[SC] NO PVP OPTION

It takes time to get your ship PVPable and more time if you dont spend money. Always been this way, if you want to build faster you need to spend money or spend a lot of time boxing or doin npcs.

 

Well, when I started in 2011, we could at least see we had a chance, as a FREE player to make our ship FE and thus PvPable (like you say) without having to PAY to do so. The NEW NEWB does not have this opportunity and as such should have NEW protections from the UFE WALLET Players. The opportunities are not the same as they were when the game first started, and I agree games have to develop to continue being enjoyable, but the changes made to this game seem to chase as many away as it intrigues with the improvements. They have forgotten that they started as a Play4Free platform and without these players the maps would be void of activity, WALLETS HUNT in enemy maps (for NEWBS, Play4Free players) or do Galaxy Gates, they are not in their own maps protecting the NEWBS of their company or helping them to get stronger (like the FE's did before the introduction of the UFE ship).

My ship was FE equipped, without spending a dime, in 6 months. And I have tried to get the UFE equipment and have failed in my attempts even after spending over a thousand dollars on it. This was buying the BK-100's for the Ultra Booty, LF-4, and Zeus days and got more FE equipment (that I did not need) than the UFE that I was supposed to be able to get (1 LF-4 per 1000 keys used, 1 Zeus part per 5000 keys used) and as such have decided I am better off building gates and playing in them than I am at trying to advance by doing quests/EVENT missions, or doing anything in the maps as I am still just Cannon Fodder for the UFE's that want to hunt the weaker players. We used to be able to group up, and get protection this way, but now grouping seems to have people in all maps and doing their own thing instead of all doing the same thing in the same map, and if they did come to your aid you were dead by the time they got there.

So it seems that D O needs to implement some type of protection to keep the Play4Free players so they might become wallets, in the future, but if they continue to alienate the WALLETS along with the P4F players the game will not survive. It seems that the current batch of MONEY the game is getting is in Macros being used by players who do not want to work for what they are getting and causing even more players to leave.

 

Accusing me of not being me in the forums... epic...

 

I did not accuse you I did state you have EITHER not done much on the forums or are a FAKE, knowing that there is a FAKE flying in the West server. Then I also stated it would be STUPID for a NEWB to try to attack you as we would pop very fast. This is because you are EPIC and well known just surprised you are lower ranked on the forum than I am.

 

Not a lot of upside to posting in the forums.... it seems that every time I do someone with a couple dozen hours of actual play time jumps all over me... although I can usually count on jackcrow and cowboy for a post like and that's nice of them.

 

Its always nice to see BOB in the forums and not on my rudder.

The new noob does have a chance to get FE. But what they need is better direction. Players come on with no clue as to what to do and what is worse is that they feel so intimidated by what they see, they dont ask.

 

Which since there is no one in the maps any more they do not get the guidance and as they can not get assistance when they ask in chat they get to feeling there is no way they can get any better. I have on numerous occasions asked for help against the UFE attacking a certain map and get no response at all, there are others talking in the chat but no one wants to assist the NEWB. This being said is why I (FOR ONE) feel the lowers (HOME maps) need to be protected from UFE attackers, and I do not mean the bar signalling there is an enemy in the map, I mean can not be attacked till they target the UFE ship themselves (this allows the other NEWBS to attack NEWBS and get the practice they need to advance in PvP battles) as it is now the NEWBS get to learn to evasive maneuver and waste Uridium on emp bursts and slow mines hoping to get away before they get popped. I know trying to complete Daily quests and getting popped 3-4 times in an hour by the same player has caused me to give up playing for the day on several occasions (these players have all got the crown from having done the Kronos gate so they are a lot closer to being UFE than I could ever hope to be) IF these players were allowed to pop us only once then that in itself would be an improvement to the game experience over what it is now.

 

Ok, I am going to ASSUME you play West, like me, which gets me within 1/8th of the servers I plan on, but have no clue what company which will still make it difficult for me to tell what you mean. I know there are lots of my VRU flying around and nothing gets us going faster than to hear that we have invaders. On the flip side, I can normally sail through most of the mmo and eic maps and not see a soul so I understand your frustration. I personally don't like the idea of popping the new guys until they open up on my spear. Its funny how the sight of a spear makes the day 2 player in a liberator start feeling his oats and start shooting. I had one follow me around for a half hour while I worked off a quest "in peace." Was buffing my paint for an hour after that. I finally had to shoo him off though as it started getting old. A lot of new players have no clue what that bar even means. I am not knocking you though, as I try to help players when in lowers and have trouble getting them to open up about what they are doing and what they have done. Its hard to even get a hi out of them, but they probably failed to get into company chat. I see players all the time that I can't find in the company chat so go figure.

Anyway, I make that assumption as I also find the safest place for me to chill out is in eic and mmo maps. Like you say, can't find anyone else. A good signal for UFE to know they are going after way under their level would be some color glow system. That would let you know before you fire a shot that they are too low in levels for you. Just an idea.

 

Well since I do have BOTH Servers posted and do know of C O B your assumption would be true. Well I am MMO (on West and EIC on East 2) and the easiest way to see is the RANK posted by the names, but this does not seem to matter to some players, they fly the maps on a SEARCH and DESTROY mission and would even pop me when I was flying the Pheonix I have to just mess around in. You get nothing for popping me in it, you get NEGATIVE Rank Points for having popped me but then I still get it popped trying to collect minerals for the Daily Quests, it is not strong enough to do anything else outside of x-2 map. I have found most players use the Mini-Map and if there is a Red Dot they check it out and if not NPC attack it no matter what it is, so the AURA idea would be a FAILURE unless it was on the Mini-Map also, but then this would only work IF the system prevented the enemy from attacking first (again the protection we NEWBS are asking for) but the biggest fix would be allowing them to KILL us only ONCE a day thus making them fly through all maps to get their kills instead of staying in one map till found by another UFE and chased out of the maps altogether.

I have stood over my friends shoulders (they fly VRU USA West) and have called out for help not just for same company killers but also enemy attackers and get no response (I think D O should make the chat auto open in the company chat) and find most of the conversations going on in GLOBAL where it is stupid to send out requests for help as now you have openly requested to be molested. As far as chilling in enemy maps I have accidentally chose the wrong map to JUMP into and every time I do, I find it to be occupied and I get attacked and doing evasive maneuvers cloak and hide in a SEA of RED till I can get the Jump chip to let me JUMP where I wanted to be to begin with. So I must be an unlucky player (further evidenced in the mess up of my account that took 3 months to resolve, quick bar would only work with mouse not keyboard) as I have failed to be able to gain any benefit from the Events being loaded lately.

There has been too many changes in the game to AID the destruction of the NEWBS and prevent the protection of the maps for the same. SO I can only assume the GOAL of D O is to make this a Pay 2 Play game with ONLY WALLETS playing, but then what are the WALLETS going to buy if there are no NEWBS to kill (they have their Galaxy Gates giving them their UFE equipment so don't need to buy Booty Keys, they have their Pilot Bio FULL so don't need log disks, won't need to buy much ammo as they get more than they need from the GG's they do, as the NEWBS aren't BOXING they can collect ammo and Uridium from BB's and won't need to buy Uridium, and the EE they will gain from the extra amount of available BB's they won't even have to buy Gate spins, so that would leave only Jump Credits as these only seem to come from Special BB's or Booty Chests which we already determined they would not be buying but then why would they be using the Jump Chips? they don't do quests and would only need to be in X-1 map to jump into the GG they have built) so I guess without the NEWBS to HUNT the maps would be completely empty and the only activity would be in GG's as this is all that could be done by the WALLETS as they can not defend themselves in a FAIR fight.

 

The color system should be used as a guide as to who you can or can not shoot, something that would only apply to those below your level. Red means you can not shoot them.

All the bells and whistles can be used by all, to attack and run. Unfortunately, the Wallets seem to get them first and in great numbers. Even with all of them, one of the greatest defense seems to not give them attention in chat if they shoot you. It will normally get them to move on in a few minutes. Something else you can do is acknowledge that they got you and respectfully ask that the attacker allow you to continue your npc mission. Said attacker may leave you alone and may even help you on your mission for a while. Whatever you do, don't start a chat war with them. Then they never leave you alone. Some of them will try to goad you into a fight just to increase their kill count, but will shove off if you just wait them out. Hunting is boring and waiting on someone to get off the the port is murder on the boosters.

 

MMOs inherently have PvP elements. Some games, like DarkOrbit, choose to focus on it. Have fun!

I'd like to suggest an alternate version of this. While yours sounds good, I feel like removing content/features the more you advance is the opposite of what a game should be doing. Why should the difference of 1 Experience Point define whether or not you can tell if there are enemies in your map?

Instead, I'd like to see a Booster or "timer" of some sort that acts like a Booster (in that it counts down only when you're playing). It would enable the warning bar outside of X-1 and X-2 maps and it would work on all non-PvP, non-Pirate maps. I'd like to suggest a duration, but I feel the DarkOrbit team would be better off looking at how long it takes the average player to reach a certain strength, for example, Fully Elite, and then base it off of that.

Thoughts, Bob? I'd like to hear them.

 

†►ÐÂЯŦΉĢüДĻℓЙ◄†™, love your idea, but [sarcasm] it goes against the very core of DO's mission to punish those that advance by offering them less than what is offered those just starting out [/sarcasm]
http://www.bigpoint.com/darkorbit/b...rs-that-have-been-playing-a-long-time.109903/

A booster would be fine. It would be nice if there was a timer like I suggested in 2011 and again in 2014...

but it would be so incredibly useful that it could never possibly make it into the game.

 

Timers are actually seen in the SHOP when you open the BOOSTER in question, this allowing you to know when you need to buy another. But yes an IN-MAP timer would be nice for those who do not go to the shop all the time, kinda like the Drone damage request I keep seeing asked for. But as you said it makes sense so D O will never implement the change as it does not follow their story line and is requested by the community, and god forbid they make the community happy.

 

Almost... not quite... the shop doesn't give you time remaining on the 50% honor, 50% EP, 5% Kappa booster, the CBS boosters, or the 99 cent newb boosters that are never available to people that have been playing forever. I'm not quite sure how they could do the CBS one as a timer but it could at least show up in the mix as active. Trying to figure out when the kappa is going to die is a pain.

But Yeah... the shop timer is soooo useful ...
Click Shop...
wait...
Click Shop again....
Click Boosters...
wait...
Click Boosters again...
get a cup of coffee...
Click Boosters again...
goody... 18 different boosters that I can click on, lag, click, lag, load finally to find out how much time is left.

and... when you buy one, it doesn't register on the shop timer until you completely refresh the Boosters section.

 

I did not say it was PERFECT. But you did not even comment on my suggestion of the IN-MAP TIMER or DRONE DAMAGE or the fact the COMMUNITY INPUT seems to be ignored by D O. The CBS does not have a TIMER as long as the CBS lives the Booster is there, if you hover your mouse over the booster you can see what is giving you the percentage of boost you are getting, this would be a nice place to add the timer in the map. Hover over the booster then hover over the individual item giving the boost to see the time remaining and actual percentage from that particular booster, this is helpful for the CBS Boost as the longer it is up the more boost you get, and is also determined by the UPGRADE LEVEL of the Module

Sorry no suggestion for the Kappa Booster. But aren't the 50% shown in the Subscription section of Uridium (don't know just asking) I do know that they give you notification in the maps when you get to the last 3 days (or less) of the 50% booster from Uridium purchase.

 

ugh....

 

See how you are!! Can't even give me your TRUE opinion of a possible fix to your dilemma.

 

Soooo off topic... My TRUE opinion is that you need some kind of external validation or are just trying to get your post count up...

The in-game booster timer was my idea... a long long long time ago... You just said "an in-game timer would be nice" (which really doesn't make it YOUR idea) and that "Timers are in the shop". However, like I said, the shop doesn't give you the time remaining on any of the timed boosters apart from the BO1 and BO2. The hanger DOES give you the Drone Damage on ALL of the Drones... so while both are probably useful, if one had to make a choice, an in-game booster timer would be more useful than an in-game drone damage timer as it would give you information that is not easily acquired elsewhere. The 50% booster requires you to keep track of exactly when you bought the thing because it will expire in 1-5 calendar days from the time you bought the uridium. The Kappa booster requires you to keep track of not only the second that you completed the Kappa gate, but also actual game time if you play less than five hours after receiving it.

For the drones, you can either equip the drone repair chip and forget about damage (assuming the thing works) or check the hangar and repair them when you feel like it. Chixonator's idea of a "repair all drones" button in the hangar is probably more useful than an in-game drone damage timer.

But, like I said, this is soooo off the original "noobs need more protection"... they don't. There are many many protections for new players. New players are continuously offered items that are not available to old players. The game is largely PvP. There are lots of (boring) things to do if you don't want to get shot at by another player. If you are going to ban confrontation based on level, then you also need to limit all aspects of the PvP and you'll need on screen warnings like"
"Player is engaged in NPC fight, you can not shoot them"
"Player is engaged with another player. Only one person may shoot another player at a time"
"Player is just boxing. You can not shoot them"
"Player is only collecting palladium. You can not shoot them"
"Player is on a quest. You can not shoot them"
"Player was not hugged enough as a child. You can not shoot them"
ad absurdum....

 

No danger is far off, if you want that, youre in the wrong game. Although getting shot in your own maps or 5-3 might be annoying, it still wont make me rage or anything, and atleast on my server the chances of you getting shot if youre not a FE are very slim, people just spare you because of your current status, sometimes even help you. Now what i cant stand is warring your own company, its just purely demotivating, knowing that youre killing a BBK, and someone can war you instantly, shoot you off, take your BBK and go on with his day. What i would recommend is implementing a sort of no-shoot policy in your own company maps, where you wouldnt be able to shoot your company mates, but if you still wanted to duke it out you could do it on an enemy map or a battle map, but the idea needs to be polished, because otherwise everyone would end up leeching cubes and the main cuber not being able to anything about that.

 

New players quit because the game isnt fun for them. Its boring and repetitive to the extreme in PVE, so they either spend or quit. Which is the business plan for BP anyway, Nothing will change.