Erovicious
Vanishing Point.
The Initiative.
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Posted - 2009.12.28 02:18:00 -
[1]
I would like to give feedback, and will try to avoid being opinionated as much as possible, simply representing what has and is occurring with the Infrastructure upgrades we've implemented. The following is a short list of activities in our 'upgraded' system.
Industry
1) Due to high end ores being mined out of the hidden belts in the first few hours after their respawn, they go largely unused following that. Miners head to other systems which have ABCM ores naturally (in far greater quantities) leaving dozens of hours worth of ore unmined (of mid-low end ores). Due to this, Industry index is not maintained and falls. Ours now hovers between a level 2 and level 3.
2) The accompanying Survey upgrades attached to the Industry index from what has been observed have produced little tangible result. Those sites that have been found generally seem to produce more from the Battleship rats that often guard it than the content of the sites themselves.
Military
1)As ratting pressure in this system is significantly less than the mining pressure, it is odd to us that the military Index seems to be easier to hold onto and improve. However, due to the huge size of the upgrades(Freighter sized, requiring Titan bridge logistics to get it to us) we have not as yet upgraded to Level 5, though we have the index.
2)With the Military Index at 4, and the appropriate upgrade installed, the Cosmic Anomalies(CA's) seem to be largely full of frigs/cruisers/battle-cruisers with a bare handful of Battleships thrown in. I believe our Index is predominantly supported by normal belt ratters. From feedback received, these belt ratters avoid the CA's almost entirely.
3)With the equivalent Entrapment upgrade installed, feedback leads me to believe that the Plex's located in the system are no more or no less common than they used to be. To my knowledge, exactly one DED plex has been located & run in the system since the appropriate upgrades have been installed. That particular plex was rated at 8/10.
Summary: (Opinion)
Pros:
1) The upgrades have provided a small amount of high-end ores to be mined in a system that does not produce them naturally.
Cons:
1) Mining(industry) index decay rate seems to be way too high. There is not enough motivation provided to mine in the upgraded system to maintain the level of activity the current rate requires.
2) Profession sites are only being harvested for the Battleship rats that guard them. The blueprints and assorted items gathered from them are not generally worth the time spent opening the containers. Blueprints only seem to be Large class rigs, most worthless in real application.
3)Size of upgrades are much too large. Our upgraded system is 30+ jumps from Empire, making it necessary to Titan bridge freighters across the distance just to carry in level 5 upgrades. While obviously we have the ability (as we wouldn't have a Hub at all if not) our Titan pilots have better things to do than play logistics. None of these upgrades (including the Hubs) should require anything larger than a Jump Freighter to move.
4) CA's need completely redone. We do not need Frig/Cruiser/BC anomalies in null-sec. At all. If that is all you can kill, go back to Empire. As you improve this Index, the quality of ALL of the CA's should improve, not just one or two.
5) Military index and Industry index decay rates seem way out of whack. Industry index is much too difficult to maintain. Arguably, the Military index is too easy.
These are just a few of my thoughts & observations. I hope they do provide some useful feedback on how the upgrades are actually getting used.
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