Developer Blog entry from November, 28th. Sector Conquest Update

Mercenary Center Developer Blog
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yep, but it’s a fact and we must recognice it, the most dangerous corps are actually on empire, fed and jericho have some zerg corps and some decent corps but anything else

 

there will be no more corps.

 

only solo players.

 

that’s what i’ll be doing in any case.

 

never met a single corp/guild player who was better than a solo anyways, regardless of which game.

 

honestly, this is just reinforcing human pack/mob mentality.

 

nothing good can come of this.

 

it’s one thing to encourage teamplay; something else entirely to create a superior and a sub-class of players.

 

that’s why i prefer to sit this one out.

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there will be no more corps.

 

only solo players.

 

that’s what i’ll be doing in any case.

 

never met a single corp/guild player who was better than a solo anyways, regardless of which game.

 

honestly, this is just reinforcing human pack/mob mentality.

 

nothing good can come of this.

 

it’s one thing to encourage teamplay; something else entirely to create a superior and a sub-class of players.

 

that’s why i prefer to sit this one out.

 

u can’t go sector conquest unless u’re in a corp

 

 

we will see what happens, if no one goes SC and goes PvP the reason is obvious.

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there will be no more corps.

 

only solo players.

 

that’s what i’ll be doing in any case.

 

never met a single corp/guild player who was better than a solo anyways, regardless of which game.

 

honestly, this is just reinforcing human pack/mob mentality.

 

nothing good can come of this.

 

it’s one thing to encourage teamplay; something else entirely to create a superior and a sub-class of players.

 

that’s why i prefer to sit this one out.

 

He’s just scared of what will happen when he sets foot in the new sector conquest.  Yeah staying in T2 and T3 instead of moving up is really going to come back and bite you in the xxxx now isn’t it?

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actually, i own 10+ T4s, i just went back to max my T2s, and to test gameplay at that level after recent patches.

 

it’s what a beta tester is supposed to do… are they not?

 

that isn’t the point… it completely went over both your heads…

 

ever since day one i’ve been advocating for new players and the lower tiers, since they keep getting mangled.

 

and essentially, those are new customers who are getting a poor experience.

 

how else is this game supposed to grow if you keep excluding the lower ranks and telling them they need to spend 3-6 months levelling up (at a minumum) in order to provide a benefit to their corps.

 

then removing all T1 weapons, half T2 missiles, half the mods in T1/T2… then nerfing their energy to the point of unmanageable in combat situations half the time… no CAP slots for EB… it’s a royal mess…

 

and then burdening them with the overly-complex loyalty voucher system and upgrade kits? lulz. at least they have icons now :\

 

and that was my point. i’ll simply refuse to join a corp or participate in conquest until i reach T5. problem solved. for me, anyways.

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if your looking for someone unwilling to move up, ill admit it, its me. i doubt ill leave t3 for a while, despite 900 + pvp matches

Edit: that and i have no T4

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actually, i own 10+ T4s, i just went back to max my T2s, and to test gameplay at that level after recent patches. it’s what a beta tester is supposed to do… are they not? that isn’t the point… it completely went over both your heads… ever since day one i’ve been advocating for new players and the lower tiers, since they keep getting mangled. and essentially, those are new customers who are getting a poor experience. how else is this game supposed to grow if you keep excluding the lower ranks and telling them they need to spend 3-6 months levelling up (at a minumum) in order to provide a benefit to their corps. then removing all T1 weapons, half T2 missiles, half the mods in T1/T2… then nerfing their energy to the point of unmanageable in combat situations half the time… no CAP slots for EB… it’s a royal mess… and then burdening them with the overly-complex loyalty voucher system and upgrade kits? lulz. at least they have icons now : and that was my point. i’ll simply refuse to join a corp or participate in conquest until i reach T5. problem solved. for me, anyways.

T1 is still for beginners to learn the game basics. They should not spend hours of thinking which equipment is usefull on their ship. Furtheremore it usually takes 1-2 days to proceed to T2 and that is really not much.

About EB: I never use them on any of my ships and I have no problems surviving. It is all a question of play style.

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T1 is still for beginners to learn the game basics. They should not spend hours of thinking which equipment is usefull on their ship. Furtheremore it usually takes 1-2 days to proceed to T2 and that is really not much.

About EB: I never use them on any of my ships and I have no problems surviving. It is all a question of play style.

When I started T1 I had a choice of three weapons - default laser, default railgun, default plasma gun. That was a good selection for T1; it let me get a feel for each type of weapon and I could think about what I would use later. Given that Railguns were my favourite, it’s not a surprise that I used them exclusively in T2, typically favouring standard and stab rails (shotgun came much later…).

 

Now, there is no choice. If you like lasers, you’re stuck with frigates. If you like plasma, you’re stuck with interceptors. But what if I like lasers and want to fly a Fighter? You are essentially telling these people “tough. You’ll never get to fly the way you want to.” You are giving them no choice, and no indication there ever will be choice.

 

At the very least, there should be two weapons per ship in T1. I’d say add the Shrapnel Cannon, Ion Cannon and Positron Cannon to T1. That gives each ship two very different styles of play to choose from, and then the player is subconsciously aware that there is likely to be more choice later. This means that they are likely to put up with it even if there is nothing that they like, because they are more open to the idea of more stuff appearing later.

 

Both T1 and T2 also need a flat energy recharge increase. Play in these tiers becomes slow and clunky very quickly because of power issues, and it does not make for an inviting situation. My advice is to bump up their stats so power management is less of an issue - in T1, it’s not needed at all, in T2 it only matters if you are spamming modules and afterburners. This leaves the task of learning true power management until T3, letting T1 players focus on the basics and drilling home that T2 should be spamming modules, not leaving them deactivated because “I might need afterburner”.

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Now, there is no choice. If you like lasers, you’re stuck with frigates. If you like plasma, you’re stuck with interceptors. But what if I like lasers and want to fly a Fighter? You are essentially telling these people “tough. You’ll never get to fly the way you want to.” You are giving them no choice, and no indication there ever will be choice.

 

Ion are hilariously deadly I just dont get the chance to use them cause i own all these blue railguns x.x

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if your looking for someone unwilling to move up, ill admit it, its me.

 

Same here. I don’t ever plan on leaving T3, since that is where my premium ships are currently parked. Why would I jump a tier if I can’t take my premium content with me?

 

Besides, I have enough weapon/module choice (not dumbed down) without the 1337 killsquads. So yeah, good luck; have fun. I’m staying right here.

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I am looking forward smashing all those little T3 ships with my Inquisitor S T5  :taunt:

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* Places sweet roll on forum thread * 

 

Im gonna leave this here and forgo saying anything about this change until it actually happens. 

252

Same here. I don’t ever plan on leaving T3, since that is where my premium ships are currently parked. Why would I jump a tier if I can’t take my premium content with me?

 

Besides, I have enough weapon/module choice (not dumbed down) without the 1337 killsquads. So yeah, good luck; have fun. I’m staying right here.

I’ll probably stick to T3 in American evenings.  Small T4 matches don’t suit me.

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T1 is still for beginners to learn the game basics. They should not spend hours of thinking which equipment is usefull on their ship. Furtheremore it usually takes 1-2 days to proceed to T2 and that is really not much.

About EB: I never use them on any of my ships and I have no problems surviving. It is all a question of play style.

 

no offense, but you must fly against complete newbies. all inties will pop from a single disintegrator in T2…there’s maybe a few that can equip an EB, but that means they are majorly deficient on energy, lacking some 30% regen compared to AB draw… fighters aren’t much better, and frigs especially engineers melt like butter under the sun. hence dps classes rule (assault, covops, lrf)… any llama can see the imbalances present. i complained about it before the patches, now it is twice as bad. literally.

 

you also do realize that it takes more than 2 days to complete T1 unless you are just playing 3 ship roles… you’re one of those tier-rushers, aren’t you? protop: most people like to play ALL classes of ships (yet, youve stated previously, it is NOT intended for players to play ALL classes of ships)… you just klled your own consumer base… good job. it takes like a month to get out of T2, assuming you are playing 3-4 hours a day… which most players simply aren’t…

 

you think this might be funny, but it isn’t… it directly translates to sales, which you will have none of if this continues.

 

furthermore, as someone else pointed out:

 

Now, there is no choice. If you like lasers, you’re stuck with frigates. If you like plasma, you’re stuck with interceptors. But what if I like lasers and want to fly a Fighter? You are essentially telling these people “tough. You’ll never get to fly the way you want to.” You are giving them no choice, and no indication there ever will be choice.

 

not to mention, they can’t even see which loyalty vouchers they need, because you have to upgrade weapons to Mk2 first… and the new module system has other bugs, like if you have mk1 equipped and mk3 in hangar, you can’t see it… you must unequip the mk1 before the mk3 shows up in your loadout selection… ah yes, and if you have a mk3 and mk1 in hangar, and just want to equip the mk1, you can’t… because only the mk3 shows up in your selection list :crazy:  ah, and you can’t get a tooltip for the module to popup, if the selection list is active. you get tooltips for the selection list items only, and your other modules, except the module you currently have ‘selected’ when choosing a loadout. kinda unintuitive. i throw my mouse every time i do it and realize it won’t work… why you ever bothered to change the selection system is beyond me.

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… and the new module system has other bugs, like if you have mk1 equipped and mk3 in hangar, you can’t see it… you must unequip the mk1 before the mk3 shows up in your loadout selection… ah yes, and if you have a mk3 and mk1 in hangar, and just want to equip the mk1, you can’t… because only the mk3 shows up in your selection list :crazy:

Look carefully, there’s a little triangle/ arrow bellow item icon in the list of available modules. Click this arrow and you will see all Mk available for that item, with a " back" button in the top to go back to the list view…

I agree, this is not clear enough, at least for you.

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Look carefully, there’s a little triangle/ arrow bellow item icon in the list of available modules. Click this arrow and you will see all Mk available for that item, with a " back" button in the top to go back to the list view…

I agree, this is not clear enough, at least for you.

 

you’re right about the arrow. i must have looked at that menu 50-100 times and not seen it. unintuitive.

 

however, you still cannot see modules you do not own, meaning you can’t see which faction you need to upgrade a weapon until you first buy a mk1 and then upgrade it to mk2.

256

you’re right about the arrow. i must have looked at that menu 50-100 times and not seen it. unintuitive.

 

however, you still cannot see modules you do not own, meaning you can’t see which faction you need to upgrade a weapon until you first buy a mk1 and then upgrade it to mk2.

You don’t need to upgrade to mk2 first. Clicking a module brings up the next “upgrade” panel with upgrade button. Hover over button, all requirements for mk2-mk4 are listed.

257

You don’t need to upgrade to mk2 first. Clicking a module brings up the next “upgrade” panel with upgrade button. Hover over button, all requirements for mk2-mk4 are listed.

 

You still need to buy a mk1 module.

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If you do not own the Mk.I variant, you cannot see the upgrade requirements.  It’s a new interface, and I’m half certain the devs are listening so maybe by the end of the year these issues will be resolved.

259

This will be so fun, if i ever reach T5. Probably not ever, but whatever.

 

For the WPK claim for before (as the “we wont participate if you dont divide the points with the corp size”): thats bullshit. For one, it would encourage 1-4 person corps, for maximum efficiency. For another, if a corp can get more good players (remember, you have to actually WIN your battles to get points), they should be rewarded. With enough skill and effort, you can overcome the population difference, but the game shouldnt cater to your small corp just because you are small.

260

You don’t need to upgrade to mk2 first. Clicking a module brings up the next “upgrade” panel with upgrade button. Hover over button, all requirements for mk2-mk4 are listed.

 

hmm, you’re right. never noticed before i suppose since i own mostly mk3, so i don’t see the other upgrade options.

 

which brings up the point, as someone else mentioned, you need to buy a mk1 first to see the options.

 

furthermore, if you have a mk2 or higher in hangar, you have to use the dropdown arrow, then equip your mk1, then mouse over the upgrade arrow. 3 steps for what it previous took 1 or none. (since the icon was always visible).

 

should have just left it like it was before, and put a ‘shared’ upgrade button in the modules dialog. instead of a button for each module…