Bronson Hughes wrote:Let's see:
3. If you're worried at all about competing directly with an MTU, it means that the wrecks in question must be valid targets for both you and the MTU. This means that the MTU belongs to someone else in your corp (a situation which I'll ignore for a moment) or that the wrecks in question are abandoned (i.e. "blue") wrecks. These wrecks are already free game for anyone. This also means most likely that you're at a station, gate, or other reasonably public area and are competing for the loot of killed suicide gankers so you should have no reasonable expectation of "dibs". If that's the case...fit more sensor boosters and lock that wreck first, or kill the MTU and scoop the loot.
tl;dr: MTUs are fine. The only wrecks you can directly compete with them for are already fair game for everybody.
EDIT: Typos....
Loot is one thing, but watching MTUs play frisbee with an empty wreck is another thing entirely.
I have no qualms with blowing up the MTU, but under the current suspect mechanics and how many of them you can come across at once it's simply an unreasonable expectation. Therefore make it so the attacker is only suspect flagged to the MTU's owner / fleet / corporation. Not everyone else in the area. I'd happily whittle down an abandoned MTU with my Noctis if it meant I'm not going to turn myself into a pinata for all those watching.
After a MTU grabs a wreck it's basically gone. MTUs are automated and as such have perfect activation of their tractor beams. What does this mean? If you miss the initial lock and grab it's going to be chain grabbed if there's a group of them set up. I've sat at a MTU pulling in a wreck waiting to snatch it with my own Tractor Beam after it was finished only to have it instantly tractored by another MTU with inhuman speed. The instant the first MTU deactivates its tractor beam a second MTU instantly activates its own. If nothing else this mechanic should be looked at as well.
And while I am not a suicide ganker myself I am adamantly against AFK playstyles in general. I
should have dibs over someone who isn't in system or who isn't online. If they want to beat me they should have to be there at the keyboard manually targeting wrecks and salvaging them like I am.
Make no mistake, I'm not suggesting that somehow I can pull a can or wreck out of the grip of someone else using a ship-mounted Tractor Beam or suggesting I be able to tractor wrecks and cans I do not own. But, allowing someone to set and forget an object like that with the current suspect mechanics involved and the instant tractor activation is unreasonable. The fact I'm being inhibited in cleaning space of abandoned wrecks by other abandoned objects is unreasonable.
I have no issues with any of the other mechanics revolving around Tractor Beams and Salvagers, but this one single thing irks me to no end.