TEST Squadron, Gather Round......and hear a story

[Black Sunder]

This is what I have been making and most of these missions take anywhere between 15 to 20 mins to complete. No where near the 200k every 30 mins I was making during the medical supply milk run of 2.6.1.

@Black Sunder Have you found any location that sells large volumes of commodities like Iodine or Hydrogen?
I tried Agricium and Laranite but they never seem to be in high enough volume to fill any cargo with.

Iodine can be found at the Yela Mining Outposts and Levski.

 

[Bambooza]

Iodine can be found at the Yela Mining Outposts and Levski.

Yes but in what quantities? Is the supply endless only limited by your aUEC and cargo space or does it run out?

 

[Shadow Reaper]

how will this ever be a true MMO if there are only 12 people playing together?

Last I heard Chris Roberts respond to this directly, the plan was to be able to put up to 50 ships and many times more players into an instance and keep it running smooth and fast. While I don't understand the changes needed to make that happen, I think there are others here who do. Perhaps they'll chime in. The down side is, we will probably never see hundreds or thousands of ships functioning inside a single instance, so forget TEST ever having an online meet and greet, but the upside is that we will have the capability of a really busy, happenin' time.

I can remember back in the 90's, Asheron's Call getting so overloaded you could not walk up to a storefront to sell your goods. What we are doing is far more complex, but it seems Roberts should be able to deliver a really cool experience with enough people in any one instance that you'll never feel cheated for more company. 50 ships is a LOT of ships.

 

[Black Sunder]

Yes but in what quantities? Is the supply endless only limited by your aUEC and cargo space or does it run out?

Large quantities. I've filled up a Connie, a Reclaimer and a Starfarer before.

 

[Stimpson]

50 ships is a LOT of ships.

Not if they get the vastness of space that they intend on delivering. 50 ships is a lot for what we have now. But what we have now is a fraction of what is promised.

 

[marcsand2]

". . .the party members should be able. . ." meaning that is the system's design or what you would like to see?

Well, in 2.6.3 the party system was very bugged. In order to get everybody in the same instance, everybody had to be in the party, when the party leader jumped, everybody had to jump a few seconds after the party leader, most of the time you managed to get everybody in. This had to be verified in main chat. If some were not in, it was hard to get them afterwards in the same instance. After a while practicing it worked flawless. The most important part was good timing, get all noses in the right direction and communicate clearly.
You could try to join friends, but region mattered, you would start to load but didn't had any guarantee that you would get in the right instance.

Since 3.0 there has been a huge improvement in the party system. Partying up works the same, but when party leader jumps into an instance, everybody gets an invite to follow the party leader. No hassle anymore, either everybody reacts on time, or you can fall back on join-friends.
Now you can join friends, even at 49 of 50 this works, your region doesn't matter anymore, either you get in or you stay at crusader menu, no false instance loading anymore.

The huge disadvantage since 3.x is server stability and loading times. In 3.0 and 3.0.1 I could rely on loading times up to 180 seconds. Shorter was good, longer meant that I probably wouldn't get in. Since 3.1.x this time has drastically increased. 180 seconds is fast, 480 seconds is normal, but I also have seen loading times beyond 660 seconds.

I think marcsand2 once reported a balance over 1M aUEC?

That was hard earned money with ICC missions. Until 2.6 I hardly ever came in PU. Most of the time I spend my time in AC. Since 2.6 I started to participate in Combat Flight Training, multiplayer training. Players can give you enough work to get everybody in line, so if the universe is your playing ground and has no surprises anymore, you can concentrate on training.
Another factor was the time-span in which I earned the aUEC, the aUEC earned per mission and the aUEC spend per mission. Almost 1 year earning money, 5k per mission, only refueling and repair, no use of missiles or ballistics, fighting against all odds with a higher risk to die, all contributed to my positive balance.

 

[Bambooza]

Large quantities. I've filled up a Connie, a Reclaimer and a Starfarer before.

Ya it seems endless this morning i did 4 full Starfarer full of Iodine from Arc Corp on Yela to Port Olisar with out it changing the price on either end or limiting what was available. Makes me almost wish I had a Caterpillar. Either way little over 2k for a 30 min run seems the best I can do currently as while the drug lab has a higher profit margin the quantity available is low.

 

[Printimus]

Last I heard Chris Roberts respond to this directly, the plan was to be able to put up to 50 ships and many times more players into an instance and keep it running smooth and fast. While I don't understand the changes needed to make that happen, I think there are others here who do. Perhaps they'll chime in. The down side is, we will probably never see hundreds or thousands of ships functioning inside a single instance, so forget TEST ever having an online meet and greet, but the upside is that we will have the capability of a really busy, happenin' time.

I can remember back in the 90's, Asheron's Call getting so overloaded you could not walk up to a storefront to sell your goods. What we are doing is far more complex, but it seems Roberts should be able to deliver a really cool experience with enough people in any one instance that you'll never feel cheated for more company. 50 ships is a LOT of ships.

it will eventually have 100's if not 1000's of players meshed together in multiple servers.