*** Vendetta 1.8.98
- NPCs no longer trigger the proximity alarm if the NPC Prox is
disabled.
- Fixed bug with getting stuck in capships when they jump between
sesctors.
- Tridents are once again part of larger escort missions.
- Bug reporter should now run when x64 version of the client
crashes.
- Experimental fix for intermittent client crashes on all
platforms.

That cap ship bug was a tough one, I'll bet. Great job.

When we heard Tridents were in convoys and that they'd have loot we were all like "Yeah!"

Then we got a convoy with a Trident in it that was going from Odia C-2 to Artana Aquilus somewhere and we were killing it in Pelatus K-15 and we were all "YEEAAAAAHHHH!"
http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa204/Chaakin_Tockoa/dump0006.png?t=1256366850

Then we killed it and we were all "YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!"
http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa204/Chaakin_Tockoa/dump0007.png?t=1256367088

Then we went to see what cargo we got and we were like "Yeeeaaaahhh-....?"
http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa204/Chaakin_Tockoa/dump0008.png?t=1256367200

Long story short: Me, Trakus Shar, Fusion Burn, and Maalik got the first convoy Trident kill in Pelatus K-15 and all it dropped was its 20 cu of scrap metal. Is this just incredibly bad luck?

Where are all the Corvus Holo Discs? D:

-Chaakin Tockoa

From a quick look at the ai config data, tridents have no specialized drop parameters, meaning they probably fall back on the defaults. I'm honestly not sure what the defaults are, but I'm guessing it may just be scrap. But this is for standard spawn conditions and not necessarily convoys.

There may also be a whole other system, from kourier, that spawns the "correct" items based on what the convoy was purportedly carrying. I don't know if this includes tridents as of yet, or what the situation is there. Michael would know.

In any case, getting tridents into convoys in the first place was more of something to test whether capship guidance was now reliable enough for us to use them more widely. Once we tried that, it exposed the bug.. now fixed in this version. So, keep in mind, this capship-in-convoy stuff has been mostly testbedding, to date. Little or no specific game design has gone into this.

Once it all seems to be solid, however, we'll definitely be making better use of it with gameplay mechanics (whether as targets for pirates, or as escort vessels, or whatever).

So is this the one, then? Are we going to get to three digits of minor release in the 1.8 series? I mean, I thought 3.3 might have gone to three digits in the minors, but we made it past 3.3...

Which is to say, any word on the plans for 1.9?

The tridents should drop cargo like any other convoy bot. The voys do carry scrap metal sometimes, and the tridents will often have less than a full 300cu (whatever was left in the shipment). If you blow up another and get nothing but scrap, let me know.

I saw a connie flying around in edras at the versasi WH, is that supposed to happen too?

That's part of the superlight mission tree Spence. It's a mission bot.

Anyway, Hurray for correct capship navigation!

http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa204/Chaakin_Tockoa/dump0009.png?t=1256416343

Every single Trident killed doesn't drop a thing, only drops the 20 cu of scrap metal that capitals drop anyways. What's going on?

Spent an evening messing about with voys, escorting and manning turrets. So far it seems bug free, excellent update.

The connies are also full of nothing.

As an escorter i'd like to point out a moth escort pays 80-200k while a trident or connie escort pays like 7500c to 10000

So i know you are on some kind of test period but it wont be very testy if people just avoid them because they're worthless!

Capship convoys are great for ambience.

As someone who's not full of shit, I'd like to point out that a moth escort pays around 250-470k for a 1 WH distance escort.

And you guys should fix that already: [TGFT], for example, no longer trades or mines that much. They just fly around, usually in nation space, "escorting" things.

"escorting" while in an XC, when they're in nation space.

As someone who's not full of shit...

Quoted for posterity... hopefully one with an ironic sense of humour.

Indeed, a Canadian's implying what you're implying is pretty damn ironic.

Lets not forget that Lecter is right, the Traders no longer Trade, they escort in moths! Moths laden with cargo maybe, which makes things worse, but that's just me.

I'm wasted, but here's a suggestion. http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/3/22160

I imagine they want to actually make money, which is no doubt difficult when the economy is broken. It seems like you are asking for things already planned (namely, make Greyspace essential for quality trading and mining and make trade goods worth something).

"As someone who's not full of shit, I'd like to point out that a moth escort pays around 250-470k for a 1 WH distance escort. "

Um, no? I've done plenty of 1 WH escorts in nationspace, and it's much more in the 80k-200k range. Maybe for a 2 or 3 WH escort it goes from 200k-500k, but certainly not 1 WH.

Also, I love this new update. It's amazingly cool to enter a sector and see a Constellation or a Trident hanging around.

It would be awesome if in the future we could have things like Corvus cappies being attacked by UIT cappies when one sees the other in the sector (Corvus being a criminal corporation) with players who are close enough to get into the action stepping in on one side or the other. Imagine a pair of Connies randomly engaging in battle in Latos H2! That would be fricking awesome.

Well, as long as the UIT has those stupid borken turrets in Latos H2, a capital battle there is going to be pretty damn one-sided.

I got an Ineubis Connie to engage a Xang Xi trident. It actually blew the thing up, which I thought was rather impressive.