Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Just kill the MTU.......

I do when I'm in a ship fit for it.

But, flying around in a Noctis what in the world would compel me to attack one of these (armed with 5 un-bonused light drones) when I instantly become a free meal to everyone in the area? Am I expected to fly all the way back to a station I have stuff in just to grab a combat ship, fly all the way back, blow up the Mobile Tractor Unit, hopefully don't get aggressed by everyone and their mother on the gate, then hop back into my salvaging ship, wait for my suspect timer to clear and FINALLY finish the job.

And how is this a reasonable suggestion when the system has several, even NUMEROUS Mobile Tractor Units in it under the current suspect mechanics? Fun fact: It's not.

Better suggestion: In addition to my original idea make it so the attacker is only suspect flagged to the Mobile Tractor Unit's owner / fleet / corporation. Why should people get to just leave this trash floating around in space, un-guarded? Why should they also be able to rely on the public at large to protect their stuff when they log out? Why can something that doesn't even require you to be there be so annoying to people who are only trying to do their civic duty to keep space clean and junk free?

Meanwhile I have to fly around in a MWD fit frigate with Salvagers, Salvager drones or something to chase down every wreck. Something like a Noctis should be king of the hill in regards to a mobile tractor and salvage platform.

Let's see:

1. You're obviously not worried about someone dropping an MTU in a mission, anom, or combat site that you have run and tractoring your wrecks. They will only tractor wrecks that belong to the owner's corp, so if someone were to come in and anchor an MTU by your wrecks, it would do precisely nothing.

2. You're also obviously not worried about ninja-tractoring the wrecks in a mission, anom, or combat site that someone else has run and dropped an MTU for the same reason: you can't tractor someone else's wreck. (But, unlike the MTU, you can move around quickly and steal them first if you're so inclined.)

3. If you're worried at all about competing directly with an MTU, it means that the wrecks in question must be valid targets for both you and the MTU. This means that the MTU belongs to someone else in your corp (a situation which I'll ignore for a moment) or that the wrecks in question are abandoned (i.e. "blue") wrecks. These wrecks are already free game for anyone. This also means most likely that you're at a station, gate, or other reasonably public area and are competing for the loot of killed suicide gankers so you should have no reasonable expectation of "dibs". If that's the case...fit more sensor boosters and lock that wreck first, or kill the MTU and scoop the loot.


Based on #3, and your use of the whole "bot-aspirant" language, I'm going to wager that you're the forum alt of a suicide ganker who is coming to the forums all butt-hurt that someone got wise and anchored an MTU to scoop your loot. Deal with it. (If I'm wrong here, I apologize, but my analysis in 1-3 above still stands.)


tl;dr: MTUs are fine. The only wrecks you can directly compete with them for are already fair game for everybody.

EDIT: Typos....

Loot is one thing, but watching MTUs play frisbee with an empty wreck is another thing entirely.

I have no qualms with blowing up the MTU, but under the current suspect mechanics and how many of them you can come across at once it's simply an unreasonable expectation. Therefore make it so the attacker is only suspect flagged to the MTU's owner / fleet / corporation. Not everyone else in the area. I'd happily whittle down an abandoned MTU with my Noctis if it meant I'm not going to turn myself into a pinata for all those watching.

After a MTU grabs a wreck it's basically gone. MTUs are automated and as such have perfect activation of their tractor beams. What does this mean? If you miss the initial lock and grab it's going to be chain grabbed if there's a group of them set up. I've sat at a MTU pulling in a wreck waiting to snatch it with my own Tractor Beam after it was finished only to have it instantly tractored by another MTU with inhuman speed. The instant the first MTU deactivates its tractor beam a second MTU instantly activates its own. If nothing else this mechanic should be looked at as well.

And while I am not a suicide ganker myself I am adamantly against AFK playstyles in general. I should have dibs over someone who isn't in system or who isn't online. If they want to beat me they should have to be there at the keyboard manually targeting wrecks and salvaging them like I am.

Make no mistake, I'm not suggesting that somehow I can pull a can or wreck out of the grip of someone else using a ship-mounted Tractor Beam or suggesting I be able to tractor wrecks and cans I do not own. But, allowing someone to set and forget an object like that with the current suspect mechanics involved and the instant tractor activation is unreasonable. The fact I'm being inhibited in cleaning space of abandoned wrecks by other abandoned objects is unreasonable.

I have no issues with any of the other mechanics revolving around Tractor Beams and Salvagers, but this one single thing irks me to no end.

That's assuming they're not AFK in a station. That's assuming they're logged in.

I'm there now. In EVE as a player I should be able to beat a machine at its own game. I have no problem with people using MTUs to collect their own legally owned wrecks, cans or those of their fleet and corp mates.

However, you shouldn't be able to drop and go in this game unless what you leave behind is subject to being tampered with by anyone. A player's AFK machine shouldn't have any kind of upperhand over a player being at their keyboard. As it stands other than capital ships the Mobile Tractor Unit has the longest Tractor Beam in the game. It locks in 10 seconds and with multiple MTUs out once a wreck or can gets pulled you cannot grab it even once the first MTU lets it go. A second MTU (which already has the object locked and has been attempting to tractor it the entire time) instantly, with inhuman speed grabs it and forces you to chase it down again.


So, as already stated before two things should happen:

1. Ship-mounted, player controlled Tractor Beams should override Mobile Tractor Units on abandoned wrecks and cans. If you want to beat a player at their keyboard you should have to be there directly competing with them, not competing through a proxy.

OR

2. Someone attacking a Mobile Tractor Unit should only be suspect flagged to the unit's owner, fleet and corporation. If you leave junk lying around clogging up the space lanes then there should be a downside. As it stands right now anyone can come to the aid of these AFK devices. This might also clean up places like trade hubs as less people will be setting and forgeting their trash in space.

make MTU's lootable by anyone :)

but you still go suspect. scaredy cat.

This is also fine, but I figured the outcries from mission runners would be too great.

However, the main concern I have is with the fact MTU ping pong makes it an absolute pain to chase down abandoned wrecks that the MTU owners most likely don't have any intention of actually salvaging.

I'm wondering if there should be a tractor beam variant that doesn't require locks, and tractors wrecks indiscriminately.

If there was a salvager that worked similarly, a Noctis could become a thing of beauty. Role bonus, maybe.


This comes in handy. There was a situation in our C5 where we lost some ships due to accidental over-escalation, and didn't have the firepower to kill the sleepers off. Meanwhile, billions in loot and wrecks were sitting in the middle of the site.

I took my squad of falcons and launched MTUs every 100 km, creating a daisy chain of MTUs away from the sleepers. Eventually the wrecks were 500 km away from the site, and the value of the wrecks was saved.

Sleeper sites despawn once the sleepers travel 350km away from the spawn point (iirc, it might be grid), and I imagine other PVE sites behave the same way. The 500km distance was mostly dictated by the number of MTUs we needed to hold all the loot (when we saw the wrecks start to empty).

So. Daisy chained MTUs: useful.

Also, I'm kind of a genius.

Kill the MTUs with a sniping Naga or Oracle. Replace one of the guns with a cloak. shoot, warp off, cloak. This is probably alt business, however. If your only character is in a Noctis, then your life kinda sucks.

Nevil? is that you?

I vote increase the default range on tractor beams and decrease the tractor speed of the MTU.