Q&A (Jan 07, Q:s)

[dean]

when am i gona get some decent loot or claims bigger than ample? and this is a serious question ive been mining ages admited i sold some skills but i havent found a single claim bigger than ample since the last few VU's and im talking mounths not days its not good enough! in fact my loot and claims seem to be geting worse and worse and worse.

[Konve]

At present it's Mindarks way to honor and encourage older colonists to keep going by making it harder to get along for the new colonists. For two or three years therefor Mindark has been making "skilling" harder and harder, saying it's for the best and as a reward for those who already have high skills. Other things that can be mentioned is slower running speed, faster mobs, less range on weapons and so on.

I mean to say it looks to me like you're only making it harder and harder for everyone, so the reward was to be playing yesterday. With this thought in mind; How are you going to reward colonists five years from now? (Is there no end to what you can remove/make worse?) What, that we have today, is to be considered a reward tomorrow? Free TP? Free revival? Land without taxes?


Some might say this is more then one question, but I don't think it is.

[Raffaele Meiers]

From where does the Tax on LA's and OA's come from?


Is it a part of the loot that mob would have or is it added to the loot the mob generates?

Explanation to this question:

The question is would a hunter has the same profit with the same loot on different LA's with different taxes? Meaning that on LA1 the tax would be 5% on LA2 it would be 10% so will the loot be deducted from the loot he would get less then the hunter on LA1. If it is added to the loot the hunters gets both the same amount in peds but the pool is drained more by the taxes on LA2?


Loot for the hunter on LA/OA is Loot in mob minus tax to OA/LA owner or is it
Loot in mob to hunter and tax for mob deducted from lootpool goes to owner?

1 ped minus 5% to owner = 95 pec to hunter or is it
1 ped to hunter and 5% = 5 pec to owner.

Differnece is loot pool is drained of 1 ped or 1,05 ped depending on formula used.


PS:
reason for the question is that some stated that the tax does not influence the return you get on LA's which would mean the tax is a extra drain to the loot pool.

[Doer]

Hooboy great timing for this. I started this thread in response to a lot of talk by both ubers and noobers about frustration due to the most recent skill nerf (VU 8.8) and especially the ongoing (repetitive) nerfing of skills. In particular, the present system prevents those who haven't got skills above 7k from getting them there without massive amounts of time and/or money compared to just a month ago. The discouragement this has caused in players of all levels trying to reach their goals has led to a lot of changes in the game play (decreased input to the system) which is obviously a bad thing for MA. Some have or will be selling out -- another bad thing.

So my question: why do you not "raise the bar" with SIB tools and weapons that require skills higher than the current "maxed" skills (~10k average) to give ubers something to aim for instead of destroying the chances of anyone new becoming uber (without an uber bank account)? I know that the sugar coating description on the VU made it sound like that is what was being done, but the reality is that the nerf has been heavy-handed and excessive. MA (you in this case Mr. Balancing manager) had the choice between a progressive change to adapt to the advancing player base or a regressive one. You have chosen the regressive one as has been done too often in the past, ever increasing the gap between first-comes and later-comes, and it has hurt your credibility. Furthermore, wouldn't it be more beneficial to both MA and the player base to decide on a suitable skill progression and then freeze it, declaring that it will not be fundamentally changed again?

[Jorael]

Will we have new professions soon, on the same level as hunting, mining, crafting?

Thx

[Fin]

One of the key balances in EU is between how much success depends on luck and how much on intelligent and thoughtful playing (e.g. calculating mining find patterns, hunting patterns etc.). This balance has a really big effect on the kind of players you get (and keep), and also affects the whole style and social 'feel' of the EU experience.

So-over the next year will the effect of luck on success be increased, decreased or stay as it is now?

[Skam]

Do you have a girlfriend?
No, just kidding, Ill make a better question...

There are certain items that has disappeared completely from game, stuck with old avatars that isnt active anymore. I think its a shame that those items will be lost in history (and in some cases, all we have is pictures to know they existed) Not only talking about equipment, but rare clothing-pieces. We all know clothing doesnt drop anymore so getting it back seems rather hopeless unless you plan to do something about it.
Do mindark in any way plan for these items to have their "return" on Calypso?
In loot or as competition-prizes in any way?

[Darkaner]

Sometimes fairly common types of loot stop dropping completely, like Fine wool a few weeks ago. Is this on purpose or by mistake? If it is on purpose, what is the reason for it? If it is a mistake, should we file support cases when it happens?

[F1r3]

Will we be preparing for LG in 3 years or in 3 weeks?

[Teilk]

Is the launch into the Chinese Empire still going to happen? If so, (since the balancing manager is watching), do you have a plan to adjust the droprate of everything in game to avoid the massive influx of players causing a hyperinflation?





Oh, and I am sure we would all like to hear about the egg.....

Ahh, the egg.....