (c. 20 BC-c. AD 50 ), Memorable Doings and Sayings, Book VIII.7.ext. 7
"I should say that Archimedes’ diligence also bore fruit if it had not both given him life and taken it away. At the capture of Syracuse Marcellus had been aware that his victory had been held up much and long by Archimedes’ machines. However, pleased with the man’s exceptional skill, he gave out that his life was to be spared, putting almost as much glory in saving Archimedes as in crushing Syracuse. But as Archimedes was drawing diagrams with mind and eyes fixed on the ground, a soldier who had broken into the house in quest of loot with sword drawn over his head asked him who he was. Too much absorbed in tracking down his objective, Archimedes could not give his name but said, protecting the dust with his hands, “I beg you, don’t disturb this,” and was slaughtered as neglectful of the victor’s command; with his blood he confused the lines of his art. So it fell out that he was first granted his life and then stripped of it by reason of the same pursuit."

UNIVERSAL HISTORY by Polybius (c. 200-118 BC)
" But Archimedes had constructed artillery which could cover a whole variety of ranges, so that while the attacking ships were still at a distance he scored so many hits with his catapults and stone-throwers that he was able to cause them severe damage and harass their approach. Then, as the distance decreased and these weapons began to carry over the enemy's heads, he resorted to smaller and smaller machines, and so demoralized the Romans that their advance was brought to a standstill. In the end Marcellus was reduced in despair to bringing up his ships secretly under cover of darkness. But when they had almost reached the shore, and were therefore too close to be struck by the catapults, Archimedes had devised yet another weapon to repel the marines, who were fighting from the decks. He had had the walls pierced with large numbers of loopholes at the height of a man, which were about a palm's breadth wide at the outer surface of the walls. Behind each of these and inside the walls were stationed archers with rows of so-called 'scorpions', a small catapult which discharged iron darts, and by shooting through these embrasures they put many of the marines out of action. Through these tactics he not only foiled all the enemy's attacks, both those made at long range and any attempt at hand-to-hand fighting, but also caused them heavy losses.  "

The first mention of it occurs in Lucian (c. 120–180 AD), who only states that Archimedes was able to burn the ships by artificial means. One variation tells of Archimedes using an elaborate combination of mirrors or polished shields to focus the sun’s rays on the Roman ships like a giant magnifying glass. This version, however, can be traced back only as far as to Galen (130–200 AD).

Point being, despite all that, Syracuse fell to he Romans, aftr a 2 year seige.

Exactly - no risk PVP should never be allowed to exist.  Risk=Reward.

Easiest solution might be this - 1)Arkies only spawn at the Alpha terminal of that player's megacorporation and 2) Arkies cannot activate teleports to Beta islands.  Now if someone brings one in as cargo, they still have to risk a bot, get to destination, and if it subsequently gets destroyed, well, you end up on Alpha, and have to do it all over again. Or, if arkie is in cargo hold of another bot, that bot cannot teleport to Beta either.  Then to go to beta involves NIC risk, to get those pewpews

????? Why, they can run it, not extract it.  Still no effect.

Lol. Skill is how you play the cards, the only limit is your intelligence, which seems to be really limited...

Experience is learning from mistakes, and improving how you do things.  Of course, you have to be capable of learning...

And wtf does my corp have to do with the validity of my statements, or the spurious rhetoric of your's, and this topic?  Last I checked, this is the Balancing Forum, not Corporate Discussions...

F- on marshalling facts or data to support an arguement.

It's not "weapon" based.  It is either a bonus of the bot/mech itself, and/or skill dependant.

Example:  Baphomet gets the following bonus' per level that basic robotics is trained:

Effect                  Bonus
Critical hit chance    1 %
Small laser damage    5 %
Accumulator capacity    5 %

If you have Basic Robotics to 4, the bot gives you a 4% bonus to critical hit chance.

Second is the Critical Hit skill:
"Each level of this extension raises the chance of causing a critical hit by an additional 1%.
Primary attribute: Tactics
Secondary attribute: Mechatronics"

Having Critical hit trained to 5 will give you a 5% increase in crit hit chance.

That's a load of crap - every MMO out there has new people not as skilled as older members.  And, it is a MMO, really, the idea is to work with other people, not solo.  As has been said many times before, join a good corp with lots of people, and work as a team, you will have no issues.  As time progresses, and we have seen this already, the EA vs regular access EP means less and less.  And what about new people who join today?  Should regular access people have to give up their 20k for that?  How about when the Devs remove the 20K starter EP, which they have stated that they are planning on doing?

Don't be an idiot, use your brain, work with others, and stop ya biatchin'.

PS - For those who have bothered to look, membership is increasing.  So much for fewer people and/or people leaving...