Really, if you drop health leech, I think Slivvens will be perfectly fine. They're probably okay as is anyways, but if we want to be a little nicer to small people, that's an option.

And Lyco totally got Demi by abashing. I was along for the whole way, I should know.

90% sure Raeri and Raguel were influence demi things.

Does it really matter who's on the list?

Even if it does, it's not like this is the first bizzarely effective exp faucet we've ever had. It's just been far and away the most accessible.

Prior to this, I'm told we had "old old astral", wherein people could chain link nodes all day for fun and riches with no insanity. We had that little blip of broken Aetherspace "look at me shoot through a wall" that a small number of people cashed in on, we had the Ur'bash, which a pretty good number of people cashed in on, but had pretty hefty org requirements and was stupidy easy to grief, and now we have the current/recent incarnation of Aetherspace.

Throw in the nexus conversation destroying guard influencing if you like.

Far and away, the recent Aetherspace has seemed the most "intended" as far as administrative concerns go. They even toned it down and added aetherwill. (Which should discourage a lot of the most aggregious afking really- the problem being that it matters most for gunners, and abilities exist that all but take it out of the equation for some people even then.)

Actually, that's not a bad alternative, if people really don't like the monsters to fight. Make Aetherwill matter for pilots and empaths, and equalize it so that people can't stack abilities that basically takes it out of the equation. It won't stop AFKing, but it would stop the worst of it.

Raguel was an influencing Demi, yes. He has that esteem mask.

You can add Revan to that list, unless I didn't see it.

Probably not. We just like to nit pick. You can blame Razenth for starting it.

For ENLIGHTENMENT!

You're in Gaudihooch, they don't do science.

Replace "Science" with "Enlightenment".

For the MOTHERLAND!

Eh, the problem with a list of people who got demigod from aetherspace is ... a lot of them didn't just aetherhunt. They did other things. Nariah, for instance, frequently astralbashed - probably more than I saw her aetherbash. A lot of people would probably have been 90+ before aetherhunting ... what did Gregori say Kalin was at?

Revan got demigod off old aetherspace - the broken shooting through walls time, if I remember correctly.

Of course, there are those who did just aetherbash, and (perhaps more indicative) are now on the higher levels of the experience ranks.

I have nothing much to add besides to say I'm in agreeance with Akui, with the caveat that I also take further the idea of not pitying low level people. I'm level 85, half way to 86. I think I stopped being a 'small person' by that definition about five to fifteen levels ago. This makes me question the idea that perhaps they should tweak with slivvens, make them worth experience on par with 1/10th or 1/20th? of an aetherspace mob, and then make aetherspace intended as the next stepping stone after a certain point of the leveling circuit/routine.

Right now, I've never seen one drop gold, and they give such an incredibly tiny amount of experience..


EDIT: I suggest adding an EXP function to slivvens because then you have a 5th crew position: slivven janitor! That way somebody who isn't on a module or is a backup can run around ganking slivvens or dedicate themselves full time to the job and actually benefit from it. :/

EDIT2: The fraction of exp I mentioned is arbitrary - it would need to be adjustable so it is worth it on par with helping everybody else abash safely. It also needs to take in to consideration spawn rate. You don't want slivvenbashers getting more exp than module people, but not.. much less, in the net of things.

6th person, unless you're rolling with two turrets.

Also, I honestly laugh everytime the "XP Faucet argument comes up". I can list the EXACT same progression on each one, be it Astral, or Aetherspace.

1. People whine about Demigod being too hard to get.
2. Estarra listens and conveniently makes Demigod easier to get.
3. People get Demigod easier, because, what do you know. It's easier to get!
4. People complain about Demigod being to easy to get. These are frequently the same people who used the "Get XP Quick" last time.
5. People CURRENTLY using the method argue that it's perfectly fair. These people will most likely make Demigod before the gravy train cuts off.
6. Repeat steps 4 and 5.
7. Estarra & friends start to gradually introduce things to slow down XP gain. Steps 4 and 5 are repeated with much more vitriol and nerdrage.
8. Estarra nerfs the XP into the ground. Step 5 people relax and enjoy their easy Demi . Much complaining about the nerf by those that only made it half-way.

Rinse and repeat.

A method to still get aetherbashing experience while killing slivvens would be a good idea to encourage people to still aetherbash, I think. However, it won't solve the problem of "people can AFK while aetherbashing", as only one more person has to pay attention rather than everyone.

I honestly don't think slivvens - or massively reduced vortex spawn rates/lifespans - are the answer to 'balancing' aetherspace potential gains while still having people use it. It will just shift back to disuse because people either don't want to fly around in circles for half an hour trying to spawn a vortex or don't want to be the poor sap stuck on slivven duty getting a tiny shred of what everyone else does while doing more, and people won't want to fly without someone on slivven duty.

You could complexify the empath's job by making slivvens an 'affliction' on a module, cleared with clarity, to get rid of the slivven duty thing. Of course, it's then perfectly AFK-able again, but you have the added restriction of needing someone with Purser to be your empath (although chances are you already have one). If you don't want the Purser restriction, I suppose it could be individual powers per module (lower down) or just cured with repair module (and -any- empath has modules, right?), but again, perfectly AFKable. You could have the selectable 'slivven janitor' who gets aetherbashing exp, probably at full rate, but has to actually walk around. That's slightly less AFK-able ... for one person, but not the crew. And even then you could manage it if you had a knack for scripting.

It just seems like a dead end mechanic in terms of stopping people AFKing without stopping people aetherbashing entirely. Assuming that's what it's intended for.

I don't use aetherspace, so I have no measure of how good or bad it is at any given time. However, maybe we should at least see the scripts like Sadhyra's taken offline, if the mechanics cannot be made to deal with them.

so are we likewise going to take out influencing scripts? How about scripts with autoattack for bashing.

The problem is not fixable by mechanics and trying to do so anyway will essentially get the same effect as copyright protection on dvds. Hitting legit users more then the ones doing infractions.

So... uh... what does that do?

You should know that just because the script isn't online in its current location (even if they could get it nuked from the web), that doesn't kill it. It also doesn't stop people from doing it with the scripts they already have, pass around the ones they already have, or make their own. It's not like any of the scripts are difficult to make.

Influencing/bashing scripts are either not fully automated or not publicly available (though still against the rules, technically). Posting scripts that do absolutely everything automatically with no input required from the user is clearly against the rules. Sure, there are gray areas that cause many fruitless discussions, but sometimes it's a little more obvious.

Apples and oranges, at any rate.

The problem is that, in this case, the legal scripts that do everything but move you around are the same scripts that let everyone but the pilot AFK while aetherbashing. I don't use Sadhyra's scripts, but I do rig something together for whatever signals my crew is using simply in the name of efficiency (and the tendency of pilots to assume that you're going to respond at trigger speed).

I don't even get why everyone needs aetherhunting reflexes, unless things have changed that much since I was last out. As a gunner, I just had a TT (name) alias for turret targeting and an alias FIRE to shoot. Not hard at all to manual! I had a hell of a time when I was an empath in the early days, but even that's been dumbed down now.

I don't even get why people need influence reflexes. It's not hard to make an alias and pound it each time you get EQ back. Not hard at all to manual! Influence is pretty dumbed down.