- New client CPU optimization should make the game run smoother and better across all platforms, but especially those with slower CPUs (older PCs, mobile devices, etc).
- Strikeforces now include Warthogs in all levels of response.
- Strikeforce Power Seeker combat tactics have been improved slightly.
- Power Seekers no longer drop drain weapons or other addons on death.

Newspost

- Strikeforces now include Warthogs in all levels of response.

Now this should make a strike forces a little more beefier.

This is a great update.

Mr. Chaos says thanks for the warthogs, asshole!

You fuck I told you not to post this.

^^^^^^^^^^

I want to try these new warthog strikeforces now. Can you make them drop hive gats?

Also make them drop Nahin's aiming plugin.

- Power Seekers no longer drop drain weapons or other addons on death.

Snort. Chuckle. Nope! No magic there, eh, Inc? Where's that charge-back button?

Why would not dropping the weapon they shoot be considered desirable?

Oh I didnt even notice that, that's a really dumb change. You shouldn't remove stuff like that it makes total sense to drop PCBs.

^ This.

Other trike forces drop their weapons and PCBs aren't exactly unobtainable otherwise. Why go out of your way to do crap like this?

I'm sure there was some meeting or discussion about it where they imagined a scenario where that was bad

But as an actual player of the game I must point out your meeting failed and drops are good

lolin' hard at trike forces. I'm not even going to correct that. :)

Other trike forces drop their weapons and PCBs aren't exactly unobtainable otherwise. Why go out of your way to do crap like this?

I wanted the ability to vary the addon drop rates of individual NPCs, which has never been possible before (it's only been universally per-addon-type, requiring making another addon to have another drop rate; addon drops are handled differently vs "item drops" like cores), so I had this implemented. In some cases, I don't want an addon to be trivially farm-able, in other cases I'll want the NPC to be more likely to drop (say, a really difficult individual NPC with an interesting addon as a reward). This is a powerful and useful internal feature addition, for us. Its first usage is not very interesting to you guys, but it's pretty trivial to farm the new seekers, and I decided to try it out in this case. I know PCBs aren't that hard to come by, but there are other ramifications down the road for my changing higher-end bots, and inevitably running into a situation where the defensive bots that are intended to dissuade conflict, are actually creating more problems where people are farming them.. potentially in the very populated areas where I'm trying to reduce conflict.

I'm also experimenting with clouds of these drones (as people in B8 last night can attest). They're fun to blow up in large numbers with rockets. I didn't want a bajillion PCBs and powercells dropping.

Snort. Chuckle. Nope! No magic there, eh, Inc? Where's that charge-back button?

Oh noes! Lecter magical disapproval! Yes, it's totally unbelievable that a military craft would have self-destruct capabilities on technology, except that that's totally a real thing.

The charge-back comment is just douchey. If you want a refund, submit a support ticket. It's also great how you complain for years about the lack of gameplay changes, and then as soon as I start doing them more often, and change something you don't like, you threaten to reverse your credit card transactions.

I'm sure there was some meeting or discussion about it where they imagined a scenario where that was bad. But as an actual player of the game I must point out your meeting failed and drops are good.

No.. I make the gameplay changes, no meeting required. I am, as ever, open to feedback/criticism like this.. but I guarantee there will be other changes you also won't like, that I view as in the best interests of the game as a whole. I didn't trip over some lua code and do this, I've needed this feature for awhile. This does not indicate a general policy shift to no-drops, but it is a solid test of the capability.

I may set it back to dropping at a reduced rate (not the standard 10%) down the road, but for the moment, if someone sees a Power Seeker drop a PCB, please let me know? Thanks.

Next time say that before hand!
I was already stabbing the crap out of my raybondo voodoo doll until reading the Facebook post!

Did you seriously just refer to how sensitive equipment functions in the real world to justify what is, for VO, extremely unusual behavior w/r/t how items drop? Behavior that is a change from how seeker drops have always worked at that.

It was annoying enough with border turrets - you couldn't make them work worth a damn without them being hilariously OP, but you also couldn't let them drop their weapons because players equipping them was hilariously game-breaking (but a lot of fun while it lasted). Doing it with stuff as blah as PCBs and seeker flares just seems silly...but hey, play with their drops behavior as a random unannounced test of a new gameplay function all you like. You'd get better reactions by actually saying that when you do, though.

You're right about the chargeback comment being douchey, though. My defense is I was drunk and your ill-considered approach to implementation/announcement made me grouchy. Obviously I'm neither going to bother you guys with a ticket nor do a CB.

Next time say that before hand!
I was already stabbing the crap out of my raybondo voodoo doll until reading the Facebook post!

Heheh, well, I didn't get home from the office until like 1am, and I usually defer newsposts until the next day in those cases.

Also, gameplay changes like this are pretty much always me. Ray can be blamed for bugs, but intentional and reported gameplay changes that are disliked.. don't blame him for that :).

You're right about the chargeback comment being douchey, though. My defense is I was drunk and your ill-considered approach to implementation/announcement made me grouchy.

Fair enough, and you're right, I should probably have stayed up and written a newspost. Sometimes that takes awhile to edit, and I'm pretty zonked, and end up posting stuff to Facebook that I.. don't word very well, heh. But in the cases of changes of "high player concern" I should have posted something sooner.. at least to News alone (which I can edit later, unlike paid FB postings which are just frozen).

In the case of generally making changes that alter long-term past behaviours, there are probably going to be a lot more of them. But, I'll endeavor to post explanations more quickly in the future.

My defense is I was drunk and your ill-considered approach to implementation/announcement made me grouchy.

You are almost always grouchy. Funny to see you finally trip over yourself to offer an apology (or something close to it) for once.