I was watching a UTube video of a player hunting and noticed he had over 7000 shots available. I have never had that much ammo, and have to careful in how I use what I do have. I deposit regularly, and try to control may addiction to limiting it to once a month (only another 6 days to go ) I do not believe players posts that they never depo – I call BS on that, MA is not a charity; they have to get funds from somewhere to pay their programmers to fix the bugs & exploits don’t they?; and its only fair that one should pay for a service that is provided. Of course there are two exceptions to this compulsory depositing. To play at a very low slow level (sweat, sell sweat to buy some ammo to hunt a few punies rinse & repeat - truely its a waste of time). Or, to buy & sell items – if I wanted to do that I would play Shopkeepers or some suchlike. It is not why I play this game From that it seems like I am putting down selling and reselling – I am not, to do it properly would take a lot of time skill & effort. I just do not have the ability & patience. So, I have decided to keep a sort of log of my activities, it will not be to the standard of Lizzie Storm’s, but I will try. I am mainly doing it for selfish reasons – so after time I can go back and see the silly stuff the earlier me has done. But also, along the way I have been given tips & advice by kindly players that have made things easier for me – and so as a tribute & thank you to them – I will pass these on so players may also benefit. And yet again – players may see what I have done & think “geez I will try that”. Or, think “well that was a bit retarded what Louise did – I won’t go down that road”. I am presently in the Black Hole of Orotan Prospector Missions – presently at Mission X, and I guess in another year or so I will come out the other side. With my level of depositing (and the refusal of stingy Orotans to allow me any HOF type reimbursement) I can be left hanging till funds arrive. What I do then is, as far as possible, engage in activities that give a good return of skills – and rightly or wrongly I see skills as a means of carrying out activities more cheaply or getting a better reward. I see them as a sort of discount MA gives in recognition of peds spent. Activities are, Wood Harvesting, Sweating, Picking Oil, Repairing a Mothership – they can have consequences players need to be aware of. Interactions with other players is the reason why I have listed activities in that order. Next instalment Wood Harvesting – I don’t want a text wall
No worries! If you are going to spreadsheet, just keep the most important things in view (expenses vs income). You can detail it as much as you like! One of my sheets I collect data from all my iron missions that include an average cost to kill, defense costs, estimated dmg/pec. No one really needs that, but to set an example, track how/what you need. On the deposit front, high-five! There are people that do not have much self control regarding that topic. A player on Calypso posted a great post on PCF about woodcutting. (I'm sorry, I forgot his name) But the skills one can get from it might be able to be sold for profit. Don't give up on the non-deposit 'dream'. You just need to find your golden goose
Thank you Lizzie, I will always hope for the golden goose - but in the meantime will be guided by cold reality. Wood Harvesting: This activity is a truly solo activity – the only interaction you will have will be mobs, and you can avoid these with a bit of care. I consider Arkadia is as good for harvesting as Calypso fewer types of trees certainly, but also fewer mobs amongst them (generally that is). On Arkadia there are not trees on all the servers, but rule of thumb, you won’t find them in jungles, deserts, cold places – but everywhere else. There are posts here and on Caly Forum that go into the mechanics of harvesting, so I won’t repeat the details here. Other than to say, have settings adjusted; terrain, draw distance, avatar leaning, options panel open. Have clothing, armour, rings, pets etc that give you faster reload. Put everything you don’t need in planet storage temporarily (except for vehicles) wood is HEAVY Have a Terratech 1 for small trees, Terratech 3 for Large & Huge trees (maybe a Terratech 2 for L & save the 3 for H trees. This may work out cheaper than using the 3 for both). Have at least three Terrarech 1s – they are used up quickly I used to only bother to harvest Huge trees, thinking the others were a waste of money. However, the aim here is to harvest for skills. Cut down everything, when your inventory is the heavy enough to slow you down, spawn a vehicle, load it up and recall it to planetary storage. When you have used all your Terratech 1s up, return to the nearest base (I have this helpful Madana who is waiting for me to arrive at a certain spot so he can give me a fast taxi ride back. Repair the T3, TT all used up T1s as well as all wood & sawdust (is there actually any process that uses this?). Buy the same number of T1s from TT You should make either a small profit or a small loss – it effect you have obtained the skills, and there are quite a lot of them, for free. I have only mentioned requirements of harvesting in passing. There have been posts that cover this very well (check those by ABomb)– what I wanted to show was things that can influence costs or increased the income. If anybody wants more detail on this I can supply it Next Sweating
Sweating This can be a solo activity. You can sweat punies like Gallards and then shoot them when they run dry, but bigger mobs have more sweat (as well as more aggression) in such cases sweating is a cooperative venture where mob damage is spread amongst sweaters. But now you are interacting with other players (and players come in all types). Like any activity where there is no loot, the players effort is recognised by MA in the form of skills gained. There is little economic incentive – the benefit is the skills, the social aspect and the cost Basic manners is all that is required of players, don’t interfere with others efforts by standing to close or far away, causing the mob to move and for others to lose target on the mob. Don’t place vehicles over the mob or other another player – which has the same effect. Don’t shoot mob that is not dry. Just don’t cause others grief. Having said all that, I have Arkadia is a good place to sweat, Nusuls are a convenient shape & easy to circle around, sweaters are well mannered & friendly. It is a pleasant way to spend some time between activities, and griefers are few and far between (and I hope it stays that way). Getting to the nasty bits now. Next Picking Oil at the (PvP) Rig
Picking Oil at the Rig. (and Yes its PvP, I did make another thread about this). Picking Oil is like picking fruit – there are no skills gained, just time taken. Have settings set to low, Draw distance to maximum, have rings etc that give you speed. Also have sound turned up, not music but other sounds. As far as I can tell oil spawns with a thump type sound and a cloud of dust where the barrel lands- see that then go as fast as you can towards the spot & grab that barrel. If you beat another player there, well I think its good manners to share oil with that player. It happens every 30mins or so (I think). Most oil seems to land in area whose diameter is marked by those cactus type plants (but I don’t really know, I am not an expert on this. I come to the rig when I am low on peds & need oil for my vehicles). The problem is the PvP aspect – and it is complicated. I have friends who are PvP enthusiasts and I have no doubt they would shoot me for the fun they get shooting each other, there is no malice intended and they don’t harass others (maybe). There are players however who have a different approach – they must get their egos massaged by shooting others at minimal risk to themselves. What do you do about it – well its up to you. Just remember at the Rig, people have a licence there to be total tool and kill others for whatever reason they want. Grit your teeth and ignore it – thou when it progresses to the stage that you are being targeted, well for me it requires a response. And has that ever helped me? Well no, its the equivalent of catching the eye of a crazy person. When you are being targeted there are two options (well three if you are gutless). Stay away from the rig, or embrace the opportunity – some random player has taken the time to spend their peds to give you skills. Don’t wear armour, keep coming back and practice dodging and evading their attempts to kill you. This has nothing to do with Dodge skill, (though you will gain this) its directly related to your skill and ability to escape being killed, and your determination to keep coming back. It is a long term process, just remember it is costing them and helping you more than its helping them. You will know you are progressing when they change the weapons they use from melee combat (ie swords) to weapons that deal area damage. Don’t be put off by any statements such as they have unlimited ammo to spend on you (nobody is that pointlessly dumb – though honestly some come close). Eventually they may leave you alone – or more to the point, you will find that they are having difficulty hurting you – maybe then its time to get a weapon and play their silly game back at them. The cost to you is the healing and the fuel to keep flying back.
