Was looking at nebula harvesters today and it struck me that there may be a change there that players might like / dislike, so thought I'd ask.
At the moment a nebula harvester requires Dyz Fuel and it needs to be shipped to the harvy and topped off. This was by design and when nebula's was a new add-on it was warranted to make the process one you had to work at.
These days we have moved on a little and whilst its still the primary place to get these resources there are now alternatives.
What IF we were to make the Harvesters use 'Fuel' from your Fuel Depot? They would work the same way with the only change being they would feed directly from your Fuel Depot account and not need visiting every so often to top up.
It would mean a few changes to the code and systems but they would pretty much work the same way as now. Deploy, search for a resource begin harvesting till it was gone or the Hopper filled.
It's just a thought atm but I wondered what players might think.
Coops
Nebula Harvesters - A Question...
Nebula Harvesters - A Question...
A Walk in the Woods helps me relax and release the tension from a hard day at the code.
The fact that I'm dragging a body behind me should be irrelevant!
The fact that I'm dragging a body behind me should be irrelevant!
Re: Nebula Harvesters - A Question...
Let me say first that I have not done much with harvesters, the process is rather long winded for the rewards in my opinion. However others like it and I buy the resources from them when I need to so I do have an interest in people using them.
Changing from using an in-game resource to using bio-fuel seems like a very big step and one likely to put users off using harvesters. Spending units of bio-fuel to pick up some low level resource (on a 1 per 1 basis) while one tries to find a vein of the good stuff does not sound great.
Dark matter tends to sell at around the 500 cpu level, if it cost fuel to create what would be the price? Maybe if this was part of a harvester overhaul that improved the odds of a wider variety of rare elements and perhaps saw the introduction of level 100+ harvesters it may work.
As you say it would make them more straight forward to operate so maybe by using half a dozen alts each harvesting resource when there is a fuel give away would be seen as an opportunity.
Overall I don't think this is a good proposal. Now if there was a way to use the Dyz fuel from the local CS, that might be OK...
Changing from using an in-game resource to using bio-fuel seems like a very big step and one likely to put users off using harvesters. Spending units of bio-fuel to pick up some low level resource (on a 1 per 1 basis) while one tries to find a vein of the good stuff does not sound great.
Dark matter tends to sell at around the 500 cpu level, if it cost fuel to create what would be the price? Maybe if this was part of a harvester overhaul that improved the odds of a wider variety of rare elements and perhaps saw the introduction of level 100+ harvesters it may work.
As you say it would make them more straight forward to operate so maybe by using half a dozen alts each harvesting resource when there is a fuel give away would be seen as an opportunity.
Overall I don't think this is a good proposal. Now if there was a way to use the Dyz fuel from the local CS, that might be OK...
Re: Nebula Harvesters - A Question...
I have a CES nebula harvester that i haven't even used, not sure where i should put it and if hauling dyz fuel to it is worth the hassle.
Whatever makes the mechanics easier is fine by me, now all that's left is find a balance on fuel expended to resources gained to see if it's worth using.
Whatever makes the mechanics easier is fine by me, now all that's left is find a balance on fuel expended to resources gained to see if it's worth using.
Re: Nebula Harvesters - A Question...
I had the chance to use a personal harvester for a short while. I did not mind making the short trip to refuel it. I just did not have the survey skill to get the good resources yet. I know some players have to go quite a distance for their harvesters, though. I would personally rather use dyz fuel, but I'm not a big harvester yet. Opso's idea of going off cs is interesting. Would there be a way to offer one or the other when the harvester is deployed, and the option is kept until collected again? Maybe have biofuel offer a bonus to returns(more potent than dyz fuel)? Just spitballing here.
A plaque on both your horses.
Re: Nebula Harvesters - A Question...
I have a CES harvester, and a couple PM built ones too. I seldom run them.
Mostly because dark matter just isn't in that high demand to make it worthwhile. (maybe that should change?)
Plus this is one of the (few) uses for dyz fuel anyway. Using biofuel just makes dyz fuel that much more worthless.
So overall I'd rather you spend the dev time on something new than tinker with a peripheral aspect of the game.
Fueling off the CS is a interesting idea. Or perhaps a new expansion that uses biofuel but provides different (new?) resources.
Perhaps a line of factories that use dark matter as input?
Mostly because dark matter just isn't in that high demand to make it worthwhile. (maybe that should change?)
Plus this is one of the (few) uses for dyz fuel anyway. Using biofuel just makes dyz fuel that much more worthless.
So overall I'd rather you spend the dev time on something new than tinker with a peripheral aspect of the game.
Fueling off the CS is a interesting idea. Or perhaps a new expansion that uses biofuel but provides different (new?) resources.
Perhaps a line of factories that use dark matter as input?
Re: Nebula Harvesters - A Question...
Any of the players (175 currently deployed as of this post this morning) that DO use them want to comment 
Coops
Coops
A Walk in the Woods helps me relax and release the tension from a hard day at the code.
The fact that I'm dragging a body behind me should be irrelevant!
The fact that I'm dragging a body behind me should be irrelevant!
Re: Nebula Harvesters - A Question...
2x Nebula Harvester (Personal)
3x Nebula Harvester (Prospector)
5x Nebula Harvester (Excavator)
5x Nebula Harvester CES 2
That probably makes me serious when it comes to harvesting.
About proposed change. To keep it short and on point. Should Harvesters start using Bio fuel instead of Dyz fuel, i would consider my investment in CES Harvesters a failure, put them back in hold and be done with harvesting for good (and i am not short on fuel in depot).
3x Nebula Harvester (Prospector)
5x Nebula Harvester (Excavator)
5x Nebula Harvester CES 2
That probably makes me serious when it comes to harvesting.
About proposed change. To keep it short and on point. Should Harvesters start using Bio fuel instead of Dyz fuel, i would consider my investment in CES Harvesters a failure, put them back in hold and be done with harvesting for good (and i am not short on fuel in depot).
Re: Nebula Harvesters - A Question...
Really, flying to the harvester and back is no big deal. You have to empty the hopper the same way, anyway...
Besides, you know what they say:
If it works, don't break it....
/UncleBod
(Hm, have to re-deploy that harvester soon...)
Besides, you know what they say:
If it works, don't break it....
/UncleBod
(Hm, have to re-deploy that harvester soon...)
-
Darakhoranon
- CE Official Supporter
- Posts: 361
- Joined: Mon Jul 21, 2014 2:03 pm
Re: Nebula Harvesters - A Question...
I haven't done much harvesting yet, but there are several points against changing the way it works (they have already been mentioned):
1. Since harvesting has a chance to generate "worthless" resources potentially for several cycles until you find a "good" one (and you have to reset the harvester manually until that happens anyway), using bio fuel would turn the whole process into a kind of lottery, similar to the way a lot of other "free" games work with regards to rare ingame resources/real money. But CE always was really FREE TO PLAY without any of this.
2. There is so little demand for dyz fuel that fuel extractors are almost pointless - one or two are completely sufficient for all your needs, and even they only have to be set up occasionally. Harvesting is one of the very few uses for dyz fuel, cutting that would turn the stuff into something totally pointless.
In order for the use of bio fuel to "feel right", harvesting would have to GUARANTEE to generate those very rare resources (and you'd have to come up with some other use for dyz fuel...).
But how about adding an OPTION to use bio fuel instead of dyz fuel? If you did, you'd be guaranteed to get a resource from a short list of the most valuable ones. Essentially, using bio fuel would speed up the process since you wouldn't have to (potentially) reset the harvesters several times until you got something useful.
1. Since harvesting has a chance to generate "worthless" resources potentially for several cycles until you find a "good" one (and you have to reset the harvester manually until that happens anyway), using bio fuel would turn the whole process into a kind of lottery, similar to the way a lot of other "free" games work with regards to rare ingame resources/real money. But CE always was really FREE TO PLAY without any of this.
2. There is so little demand for dyz fuel that fuel extractors are almost pointless - one or two are completely sufficient for all your needs, and even they only have to be set up occasionally. Harvesting is one of the very few uses for dyz fuel, cutting that would turn the stuff into something totally pointless.
In order for the use of bio fuel to "feel right", harvesting would have to GUARANTEE to generate those very rare resources (and you'd have to come up with some other use for dyz fuel...).
But how about adding an OPTION to use bio fuel instead of dyz fuel? If you did, you'd be guaranteed to get a resource from a short list of the most valuable ones. Essentially, using bio fuel would speed up the process since you wouldn't have to (potentially) reset the harvesters several times until you got something useful.
With great power comes the great realization that you can have just as much fun simply annoying each other.
Re: Nebula Harvesters - A Question...
I use 1 CES1 and 2 CES 2 Harvesters. I don't think using Bio-Fuel is a good idea as it would limit new players ability to enter this activity. Also it would tend to limit hard core harvestor operators as several Harvesters would quickly out strip fuel supply. I usually end up placing and removing until I get a desired resource then topping up fuel. Using Bio-fuel for common resources (non-DM) is a big disincentive.