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Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Excavator Decay, Skills, Eco Considerations

I hear it all the time... How it's cheaper and less decay to use TT excavators or whatever. Well, it's a double edge sword.

Do you want to be as cheap as possible pulling your claim out of the ground but give up skill gains? Or do you want your skills to add up faster?

I have had 3400, and 3500 ped claims... Both times I used the skill calculator at Entropiedia to see how much TT my skill was before drilling the claim, and then I checked to see what it was after. I tracked my decay from drilling too. Using the RE-104, both times, I had slightly more TT in skills (Engineering, Mining in the case of my caldorite, and drilling in the case of my oil, Computer, and serendipity I believe also increases during drilling), than the decay spent on the extraction of the claims.

I know, you can spend peds but you can't spend skills... Sure... But, skills are important. It's just we don't know exactly how or in what proportions, or even why. All I know is as my skills go up, the quality of ores and enmatters I find goes up on average, and my average claim sizes go up too over time. Therefore, either it is ped turnover, or it is skill gain, or a combination of both, that lift your loot caps.

Do you want more skill? Do you want more play time? Or do you want to pinch every pec you can even if it means slower skilling? Play style impacts what you get out of the game... If a person has all the answers, they will do better than someone who has none of the answers... That said, no, I don't have all the answers. It seems like as soon as we make ends meet, MA moves the ends. However, I will note, the particular research I have done and the results I have found, are holding true. Yes, high variance, but over time, I am heading upwards a bit and I am hoping to survive long enough to hit that big tower.


Monday, December 26, 2016

Ark Keys: Solo Vs. Team

So... I finally decided to run some Arkadian Keys of various sizes. I had originally when they first came out but then some people found bugs, and I wanted to steer clear til the bugs were fixed. Now... Some serious changes have been made over time.

Team, still works like it used to. But, instead of turning over a full TT key to access the instance, you now give it to an NPC, where all but one pec of the value is refunded in the form of universal ammo, and you get a mini key, which then you go into the instance with. In order to you loot, of course you have to kill your way through all the mobs (if you skip mobs, your treasure in the chests is reduced in value accordingly). Multipliers are VERY rare, and generally you can expect break even in TT value of your ammo and even decay. Slightly above or slightly below. Sometimes the L stuff you loot has markup, sometimes not. Sometimes you might not get any items and just junk. Arkoins, Shrapnel, L guns, chips, just some of the stuff you can expect at the end of a team key. The mobs are rather easy up through key 5... From 5 to 10, you can expect they are quite a bit tougher.

If you don't want to hunt with anyone but still want chests, make a team, put someone in it, and just do your own thing. All it requires is a team be made, not that the team mates go in with you. But you don't get any loot unless you can kill the bosses and reach the treasure chests and open them.

SOLO:

Solo ark keys can be ran by talking to the NPC in the room with the doors at Aakas. You are allowed to pause and resume due to disconnects according to the NPC... But the double edged sword is, you loot mobs as you go, like normal mobs. I notice loot is more likely to give you a multiplier, and the higher keys you will have better chances at better multipliers running it solo... And of course instant specific loot still drops like the Arkoins. Arkoins currently can be redeemed for L armor, L guns, and clothing at the Supply Depot on the planets surface.

But the risk is lower for those of you who are uncertain what level of key you can handle.

More info on the mobs you can expect can be found at http://arkadiaforum.com/threads/aakas-info.8310/

...

I will point out that you will want to use autoloot pills, it will reduce the time spent trying to loot stuff, and some of the mobs may become bugged and you cannot right click on them and loot them. A auto loot pill should eliminate these losses as forseeably they would be automatically looted. I haven't tried it but my next time through a key I will.

If you want a guarantee of items, run a Team key, alone or with a friend. If you only care about ped return, your best bet for a good return are the solo keys, and I do very well with the Sal'diresh vault keys. Just remember the Ubo do pure poison damage.

You will need between 1 to 2 hours to successfully complete an instance usually. Just make sure you have adequate DPS, and make sure to have finishers, overkill I am told by ubers, does not find it's way into the treasure chests. So don't use a BFG to take out a level 0 rakta :)