Player Features and Ideas Discussion

And you'll have the miner "specialized" in veld whining endlessly that (s)he got shafted because someone else got to mine ark.

It's not like we haven't tried all of these ideas over the last 2 years, you know. If the crystal limit was something that worked to promote large fleets outside of high sec, you would see large fleets of hulks outside of high sec. The only time I have seen them used in null is by large single-player IsBoxer fleets.

Again, nobody is saying that the Hulk shouldn't be specialized for fleet mining. The hulk should require fleet support. All we are saying is that crystal capacity is a horrible mechanic to use in promotion of that goal. It clearly has not worked to achieve that goal, given the absence of Hulk mining fleets. All it does is add a layer of frustration that frequently results in miners having to warp out to load new crystals or mining crystal-less (which T2 strip miners really don't do well) while waiting for a replacement. The minute this happens, the Hulk loses its "king of yield" crown to other ships that don't have this problem.

All kinds of remedies have been tried here. But even if they "work", the verdict is obvious. They aren't worth the hassle for anyone except mutiboxing mining armies.

Yes, yes -- I'm sure there are exceptions. I'm sure there are those who will say, "I'm using my Hulk just fine in deep null, HTFU!". I'm sure that your best friend's sister's boyfriend's brother's girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this kid who's going with the girl whose corp runs Hulk fleets every night in their wormhole.

But these are exceptions, and rare ones at that. This thread began with CCP bemoaning the lack of diversity in ship selection for mining, and suggesting ways of getting players into ships other than the Mackinaw and Retreiver. Adding range to the Hulk's lasers is not going to change things, or make me dust off the Hulk that has sat in my hangar for the last 18 months. Adding crystal capacity will.

There has to be a better way of promoting the use of the Hulk with fleet support. Limits on crystals haven't worked. That's all I'm saying.

I'd forgotten to mention that mining crystals are kinda huge, so glad to see someone thought of it! This will also help those daring, handsome Venture pilots who mount modulated deep core miner II's and can now carry a 2nd set of crystals in that tiny cargo hold.

Good to see the scan res reduction for barges. I could never figure out why it was so damn good in the first place. I see you're leaving the procurer/skiff drone damage bonus as is, which is fine. Might be a tad overpowered for the procurer but we'll see how it goes over the next 6 months.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1os33ZVJKyRfG3GY3taX0Se25dlTbNOoCLHprP7WoRKQ/edit?usp=sharing

Updated with the changes. (assuming the skiff mid to low isn't changed)

Edit: Hulk is 30% higher yield than a Mack. And the Cap reduction mining link is a lot more useful now.

Still a bad change. The entire mineral supply is getting it's double-nerf in the same expansion, and for why? There has not been a good explanation for it. Or any explanation whatsoever.

The old Role Bonuses were a good thing. It made it clear that all the barges started on equal ground for yield, and anything beyond that was all skills. I have EFT, and know how to use it. It's not my problem, but it was a useful statistic for new players. Whereas the old instructions to new players were "all barges start at the same rate and the rest is skills" the new instructions is "screw you, figure it out your own damned selves." No wonder your new player retention sucks so bad, given your attitude towards them.

We considered that, but to make it balanced we'd need to nerf the strip miner yield on those ships, which isn't ideal.

That wasn't me... that was Frostys.


There's a corp that runs large mining ops? Do they pay? Actually, deep null is about the only place I'd expect to see Cov/Hulks in any great number... oceans of blue surrounding and plenty of intel channels.


\o/


I'm guessing the thought ran something along the lines of "Proc/Skiff can super tank, Ret/Mack can tank well enough as well, so we'll give Cov/Hulk the Monty Python defense... RUN AWAY!!! RUN AWAY!!!

Fozzie. I have question that touches exhumers and also all other T2 ship in the game and have been puzzling me for years now.

Is there a specific reason why bonuses on T2 ships are splitted to both: T1 and T2 hull skill?

Apart from corner cases where player looses his lvl 5 skill for T1 hull (therefore loosing abity to fly that ship anyway) this is always lvl 5. So i think it should be presented in traits tab as flat bonus. 25% to damage instead of 5% per hull level for example.

Maybe there is good reason for this, but the way i see it just adds needles complexity when comparing and evaluating ships by adding more math where it should not be needed.

but you did, by reversing the slot lay out.

And the yield on the Mack is still too damned high.