CTC bots now do not drop Purified Xith if killed by the blockade bots.

Considering this item is part of our weekly contest it should be dropped whenever and wherever by whoever the bot killed.

Even though I'm not active right now. This makes sense. They carry the xith, it should be a 100% drop rate 100% of that time. Or at least maintain the same drop rate (if less than 100%) at all times and in all situations. So...

+1

+1

+1%2

Why not expand this suggestion such that all bots will drop whatever is in their cargo hold, regardless of how they are destroyed? Things like Hive fast charge batteries, Avalon Torpedo Launchers, Scrap metal, and Synthetic Silksteel would still only drop if a player damages them.

+1 Phaserlight

+1 Phaserlight as this will eventually allow for better mine fields in the future. (when who "fired" the mine will be less certain. Hint Hint Devs: national mine fields with IFF instead of turrets?)

+1 Phaser

This would ensure missions created with the mission editor don't break because vital cargo given to an NPC didn't drop (the bot with the vital cargo might be destroyed by another NPC, or perhaps while mining it suicides on a spinning roid).

+1
Also, this goes in the BUGS forum!!!

This needs to happen, or at *least* add a "jettison cargo" npc action in the mission editor. As it is, I cannot make the cargo ships in a mission I'm working on self-destruct, as their cargo will not currently be dropped. I could force the player to destroy the ships himself, but that is stupid and makes no sense in the context of the mission. If a ship has cargo, that cargo should be dropped, period. Equipped items are okay to be goofy, because those are random anyway, but cargo should ALWAYS drop. End of story.

YES Phaser. +1

+1 CARGO allways drop, and Equipament requires a player kill.

Alloh, that would not solve the "problem" of people farming hive skirmishes for Synthetic Silksteel which is the whole purpose of this change, since the hive bots carry SSS as cargo. Check it with a scanner if you don't believe me.

This STILL goes in the BUGS forum. It is now completely impossible to recover CtC cargo that is killed by blockade NPCs or hive bots in ion storms.

Then Synth Silksteel should be changed so it isn't cargo. You shouldn't be able to tell how much is going to drop by having a cargo scanner equipped anyway. It should be more like scrap where it just appears in the debris of the explosion.

My understanding is that the farming that was being countered was people flying beyond targeting range and just keeping the sector alive indefinitely.

So, an alternate solution is to remove this silly player-kill nonsense and replace it with a not as silly player proximity requirement of 5km or so. My opinion is that a player who flies around inside a critical/central skirmish should be able to loot all the goodies dropped by the NPC vs. NPC fighting.

The way it is now essentially kills the ability to play as a scavenger unless you find an area with a lot of human players.

hmm, after investigating ARF's claims about SSS being treated as cargo, I've found that Arklans and Transports seem to be the exception to the rule. Collectors, Assaults, and other Guardians drop SSS but it does not show on a cargo scanner like it does for Arklans. A bug maybe?

Pizzasgood, requiring player proximity will NOT fix the problem of CtC bots being killed by other NPCs and not dropping their Purified Xithricite Ore. Often times that happens in a "dead" sector with no players in it and it becomes a race to grab the xith before it times out.

A way to fix the farming might be to not auto-respawn hive skirmish NPCs unless there's a player in the mission. Instead of being able to go AFK for hours or days and let the loot pile up, you'd at least have to fly back to the station and dock to take the mission again over and over.

This would also prevent people from cheesing the Leviathan in central hive skirms by not taking the mission, de-shielding the levi, then taking the mission to finish it off. The big border skirmishes are hard and you get shot at. It's supposed to be hard and you're supposed to get shot at.

Big war zones should leave behind a lot of scrap and salvage.

WHY does mining or combat bots carry any cargo not mined themselves?

+1 to make SSS become "better scraps" instead of cargo. Same for Hive Nanites and most of bot drops. Indeed, bots only should have ore as cargo.

+1 Big war zones should leave behind a lot of scrap and salvage... It was already proposed that we should be able to "mine" big capships wrecks...