[UI] Something to consider.

I don't know if this the right place for suggestions?
Maybe these are only issues specific to me?
Two items I would like to address:

1. About game play: I would like to see a lock zone become visible when you mouse over an opponent, sometimes when an opponent is moving doesn't matter whether it's a NPC or PVP engagement.
I have left clicked them as many as 6 times and still no lock until they stop moving. It kills the PVP portion of this game for me, if I'm attacked there is no possibility of getting a lock on my attacker. Attempting to guess where they will be next, just doesn't work. So the game degenerates to run away, you can't fight. I believe at one time the lock zone was larger, but I'm not sure that would solve the problem.

The second item would be an increase in the amount of seprom production at the sky lab, using sep to increase ammo values, is essential to being competitive, I tend to have to wait two or three days, no on screen time, waiting for the stockpile to grow large enough to go out and do a NPC shoot about for a few hours. Yes my sky lab is maxed out.

 

If you have ideas to improve the game, or something to add on, it would have to be posted to the, "Update & Idea" Section cx
A mod should come along shortly to move it

I think the "lock zone" would be a good idea. I've had the same issues as you have too xD
Mostly occurs when the game's running under 30 FPS, then I have locking issues. Only issue is, it would look like someone's running a program, and non-Darkorbit players who see videos of the game would think so xD

I disagree with increasing the production of Seprom. I think it's alright, and I already stockpiled millions. Just take a day or two off DO. Go boxing or Pally, don't hunt or blast through thousands or hundreds of thousands of laser ammo. It'll pile up just fine.

 

Usually the lock issue is when you are experiencing some lag and the screen thinks the item is further away than they actually are. I have the same issue frequently and have to predict where the target is going and click about 1/2 to 3/4 inch in front of them to get a lock, or as you say wait for them to sit still.

Seprom is generated at just over 4500 units a day (4536 actual) and is the same for everyone. Most people use it for PvP battles instead of PvE and therefore they have plenty available to insta send for there hunting parties. I would like to see them make changes to the transport module allowing us to decrease the time it takes to transfer a load to the ship, especially since the videos for this purpose do not work most of the time, and they have no control over the content being shown/offered.

 

In regards of the Seprom production, an ore needed not only when lazers are used on npc or players, there is also Bio reset. That reset may be for several reasons and since for each reset there is a good amount of Uridium to be paid [not to mention the cost increases each time] I don't see WHY we should lose the Seprom that was part of the payment for an X skill. Although there are plenty of skills that do not require Seprom, the essential ones do and quite large amounts. A skill may cost 15,000 Seprom units....

The Skylab specs-production atm are still as they were when the Skylab was launched. Those days a Goliath could hold 15 lazers and right now with the PET the amount has been increased to 45. That's 3 times more and imho the SL should have had at least x3 production of the 2 essential ore, the Promerium and Seprom.

Given the fact that there are resets and increase of lazers, the Skylab SHOULD have been upgraded also.

The advice you have given to the OP to "stay off" a day or two or go boxing/pally again imho doesnt solve the issue nor does any good to the game on the basis that the numbers will drop even more from what they already have. What I'm saying may not apply to all servers but it certainly stands for some servers and that is a fact.

 

Thank you for your replies, since I fly with double boosters, The boxing idea, or pally idea would simply eat booster without taking advantage of them. So I won't do that. Staying off seems my option at this point, so I will only be on board, a couple times a week instead, of almost every day like I used to..

I fly with 35 fully upgraded LF-4 lasers so I do eat a considerable amount of Seprom during a 100 minute shoot about.

The targeting issue seems to happen to more than just me, I was wandering if it was just me or the dynamics of the game, I feel better about that, even though it doesn't solve the problem. A wrong guess at lead distance and the ship moves compounding the targeting issue as you are moving all over the screen as well as the target, a easy target for the attacker who already has a lock on me, the attacker maybe well under powered and still I can't make a fight out of it, in a PVP battle, half the game possibilities removed over that one issue.

Since I don't see enough interest, in these two issues to cause any sort of changes, I guess everything will basically stay the same.
So my game play remains Shoot NPC's and run during PVP's sucks but it is what I see as the alternative, I don't even waste ammo anymore shooting back when someone attacks me while I'm shooting a NPC, their advantage is to great, and with the advent of the Ice rocket getting away is only about a 50/50 chance. The mines don't activate quickly enough to be useful, so they aren't of much use and the shield CPU only last 3 seconds, not long enough to get through the lagging gate.
The fact that every red dot that comes on the mini map, has the potential to send me back for repair, is annoying to say the least.

So the only other thing I can say is getting killed should not create negative losses of any kind.
You can give all the positive points you want to the victor, the person getting killed should not be penalized for getting killed in any way.
Again thanks for all the replies.

 

As maximum storage for Seprom is 9079 you are not going to have a skill require more than can be stored the highest documented in the P P FAQ's is 5000 per skill but to get all of the 50 points reassigned it would take several days and weeks without any Seprom in-game boosts, but then most people by the time they have all 50 points have settled for what they want and are not resetting it either.

 

Skylab was lauched way after drones came out. I think drones were there since day 1

1.) Goliaths could hold a max of 31 Laser Cannons then. Now 35. With PET, it's 45. That's just 14 more guns, but, remember this. The PET does NOT use up any of your seprom to boost damage or shield power. The PET doesn't even benefit its use. Only your ship does.

And in Pilot Bio, I believe the maximum amount a skill costs, in terms of Seprom, is 6,000 units. It's not gonna jump above that. And it'll take quite a lot of time before you can get your next point, that is plenty of time for Seprom to regenerate in the Skylab and to have thousands upon thousands of units shipped to your ship.

2.) Boxing/Pally can help you get plenty of spins for Galaxy Gates, and gather Uridium (boxing). It benefits greatly if you push it.

3.) A shipment of 1500 Prom & 1500 Seprom (Goliath w/ x2 Cargo Compression) is plenty enough to last an entire week + 3 days. Assuming you don't have to fire a laser shot during boxing or pally, you'll build up quite a lot. Pally's the only issue with saving laser ammo. Most of the time, I use up only 5~10k ammo when pallying. But hey, as you said, server dependent & how many players help you out in popping pirates coming y'alls way.

 

If someone was to reset their bio, in some cases to max out a skill it would cost you 15k sep, Not 5k. Which is higher than the max stored amount.

Regarding this, I personally use prom for PvE and if needed I send sep if or when I can when called to battle. This saves on the sep that I use and helps it last longer.

 

Yes if you are applying all 5 in one place at one time but again it is not costing this all at once and you can not expect to reset the BIO and have it allow the SkyLab to store all of the Seprom you would need to reset your Pilot Points, most people are resetting them for the lower (non-Seprom) choices and by the time they get to the 1000 units they have already set their mind to what they are doing.

 

I admit the you're right about the PET not using seprom, still I consider the lab production low. A hunting session requires a lot of seprom on the lazers. Of course you may say that is not right, to you a hunt may be 30 min, to others may be hours.

As for the Pally and Boxing, that would be a great idea provided there is no active premium and double boosters. Say a hunting [pvp] ship is on double HP/Shields/Dmg/Shields Regen./Reapair and possibly ship skill cooltime, we are talking about 6 doubles which means 12 boosters. They may come cheaper with prem and rebate [and perhaps there is an offer to buy cheaper] but still we are talking about a considerable cost. Pally and Boxing wont compensate that, this is my opinion.

Seprom on the lazers can build but then again like you said stay away from shooting....

HelpMeHelpYou said that players with 50 PP will not reset. Some may have invested PPs to cruelty for Honor and/or Alien kills and some point reset to invest on pvp exclusively. No one will reset at 50 PPs is not a rule but an individual approach. As for a skill that needs 5,000, pehaps HelpMeHelpYou had in mind the the 5th stage of a skill, then yes that would require 5k BUT a reset sets THAT skill to 0, so its 1k for the 1/5, 2k for the 2/5, 3k for the 3/5, 4k for the 4/5 and 5k for the 5/5 which means 15k in TOTAL. 15k for just ONE skill....

The Skylab as is does limit the players and again it is a personal opinion that reflects each indivdual's game style and preferences. Lets keep in mind that a pvp ship will not just pvp but will also do GGs for both rewards in Honor/Exp/X4 lazers and whatever else comes. Lazers should have enough seprom for both pvp and GGs.

 

The point I was trying to make is that a BIO reset is a CHOICE and usually a person has made the change to a PvP style setup before they have a full 50 PP assigned and therefore will probably not need to assign all 5 levels of a skill. I acknowledge the "TOTAL" for a skill assignment but again the SkyLab was never designed for a person to build their entire BIO in one setting. A reset of the BIO is going to cost you dearly in the Seprom department as it did when you originally assigned the PP's, the 5000 took over a days worth of accumulated stores. Usually the people doing the Bio Resets are the beginners who set up for Boxing Bio and then decided to go Defensive, and then finally will change to Offensive between 35 and 40 PP (if they are into the PvP portion of the game). While the Bio is being re-assigned a player will usually not be playing as they feel naked without the additional benefits of the Bio thus they are not using any Seprom except for the PP assignment.

The easiest way to build your Seprom boosted lasers is to get into a habit of sending the maximum Seprom to your ship every Night so it is on your ship in the morning, assign it to where you want it when you get up and save enough for the amount of time you might play that day (a whole day is only 144, but who plays 24 hours straight?), if wanting credits then send materials in the morning, to hit before you go to bed, and the send the Seprom again at bedtime. Using a Citadel with Premium you will empty the lab production quickly this way. I use the lab to complete 2 daily quests (Earn Credits / Duranium and Prometium Deficiency) by turning off the Prometid refinery for 4 minutes I generate enough Duranium to send every 12 days, allowing me to have Terbium and Endurium to send, a credit robot collects enough Prometium to store for a year+ of this ore for that quest and shutting down the Seprom for one day, a week, allows me to send 9000 units of Promerium to the ship a day for my main source of credits for Auction. And during time like the launch of A.S. when the game was so laggy it was unplayable I built so much Sepped laser ammo I don't think I will ever run out again.

 

The promerium is a good source of credits and the SL has more than enough production but the promerium isnt the issue. Like I said, a player should have the option to stack seprom on their lazers and with that ore to play. That might be pvp/GG/NPC, the only way to do it is by staying away from the game because of the outdated Skylab.

Regarding the Bio, each individual will configure their bio to max. the ship's abilities and since there is a charge for that I dont see why players shouldnt be able to do that without having to suffer the seprom loss. The SL needs to be updated along with the Bio reset the seprom to be returned. With the current Bio functions the seprom is lost while the log disks aren't. I'm definitely not saying we should lose log disks but since the reset can be set in such way why should the sepropm be wasted.

 

Well the Log disks were used to get the PP's and had nothing to do with the Skill assignment so you will never have to redo log disks. Learning/Assigning the skills/points always cost credits and seprom (if required) has never changed that I am aware of. This being said a cost is a cost and it does not matter if you are changing one or fifty you still need to pay the price.

A change I might propose to the current system is a select mode, whereas you select the skills you want to reset instead of the entire bio, keeping in mind the prerequisite items will also delete the unavailable items (if selected). For example, I want to keep Bubble and Fats but want to remove all cargo and loot bio to change my offensive structure, I would leave the top row alone and the items needed for the fats and then reset the rest of the PP's, I still pay the Uridium for the change but now only have 10-20 (maybe less) points to apply instead of the entire bio. This would save some of the Seprom being used and make the change a little less expensive overall, however it would require a knowledge of the tree and whether a skill is linked to an upper placement or not (a warning system saying this is required for "x" would be needed for protection of those not sure) but then that is part of the learning also.

 

Basically I don't disagree with what you're saying however I stand to what I said, the SL and in particular the seprom production/amount are insufficient and affect the players. Let me put it in simple words, there isn't much we can debate here. Over a week ago I've reset the Bio because of few p/points that were on NPC related skill. Those points were invested there so the grind of the GGs and specially Gamma would be easier. Having a setup with 30-35 lf4 fully upgraded plus 10 on the PET plus its kami, I wanted to move those PPs to PvP related skills. I have not been able to play for over a week and both premium and rebate are running. I'll need min another 2 days to get it over with. Mildly speaking this is outrageous.

I dont see how the game or the player base will be affected in a negative way if the SL will get some sort of a boost, on the contrary allowing more seprom [and its just numbers that will be added-its not a real lab but pixels] will encourage players to play. The game will have better figures especially to some servers that might not have atm 100 players on.

Yes I've seen over time a lot of additions and there is no need to list them, but some essential parts remain as they were and that was ages ago.

 

The price we pay for the reset is the uri it states at the bottom of the bio. Losing sep as well seems like we are paying twice. I agree with ™ĢЯÏM~ЯΞΛPΞЯ™ that we should get the sep back as we do the log discs. Maybe even half would be nice. Then it would not take as long to rebuild. The skylab is out dated for today's game and needs looking at. Or like Grim said stay away from the game. Lets make it easier for more people to get somewhere in the game. New players that have just started see the massive hill they need to climb and quit before they give it a chance.

 

It's not that big of a deal, seriously? Just wait a day or two and bam, you can get all your important Pilot Points in. Essentially, you should really only need to do one or two resets. That reset is after you build your ship up to UFE, you can reset to prioritize to PvP mode. Second reset if you wanna add in a little bit of PvE.

 

The thing is ∞§†ØÑΣMΔ§ØÑ∞, I logged on just to see the seprom progress and although am not trying to make negative critisim, the 200 or so units per hour isn't enough. I'm not able to play for approximately a week. I still have active shared boosters but I saw in "shop" there are some interesting packs that contain both shared boosters and some nice ammo. On other hand am thinking what's the point...Same goes for my rebate that expired yesterday. I went to the Tech Center to start a production of an item there, the only one I see worth building is "Precision Targeter" for those plt 3030. Energy leech isnt bad either but the other 2 with now days an average dmg being at 120k I see the Rep. Bot and Backup shields wont matter much in fight. As for the Chain impulse, since day 1 that was released I never liked it. The Tech Center is also directly related to the Skylab, its items need to be updated to the game's current evolution. Some of the Tech's items require seprom, the Tech came long after the SL was released and its items need seprom.

I honestly fail to comprehend why some players see the SL getting a boost in both production and capasity as a negative step. It will only improve the game play for the existing players, and a great encouragement to the new ones. Very well said ∞§†ØÑΣMΔ§ØÑ∞, new players see a huge mountain up ahead and having hard times dealing with it.

 

Yes it isnt a big deal, and will not mention once more prem. subscriptions/rebate etc running but will say that the players that have invested both money and time have done so to play and not just log on the game and check IF the skylab with those horribly slow rates "produced" seprom in order to get back to the game. A couple of days will not help build the seprom, if not mistaken and after being off the game for a week or so can say that I needed around 40k seprom units. Right now, although I would like to participate more actively at the Forum, I'd rather play than type this but I'm waiting for the seprom to get to 6,000 in order to update BH II which is 1,000+2,000+3,000 in total 6,000....

Now, although I do respect everyone's opinion regardless the matter, for the Skylab getting a boost in all honesty I don't understand why some players are being negative about it. Some say that the production is enough along with the storage, some say its not important. At the end of the day each and every1 have their own opinion, but if a player already has an amount [7 figures most likely] of sepped lazer units might not want others to be able to build good amounts too. That would mean for them competition....I'm not saying that some with different opinion than mine feel that way, but what I'm saying here makes sence.

I wouldn't suggest a reset after UFE for the PvE, afterall the PvE will help building the UFE ship and would advice the Bio to include NPCs at start. Then once the player is UFE its PvP's turn and there a reset might be more wise. With 41 PPs all defensive and all offensive [pvp wise] will be covered, the rest of the PPs [till 50] can be used for NPC effectiveness and whatever suits the user.

50 PPs, that's another outdated issue, would really like to see the option to go over that number that's been haunting the game ever since the Bio came in but that might be best to create another thread.