Update 53 Hotfix Discussion

**Symmetric**

I have a bit of an issue with the spawn timers, in that even with two mission teams worth of people, some of the most difficult encounters have had their timers expire on us, forcing them to despawn and us not receiving any loot.

Please extend the force-despawn timers by a bit, maybe by another 5-10 minutes or so.

**cloudwolf** · 07/20/2007 13:13:35

I have to say from what i've been hearing the spawns do sound somewhat harsh, specially the corruptors xDD

Overall, as the notes suggest, the spawns should be soloable/small teamable. Not 2 teams worth of people =P

**9mmfu**

Put into prespective however you need to realize the content spans several levels and for the most part lvl 50 are probably data mining in the higher level areas there by attracting only the higher level enemies which are notably tougher.

So in effect what lvl 50s are experience is only a small % of the overall content and that content is of the Hardest variety.

The higher level content after all isnt supposed to be easy.

I will have Dracomet look at the despawn timers however as that is a good point.

**cloudwolf**

Ah, now ya see that was never explained, so level of player and area has a part to play in the spawns?

Still, surely the design philosophy as made apparent by the notes should expand to all levels (ok making 50 a bit harder cos its max but surely not corruptor hard =P)

Thanks for the reply though fu SMILEY

**Symmetric**

Thanks, 9mm.

Overall, I have to say the Risk vs. Reward factor is pretty spot-on. The rewards are exceptionally good, and offers a pretty decent return without too much of a time investment. The most perfect example of this is the N3O AG3NT spawns for the Quicksilver Gloves. A group of 4 can easily take this on and reap the rewards - there's enough frags earned from that encounter to make enough gloves for everyone in the group.

However, this does fall apart with the more difficult encounters. Namely, the Tengu + Gargoyle spawn. While the reward is very nice, you do still receive only enough frags to make 4 bandanas, which is a bit of a disappointment considering it takes between 8-12 people to clear this encounter without reaching the time limit. While I certainly understand the reward shouldn't always be a 1:1 ratio, I do think the encounters that require more than one mission team worth of people should provide at least one more frag to compensate for their time and effort.

**CHRIS2005yeah**

9mmfu wrote:

Put into prespective however you need to realize the content spans several levels and for the most part lvl 50 are probably data mining in the higher level areas there by attracting only the higher level enemies which are notably tougher.
So in effect what lvl 50s are experience is only a small % of the overall content and that content is of the Hardest variety.
The higher level content after all isnt supposed to be easy.
I will have Dracomet look at the despawn timers however as that is a good point.

It's not too hard, just got to set yourself up right.

The random exile spawns and gang spawns shouldn't be a problem for either MA's or hackers. The data senties are a bit of a pain, true, yet I've farmed a fair number of 5 wave spawns now myself.

You need to go for quick kills, don't mess around for special state moves. If you don't get them at the start of interlock then use lots of moves, as hard as you can and move onto the next npc.

This might be just me but I've been having no problem with doing this with Kung fu GM and data miner. You should have enough space for a move in karate and a passive aikido buff too if you're level 50.

AmbrielSyntax

cloudwolf wrote:

I thought you were. No worries.

Just i've recieved a lot of critisim in the past for simply voicing my ideas and opinions so i thought i'd just set the mark straight; it's one of the whole reasons i see these boards as existing and the main one i use them for, nothing wrong with that.

Just because i offer feedback, or alternate ideas does not suddenly mean i hate everything that happens to the game nor that i do not apprechiate the effort our devs so obviously put into their work.

Yeah, I was just kidding. I've seen you do your part for the game, and I appreciate it.

**GypsyJuggler**

I had a thought the other day; isn't it now possible for someone to bring Data Miner to a live event and seriously mess it up?

**cloudwolf**

Would that be any different than PBs for downtown events though?

**SolidRevolver**

cloudwolf wrote:

Would that be any different than PBs for downtown events though?

Its ok, Rarebit used a Admin /kill command when a 255 Agent spawned next to him at a Merv event once, no reason why he cant just do the same. He may also have a command to kill all the Data Nodes in the area or more likely, leave them as the only thing that would cause a problem at a crowded LE is a Corruptor, which will probably suffer the /kill treatment, not to mention free loot for a lucky person nearby SMILEY

**cloudwolf**

Aye, i thought they'd be admin powers to handle that sort of thing.

**Shinryu**

While I am enjoying this addition to a great degree, I have to agree with Tax as well. I was expecting more of the spawns to actually be soloable. It seems to get any of the worthy stuff, you need to be in a team. I'm not sure where the balance between the two would/should be, but the team reliance does seem excessive. At the least, longer timers or the ability to actually escape and recover without your spawn going poof would be nice.

... and I'd still like the flames instead of the lazers, but maybe that's just me. hehe

SkyBruin-ML

Love this hotfix, the dataminer tree now has more love as well as the toolmaker.

One thing I have been seeing, which may settle down over time. The regen rate of data nodes in the system may not be enough to handle the increased demand in certain areas. Areas that were veritable rivers of data nodes now are nearly completely empty. I think you dev's might know the area of which I speak, I call it the stellar nursery or the data river.

you Devs might want to watch this area to see if the datanode respawn rate is enough. Players certainly can venture forth in other areas of the matrix to find other nodes to tap but those areas just don't seem to have as many datanodes as others. Again this may calm down with time as the novelty factor thins a bit but you may want to see if there is a need to possibly up the respawn rate for datanodes.

**GypsyJuggler**

I think once everything gets back to normal the spawn rate will be just fine. The thing that bothers me is that many nodes seem to spawn in areas occupied by buildings but unreachable to players.

**cloudwolf** · 07/22/2007 04:10:45

Yeah, im sure the node respawn will be fine when things calm down.

I think the main areas of concern are in the level 50 difficulty for content intended as solo/small team and the despawning rules and timers.

Oh and the insane buffs possibly unbalancing things, especially combined with the clothing stack problem.

Oh and how the craftable sat dishes can't be 'released', causing a potential problem with their growing numbers in the world.

Just to consolidate what i've been hearing and all =P