Sirius Adjustments #5

[Highway]

1. Can be get any info when can we expect new dev shack? And also can we get any info when the first PTR with this blueprint update opens?

2. And also, is cryo going to be also a personal drop? I saw that removal of cryo sharing was mentioned before but nothing more about this. If cryo will be also personal drop, will the drop rate be increased or left at the same level as now? Similar question about blueprint drop rate, current BP drop rate is going to be absolute minimum in the next update, so effort increases drop rate?

1. Need to sort out the known bugs before we put the PTR open to public (Part 1). We hope to get it ready for public testing pretty soon

2. Yes cryonite will also be a personal drop. The drop chances of cryo and BPs overall will stay the same when you play solo, but it will increase when playing with more players together against single targets. About the sharing removal, we are still evaluating a squad behaviour to be able to help other players. More on that on the Public PTR announcement.

Blue prints loot should stay the same way because many players are connected and alone in their fleet. Then what should they do if they can't even hunt their blueprints ? ... so in few words i'm for more team work in mission but lonely players should be able to play.

For solo players there should be no change when hunting blueprints or cryonite. It should be the same as it is now on the live servers. But you can get more stuff when other players join in.

1. If all pilots in a 5 members in the squad have ALL : ONE cryonite not shared for all members, it means that we can do cryonite 5X faster lol

2. And what about the cryonite penalty in lower star systems ?
it will be removed ?

1. It does not exactly work like that. Example: Think about a cake that will be sliced into pieces. The size of the slice of a player depends on the effort he did in the combat. But when many players are involved we need to add in another cake so everyone get a good slice So it will not be 5X faster but it more that currently live.

2. The cryonite penalty will be removed since we add in a mechanic for the new drop system that looks at your highest equipment level and the level of the enemy unit to calculate an effort penalty. This will be similar to the old cryonite penalty but more fine adjusted and affect all loot drops.

I think the next post will give you the changelog of the update and public PTR test information. So stay tuned. ^^

 

[-BoH-]

Wow,this update doesn't sound as complex as it looks.

 

[Highway]

public test will start today: http://forum.pirategalaxy.com/viewtopic.php?f=522&t=40462

 

[MASTER CHIEF]

Ich habe folgende Fragen zum Update was zurzeit auf dem PTR Server getestet wird.

1. Warum werden immer nur die Spieler Daten vom Askone Server auf dem PTR Server kopiert und nicht die von den anderen Servern, früher war das mal anders und jeder konnte mit seinem weitesten Account alles testen (dies ist auch der Grund warum ich nichts teste, denn ich habe nicht die Zeit mir noch einen zweiten Account hoch zu spielen)?

2. Wird es wieder möglich sein, dass jeder Spieler, auch wenn er alleine fliegt wieder 2 blaue Baupläne; 1 blauen und 1 goldenen Bauplan und 1 Kryonit oder im sehr seltenen Fall 2 goldene Baupläne von einem einzigen Mantis zu bekommen? Ich spiele das Spiel lange genug um zu wissen, dass die kurz nach der Einführung des "neuen Drop Systems" damals möglich war, als man eingeführt hatte, dass man mehrere Baupläne braucht um 1 Bauplan zu vervollständigen. Warum man diese Änderung raus nahm, ist mir bis heute schleierhaft. Denn da war es zum Beispiel möglich, dass 1 Scharfschütze auf Erde 1x blauen Perforator Bauplan, 1x Reparaturdroide Bauplan und / oder 1 goldener Bauplan bzw. 1 Kryonit Kristall fallen konnte, quasi ein 3 facher Drop.

Hier die englische Übersetzung meiner 2 Fragen:

I have the following questions about the update which is currently being tested on the PTR server.

1. Why are only the player data copied from the Askone server to the PTR server and not the one from the other servers, it used to be different and everyone was able to test everything with his widest account (this is the reason why I'm not testing, because I don't have the time to play a second account)?

2. It will be possible again that every player, even if he flies alone again 2 blue blueprints; 1 Blue and 1 Golden Blueprint and 1 Kryonit or in very rare case 2 golden blueprints to get from a single mantis? I play the game long enough to know that, shortly after the introduction of the "New drop system" was possible at that time, when one had introduced that one needs several blueprints to complete one blueprint. Why you took this change out is still a mystery to me today. Because it was possible, for example, that 1 sniper on earth 1x Blue Perforator Blueprint, 1x Droid Blueprint and/or 1 Golden Blueprint or 1 Kryonit crystal could fall, quasi a 3 fold drop.

 

[Fra_592]

1. Why are only the player data copied from the Askone server to the PTR server and not the one from the other servers, it used to be different and everyone was able to test everything with his widest account (this is the reason why I'm not testing, because I don't have the time to play a second account)?*

2. It will be possible again that every player, even if he flies alone again 2 blue blueprints; 1 Blue and 1 Golden Blueprint and 1 Kryonit or in very rare case 2 golden blueprints to get from a single mantis? I play the game long enough to know that, shortly after the introduction of the "New drop system" was possible at that time, when one had introduced that one needs several blueprints to complete one blueprint. Why you took this change out is still a mystery to me today. Because it was possible, for example, that 1 sniper on earth 1x Blue Perforator Blueprint, 1x Droid Blueprint and/or 1 Golden Blueprint or 1 Kryonit crystal could fall, quasi a 3 fold drop.

1) When you enter the PTR for the first time, it automatically gives you lvl 85 + all blueprints + 500 million cryonite + gold + energy. On the previous ptr you could also ask a CoMa to give you that, to ensure you can test everything even if your Askone pilot is lvl 1. Plus you can ask them to provide maxed-lvl drones, cortexes, or to teleport your jumpship.

2) So far i've only seen this "multi drop" in squad on the PTR. But the way i understood the new system, it could happen again while grinding in solo.

 

[flyfighter]

Remaining bugss/strange things after all updates:

What realy grinds my gears? - Percentage healing amounts
Let me try to explain this. As i see it now healing and shield ability's heal and tank a specific % of your hp. For example a Sirius ancient long rep droid heals as i calculated it 4-5% each tick. This means a Sirius ancient long rep droid heals 4-5% across all ships and does not take armor lvl or hp amounts in consideration. This meaning a Vega ships heals the same amount with Sirius long rep droid as a Sirius ship.

Same goes between Sirius ships,

First example: A black granite with ancient armor has (source: hitchhickers): 22235 hp. Each tick of sirius ancient long rep droid a black granite gets lets say 4% hp. This means a black granite gets 0.04 * 22235 = 889.4hp each tick. Remember this number!

Second example: A constructor with ancient armor has 11771.5 hp. Each tick of Sirius ancient long rep droid heals here also 4%!! This means a constructor gets 0.04 * 11771.5 = 470.9hp each tick!!!

That in my eyes does not make any sense at all. Repair droid should heal the same amount of hp and not the same % of hp!!

As i look at it now i believe the same works for protector and other shields!!! Lets state a protector provides a shield of 50% of the hp. This means a black granite gets 11117.5 HP shield and a constructor gets a 5885,75HP shield.

Same goes for other healing methods ( rep target, rep field and rep turret). Those items also heal a percentage of the ship and this leads to the situation that ships with higher hp get more healing from the same item then a ship with low hp!!!

And this leads to my second fear looking to the future

Healing items/shielding items in Tau Ceti
If you understood the previous text then lets go on and explain my second fear. When new items arrive in Tau Ceti the % healing is still there. As explained a sirius long rep droid heals the same amount on a vega ship then it does on a sirius ship.

This also means a Venar/Tau ceti rep droit will still heal the same % and if used on a ship with lower armor it will not grant you extra surviveability. Lets say we find items before we have the lvl to upgrade our armor. You might aswell stick with your old rep droid and shield then. Making Tau Ceti way more harder.

Damage dealing items don't take the armor you have mounted on you ship in account i believe (atleast in pve?). So Tau ceti blasters and all other damage dealing items will have a impact in the tau ceti gameplay, but new rep droids and shield will not have that! This makes tanking and healing ships have waaaaaaayyy less effect when we enter Tau Ceti and do not install the newest version of armor.

In conclusion
The preventing of vega ships being oneshotted by higher lvl ships has changed to much of my liking. It has lead to the following i just mentioned and making Sirius Armor on parsecs basically useless and a waste of 600k. I Still think this pvp update has not finished and since i started to play again i got frequently increasing annoyance boiling inside of me cos of the changes done to healing and shielding amount.

Same goes for the current aggro system, healing ppl with all your healing powers instantly makes you target of everything. This drasticly changed the gameplay of a engineer, and that combined with the % healing/shielding made playing engineer way less fun than it used to be.

And btw what i still do not get You wanted to prevent vega players being oneshotted by higher lvl ships but you added the functionality of red gravitons. If i use a red grav and a strong orbital strike a vega ship is still dead in 1 shot. So this does not add up with the things u had in mind.

Sirius strong rockets/ sniperblaster got lower damage now and if you ask me lost the umpf factor in both pve and pvp. I used to see less oneshots before the pvp update then after the pvp update. Red gravitons do not encourage players to fight in a normal way. It added pay to win where ppl with red gravitons are set in a uge advantage. I would say keep gravitions for pve and drop the functionality of all gravs in pvp. I dont like to see pay to win gameplay.

Things i still would like to see:
- No cryloss on CQ planete and Colossus to have some fun without having to worry about cry. A few places where fun is allowed without having to pay for it. In my opinion this would bring back more players. The pvp players live for this, they grind all day to have that one cool ship they want and they wanna bring it into battle. The collossus cry reward do not add up to the loss. Maybe you should reconsider some of ur money making items. Games like league of legends are totally free and dont have any limitations for non paying members, and they still make tonss of money cos of purchaseable skinns or xp or ingame money boosters.
- Additional gamemodes in CQ and on Arkon and other ways of making some cryonites, instead of making points for cortex you could gather cry the longer ur Beacon survives. Defend the cry collector-> the longer it lives the more cry it will gather and the bigger the payout is.
- Usage of bounty in pvp - bounty rewards. Could be realy simple. If you go red you pay 1k cryonite and get 1k bounty on your head. If you pod some1 you can collect their bounty. If you manage to keep all the collected bounty til the end of the week you get a payout in cry of the amount of bounty you have collected. Making bounty hunting a profession. Maybe some1 collected 100k bounty and the skill of keeping it till the end of the week. THen he will get 100k cry at the end of the week.
- And last but not least new gameplay ofc but that speaks for itself

 

[Mastian]

- Usage of bounty in pvp - bounty rewards. Could be realy simple. If you go red you pay 1k cryonite and get 1k bounty on your head. If you pod some1 you can collect their bounty. If you manage to keep all the collected bounty til the end of the week you get a payout in cry of the amount of bounty you have collected. Making bounty hunting a profession. Maybe some1 collected 100k bounty and the skill of keeping it till the end of the week. THen he will get 100k cry at the end of the week.

I don't think this will be an advantage, 100k cryo for a lot PvP is almost nothing.
And even if you increase the amount of cry, it will lead people to act in cowardly ways.

 

[Mastian]

The following part is a suggestion for changes of the bounty hunting system. It's in german cause my english skills aren't good enough for a decent translation.

Ich schlage das Kopfgeldsystem folgendermaßen zu ändern:

1. Man erhält kein Kopfgeld mehr für das Aktivieren des Piratenmodus
2. Wer einen anderen Spieler abschießt, erhält ein Kopfgeld in Höhe des Levels des Abgeschossenen x100
3. Sobald man jemanden mit Kopfgeld abschießt verliert er dieses und man erhält es sofort 1:1 in Kryonit ausgezahlt aber dann greift 2. und man erhält selbst ein Kopfgeld

So ensteht ein endloser Kreislauf durch den PvP aktiv belohnt wird.

Um ein effektives Ausnutzen zu verhindern, kann man nur alle 15 Minuten für das Abschießen des selben Spielers ein Kopfgeld erhalten. Man kann dann zwar mit genug Spielern immer noch relativ guten Gewinn erzielen aber das ist Absicht sonst würde das System seinen Sinn verfehlen.

 

[Fra_592]

What realy grinds my gears? - Percentage healing amounts
[...]

You scared me with those assumptions, so i quickly checked, and no, healing items do not work by %. They may be capped to a certain %/sec if the target ship has a lower level than the item, but when they match they do not depend on ships' HPs. Neither do shields/protectors/repfield/repturrets.
Example with Sirius long RD on PTR today on R82 Legionnary/R82 Hunter/R82 Dominator:
https://youtu.be/tjZvl8my4hg

About the items/ships level dependance: it seems that either it has been deactivated in PvE or there is a minimal lvl difference before items got "nerfed adaptedly" because when playing on sirius with a Metha Ship (lvl 76) and ancient items (lvl 82) you deal as much damages as ancient prototypes (lvl 82) with the same items.
I think you confused yourself when using HHG's values. Most of them are outdated sadly, and their old HP-measuring protocol is no longer effective.

Things i still would like to see:
[...]

I'd love to see cryo vault + no e consumption too at least on colossus, but that dev shack is about sirius adjustments ^^

 

[flyfighter]

What realy grinds my gears? - Percentage healing amounts
[...]

You scared me with those assumptions, so i quickly checked, and no, healing items do not work by %. They may be capped to a certain %/sec if the target ship has a lower level than the item, but when they match they do not depend on ships' HPs. Neither do shields/protectors/repfield/repturrets.
Example with Sirius long RD on PTR today on R82 Legionnary/R82 Hunter/R82 Dominator:
https://youtu.be/tjZvl8my4hg

Okey that was false alarm then, good test video. Still find it quite annoying sirius armored parsec get same healing as ancient armored parsec. And i still believe this is out of place.

Would you mind checking the protector strength on a ship with sirius armor and a ship with ancient armor aswell? I notice differences in strength there. Protector effectiveness is armor dependend same as healing items. Damage items are not armor dependend? atleast they dunnot affect pve gameplay.

Yeah a sirius protector on a vega ship works like a vega protector

And if new tau ceti items come, the healing items will be capped at a sertain % as you said, therefor not giving the added healing if we dont have the right armor. I sense only problems with rep droids and protectors.
It would be the same if you put sirius items on a SIRIUS armored parsec. Healing items and shielding items work less effective.

 

[flyfighter]

Putting a Sirius rep target on a Draco ship -> the repair target functions as a Draco rep target at healing amounts. Heals are less effective on lower lvl ships and i understand why it has to be. Else ppl would fly vega ships in pvp and get 100% healing each second. But this drasticly changed the way higher lvl players can help lower lvl players in pve. Healing them for 100% is not allowed anymore. Protecting them will give them a protector with the health that is likewise with the one of that current system.

And when tau ceti items come this will have effect on our own ships and how the protectors and healing items work on them.

And as i already said all these changes were made so that vega players would not get oneshotted by sirius ships. But they still get oneshotted cos red gravitons work in pvp now --> remove gravitons in pvp pls!

 

[flyfighter]

Ps BUGALERT a vega protector on a sirius ship works like a sirius protector. Same way around a sirius protector on a vega ships works like a vega protector. (if a player in a vega ship puts a protector on another player in a sirius ship)

A protector no matter what system looks towards the armor lvl of ur ship and calculates how much hp the protector gets based on the armor of ur ship.

 

[flyfighter]

Another bugg: (Spammalert!)

If you have fly a gemini ship with a vega speed act your cooldown becomes intense! That itself aint even that big of a problem but main reason this is annoying is that you can put that speed act on every1 you want. Making every1 you give that speed act to have a immense cooldown.

What does this mean? If i have sirius armored marble and i put a sirius long speed act on it. Would it create negative bonus? So i check that

I had a buddy with a draco armored parsec and sirius items installed, when i put my sirius long speed on him it acted like a strong speed act and had the cooldown of a long speed act. Strange...

Can't get my head around this but 1 thing is sure, things aint right as they are now.

Im lost

 

[Highway]

Hey Pirates,

the Sirius Adjustments Part 1 “Drop System” update was launched on the live servers and we can now start to talk about Part 2—the “Sirius Gameplay” update.

Sirius Gameplay
On part 2 we are ready to focus on specific Sirius gameplay elements to make Sirius a smoother experience for veterans and new pilots alike. With your feedback and ideas we have compiled a solid set of features/changes which we will start implementing right away.

Planned Changes:

• Remove time limiting factors from Sirius (boss respawn cooldown, jump drive cooldown,..)
• Each planet will have its own unique set of blueprints, duplicates on other planets are to be avoided to ensure that a large set of blueprints is constantly available.
• Redistribute some of the ancient ship blueprints and other ancient blueprints that the giza can drop to other units to make it easier to get important blueprints.
• Enhance Ring 5 boss (Giza) gameplay for the players to unlock and fight different bosses for more variation and tactics.
• Reduce time required to unlock a Ring 5 boss through intels.
  Enable recharging the jump ship’s jump drive with clan cryonite in order to move faster in Sirius and to be able to skip the planet missions.
• Improve the planet orbiting speed in Sirius to allow better jump windows.
• Adjust jump ship purchase price to a proper value aligned with a clan size of 5-10 people.
• Remove that mines drop items (intel, cryonite etc.) since weaponry, as opposed to ships, should never dropy loot.
• Remove the instances from Ring 5 to make finding players to cooperate with easier.

Hope you like what you have just read. Please ask right away when something is unclear or you have feedback to share about this topic.

Keep your engines running ^^




German translation : http://forum.pirategalaxy.com/viewtopic.php?f=243&t=40540
Spanish translation : http://forum.pirategalaxy.com/viewtopic.php?f=430&p=189737#p189737
French translation: http://forum.pirategalaxy.com/viewtopic.php?p=189732#p189732
Portuguese translation : http://forum.pirategalaxy.com/viewtopic.php?f=497&t=40546#p189757

 

[Makk_3]

If anything, make Giza & other R5 Bosses impossible to solo with any ship. Edit the mechanics/increase damage output or whatever, just make it that not a single player can down them alone. Sirius is a clan system, group effort is needed. I'm actually getting sick of seeing people currently soloing bosses like there's no tomorrow.

This game needs some proper raid-boss content and Giza & bosses are not really offering it. Take a look at MMORPG raid bosses for example. That same stuff can be implemented to PG and with good succession, if it's done well.

This could be a serious thing to consider for the full release of Tau Ceti aswell to keep players interested on a longer-term basis.

Other than that, looks good Highway.

 

[darkrock]

Thank you for working to make this game better and fairer for everybody. But i have to ask. Have you taken into consideration that most players that are using draconis ships in Sirius system have to run away from the ancients when they sustain heavy damage and let them focus fire on someone else, repair (or orbit and repair in the jumpship hangar) and then land on their squad leaders to continue fighting.

Now my question is will the total damage we did to an ancient or the assist we have given our squad members dissipate after we disengage, disengage and return to orbit for repairs in the jumpship, and then land on our squad leaders to keep shooting at that same unit that our squad member are still engaging?

Thank you for all the information you have given us. Waiting for the second part of the update to post further comments.

 

[GOTIL0N]

In general I think that the update, and what is proposed to do is very complete

 

[-Decimator-]

Update sounds nice. Looks like getting BP will be alot easier with JS recharge time removed + skipping missions. Will be an interesting change

But was wondering as instances on r5 is getting removed, will the respawn rate of WU, MU, SU and bosses (Anubis, Osiris, Keops) be decreased? As everyone will be in same instance so will be good if it doesn't take ages to respawn then.

Another anoying thing in Sirius is the despawning of units at the planets. When nobody isn't at a certain spot for few minutes all the NPC dissapear, so you have to reset the planet again . Is it possible that this gets fixed/changed?

Now intels gets removed for Mines, how will we able to get intels now? Just killing Ancients or other ways?

Last question is about the CMs (clanmissions), as how I'm reading you can do CM, then jump to next planet and do CM again over and over, is that correct? But in that case you can get alot of Cryonite , is that intended?

 

[C_D]

If anything, make Giza & other R5 Bosses impossible to solo with any ship.

Wow, you're deluded to think the players will just accept this. It's almost impossible to find more than 10 people online at any given moment, much less in Sirius. This game just doesn't have the playerbase to maintain a "all-teamwork" system anymore. Clans are getting smaller, more people are quitting and you just want to hammer the final nail in the coffin. The devs are trying to make the game more convenient, not impossible...

 

[Falke]

Remove the instances from Ring 5 to make finding players to cooperate with easier.

6-7 Years ago, we had that from the start of Sirius. What happened? Big a** crying, because some ppl collecting intels and other players are just waiting, to blow up the Giza and steal the BP. To avoid this, the Devs decided to make alliance instances. Honestly the BEST improvement! Now you want to remove this? Why?

Just my 2 cents: If ANY player wants to cooperate with any other clan, he/she has the opportunity to ask (not begging) and can jump into an other squad to land on their instance. Easy enough, isn't it?

Dear Highway,

please think about this point. In my opinion, this point is no improvement.

Cheers

Falke (Korell)