Huge HWS Patch | HWS Marketplace v5 | Gameplay Changes Part 3

HWS Announcements
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Hi HWS Community,

we are very proud to announce another HWS Patreon Goal was reached and with that an incredible Milestone in one of the oldest HWS Features: the HWS Marketplace!

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HWS Marketplace v5

Again, with incredible efforts and help by @Hayawen we are releasing the HWS Marketplace v5 now!
Let me recap the biggest fundamental changes:

  • It is fully integrated in our HWS Connect database now. It was part of EAH before
  • With faster and more detailed way to store Marketplace data, we can start to provide enhanced data in the future like a Price Alert, Price History, etc.
  • You don’t need to type any commands for trading anymore! (ti:sell:xx) Use the Marketplace Backpack view in HWS Connect to easily sell your items
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  • Massive requests and feedbacks later: Epic items are finally epic again! It was well known that you could put damaged items in the Marketplace and get fresh repaired items back. No more!
  • Sales go directly in your backpack now. No exchange window or ingame confirmations anymore.
  • Smooth integration to other Marketplace conditions and features (such as HWS Patrons get)

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Note: The plan for the next season is to completely remove the ingame Marketplace (Trading Station) to reduce confusion and obstacles for new players.

Gameplay Changes

The reason there are some Gameplay changes during the late season is for one the natural population drop for certain reasons and for the other the preparation and feedback gathering for the coming new season.
For most of these changes please click on the HWS Config Guide link below to understand better:
https://forum.empyrion-homeworld.net/t/hws-config-effectiveness-weapon-system-ews/9161/47

Mining Improvements

The recent mining improvements were a welcome change for many. To enhance the experience I boosted the mining in a more consistent way now - giving you more in a shorter time without deforming the terrain as much as in the last season.
See here again:
https://forum.empyrion-homeworld.net/t/hws-config-effectiveness-weapon-system-ews/9161/47

Weapon Balancements

The big innovative meta of Carbon Blocks and Shield EWS on HWS became quite popular, also on other servers. While it still needs balancements here and there some valuable feedback was sent. For example too long fights or the superior SVs against CVs.
In the recent HWS Config patch I addressed couple of those notes and looking forward to the outcome!

Xeno Reincarnation

As written, the Xeno Blocks are still a strange type of Block, mainly known and used on HWS Garage ships.
It should be a better incentive though to actively raid POIs or trade Xeno Substrate to equip your CV Fleet with Xeno Blocks.
That is the reason for a Hitpoint boost by 50% Mass value.

Others

  • Fixed Cosmic Race PDA Mission Dealer on Pandora
  • Finally implemented all new HWS Garage ships. Thanks again to every Creator!
  • Fixed some POI loot drops
  • Fixed some PDA mistakes
  • Fixed HWS Stimpack issues (please let us know your feedback about them)
  • Fixed couple of Eton 2.0 issues
  • Prepared more content coming soon

A lot of time went into all of that and we hope you can give feedback about it as much as possible to make your experience as best as possible on HWS!
Also please let me know if I should spend time on another HWS Survey with all the new stuff we got in HWS 10 / Alpha 10 or not.

Thanks for reading, playing on HWS and your support! :bowing_man:

Your HWS Team

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I like most of the changes. I would like to address the epic weapons and armor. The epic weapons are the only ones worth using in POIs. The damage on the lesser weapons is way too low to be effective outside of some of the really easy starter POIs. (Perhaps improving damage on the lesser tier weapons would be in order.)

The epic weapons drop often and are affordable on the market. On average 70k credits for an Epic Assault Rifle. So they are actually worth the cost since you can do at least 2 hard POIs before it breaks, and make enough money to replace it in loot.

However the Epic Armor is a whole different story. In about 3 tough POIs you can easily wreck the armor and use up it’s repairs. Especially if you encounter Rocket Launcher wielding troops. And with an insane low drop rate, as well as a cost of 6 MILLION credits in the market. Its just not worth using.

The cost of the armor is way too high. It would take 10 really tough POIs to maybe make that much credits in loot if your lucky. With no way to restore the Epic armor. It’s doubtful that even wealthy players will use it for much of anything. And instead just keep it as a non-viable trophy item.

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:wink:

I agree with the strength of the epic weapons and armor being necessary for POIs. At least when soloing.

For me I don’t look too much at the return value in $$ of raiding a POI since I usually stuff the items in my factory. I just do it for the challenge or change in scenery.

Spend about an hour mining Gold if you know where to find it and that usually takes care of my financial returns. That and season 7 GG mining 24/7 :wink:

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This was a pretty big one @RexXxuS and team.

I’m really loving these quality of life changes too. Especially the direct to backpack feature. I can’t recall how many times I’ve accidentally closed the pop-up and not received my items in the past.

Xeno block improvement is definitely welcome. If I remember in the past it was lighter but did not have as many hit points as combat steel. Now I can start stocking xeno and designing ships to use it. :slight_smile:

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The epic armor definitely has its issues, perhaps a place that you could buy them, like the epic weapons. Maybe an npc trader could sell them, lets say for 150k approximately, this cost may seem cheap but the npc’s that buy them, their only giving 200k-300k per armor. In this way anyone selling them on the market would have to lower their prices down a lot, even selling them at 500k on the market would make them worth buying and the player can decide to compete with other players to buy them from the npc traders or buy them straight from the market

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Also Rex, thanks for the improvements, they look great and cant wait to use them

Great job!

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Good job!!! :+1:

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Suggest reworking values on heavy armor. It is practically useless.

It should be a better alternative to epic than it is now — and more important with epic permanently wearing out.

All armors found in loot other than epic go to trash immediately.

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In what way?
The current intention of Heavy Armor is to be the best Armor available in the game if equipped with Booster.
The only downside: you have to specialize one particular stat.
If you do, you can reach a higher Armor value, Volume value, Heat resistance, etc. than Epic Armor.

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I suggest in all ways. I keep one heavy on hand with 4 multi’s in it for when the epic wears out and nothing else on hand.

Problem with specializing, it gives up too much in other aspects. Especially becoming too heavy or limiting mobility. Taking an armor boosted, or eva boosted heavy armor on a high grav planet is a problem.

Only using multiboost in it doesnt provide enough benefit outside of not making one move and jump like a slug.

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Mkt pricing diff betwen heavy and epic is an indication of too great a difference of epic armor and heavy armor capability and availability.

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Speaking of Availability. Has anyone made a list of locations to get Epic Armor? I know of a couple. One that requires minimal effor and another that requires a lot.

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I expect most know about Atlantis. Have pulled, but it’s very, very rare drop out of purple containers in pve playfields. There is also, I believe the space poi in phoenix. A tough poi that is costly to take. Just guessing, but one may wear out an epic armor, just getting an epic armor (plus some other loot) — may not be a fair trade off for time and expense invested.

Anticipate more drop from pvp playfield poi’s – haven’t spent much time in poi’s there this season.

Main indicator to me of a problem (and this is before they can no longer be repaired through the market which will make it much worse) is the difference in market pricing of epic vs. heavy. 100-200 times or more the price for epic vs. heavy. And the heavy’s on the market generally sit there unsold.

Mediums and lights — can’t be given away. Not worth time to put any of them (hvy, medium, or light) on market – easier to simply trash.

Imo — if the availability and usefulness of various armors was better balanced, the market would reflect a more linear (or couple, maybe up to 10-times) pricing between them. At least a good bit more reasonable than current.

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I can not help but agree with @SwissSteel1 on this topic. I have never even put a heavy armor on during my HWS career. I wish I had, but I haven’t. The first thing I did was join a faction, the first thing we did was fly out to Atlantis and get my epic heavy armor.

I have since spent months, with little real life work. I used that time, to spend close to 13 hours a day on Empyrion. For at least the last 3 months. All on HWS, and I was promoted. Now I am an admin in our faction. Anyone want to take a guess at what I do when I recruit new players? You probably guessed it, I welcome them into the faction, ask if they got their epic heavy armor, and then if they haven’t I go with them so they can get it. They always talk about how much better it is than heavy armor, they can carry things, they can jet pack without slamming into the ground immediately.

Heavy armor is essentially useless on HWS, not because of it’s smaller carrying capacity, or because you can’t jet pack as high. Not because you can’t take as much damage, or because you have to repair it more often. It’s because of all of those features combined, I really really do appreciate all of your time and effort making this server great. Not just Rex, Jasha, H1mynameisDavid, but also some of those veteran players who help out new players and who are willing to voice their opinions.

This may just be something we differ on, and the community may not agree with me, but I do beg you to always listen to the community input and value it as much as your own. Eleon made that mistake with Alpha 9, they didn’t release their annual survey. They said this is our idea, we like it, we are going to turn it into an update and call it Alpha 9. Some of the player feedback was positive, and it has gotten better over time, but the majority of it was negative.

Many of us still grumble about not having enough weight in our inventory (why HWS added more volume) or not having enough room in our containers (why HWS buffed containers and container extensions), and most important of all, why new players get stuck slamming their hands down on the W key and space bar, because they don’t have any clue that combat steel they got from their fa:supply that they put in their cargo container is stopping them.

I suggest just upgrading the heavy armor, there are a dozen other things you can do, but most would take a lot more effort. For instance, you could add a whole new kind of armor, but that would still leave light, heavy, and medium armor sitting in the player’s trashcan. Thank you, and I appreciate everyone keeping the server civil and in such good shape.

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If you do, you can reach a higher Armor value, Volume value, Heat resistance, etc. than Epic Armor.

maybe volume but the armor and heat resitance?
epic:
epic

heavy armor with 4 armor upgraded gives 900 Armor value, epic has 1000:
armor

heavy armor with 4 insulation boosters gives temperature zone 20°C to 375°C, epic gives -255°C to 735 °C

iso

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That is a mistake then.
I’ll rework all booster and armor in the next step to make each of them interesting and worth trading.
Each of them will have a place to use.
Maybe I even activate the epic medium armor…

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Maybe it could have a slight speed boost over epic heavy armor? :wink:

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that sounds like an awesome idea!