Datamine

We've had the Datamine construct for a short while now and it's already starting to see a massive decline in activity, I believe the main reasons are as follows:-

1. Players have made the info they needed and have very little reason to farm more.
2. Datamining overload - players have hit this fast and hard that they have gotten bored with the process of datamining itself.
3. Lack of other players inside the construct (due to points 1 and 2)

I'm sure there is also another group who don't enter the construct due to the risk of being killed, but we all know that the construct is a risk/reward one.

Now we know this is "phase 1", on the long term plans for this (we hope); however, looking at the previous image retrieval, there are plans to add a luggable that grants a higher tap rate for data (or at least that's all we know it does, for now). The problem being, if points 1 and 2 above are the reasons for lack of activity now, then this luggable is going to be a very short term increase in activity for the construct.

I hope that a fun and difficult challange with greater rewards for clothing/items is actually added so that activity not only increases again, but that it sustains, in other words, not something we can farm out very quickly and stop going in there after 1 day.

On that note, the handholding of people inside the construct has lead to the inactivity also, in my opinion. Players running in there with Master Shadow, as well as "truces" to not fight so everyone can farm their info has given people the time they needed to farm what they wanted and leave. I've personally been taking out anyone who has been in there. Machines and Mervs are a given target, but also any Zion who have been in there without risk for some time, have been my target. I would encourage players to adopt a similar tact, for the benifit of the construct, otherwise it will die out before it's even got started.

I think we need to provide constructive feedback about what should or should not be happening in this construct, my first and foremost request is that Master Shadow not be allowed in this construct, that being said, we kill master shadow builds quite easily when you know how to deal with them, but I just feel a zone meant to be dangerous to all should not have a tree that provides immunity to that in the way that tree does.

Just some thoughts I felt I had to express about this PvP enabled datamining construct.

4) After being killed in Datamine you have to reconstruct then run back to your archivist and then wait... for what seems like days for him to actually send you back >_<

To solve that one though, the Archivist needs to be altered, or better yet, Datamine can be added to the list on the Hardline so we can go straight back from the Loading Area.  An NPC in Datamine drops a file, which when uploaded adds Datamine under the construct section of the Headline, it will also then destroy the file as to prevent it being passed on to other people to do the same without beating the NPC. 

Me and a faction have been teaming up, we go in and do our best to take out Master Shadow users and any other tappers mainly to justify the info rate, regardless of org.

4) After being killed in Datamine you have to reconstruct then run back to your archivist and then wait... for what seems like days for him to actually send you back >_<

I agree Deda, the fact that if your killed you HAVE to recon and use the archivist, gives the chance for more tactical options against teams. No one can be rezzed in datamine, which is actually a great thing.

The Risk/Reward with Master shadow isn't even worth going into. Unless your attacked by a smart team, MS is a immunity and hardly enough to say your taking a risk. I've killed MS solo, it's not impossible with the right build and tactics. If anything I think the induction timer on MS needs to be increased. Let's not side track into this being about MS completely, we do need to discuss that tree for datamine, but more important is the future of this construct and a luggable to increase info rate is by no means going to help keep it active, unless that luggable adds a spawn rate chance on a rare boss who then can drop a rare item... now THAT would be worth fighting for it.

Well, when i want to farm info, i load Master Shadow. 

Now its not impossible to kill a Master Shadow, ive both been killed and Killed.

My major gripe is with those that cry when i attack im my own org.  Hey guess what.  Its Free For All.  If i wanna attack you i will!  All this "you're attacking zions!? ZOMG" give it up.  "OMG im not 50!" well your brave enough to try to farm in a free for all construct.  Now granted im a bit of a soft touch and usually leave the lowbies alone after ive killed them once.  Just like when they attack me... i dont mind it. Thats the whole point.

Datamine is a groovy place to be but the risk has seriously dissapeared.  A group of friends and i recently had to practically beg people to come in so we could set a trap... which was predicitable but hella funny.

Anyway... we need more excitement and people to grow some cahoonies.

SolidRevolver wrote:

4) After being killed in Datamine you have to reconstruct then run back to your archivist and then wait... for what seems like days for him to actually send you back >_<

I have no problem with that. That's why PvP directly at hardlines sucks fig newtons, people just come back in 10 seconds.

I am not saying it would be better, I am just saying people get bored of waiting for the Archivist when they could go to Mara and get back into a fight quicker.
Then again, it wouldn't change much for Datamine as if you could get back through the Hardline, then you still would randomly get placed somewhere which could be far from the fight so you have a chance to get ready before they return.

We could even start talking about PVP objectives in Constructs to encourage PVP more there rather than the city.

Seems to me the datamine functioned for a brief time because for that time PvP actually had some purpose and the confines of the datamine also drew together the small population into one place. However it is content that is discontinuous and contradictory to the rest of the story and the rest of the environment, the fate of such content will always be fleeting as after the initial interest you won't go there to do anything other than mess around. I'd rather not see more dev time wasted on it unless it was properly integrated into the environment and story to mean something on an ongoing basis (that the orgs benefit from etc) and move it beyond its current souless 2 dimensional level.... (the ffa aspect was a mistake imo better to have a ffa luggerble on the outside for those that wish it.)

Then again, it wouldn't change much for Datamine as if you could get back through the Hardline, then you still would randomly get placed somewhere which could be far from the fight so you have a chance to get ready before they return.

Put a 'boss' in the centre island that gives you the ultimate drop if you kill it!

Put a 'boss' in the centre island that gives you the ultimate drop if you kill it!

I think my idea of using the luggable inside the construct to datamine, that then can spawn a "mob attack" while dataming, which inturn has a awesome loot item from the box. That way you prevent people getting this item from just camping the boss while no one is in there, at least this way, just like datamining, you need to commit time to get the spawn and then kill it.

Thoughts on spawns and loots... I'd probally say a few lvl 100 Agents would be interesting.

As for the loot, how about a chance of it being any single construct drop item, from sakura bandana to the yukim with a small percentage of it being a cool new item with some awesome stats.

Dripping-Cheese wrote:

Put a 'boss' in the centre island that gives you the ultimate drop if you kill it!

That would be like with the Area K... When everyone have his item, the place is dead.

0uranos wrote:

Dripping-Cheese wrote:

Put a 'boss' in the centre island that gives you the ultimate drop if you kill it!

That would be like with the Area K... When everyone have his item, the place is dead.

Exactly, read my post above. You make it harder and less likely to be camped without resistance, since getting the spawn will be a challange upon itself.

/pvp [ all | friendly | hostile | release | status ]

I've said it before. The pvp command should have additional functions to harbour, e.g. FFA tags.

That would be the ideal/perfect solution but I fear would be the most work to implement (if the devs had specific area controls they could activate it individually for the sub orgs so for those odd times it could be Mech vs Cyph or Zion vs Epn hence expanding the variety of events and allowing for last minute betrayals etc).

In terms of the datamine, it is simply another construct and as with the others no matter what reward or bonus you get there, once you have it the reason to go back diminishes exponentially....with masses of the city already standing empty all we really do is draw people from the city for a while and make it seem more deserted to the lower levels/new players.

We need content that gives us tasks everyday, contentious tasks that demand pvp and actually give reason to others to stop us (rather than just wanting to stop someone else getting the $i) - org bases, luggerble power items that need stockpiling, hunt seek locate style activities over the whole city - things that fit with story and pvp - that involve the all of the population all of the time in a variety of ways, things that accumlate in some larger way over time to ensure there is always a reason to do them, temporal rewards that need work to be gained and more work to be retained.............

Your ability to relate absolutely any thread and topic, no matter how unrelated, back to your ideas on the story continues to astound.

The reason that we never really get any story related quests is becuase the story is always changing and after another update that quest would perhaps seem strange and out of date, irrelevant if you will. Rarebit is only going to work on content that adds end-game value and something that can be put there forever, he simply doesn't have time to keep making quests that become irrelevant after the next patch (Exculding Anniversary, Winter and Halloween events of course). And before you metion the Elite Commando Quest, thats only indirectly related to the story.

The nature of all 'new' content to date has focussed around some kind of personal reward.... by and large no matter what it is once we get it we lose interest, the net worth of the content decreases significantly over time because it does not link to any larger aspect of the game. The effect of increasing the reward or making it easier or harder to get only extends the contents life fractionally, if we want content to last longer an alternative approach has to be made. There are background processes always present in the city and a story connection actually functions to prevent content getting out of date and doesnt have to tie to any particular chapter of the story to remain relevent.

As an example, power...the mechs have a lot and other orgs need it for their hcft or their cities or whatever, suppose the datamine was a conduit - packets of power like photons spawn there for distribution (luggerble) the mechs need to ensure it is safe until it passes to its designated routes, but merov and Zion forces need to steal it or reroute it into their own reserves, a reason to go a pvp arises even for players who rp preferentially, the reward is accumulated over time and normalised for relative populations on a server reset the details transfer into the buffs provided by some org specific ability which for the following week or activates some special ability for the following week for the winning org or perhaps generates an org specific $i boost for the following week..... shifting the nature of the reward from a personal item to something that benefits an org for a specific period of time delivers a smaller personal incentive to go and pvp but compensates by being an incentive that never actually dissapears altogther....individual events can even call on temporal needs to draw more power so players can have the importance of this task reinfoced on a periodic basis through the LET - different reasons, same content - its a more lateral approach to sustaining a greater longevity for content.... not the only one I grant you but one that hasn't yet been tested

I am aware it might be a difficult idea to describe but I did try to make it clearer via the example content. In no way am I suggesting no reward should be offered, only that the nature of that reward shouldnt always boil down to item A that you gain and then hoard in your inventory.... The pattern of such content to date is always the same, flurry of activity and then its almost forgotten. If we keep doing more of the same we will just keep getting the same results.

I suggested one alternate route but there are others and the best source is looking deep into the story/concept/theme (whatever term you want to give it since story seems to be a dirty word these days) and think what is going on in the background, what is always needed, how could our rsi be employed within the matrix and how could what we do be made sufficiently important for us to feel we should keep doing it.

(( trying to reword the example for clarity - Make a reward we all would like....a single organisational ability for instance  but rather than just let us gain that from a drop and be done with, go on to say that its continued used can only be sustained for seven days and relies on winning sufficient power from the mechs to use it. For the Mechs perhaps an agent assist ability a one shot get out of trouble move they get it by default but if Zion or merovs steal so many luggerbles from location A and deliver them to location b the mech ability fails to work and for the next seven days the org that gained the most units (per operative to cater for population differences) has their ability function. - we have a cool reward but only by continually fighting for it do we get the oppertunity to fully enjoy it etc......not that I'd like to see something like that wasted on the datamine mind, but hopefully the concept of a two pronged reward is clearer.))

4) After being killed in Datamine you have to reconstruct then run back to your archivist and then wait... for what seems like days for him to actually send you back >_<

To solve that one though, the Archivist needs to be altered, or better yet, Datamine can be added to the list on the Hardline so we can go straight back from the Loading Area.  An NPC in Datamine drops a file, which when uploaded adds Datamine under the construct section of the Headline, it will also then destroy the file as to prevent it being passed on to other people to do the same without beating the NPC. 

Me and a faction have been teaming up, we go in and do our best to take out Master Shadow users and any other tappers mainly to justify the info rate, regardless of org.

add NPCs with new consumable drops to some of those interior spaces, and add a new collector who will take those consumables in exchange for a couple items that will be useless to some people, but hopefully of significant interest to others.

It's looking like I'm not going to have bosses and new clothing items done for update 59. 59 will (hopefully) open the interiors of the two main buildings, add NPCs with new consumable drops to some of those interior spaces, and add a new collector who will take those consumables in exchange for a couple items that will be useless to some people, but hopefully of significant interest to others.

Uhh, Birth Control pills? hehehe

It's looking like I'm not going to have bosses and new clothing items done for update 59. 59 will (hopefully) open the interiors of the two main buildings, add NPCs with new consumable drops to some of those interior spaces, and add a new collector who will take those consumables in exchange for a couple items that will be useless to some people, but hopefully of significant interest to others.

Perma-disguses that don't grand disguise for spy but look cool? " />

NightTrace wrote:

Perma-disguses that don't grand disguise for spy but look cool? ">

The idea makes me happy in the pants.

Uhh, Birth Control pills? hehehe

What are you trying to say?