So, I was piloting an aetherhunt today against dragons, and the more I was the pilot, the more I realized: The Slivven hunters don't get nearly enough XP for their work. The idea of a slivven-hunter 'module' (backpack?) has been tossed around before, so I thought I'd explore my own ideas on the matter.



Given that slivven-hunting is hard (read: In violation of automation rules since you have to move) to code, I'd like to suggest a number of possibilities for a slivven-hunting module.








Also, another thing that would be interesting/good to see on a slivven module would be the ability to toggle between 'normal' and 'ship' prompts, since the slivvenhunter doesn't really care about the ship prompt, and almost certainly needs his own prompt.

Thoughts? More ideas? I'd like to see slivven-hunters get more XP than they currently do, since half the time they're unlocked hunting slivven when we kill something, on top of only being on a collector.

If it's a module though, won't it need to be part of the ship? I could understand if it...hrm, is part of the ship, but you could move around with it, like you have a hose attached to the main module, which is sucking up dead slivven bits or something, maybe have it have a max room range? You can only move x rooms away from this module? You could then have a couple of modules around the place, to cover the whole area? Maybe...*shrug*

It seems like having dedicated slivven hunters is going against the spirit of why slivvens were added in the first place. They're intended to keep the aetherhunters alert, so they'd have to periodically unlock from their module to kill the things themselves. Just my $0.02.

Having dedicated hunters is more efficient. Efficiency wins.

I agree. I'm just saying it's not something the administration should start encouraging.

I understand why they added them, but I think they went about it wrong. I could write a script that would autobash pigeons while I'm at school. That doesn't mean they should make pigeons harder to kill, or give them aeon. Most of my contributions to aetherhunts are automated, but I would never leave the computer for more than a minute or so. I like to go on aetherhunts, but I can't kill slivvens on my own. Does that mean I shouldn't go? I've seen newbies and lowbies turned away from aetherhunts because we were afraid they'd get killed by the slivvens. That seems counter-productive to me. If slivvens are meant to be a nuisance that must be dealt with, then let them be that; not a hazard like they are now. I feel like they should just attack the module, not the crew, and be hard, but not impossible, to kill. You would still have to be paying attention. There's no message to let you know a slivven is at your module; you have to look for it. Sure, you could probably still script it, but I don't see why that should affect the rest of us so greatly. People are going to cheat, and making it harder for them to do so is almost like a challenge. "Oh, you think this is unscriptable? I'll show you!" I think I'm rambling, so I'll stop now.

tl;dr: I like the idea behind slivvens, but I hate the way they've been implemented.

I think the way slivvens have been implemented is perfect. I'm glad they attack the crew. They do cause people to be alert, and if you have a non-shoddy empath, it's very easy to alert someone there is a slivven on their module.

Sure, they could be done better, but at least we're not solving text captchas every five minutes, and they have forced most crews to be more alert. With dedicated slivven hunters, however, we see more crews that are 90% unresponsive except for what they're doing on their module, indicating that they're automated and AFK. One step forward, one step backward? Maybe.

IMO, more people not AFK = better. So, slivvens = good. What is not good, is that those non-AFK-able positions get way less XP than the (usually) 100% automated turret job.

Well, I agree with Iasmos on this one... Everyone still AFK's, except for the person hunting the slivvens.

What they should have implemented was a person randomly gets asked a question and they have x seconds to answer it before their module blows up! That would stop AFKing (as long as it was impossible to programmatically figure out the answer!)

My problem is more about slivvens adding another barrier to aetherhunting. With very little lesson investment, you can be a siphoner and fill in a seat that is nessecary, but wasted on more experienced crew members. But if you're too low level, you'll be killed by the slivvens. It's like Zarquan said, by solving one problem, they've created another.

I'm not a fan of aetherhunting in the first place, but I am very strong about this: I don't give a about novices. If they can't bash themselves up to a decent level before getting them handed to them, they can go die in a fire.

Hm, I guess I'm forgetting that people feel aetherhunting is easy xp. I just like it 'cause it's fun. It's a living space ship for crying out loud!

Copyright: Farscape

Any preprogrammed question would eventually have a programmed answer on the player side. We might as well be manually checking for AFKers at that point!

See, this is where my idealism gets in the way. In my mind, people follow the rules, because if they don't, it makes things worse for everyone. Why can't we all just be nice to each other!?!?!

I really don't see why the Celani (whatever they're call in the game) can't check for AFK people.
Not me though, my afking in my manse does not harm the game!

I'm always against AFK people, that's why I don't go on hunts any more, because no one else seems to care. I'm not going to risk getting my ass shrubbed because one of our turreters are AFK but I'm not.

Why do people think we, or our wee little Ephemerals, have nothing better to do than police possible abusers. They've projects! Easier method is just to make it so you can only fight slivvens in a module if you're locked into it...

I very much doubt they'd give out communal punishments (or whatever the term is) just because one person is AFK. But yeah, AFK is a huge problem on aetherships; it's far too easy to automate it not to, basically. Not that I have any suggestions on how to make it harder... Few people on aetherhunts really deal with AFKers though, since they don't want to be caught in the rather delicate situation of having to punish someone who can make life hell for them.