jodgi

I'm not laughing, I get it. If I cheat, or even scumbag too hard, in PvP I'm eroding the very basis of what's fun for me. On the flipside; I'm completely psychopathic towards PvE.

Yes, the nuclear option.

Within minutes after maintenance the "player" count is up to 80-150 every day. Chew on that... If that is so this guide will go poof and I will cease and desist. I'm lawful evil, not chaotic. edit: Oh, and I should add: When I play PvP I'm a frikkin' Paladin, I won't get dirty even if it gives me an advantage.

Books and materials used in all (?) the elite mods with some expensive trading goods thrown on top.

I have this sneaking suspicion that a ninja like you have an even easier and safer way of going about this. Dude, don't feel bad. When you add PvE you open the barn doors wide and all and every kind of shit is coming your way. I've tried to fight it for years. I failed. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. Oh, my sweet summer child...

It's up!

Disclaimer The mix of PvE and PvP in a game is such a weird thing for me, it is a matter of taste, for sure, but it causes me quite a bit of irritation, frustration and I constantly get in people’s face about terrible PvE and wonderful PvP around here. I’m writing this as a guide but I will follow my modus operandi of prodding and poking PvE, agitating and polarizing. Consider yourself warned. Introduction This game has always revolved around fighting ships. We have several modifications more of less available that changes or enhances the way our ships fight. The very best of these modifications are behind a PvE grindwall. A few rather good modifications are behind a PvP exclusive grindwall. A competitive PvP player will want to have all the best stuff eventually, but he is forced, directly or indirectly, to deal with the PvE aspect to get everything. Some argue that mods aren’t that important, but I don’t believe that even for a second. You can get normal stuff from bullying bots in the OW, second tier stuff from fishing bottles in OW and top tier stuff from epic missions. I simply can’t bear the thought of spending time fighting stupidly overpowered bots to get stuff so I had to come up with a plan to avoid that completely. AFK fishing I may wish away absolutely everything PvE but it won’t happen. I decided to make my computer deal with PvE while I sleep, work, eat, go on vacation or what have you. With the stuff you get from bottles you can trade to get rich, make the best mods, trade for PvP marks or, as was my focus in the beginning, trade for the rarest PvE books. It worked for me; I afk fished for months, traded with people and ended up with all the books. This may be the easiest way to do it: Some set up super-effective alt-fueled and sandboxie powered fishing: I decided to use a dedicated physical computer with an alt so my main computer’s resources were always free to play proper (PvP) or do whatever else I do on it. You may not have access to a dedicated afk fishing box or inclined to buy a second NA copy (You should, because if you close your eyes to the PvE stuff; NA is one of the best games ever and the guys more than deserves your patronage), but you can just use your main computer while you sleep and work or use whatever combination that suits you. I sail a basic cutter far away to a corner of some teleport zone to minimize being found by random players so I can sit there as long as I need or want. Since we still have F11 coords and teleport to port we’re able to save a bit of time, but even when those two features are taken away we can just point our ship in some direction, afk sail for some given amount of time and simply spend the time sailing the ship back when convenient. Don’t sail your ship outside the map as there is no fish nor bottles there. When you’re at the fishing spot you need some sort of keyboard/mouse automation to keep the client logged into the game. I’ve fallen back on basic cutters and a simple click routine that converts fish and then throws everything but bottles overboard. There are many tools available to automate clicking: SeeShell for some fancy image based clicking, clickermann for some advanced features or the super simple idiot friendly TinyTask just to start the list. Being an idiot I went for tinytask. You have to be careful that the click routine doesn’t make the split dialog pop up; It has to work whatever happens, and this is what I landed on: Right click the third slot to convert all fish - confirm - throw the second slot overboard - confirm - wait to avoid the “you can’t…” dialog - throw the top slot overboard - confirm - wait for the timeout for the next run. Notice I’ve selected “resources” to hide the bottles, it would be rather embarrassing to sit there throwing them overboard. I also sort the content with salt and meat on top. In some cases the routine might click “send to chat”, just make sure “global” isn’t selected and hide the chat window. This is how I record the routine in TinyTask: That’s basically it. I use the remote desktop thingy built into Chrome to access the fishing box after daily maintenance or updates to get it back up fishing. It works fine with little fuzz and I’ve even used my phone while on vacation to whip the box back into fishing. You have to spend 20 seconds every day to keep it going and that’s perfectly tolerable for me. I’ve lost three ships and a total of 5 bottles since I started. I don’t mind it as I’m not really losing anything. AFK fishing even provides content to guys who are willing to trawl around unused ports and remote spots at sea, that must be so boring I think they deserve the bottles that may or may not sit inside my carefree afk cutter. I’ve guesstimated the bottle drop rate at averaging super roughly one bottle each 160 days at sea or one bottle each 24 real hours. Is it ok to do this? I think it’s supercalifragalistically silly, but I get the best stuff for doing almost nothing. Also, nothing is more silly than doing PvE when PvP is available so afk fishing saves me from a greater evil, ergo it must be good. The best part is it gives me a feeling I’m using PvE against PvE, I’m sticking it to PvE man, if you will. It gives me great satisfaction.

Oh, the suspense!

That is an interesting question, and one that has caused quite a bit of shouting here.

The whole point of making us go out with large traders to pick up bottle loot is to make it a risk/reward thing. In many other threads you all celebrate high risk for big reward; Why do you feel different with wreck loot?

Good point, some day I may get to the point where I have more marks than I need. I'm still grinding for the last admiralty book and there will always be a need to withdraw the good admiralty mods. We'll see. I play very casually because I don't have enough hours to spend on NA. Ships have always been easy to get, even during austerity patch. Alt usage have made my ships ridiculously cheap and quick to click out. For a long time my alt focus has been to get the most expensive mods "for free" or at a very reasonable price. Someone might want to cut my access to the eco easy mode. Here's where the sandbox becomes the mythical monster eating it's own tail: If you manage to hurt me you've also hurt ten normal players much worse. (I can see the words forming in your heads: "Clan based NA." Well, good luck with that...)

True, lol. Doesn't make much of an entertaining read, though. It's also too risky for me because I do this wholesale and over long periods of time. Can't have some alt noticing my afk-er and coming with his main to pick up my five bottles, forts be damned. You also end up with bottles in remote locations and that can be a drag to transport; Either the bottles or the loot. The Russians do this up in Bermuda. I was there a few weeks ago and saw three big ships afk-fishing during off hours. I bet a raider squad could go into Bermuda during EU work hours and limp away with a few bottles. Also, I'm half expecting bottle drops to be turned off in zones or close to ports at some point.

My guide would take that into account.

Heh, you're describing the very reason why I decided to buy alts. I don't have the time nor the inclination to do terrible things like doing trade runs or grinding bots in order to get cash for the "enterprising individuals". I gladly supported GL with cash in order to protect myself from... um... enterprising markups. Euro traders is just inflation control. Traders went ballistic in the past, euro traders were put in place where shame should have been.

We almost never talk about this, do we? I wonder why we only whisper about it in remote recesses or giggle with guilty pleasure privately? I have an insane impulse to do a write-up on afk fishing. It would amuse me to do it with a serious face. Is there even interest in such a guide, or does EVERYONE already do it routinely?

I wonder... I haven't used the euro trader thing since before player production. Who uses it, for what and why? (Is it for people without alts and dlc? I'm assuming you can't get white oak, teak, carta or whatever else...)

Looks neat. I wonder about that "Old Scene" button/tag/info...

Thanks.

How do you know?

Just to be safe; That model is based on very old info. At a glance it still looks fine, tho...

I know I'm extremely biased. That's why we need scientific method to save us from ourselves.

How many answered that poll? Were the participants randomly selected? How valid do you reckon our polls are?

It's not only a feeling. "We want loads and loads of PVE content so we attract thousands of sheep who are happy chasing one pve carrot after the other. We need so much pve content that the sheep don't get discouraged when we bully them; There's always a new tasty pve carrot for them to get distracted by." Maybe it works? I wouldn't know because I've deliberately stayed away from games that offer "loads and loads of pve content". To me it seems impossible to get people to play the victim.

Please explain as I don't understand.

Ye, you're preaching to the choir. Who from the old guard who are critical of the repair system are still here posting? Hachi, me... Who else? I'd like to remind you that recharging repairs were introduced because people wanted to recover from mistakes. There is some form of skill involved with managing repairs, but I'll be blunt and say I place that at a lower level than the Sea Trials and Legends system. It's also well documented that cooldown repairs boosted by books and mods is something skilled and well equipped players are able to use as a rather large skill multiplier. I know many of you approve of- and enjoy that. I am NOT among your number. Don't worry, I think this game will remain to your liking regarding repairs.