#11 Golden Skull Level

[Dreadnouhgt]

Player Skull ladder will be removed and only the achievement hall of fame will remain. As for clans the skull ladder will be converted into a CQ wins ladder.

Just to get it right, we still need to reach enough points per week to gain a skull? Did you make sure its doable with a 9-5 Job and the weekends are taken by family? ^^ It would be nice if you could elaborate (maybe with made up numbers) what it would look like. I'm kinda worried you change it for the better, but someone like me who can maybe play a max of 3h a day if nothing happens can somehow do it.

 

[NinjaFlow]

Regarding the new "Sirius-TC" techs, how will they be collected?

I believe that, like me, there are other players who miss more numbers in the game, such as the actual lifespan of the ships, the damage each component does, the healing we receive, etc.

In addition to the post and visibility, would it be possible to exchange the current energy spheres for a simple energy zone where just by being in that location your energy will be gradually reestablished?Would it also be possible to transform the Drone Plus into a permanent cryo booster?

Include more mini-events in the game, like global weekend boosters.

 

[iuli24]

• 9th skill use will have a general weakness to balance its power better. (longer cooldown, shorter active time, global cooldown increase, etc.)

Quick question about this part. Will this weakness be known ahead of time? Like for example will we know if the 9th tech X will have 20% less active time ahead of time or is this part of the experimentation players have to figure out?

I don't know how "expensive" will be to replace a more or less "botched" 9th tech install after figuring out it's not that great and having to replace it with something else.

 

[hektor.barbossa]

How it be WS looks like on Sirius? Any additional benefit for make clan missions or WS in ring 5 ? Or any random new enemy's in rings 1 to 3 to make them worth jump there again? Last update is great,but also decrease chance to lost Jump ship so now even less any clan will be on low rings. All focus on r4 and 5 so is still huge not use space for many clan contents there.

 

[GOTIL0N]

Regarding the TC variants, will these be the same as Sirius on down? Normal/Rapid/Long/Strong? And where will these variants be found? Erebos, a new ring on Sirius, completely new mechanics?

 

[DiangelionN]

Currently collected skulls will remain and not turned into the leagacy skulls.

What are legacy skulls?

 

[G4LAXY EXTREM3]

Highway


A big doubt among my friends is: will the skulls that players already have become just “symbolic”?
Note: They would still appear in the account but wouldn’t be usable for crafting the new items.
So, will players need to go after new skulls because the ones they already have won’t count for this update?

 

[H.Mago.De.Oz.H]

Question or request: It would be nice if you could enhance or promote PvP outside of CQ, like the wars used to be in the past. On Gaia nowadays, a lot of this has to do with the change in the CQ system. People no longer fight massive battles like before, and many players on the server only played for those big wars, myself included. I think the changes are fine, but it would be great to go back to those times of holding ground on planets with so many pilots fighting.

 

[Alinoe]

I will say one thing. I like the update however PvP players have used Terasa/Venar LZ as designated PvP zones for a literal decade, with new PM changes this is no longer possible. Please designate a planet, can just be literally a large flat area with moutains around as a border for a PvP zone. Make it close to the star gate, like Terasa - and if possible make it no energy consumption.

There was one on Kalabesh during the the test for the item balance update on the PTS...
There was no energy consumption and the hangar was on the orbit of the planet, it would be nice to have this arena again but maybe in another location like directly on system jump gates for easy access.

 

[H.Mago.De.Oz.H]

Question or request: It would be nice if you could enhance or promote PvP outside of CQ, like the wars used to be in the past. On Gaia nowadays, a lot of this has to do with the change in the CQ system. People no longer fight massive battles like before, and many players on the server only played for those big wars, myself included. I think the changes are fine, but it would be great to go back to those times of holding ground on planets with so many pilots fighting.

By this I mean it would be nice to have a war declaration system like other MMOs have, where you can kill players from those Clans even if they’re not in PvP mode. A similar system would be great haha.

 

[G4LAXY EXTREM3]

Currently collected skulls will remain and not turned into the leagacy skulls.

Can you explain more about this issue?





https://www.youtube.com/@G4LAXYEXTREM3

 

[Vesperion]

Maybe this is just me but the new system may not really change much as it will still benefit those who have the time and patience to go for the WS and Gold Skull day after day and week after week.

Take it from me with a massive grain of salt as i never really attempted the 1st place of the ladder again but imo it would maybe have been better to let the WS be something like XP that are needed to increase the Skull lvl OR that per week Players can earn 1 Silver Skull after having accumulated a certain amount of WS while the 1st placed player gets an Gold skull as bonus for claiming the 1st place in the 1st division.

When a player has collected 4 Silver Skulls they will be converted into 1 Gold Skull so that even players with less time to compete in the ladder area can earn the Gold Skull but over a longer course of time if they never reach the 1st place in the 1st division at all and so also have a chance to benefit from this new system.

Otherwise as others have stated the 9th slot could be sort of an issue in terms of balance and PvP and CQ cus it could then lead to situation where the clan with more 9th item players has the upper hand/advantage.

 

[ben1982]

So to hunt skull bps you have to be in pirate mode , are you guys planning to implement some kind of way to prevent players from gatekeeping skull items intentionally? for example a bigger "alliance" of players could all agree to target a smaller "alliance" of players to essentially deny them the opportunity to collect skull blueprints

I like the idea of skull item carriers being raid bosses that require a squad and all requiring different strategies but im unsure if pirate mode is going to be fair

 

[sergi211]

So for the players that don't want to engage on pvp you are basicaly locking content behind a wall and that 9th item slot will give non skull earners a big dissadvantage
Also this will bring back abussers flying bigger tech ships on lower sistems, so you should consider blocking the "pirate mode" only to sistem tech

 

[gonzaabel]

Also this will bring back abussers flying bigger tech ships on lower sistems, so you should consider blocking the "pirate mode" only to sistem tech

its considered already

 

[Vesperion]

So for the players that don't want to engage on pvp you are basicaly locking content behind a wall and that 9th item slot will give non skull earners a big dissadvantage
Also this will bring back abussers flying bigger tech ships on lower sistems, so you should consider blocking the "pirate mode" only to sistem tech

I more see a possible issue with the "Skull Item Carrier" unit as you can only engage it when you have PM active. I mean yes the devs want to give the PM and PvP a bit more attention but i was never a fan when games did have at some point a "forced PvP" section or game-mode for specific stuff or drops.

And players or clans who may have only a few players may here eventually run into an issue if bigger groups may use this new unit as bait and wait close by just to attack those who want this unit for its specific drops.

For now all we can do is wait and see how the update plays and that during the CB there will be enough valuable feedback from the testers so that adjustment and changes will be made.

 

[Alewx]

Highway


A big doubt among my friends is: will the skulls that players already have become just “symbolic”?
Note: They would still appear in the account but wouldn’t be usable for crafting the new items.
So, will players need to go after new skulls because the ones they already have won’t count for this update?

The Skulls will not be removed, everyone will keep the count they have.

 

[Vesperion]

Question or request: It would be nice if you could enhance or promote PvP outside of CQ, like the wars used to be in the past. On Gaia nowadays, a lot of this has to do with the change in the CQ system. People no longer fight massive battles like before, and many players on the server only played for those big wars, myself included. I think the changes are fine, but it would be great to go back to those times of holding ground on planets with so many pilots fighting.

Had to dig a bit in the forum again but i did remember that Highway did said that players who have skulls already will have a headstart as well with them

#9 Tau Ceti Part 3 & Conquest Rework

Highway said:Can you elaborate what exactly you miss from the old ladder system? I'm not happy with these changes and I feel like I'm being disrespected because all of these years trying to reach number 1 on the warscore Ladder and I feel like that is not important at all. this is unfair and it...

forum.pirategalaxy.com

The Golden Skulls are planned to get a similar use like a currency in the game to unlock/acquire exclusives. But for the hall of fame the achievements are more important to reflect what a player has achieved in game as they are persistant and not volatile as the skulls will be later on. So we would rather make achievements to milestone that progress on the golden skulls.

@cataioni you will have a headstart on that will the golden skulls you already have collected

 

[sergi211]

its considered already

UPS I didn't read that

 

[KingSub]

Arrr Space Pirates,

We finally have something ready to outline to you about our plans for the next bigger updates. As we had already teased earlier, Golden Skulls will play an important role in obtaining amazing new tech. Initially we had planned Skulls to be interconnected with the previously mentioned “player invasions” system, but we changed the roadmap in favor of another gameplay element that we think suits the regular flow of the game much better. It also enables us to make smaller consecutive updates instead of having to do “one big thing”, achieving shorter release cycles as a result. In addition, it will provide us with a good foundation for future extensions! Ok, time to show the design outline we have planned so far:

View attachment 54844

Player & Clan Ladder

Goals:

• Make obtaining Warscore less exploitable and offer a variety of tasks
• Make obtaining Golden Skulls easier for pilots that have no or low Skull level

Changes:

• Golden Skulls = Skull level
• After winning an additional Skull level, pilots will be moved back to the entry division
• Warscore rewards get lowered when the same actions are repeated over and over again (killing the same unit, playing the same Reactor Challenge, etc.) within the evaluation period (1 week)
• More activities for gaining Warscore are added (replaying missions, collecting BPs, PVP, OTB …)
• The less Golden Skulls a pilot has, the more Warscore they gain (global Warscore boost) up to a max soft level of around 25 Golden Skulls
• Clan Golden Skulls can be given out to members (~10 per month)
• Warscore can only be gathered with Pirate Mode on or in competitive game modes (like Conquest, Reactor Challenge)
• Adjust divisions in terms of amount, Golden Skull spots, relegation/promotion slots to better fit a server’s player base

Pirate Mode Change

Goals:

• Make Pirate Mode more flexible to use, less unfair and better integrated into gameplay

Changes:

• Remove bounty system and allow Pirate Mode to be enabled/disabled freely when not on a planet (no more automatic disabling when getting killed)
• Do not allow landing on planets with wrong tech with Pirate Mode turned on (lower tech allowed on high level planets)
• Pirate Mode state cannot be changed as long as a mission is active
• Enabled Pirate Mode can only be seen once the ship gets attackable on a planet (not shown in orbit or while landing protection is active)
• Pirate Mode mission achievements will not contain cross system quests anymore to allow them to be finished

Special Skull level Items/Tech (Skull Blueprints)

Goals:

• Add elements to the game pilots will enjoy experimenting with
• Try to maintain the balance of the existing economy/gameplay

Changes:

• Items can only be gathered after finishing the last story mission
• Items require a certain Skull level to be able to build them
• Special Skull BPs are single-use (they get destroyed with the item’s construction, but require only a few parts on the other hand)

Tau Ceti Variant Items

• Add Tau Ceti items that follow the scheme of the Sirius variants (new visuals for the weapon meshes)
• Items require Tau Ceti Rares as dependency (including the dependency inherited from the Tau Ceti Rare themselves)

Ship Slot Upgrade Kit (9th Item Slot)

• Multiple ship slot item upgrade kits can be found (one per skill item, except blaster, collector, repair droid)
• They will add a 9th item slot to the ship they are installed into
• A skill upgrade kit can only be installed into a ship that does not have the corresponding skill of the kit already
• 9th skill use will have a general weakness to balance its power better. (longer cooldown, shorter active time, global cooldown increase, etc.)
• 9th slot installation has a fixed Cryonite price and Skull level requirement (replaceable with other 9th slot upgrade though)
• Slot can be equipped with one of the regular already available blueprints of the item

Ship Engines Trails

• Introduce different ship engine trails to be found that can be installed into a ship

Skull Item Carrier

Goals:

• Offer additional gameplay to obtain new tech/items
• Gameplay that is fun and follows the formula PG pilots enjoy from past content
• Spread pilots across all star systems

Changes:

• Special enemy ships spread across all story planets (balanced to the max tech of the system they are in)
• They are only visible after defeating the final Mantis queen story mission and having Pirate Mode activated
• They will fly around and their positions are unknown, but they leave traces in the game world that make them easier to locate
• There are multiple enemies that require different strategies to find and defeat them (bosses with support squads, stationary bases etc.)
• Once defeated, they will drop special Skull BPs and spawn again at a random planet/location

The first update will bring the Ladder and Pirate Mode changes. Let us know what you think and feel free to ask if something is unclear etc. Looking forward to getting these plans realized and released to you.

Happy hunting

I really like this update. The adjustments to the Golden Skull system will feel much fairer and more dynamic – there will now more ways to earn Warscore, and players with fewer Skulls get meaningful boosts to catch up. The Pirate Mode changes also make sense.

My questions:
1. do we get a special planet in Draconis or Oort? Because there was not mentioned where we can get the new ancient stuff.

2. Since we are now allies with the ancients, how can we collect the tau ceti ancient stuff without harming them?

3. If there is a small chance that this all will start in sirius and we may have the 6th ring, is it possible to get new ancient ships stayed as "prototype" with an item in the 9 slot that only the ancients ships have?

4. "Global warscore boost" is a fine idea. But adding an extra purchaseable warscore booster would be to op. What about a warscore drone then to motivate the Players even more?

5. Is the storyline about the ancients fake, because we harm them again to regain their technology AGAIN? I think its important that this will fill up and fit with the open ending from the erebos storyline to close it because they "left" the knowing starsystem.

Overall, a strong update that motivates both veterans and newer players to dive back
in.