Devs, would you mind reducing the amount of ION storms before you finally implement fogged sectors? I hope it would be easy change.

They have no use actually. Pirates do not use them anymore. In my eyes, they only cost players their time. The more time we spend in storms, the less time we have fun. The more people caught in storms at a time, the less people in regular sectors.

I remember when I saw an ION Storm for the first time. It was like -- Whooah, this must be ION Storm! Since then, it was only the biggest annoyance in VO.

Thank you for considering.

The one thing they do is force you to stay near your escorted convoy. So I don't think we should kill them... maybe just reduce them by 50% or the like.

I think instead you should make ion storms have really scary things hiding inside them to make them interesting :D

When I first went through an ION storm I was like: Woah this is awesome D: Then I got all sad because I didn't really find anything inside it except a few bots, and most ion storms don't even have bots in them.

atice, the problem is the convoy often goes sailing off in any direction but the storm exit point.

LNH... very true. Very darned true. I'd forgotten about that. Yah, sure, scrap them (the storms, not the escorts).

I agree with Look..No Hands, my first Convoy escort mission ended up going through three Ion Storms and if ever there was a initiation through fire.. that was it. I ended up with a myriad of kills in a single mission that last forty minutes of solid fighting, all because the convoy went anywhere but the indicated escape jumps.

So.. if anything, smarter convoys might be a better fix. As you play VO you generally get savvy as to avoiding Ion Storms in NAV. When you have no choice as an escort.. a smarter AI navigator would be a saviour.

- Taele.

"atice, the problem is the convoy often goes sailing off in any direction but the storm exit point."

True. I think it is said that they had not fixed this problem yet because the storms will be completely replaced by fogged sectors.

"I think instead you should make ion storms have really scary things hiding inside them to make them interesting :D"

It is human nature that we consider rare things interesting. Try to play your favorite song for a year, twenty times a day. I do not know how long you are playing VO for but I doubt something we accidentally end in that often would be considered interesting in any way.

"As you play VO you generally get savvy as to avoiding Ion Storms in NAV."

Yeah, in other words, no one really likes them. Some of us have even made scripts and plugins to plot strom-free routes automatically. The problem is that avoiding storms ain't much fun too. Shift-clicking the navigation map multiple times, then mindlessly hitting the enter key each ten seconds. Sorry, I can hardly call this fun or even playing. Moreover, it usually fails to save players time.

I like ION storms but I do not like the frequency they are showing at. There definitely must be something accidental to trap you in. On the other hand, it must not be a routine to deal with it. To sum things up, I feel current storms:

1) Time wasting
2) Annoying
3) Keeping regular sectors even more empty

What about this ... I believe it is not hard for devs to change the frequency. We can reduce storms significantly and see what happen, if we like it and if it is better or not for the game.

"..Yeah, in other words, no one really likes them. Some of us have even made scripts and plugins to plot strom-free routes automatically. The problem is that avoiding storms ain't much fun too. Shift-clicking the navigation map multiple times, then mindlessly hitting the enter key each ten seconds. Sorry, I can hardly call this fun or even playing. Moreover, it usually fails to save players time.."

Chuckle.. yah, I'll give you that. I take plotting routes in my stride, and whilst I have seen the plugins, the extra fuss installing doesnt encourage me quite enough.

I'll add that I think there has been an odd intensity to storms of late.. in some regions I was doing Hive Skirmish and the zone was in an Ion Storm, but it was not marked as such.. and it lasted two consecutive days.

The suggestion of a trial "Reduction" period is great, certainly show up player feelings.

I'm all for making the storms interesting, even proposed their inclusion in resource gathering via an Ion Collector concept. So I agree by action there.. they need something more than being sand traps in the VO greens.. beyond the odd excitement during Bot missions.

- Taele.

If it were possible to somewhat lower the frequency of the ion storms, and fill the ones that were left with really nasty hive bots, that would make things more interesting. Maybe if they were bots that gave out a large XP reward, too? That might give a good reason to go to an ion storm sector to bot, even, and would actually allow us to DEFEND our convoys instead of just bum around in the capship as we fly through completely empty sectors.

Shlim.. after a couple of very intense Ion Storm Convoy runs.. I think some places are scary enough haha! :)

Your suggestion sounds not unlike a Hive Queen in an Ion Storm mission.. plenty of nasty digital sods and a X4 reward (fact check?)

Fighting Aputech5's in an Ion Storm is nasty enough when Escorting, I'm loathe to encourage the malicious side of the Devs further ;)

That said, after getting my hands on a Raptor, Ion Storm fights have become easier, but the biggest issue since then.. is smarter Convoy Navigation then possibly tinkering with how Ion Storms play out?

best,
Taele.

i like ion storms. i think they are very appealing to the eye, but thats about it. i think that ion storms should be a booster for many things:
1) i know it was mentioned, so i'll just agree. bots should give out more xp.
2) mining should have some kind of significance. either more xp, less cu per load, less heat time, or the ion storm actually makes certain rocks give a new rare ore.
3) i like the ion collector
4) please please please please fix the npc jump point.

I agree that the jump point bug is extremely annoying, and should be fixed. I disagree that storms necessarily need to have bigger, badder bots in them. If you don't think storms are dangerous enough, try taking a convoy through Bractus and Pelatus on a stormy day. I've lost entire voys in a matter of minutes to the evils that lurk therein. Defending your voy is pretty damn intense in a situation like that, and you'll still probably lose a few bots.

I would be interested in perhaps lessening storms in the more central, sedate systems, and keeping them at full intensity and frequency in grey. It would make RP sense that the settled areas would be in more stable regions of space, and also why the nations haven't taken over bits of grey. Maybe grey space is nearer a nebula or something, the RP can be made up easily to fit the situation. Then, when grey space expands, maybe there can be a couple systems with really intense storms, directly in the nebula, and a relatively peaceful system or two past them, reachable only by going through the gauntlet. A deep-space Corvus base would fit right in there, and doing missions out that way would be *exciting*!