This is a good idea. I endorse it. It puts requirements on the harder monsters. A level 20 can't go bash Astral, a level 20 shouldn't be able to shoot up dragons.

Perhaps also we can throw in that it requires a certain proficiency in combateer to shoot certain monsters, otherwise you miss like mad, even at point blank range.



The problem with this is, people will just not scoop dust (that which drops from dead beasts) until they have their ship's capacity lying around, then scoop it at once, and then go sell.


Edit: Another idea might be to make siphoning similar to linking on Astral. Make siphoned beasts harder (move faster, hit harder, have more health) then their non-siphoned counterparts.

On the test server, I had trans aethercraft and we all got 0 crits until we had 100% proficiency.

how about if using the turret used willpower or something

that way higher level people could go for longer than low level people

Doesnt' dust evaporate pretty quickly unless scooped? Also, it doesn't show on shipview, afaik.

even with 100% i hardly got any crits at all and only basic crits when they hit, but after i doubled my skill level to mythical and even with my proficiency down to 70% i get crits pretty regularly including world shattering ones

May be a mix of the two, then. Hm. Or they changed the formula.

They SAY dust evaporates quickly, but it really doesn't.

The XP probably could be scaled down a bit. After seeing the amount of essence I was getting for so little effort, any other bashing seemed kinda pointless. Was getting about 6k per beast around god realms, and 1 beast doesn't take long at all with 3 turrets, even with low proficiency and skill people.

I've tried all the modules too, and the chair was fun and required my full attention the whole time to keep beasts in range and close enough that turrets weren't always missing but not too close to get hit. The turret wasn't all that interesting, just target and fire, fire fire, pretty much the same thing as when I'm following somebody around for bashing.

On the grid though, I just sat around and twiddled my thumbs, and repaired hull and modules a few time on the rare occasion we got hit. Even went out without an empath, killed a big swarm of things, and then just had one of the turrets hop over to grid, fix us up, and run back to shooting.

Maybe the stuff we were hunting was too easy, never tried dragons or astral beasties, but I think empath could use a more active role for aetherbashing. Think something like Xavius' idea could be pretty cool.

Flying around now, and just saw some dust from things we killed yesterday.

You quoted the wrong person.

I don't know what you're talking about.

As wonderfull as it would be to see aehtermonsters get new abilities and cool new skills, I just don't see that happening.

What would happen is they would reduce the XP by 75% until the new abilities were coded, and then people would be sitting around complaining about how sucky aetherspace is, and then when the new abilities are in people will talk about 10 triggers instead of 4 triggers, and it will become too easy for the experienced players again.

Aetherspace is mostly about the ship and the pilot, not the players on the ship who is sharing in the xp gain. Making mobs faster and hit harder, isn't going to affect anything when people are saying that the mobs don't reach the ship at all.


@tervic: If you can cycle through ships, and have that kind of access to resources, well then congratulations!

As is, experience is too good for lower levels.

I've been doing it a lot recently and these small changes should make it fair for everyone.
-Proficiency should scale more (either hit/crit rates or damage)
-Aethercraft skill should scale more (same, either or)

The second is the bigger concern for me, so those with minimal investments would no longer make great experience with only a couple lessons.

I think the crit rates seem fine, I've had many crits of all types and think it's good how it is. The miss rates seem good (some may argue but a moving object hitting a moving object should miss a lot). I've had the bigger crits with 50-60% proficiency, too, as it stands now so the above changes would make them more fair.

I can still make more experience with a group on astral than I can in a decked out ship (3 fully artied turrets, with constant stream of beasts). If experience gains are changed in any way, then the gold/essence gains need to be increased. The essence is actually pretty pathetic right now for aetherhunting.

For comparison, I have around 60% combateer (vestiges from when I specialized into Commander, then a little training), and I was the only person on a ship getting basically any crits at all (and I was getting some higher-level crits as well). The other turreters were all less than 25% proficient, I think.

I think aetherhunting is nice experience, and at most it should be changed by adjusting SLIGHTLY downwards. Keep in mind that a full crew is 6 people, and that aetherhunting is also contributing to people's socializing. You can't do it by yourself, and once you're out there, you're out there for a good long while usually (whereas bashing, say, astral is more something you can do in bits and pieces of maybe 20 minutes; I think this kind of inflexibility should add a premium to the exp in aetherspace).

As siphoner, I was earning around .07% per prime space beast. It isn't bad for doing practically nothing, but I could've bashed a lot faster, especially since our turreters weren't that proficient. I don't know what exp gain for pilot and empath are like.

If by socializing you mean people who set triggers and walk away, then sure.

I let us get hit occasionally to see whether the empath is paying attention.

EDIT: And she is!

Should aetherbashing XP be lessened...

Yes. Although, I do think that getting 5x the experience I could get on my own by finding five ascendants/demigods to go aetherbashing is definitely worth it, and as has been mentioned before, it is definitely more restricted- I probably spent about an hour and a half bashing, and another hour and a half trying to convince enough people to come to make it worth it.

I'd like to see somewhere between 75-90% XP, compared to what we're getting now. Is it good? Yes. Is it easy? No. You -need- three gunners to get the rates of XP that are over the average (or two trans gunners with energy transferred from the shield to a gunner) from what I've found, and tracking down four other people who would be willing to leave society for an hour and a half to go shoot things with a turret isn't the easiest way to get 15% XP at circle 78- I could have gone influencing for three times the time, wouldn't have had to deal with anybody else messing with the money/esteem I made, would have been able to respond to revolts/raids/etc, and would never have been in physical danger.

So, to conclude... Should the aetherbashing XP be reduced? Yes, but not drastically. 75% of what we get right now is what I'd do.

I really love aetherspace how it is. I was really depressed when everyone quit playing up there and left armadas of ships in disuse. It really has brought a breathe of fresh air back into aetherspace travel and now lots of ships are appearing. I actually come across people now, occasionally. Crazy.

I gained a level, that should not be possible.

One of my major concerns is if it is true that some crews can maneuver so ships rarely get hit and empaths have nothing to do. Is it just a few aetherbeasts that allow that or is it prevalent?