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Trivaldi
29-09-12, 01:54
Hello Runners,

As you will have noticed shortly after the launch of the new Titan [EU] server, we made the decision to close down the remaining Ceres Labs. This decision was not taken lightly but we felt it necessary to remove these much abused sectors, to improve the quality of the Titan experience.

We appreciate that this decision brought about frustration as some runners had managed to gather WoC discs prior to the closure. Unfortunately this is not something we can remedy in light of the closures.

Please appreciate the main reason for the closure of the Ceres Labs, is to remove a further avenue of cheating and exploiting which has been abused for a number of years. A necessary evil, if you will. In time we hope to provide a more robust Wisdom of Ceres experience but there is a lot of work to do in this area.

For now in order to compensate for the removal of the labs, we have developed a temporary solution allowing the acquisition of WoC discs to continue. In the coming week across the Wastelands, a number of field laboratories will start to appear. These will be in various sectors across the entire Wasteland map to provide even and fair distribution. At set but not disclosed intervals disc dropping Ceres mobs will spawn in these locations (along with their none-drop variants), ready to do battle with whoever discovers them – the spoils of war as the prize to those brave Runners.

These field labs are protected from mass farming as their reset cannot be so easily triggered like the labs – only time will tell. The wide open spaces around the labs will also make for a more team-centric challenge, something made far more likely thanks to the increase in populations. These are difficult mobs to kill and always should have been, sadly their effectiveness was reduced in the circumstances they were initially deployed. We like to think this temporary solution addresses all of these issues, creating a more challenging and (more importantly!) fun team experience for everyone.

We will inform you once these labs have been deployed but not divulge their locations. We hope you have fun finding them.

See you in game,
Your Neocron Support Team.

Forget My Name
29-09-12, 01:56
When the missions are ready to be handed out, Black Dragon will make sure to leave our foot prints on anyone who gets in our way.

WuTangClan
29-09-12, 02:05
Kind of like the old Kami chips..]i think i like it..

dWintermut3
29-09-12, 03:08
I never got to experience the Ceres labs because I quit shortly after BDoY, however I am simply happy that the disks will be available AND they've been restored to being an actual epic achievement not a trivial task for cheap exploiters.

Forget My Name
29-09-12, 03:18
I honestly don't care about the WOCs per se.... I am more excited about hunting these spots around the world and seeing if I can take them down :)

Chuck Norris
29-09-12, 03:22
[ edited - Problem? Email helpdesk@neocron.info ]

Doc Holliday
29-09-12, 03:29
WTB PPU! :)

great. glad its providing an option. sounds like quite a good work around. Will these guys drop techs if they are no longer inside caves? has this been considered?

Faid
29-09-12, 05:16
Sounds good to me, I hope these mobs are actually worthy of WOC status though

William Antrim
29-09-12, 12:41
WTB PPU! :)

great. glad its providing an option. sounds like quite a good work around. Will these guys drop techs if they are no longer inside caves? has this been considered?

I'm on it sir.

How is looting going to work with these new mobs though? If you're looking for a team focused game and then only one disk drops.... well, to say there will be murders is probably an understatement!

EnZyme X
29-09-12, 12:55
Good step forwards, but please take out all high level aoe-drones as people are already starting to exploit in MC5 etc., economy will be fucked soon

ledur
29-09-12, 13:17
The droneurs operates everywhere .. it faudrais that Mj do some things!

Trivaldi
29-09-12, 13:29
Will these guys drop techs if they are no longer inside caves?
That's not something we can do without a patch. These are the same mobs, including some... explosive... old foes, just in a new habitat. I get the feeling the Neocronicle will have some important news soon...

How is looting going to work with these new mobs though?
Like in the caves there will be more than one "chance" to acquire a disc at each field lab. You're just gonna have to work hard for those chances. WoC discs should have always been hard to collect which is why the mobs are so high level. Certain elements of their implementation just made them a piece of cake to work around.

William Antrim
29-09-12, 14:20
Ok cheers triv.


Did you see my email yet btw (on an unrelated note ofc!)

Doc Holliday
29-09-12, 14:28
Cool. thank you for the info once again.

Ghostface_Speak
29-09-12, 16:31
not bad *clap clap*

Faid
29-09-12, 17:21
So the drop rate for the disc will be the same? 1 outta like every 50 or so prototypes? This is gonna be fun :lol:

L0KI
29-09-12, 17:56
So the drop rate for the disc will be the same? 1 outta like every 50 or so prototypes? This is gonna be fun :lol:

I can already see clans fighting over the mob spawns. It's going to be epic :)

William Antrim
29-09-12, 19:06
Im going back to Low tech Pe or Tank then.

Faid
29-09-12, 23:11
The only thing I can hope for is that they have these events in all different timezones, I don't even know if they have any American GM's or night-owl Euro GM's available durring US primetime. I am honestly looking foward to doing these events though, I love big GM events. Anyone remember when they used to do those events where doy was attacking the gates of Neocron? That was awesome, doy bots everywhere even some anti city clans attacking with rhinos and such, was great:D

Mokoi
29-09-12, 23:24
the spawns are somewhat automated, so you need not worry.
apart from that, rest assured that Zoltan, myself and others have been available almost 'round the clock lately.

Trivaldi
01-10-12, 03:44
Not to be a massive tease or anything...

https://dl.dropbox.com/s/ptdr2grcydgc11q/ceres_small_teaser.jpg

More information tomorrow. ;)

Drachenpaladin
01-10-12, 04:15
Guess its either Canyon or the steppe area southern the desert. Happy hunting.

Faid
01-10-12, 07:13
OMF they're bringing the cere's launchers back! Havent seen them since the old tunnels were closed. :D

Ghostface_Speak
01-10-12, 14:58
While i love the idea (and the fact that you are actively looking to fix the issue of "not beeing able to loot WoC disks") i hope you TEST these Labcamps.See if they are doable/behave properly & make sense [not like those AnarchyBreed negative-factionsymp missions when they got introduced].

Time will tell,still good work so far

Trivaldi
01-10-12, 15:20
While i love the idea (and the fact that you are actively looking to fix the issue of "not beeing able to loot WoC disks") i hope you TEST these Labcamps.See if they are doable/behave properly & make sense [not like those AnarchyBreed negative-factionsymp missions when they got introduced].

Time will tell,still good work so far
The labs have been designed in a way that tactics will be required from a team of runners to succeed. You can't simply run at the labs, tag some agro and flee. You'll need to pick off some stragglers, draw some enemies out from their cover and deal with the mobs in turn where possible. We'll be watching in the wings to make sure the difficulty isn't over the top as the likelihood is, if it's not a reasonable challenge it will be too hard at first, rather than too easy. I can then adjust the spawns in reaction to how the first few teams find the locations.

This is something we can adjust on an ad hoc basis, which we will do if we feel its required. This flexibility comes thanks to numerous improvement in the back end made by Zoltan, ArkHive and Alduin.

\\Fényx//
01-10-12, 17:00
The labs have been designed in a way that tactics will be required from a team of runners to succeed. You can't simply run at the labs, tag some agro and flee. You'll need to pick off some stragglers, draw some enemies out from their cover and deal with the mobs in turn where possible. We'll be watching in the wings to make sure the difficulty isn't over the top as the likelihood is, if it's not a reasonable challenge it will be too hard at first, rather than too easy. I can then adjust the spawns in reaction to how the first few teams find the locations.

This is something we can adjust on an ad hoc basis, which we will do if we feel its required. This flexibility comes thanks to numerous improvement in the back end made by Zoltan, ArkHive and Alduin.
I think these should also be made for a team of capped, rare equipped players imo, if a team struggles because they have 'normal' gear, then that should be understandable, dont lower down their strength because someone cries they cant do it with a blessed ppu...

Trivaldi
01-10-12, 17:17
We won't ;)

Other than the Genotoxic Nightmare at 127/127 (which admittedly if far from the challenge it should be), these are the hardest enemies in the game at 124/124 and as such should be the ultimate end game challenge.

Chuck Norris
01-10-12, 19:11
im not understanding how mobs out in the open are going to be more difficult then a bunch of them crammed into a small space together... you realize they will be single pullable like this?

Should be fun to see how this is implemented

William Antrim
01-10-12, 19:22
I think that that is the idea. So other people ie not droners stand a chance against them. With a small corridor and so many shooting even a rare-buffed ppu gets a beatdown.

Tanks etc can't stand that. Out in the open people can use better tactics to spread out, flank and use other tactics to keep the damage spread evenly.

Dropout
01-10-12, 19:44
I think that that is the idea. So other people ie not droners stand a chance against them. With a small corridor and so many shooting even a rare-buffed ppu gets a beatdown.

Tanks etc can't stand that. Out in the open people can use better tactics to spread out, flank and use other tactics to keep the damage spread evenly.

^This.

Hmm why is it that I agree on pretty much all the subjects you write about? o_O

Dissenter
01-10-12, 21:06
Found them! staying well away for now. haha. I'll keep the location a secret ;)

L0KI
01-10-12, 21:17
Found them! staying well away for now. haha. I'll keep the location a secret ;)

Also found them. Taken down 11 of them and not a single WoC disc yet. I am guessing the drop rate is looooooow. ;)

Drachenpaladin
01-10-12, 21:26
^This.

Hmm why is it that I agree on pretty much all the subjects you write about? o_O

Fanboi?

William Antrim
01-10-12, 22:41
Great minds think alike walker. That's all it is.

Drachenpaladin
01-10-12, 22:53
Great minds think alike walker. That's all it is.

Either that or modern society and mass media cultivated a generation that is unable of differentiated ideas :x

Trivaldi
01-10-12, 23:35
The Neocronicle has some coverage on this recent discovery, I guess some more innocent runners stumbled into the lion's den before the Neocronicle could go to print! ;)

Neocronicle - Mysterious Facilities Appear in the Wastelands! (http://forum.neocron.com/entry.php?66-Mysterious-Facilities-Appear-in-the-Wastelands)

edit: It appears only one honey pot has been disturbed... ;)

Dropout
01-10-12, 23:59
Great minds think alike walker. That's all it is.

Indeed ;)


Either that or modern society and mass media cultivated a generation that is unable of differentiated ideas :x

No TV nor any radio for 5-6 years.
Only form of "mass media" I use is the internet, and I only use that for porn, work and games - in that order :p
Although papers "probably" are a form of mass media aswell.. Uh well.. Hehe

Bruder Malmsdoo
02-10-12, 04:02
Seems to be a well thought solution. What about increasing drastically the needed XP for WOC? (1 year leveling should be min.)
That would give you the time to think about the WOC-Weapons.

Bruder Malmsdoo
02-10-12, 04:03
What about increasing drastically the needed XP for WOC too? (1 year leveling should be min.)
That would give you the time to think about the balancing of the WOC-Weapons.

Doc Holliday
02-10-12, 04:53
What about increasing drastically the needed XP for WOC too? (1 year leveling should be min.)
That would give you the time to think about the balancing of the WOC-Weapons.

this post needs to go in the levelling too easy thread. then it needs to be filed away as the dumbest suggestion for this game ever. sorry but the grind does not need to be extended. It simply doesnt fit the game.

Bruder Malmsdoo
02-10-12, 05:10
Then it needs to be filed away as the dumbest suggestion for this game ever. sorry but the grind does not need to be extended. It simply doesnt fit the game.

Sweet. Read ... read carefully again .... think ... think again .... and then answer.

Pressure to grind becomes much lower, when the WOC-weapons are correctly balanced towards the Rare-weapons, because then they are not a "must have" to be competitive.

Dropout
02-10-12, 10:39
Sweet. Read ... read carefully again .... think ... think again .... and then answer.

Pressure to grind becomes much lower, when the WOC-weapons are correctly balanced towards the Rare-weapons, because then they are not a "must have" to be competitive.

Still a horrible idea..

Ivan Eres
02-10-12, 10:45
Sweet. Read ... read carefully again .... think ... think again .... and then answer.

Pressure to grind becomes much lower, when the WOC-weapons are correctly balanced towards the Rare-weapons, because then they are not a "must have" to be competitive.

Yes, I see it the same.

WOC should not in any way be a requirement for PvP in my opinion.

WOC should only be there for the prestige, comparable to trophies and well outfitted appas imo.

And then leveling WOC should take a little bit more time than only one week ...

However, I don't think it was meant to be that fast to level WOC anyway. I think it's only possible through Drones and Regants.

Drachenpaladin
02-10-12, 10:59
Well, leveling to WoC1 within one week is only possible due to farming Regands and probably even faster with exploiting.
If we have some fixes installed and some adjustments to the mobs, THEN we can talk about adjusting the WoC limit.

But in general, if WoC becomes a just nice to have i'm ok with that.

I guess giving the WoC weapons identical stats liek the highest TL lowtech weapons (Warhammer = Moonstriker and so on) things should be fine i guess.

I would LOVE a SPAS 12 ingame^^

William Antrim
02-10-12, 12:31
Bruder.

It's a terrible idea.

Please don't flame others when we disagree.

The levelling time is the single most divisive issue on this forum currently.

You have to understand that many of us have literally grown up with this game and therefore we have much less time to committ to games than we used to.

We want our capped chars from terra without all of the bugs and issues there and we accepted the new server and item wipe graciously.

However please stop with all of these "make stuff harder to get" threads. Just because terra was populated with rich people with huge gun collections does not mean that you should nerf anything on titan.

That stuff took 7 years to acquire in many cases.

The whole community loves nc as it is currently but just look at the negative responses to the make levelling harder thread and then think how popular this suggestion will be.

Kanedax
02-10-12, 13:46
If you're going to make WoC take a year you may as well eliminate it from the game. Somebody was smoking the good shit.

Faid
02-10-12, 16:37
Pressure to grind becomes much lower, when the WOC-weapons are correctly balanced towards the Rare-weapons, because then they are not a "must have" to be competitive.


WOC should not in any way be a requirement for PvP in my opinion.

I'm getting tired of seeing these statements. Woc is not a requirement for pvp at all. Why do you think woc is a "must have" to be competitive? Aside from the AK, which is less powerful than the disruptor imo, there is no OP woc weapon. OP wars and fights are not dominated by woc weapon wielding chars. Look at the fightnight video if you dont believe me, most of those guys were on tanks with ion cannons, devs and cs's. If you want to cry about something cry about those weapons.

Kane Gregory
02-10-12, 17:25
Right faid! The only guy who really need WoC is PE. Spy, Tank rarely use their WoC Armor or weapons. Monks have only the PA.

Bruder Malmsdoo
02-10-12, 17:55
edited

Bruder Malmsdoo
02-10-12, 17:55
Bruder.

Please don't flame others when we disagree.



I dont have anything against other opinions, if they are presented as factual arguments.
But if I get flamed (remarks to be dump), i flame back, especially if the flamer didn't read my whole post.
The game is not fine how it is. I think you will agree, that the balancing never finished and a lot of weapons aren't viable at all. We have to bring that game to a state, where it is also attractive to players, who dont suffer the kind of nostalgia we do. Only that will garantee the longtime-survival of the game we both love. It has so much potential, but it must be attractive for all kinds of players not only the ones, who's main goal is to pvp as fast as possible. I respect your point of view, but i do not share it atm. Feel free to convince me. :)

BTW: I too have a fulltime job an lost all my stuff. First on Mars...then on Terra. Moreover:
1) A few posts in the english-language-forum don't speak for the whole community and lot of people don't visit the forum at all
2) I don't want it to be harder to cap a char. I want only WOC to be, what it name promises and how it was intended in the beginning. (--> see threads WOC-introduction)

Dropout
02-10-12, 20:36
Right faid! The only guy who really need WoC is PE. Spy, Tank rarely use their WoC Armor or weapons. Monks have only the PA.

When was the last time you saw a pistol spy without WoC? :p
It is only pistol users that REALLY needs WoC though - and only because of shit balancing of the weapons.

Trivaldi
02-10-12, 20:45
Please take debate over the requirement of WoC to another thread.

Doc Holliday
03-10-12, 04:42
I'm getting tired of seeing these statements. Woc is not a requirement for pvp at all. Why do you think woc is a "must have" to be competitive? Aside from the AK, which is less powerful than the disruptor imo, there is no OP woc weapon. OP wars and fights are not dominated by woc weapon wielding chars. Look at the fightnight video if you dont believe me, most of those guys were on tanks with ion cannons, devs and cs's. If you want to cry about something cry about those weapons.


less powerful than a broken gun which is already agreed to be OP :)

The discussion of woc divides this community more than any other. definitely requires a new thread? um hasnt it all been said before and is just rhetoric now?

Bruder i read your post a couple times (you double posted it for starters :) ) and in truth i still disagree. 1 year to get something??? I dont care if it is THE weapon to have or just another aesthetic piece to the game 1 year is rediculous.

I hate to cite wow in this but they offer that achievement and a mount for something similar. I know very few people who ever bothered with it because of the rediculous requirements and that is purely for a non pvp item. yes its bragging rights but honestly i dont think many folks will go for that one. i know very few who have bothered. you had to play for minimum of a year and do so many conditional achievements and you had to make sure you were there logged in each month to do them as the different themed months came up. yeah. a total grindfest in some ways but not having to the same old crap week in week out in one spot on one mob. thats the difference.

How would u break up the repetitive grind of levelling for woc.

this is to try and reiterate my point in a non flaming way.

on a side note. i love the PAs. especially the gold ones. The PAs for a pe actually make them look really cool and this is coming from someone who never ever wore PA until forced to and even then it took me a while to get used to it. and i would still drop it if i had the option.

IF we could find a way of making WoC become the icing on the cake (to pretty it up and make it look cool for the people who wanted to stand there in p1 and go yo check me out. Im thinking back to the old nc1 days of tanks in gold pa or was it red? the one u needed 3 rare drugs for just to put it on) where more weapons below the woc requirements are viable and useful and woc is like a different skin to some of those weapons in regards of balance and usefulness. Also while you are at it we should introduce MORE WoC weapons. Shuffle them round if need be but i think that ALL classes should have something available in some way to them.

I realise WoC is based on historic modern day "21st" century items and the last time i went to a bar i didnt see a blind guy with a bald head casting spells at someone because he was refused a drink but i think that the weapons shouldnt be restricted to what a PE or a Spy can wield. Make something for a Tank (other than the wocet launcher. some kind of cannon please. or a GOOD melee weapon that looks cool. Hockey stick and jason mask? ) Give monks something also some kind of uber cool spell. This will need more creativity than i have right now.

If you cant offer something for all classes so everyone is accounted for to make it totally fair across the board then really I think WoC shouldnt have been in the game in the first place.

Hey your a spy u get all this really cool shit to play with :DDD oh. your a monk :( well here. you can have this pa. Oh yeah. and your gonna love it. Doesnt really cut it with me ;)


so feel free to flame away. or not.

\\Fényx//
03-10-12, 12:20
Make something for a Tank (other than the wocet launcher. some kind of cannon please. or a GOOD melee weapon that looks cool. Hockey stick and jason mask? )

man i want a fuckin chainsaw for my melee tank, that would rock

Doc Holliday
03-10-12, 14:06
man i want a fuckin chainsaw for my melee tank, that would rock

THIS! Why the Eff didnt i think of this. GO FEN!!!

Dribble Joy
03-10-12, 19:04
Chainsaws, rocket hammers, drills and other industrial equipment.

William Antrim
03-10-12, 19:27
Chainsaws, rocket hammers, drills and other industrial equipment.

Drills lol. Who gets them? Woc constructors?

Dribble Joy
03-10-12, 19:31
Just as a melee weapon. Suitably brutal.

Jack hammers too.

Edit:
And why aren't there higher level stilettos? NC seems like just the right kind of game to get into a fight with a mad fucker with a shiv.

Doc Holliday
04-10-12, 04:06
So we should have sets of car keys and broken beer bottles too :)

haha. Chainsaw would be very cool. Powerdrills not so sure. you might look the guy from home improvement. Some kind of tool for construction is however a very interesting thought.

So researchers get a magnifying glass :) and constructors get a spirit level. good ideas? :)

\\Fényx//
09-10-12, 15:14
We won't ;)

Other than the Genotoxic Nightmare at 127/127 (which admittedly if far from the challenge it should be), these are the hardest enemies in the game at 124/124 and as such should be the ultimate end game challenge.

not really the case is it though, they are incredible XP for a team of /20's&/30's ill tell you that, and as a bonus, were getting disks if the day comes that we cap those chars ...
The launcher AI is, im sorry to say it, completely retarded, they are too slow to move, too slow to react, and even worse, they seem to wander off at times when they are down to half health. they get stuck in the deep water and can be picked off with a lazar rifle if you had the time and patience...
you can pull a group of 8 and do them solo on a strength 50 tank... thats so wrong...

Trivaldi
09-10-12, 15:25
The 'lab' which has no supporting structures out in the rather moist swamp region, seems to be the most farmed at this point and really needs to be remedied/moved/removed as it's a simple spam spawn rather than a constructed area. The other three labs seem to be disturbed far less often, I assume this is either down to them being harder or at least because the ... damp ... 'lab' is so much easier to farm.

Does anyone have any feedback related to the other labs containing cyborgs and the mixed lab of launchers and cyborgs? If so please post your finding, just don't post the locations!

The launchers are certainly much less effective in open space than a cramped underground as their rockets can be avoided with little risk of AoE damage.

Dribble Joy
09-10-12, 16:08
I'd avoid the launchers entirely unless their speed and range can be increased. Cyborgs would make the whole enterprise a lot more difficult.

damien vryce
09-10-12, 17:15
the cyborg y reps. seem to have unlimited range. I tried ranging them at 542 meters and died in 2 shots. at my maximum rifle range.

Dribble Joy
09-10-12, 17:42
A few bits of OP wall or some for cover might help. I don't really think they are intended to be easy or maybe even possible to solo.

L0KI
09-10-12, 19:07
The 'lab' which has no supporting structures out in the rather moist swamp region, seems to be the most farmed at this point and really needs to be remedied/moved/removed as it's a simple spam spawn rather than a constructed area. The other three labs seem to be disturbed far less often, I assume this is either down to them being harder or at least because the ... damp ... 'lab' is so much easier to farm.

Does anyone have any feedback related to the other labs containing cyborgs and the mixed lab of launchers and cyborgs? If so please post your finding, just don't post the locations!

The launchers are certainly much less effective in open space than a cramped underground as their rockets can be avoided with little risk of AoE damage.

I have to admit, it's WAY too easy to farm those launchers. Their AI is too dumb. Go for the plasma things... they're a nightmare.

I've been soloing the launchers for days now, and managed to get and sell 3 or 4 WoC discs way before I am capped. Far, far too easy.

Doc Holliday
09-10-12, 19:46
cyborgs hurt too much. launchers too little. i think that sums it up.

damien vryce
09-10-12, 19:48
I would agree to easy. and the cyborgs a small team 3-4 people I would think be about right for them. and DJ I was just testing there range to see if it was possible with rifles and it is not. so I think they are a good choice for mob type. as it should take a small group to farm them IMO.

Trivaldi
09-10-12, 23:49
E 05 which has been home to a significant number of WoC Launcher mobs for the last couple of weeks, has been returned to normal operation. The other three Ceres Field Lab locations are still available.

Get exploring ;)

Drevious
15-10-12, 19:12
MEH I read wrong

ancient
19-10-12, 20:30
MEH I read wrong

So did I ahaha .. was like WTF!?!


On topic ... the reason why Me and some others I know hadn't gone to the other woc places is that we had only found e-05

Trivaldi
07-12-12, 14:27
As you're likely already aware R#175/6 marked the re-opening of these levelling areas. With the modifications to drones we will continue to monitor activity in these sectors going forward.