Patch 0.15.6 Patchnotes - Salvaging

[koonschi]

Patch 0.15.6

 

Date: December 8th, 2017

 

Alright, so let's talk about salvaging.

 

What's the Problem?

It has been brought to our attention by many different users that salvaging right now is simply too strong compared to mining. This has multiple reasons, one of them simply being a bug/exploit that drops way too many resources when a wreckage is split in half.

 

Another reason is that, with the addition of new blocks, wrecks got a kind of value-creep, meaning they received a lot more resources than they should through the addition of more valuable blocks, like for example gyros. This has led to scrapyards and wreckage fields just being massive fields of resources with hundreds of wreckages having hundreds of thousands of resources each. This was never intended to be in the game like that.

 

One more reason why it's just so much more profitable than mining, is that in addition to lots of resources, wreckages drop upgrades, turrets and cargo as well.

 

Our Intentions

We want salvaging to be less like mining and more like its own thing, more like actual salvaging or scavenging. We want to emphasize going for the valueable parts in wreckages, using combat weapons to blast away armor and expose generators and others and then salvage them with your salvaging lasers.

 

Finding a salvageable wreckage should be something special, it's weird when you can just go to a wreckage field and AFK beam through everything (if it's that easy, why wouldn't the NPCs have done that already?). It should also still be rewarding, meaning the resources that you get from a valuable wreckage should still be high in comparison to a normal asteroid.

 

The Solution

From now on, salvaging lasers will do less damage to blocks that won't give you a high resource yield, giving you immediate feedback on what blocks you should scavenge.

 

We've also reduced the yield for blocks that are extremely common on wreckages, so that a single wreckage in the naonite belt won't contain 200.000 naonite or more any more (which is just an insane amount, to be honest). In addition to that, you won't be the only one who goes salvaging any more, so you're now less likely to find wreckages that still have valuable parts in them. When you do find one though, it will be pretty much just as rewarding as before, minus the extreme split-the-wreckage-into-half resource drop.

 

We realize that some of you will be unhappy about this change, but we think the new behavior is healthier for the game in the long run.

 

So now, keep your eyes open for unsalvaged wreckages, and then salvage their techy (glowy) blocks and expose their valuable parts wherever necessary.

 

Gameplay

• You're not the only scavenger: Salvageable wreckages with extremely high resource values are less common
  

Balancing

 

"In order to make up for the potential income deficiency from the salvaging fix and to make mining more profitable, we've adjusted the efficiencies of mining lasers in this patch, too."

• Salvaging lasers deal less damage to blocks with low yield
  
• Reduced harvesting yield for the most common blocks
  
• Harvesting yield for blocks like shield/energy generators, batteries, inertia dampeners, etc. remains at 100%
  
• Increased Mining Laser base efficiency from 12% to 15%
  
• Increased Mining Laser efficiency randomized variety from 0% - 5% to 0% - 10%
  
• Increased Mining Laser efficiency scaling from rarity from 5% to 10%
  
• Mining laser base efficiency ranges from 10% (worst case + worst rarity) to 75% (best case + best rarity), up from 7% and 42%
  

Bugfixes

• [uBR] Fixed an issue that led to wreckages dropping lots of resources when split in half
  
• [uBR] Fixed an issue where energy required by hyperspace engine would be infinitely large
  
• [uBR] Fixed tesla turrets not showing up in turret factory
  

 

[Cahotage]

Koonschi,

 

I think this sounds great.  I'm 100% for the update.  I do have some questions though.  I used to salvage 100% of the wrecks not because of resources but because of upgrades.  Sometimes the teeniest piece of debris from some part of the ship would produce one.  Will this behavior change?  If I clear all of the low resource blocks will I still have a chance of getting upgrades from those?  Or should the focus now truly be on just the juicy blocks?  Any chance that the independent firing lasers will focus on priority blocks first and then move on?

 

Sorry for all the questions.  I've invested a lot of time into salvaging for upgrades and just want to make sure I know what I'm facing in that part of the gaming experience moving forward.  Thanks for all you do!

[Mutti]

The gap between miningyield and invested time is still too big to even consider mining. At the Moment Mining is more an RP thing. 

To mine a 200k Astroid i need a lot more time, a lot more investment in laser, fighter, fleet and get way less results. 

So nerfing Scrapping is a good start to get a good economy starting, buffing mining should also be a part of it. (besides the efficiency buffs)

 

Both mining and scrapping are fundamental...kinda romantic parts of surviving in a hostile universe.

Give mining maybe a little bit rng. Ur like a goldhunter :D so why dont u find precious metals to sell or gems or treasures...you see my imagination is pretty basic. Im sure there are poeple out there with better ideas.

 

Anyways, glad about the lots and lots and lots of patches and improvements, keep it going. awsome game :D

 

 

edit: little edit

[surrannah]

hey there just been playing around with avorion for 2 weeks ish and a few hrs with this update and i have to say its a good step in the right direction between salvaging and mining overall but some components i personally think is an extreme over nerf to salvaging, im speaking specifically about the laser damage nerf to blocks with low resources is extreme my 450.1 xanion based lasers only do 3-9 damage to iron armour plates of wrecks and stations. i have done a bit of shooting the plates with turrets and found sometimes im dealing too much damage and obliterate not only the armour but the juicy parts i want for salvage which give less because i shot it. i think the laser damage should be removed or significantly toned down.

 

keep up the great work on the game i look forward to playing many more hours !

 

for those that dont like walls o text

TL:DR -"salvaging lasers will do less damage to blocks that won't give you a high resource yield" - over nerf needs severe toning down or removed

[narhiril]

I don't disagree with the overall nerfs to salvaging effectiveness, but I think you should take another look at the "salvaging lasers deal less damage to blocks with low yield" point.  As it stands, this change disproportionately affects salvage fighters and AI salvagers.  A squad of salvage fighters that once could clean up a Xsotan wreck in about a minute now take over fifteen minutes to do the same job because the AI does not discriminate between different block types.  On top of that, they now get fewer resources for doing it.

 

My suggestion is to take a look at the lower end of the damage scaling for salvage turrets - maybe set the floor at 25% of the laser's maximum damage or something.  A player who is switching weapons and targeting valuable components for salvage should absolutely be more efficient than an AI salvage drone, but this change hits AI salvagers to the point of making them basically nonviable in any form.  I think there's a healthy middle ground to be found between "there's no reason to use anything but AI salvagers" and "AI salvagers take fifteen minutes to kill a single hull block that has 25 resources in it."

[Romual]

I do agree with nerfs a lot, but I suggest one little thing - make changes to AI for turrets or make controllable/configurable AI for them. Salvage turrets in independent mode go for random parts of a wreck, so I have to manually do the thing. And considering my mothership size this is a bit of mood ruiner.

[Nelhatrion]

Love the game put 400+ hours into it and i have been lurking around this forum for several months , well this update finally made me register to share some thoughts. I aggree with nerfing salvaging but i dont like the changes. I dont do mining or salvaging manually its griedy not much fun after you put more that an hour into it so I leave that to AI specialized fleets i have. Now mining will get quite better which is awesome , it was quite slow and not much rewarding compared to salvaging so thats nice thanks for that , but salvaging is now just plain bad since the AI is quite simple, because so far it doesnt support different weapon types, so even if I equip my ships with combination of normal guns + salvaging lasers they wont know to shoot armor with normal guns and then switch to salvage the "glowy parts" it will just keep shooting, meaning those rare glowy parts may get destroyed by normal weapon and drop very little (which is a good thing but not in this combination) Well and the salvaging fighters are just a joke now. So i would like to see AI to improve, so it can tell which weapon type to use on certain blocks or simply remove the damage reduction of salvaging laser to low yield blocks (this is the best thing that you could do by my opinion ) , make them drop much less resouces. I agree with nerf to the salvaging but the time it now takes AI to salvage is just a pain so much so its not worth it even anymore . That kinda ruins the game for me since i dont and wont be doing mining or salvaging manually. That is not the part of the game i enjoy so I leave that to AI and salvaging AI is useless now.

 

Still even thou i dislike this update and thats only because of the salvaging dmg nerf, thanks for your hard work and I will be looking forward to next patch 

 

TL:DR - remove dmg reduction of salvaging lasers or severly improve the AI

 

Btw sorry for any language errors English isnt my main :)

[zgrillo2004]

TBH I think salvaging was nerfed alot to a point that salvaging is pointless. I got a ship with a squad of salvaging fighters and now they are worthless. What file can I find the parameters to change the yield of wreckages?

[Pree]

TBH I think salvaging was nerfed alot to a point that salvaging is pointless. I got a ship with a squad of salvaging fighters and now they are worthless. What file can I find the parameters to change the yield of wreckages?

i'd like something like this, too.

For example 6 options, so ppl could decide how they want it.

 

For example:

SpecialBlockResourcePercentage=100

NormalBlockResourcePercentage=75

ArmorBlockResourcePercentage=50

SpecialBlockResistance=100

NormalBlockResistance=125

ArmorBlockResistance=150

 

our server for example is running the bigger asteroids mod (x3 - means 27 times the ressources then normal) and everyone felt like it was nicely balanced before the last changes.

[zgrillo2004]

TBH I think salvaging was nerfed alot to a point that salvaging is pointless. I got a ship with a squad of salvaging fighters and now they are worthless. What file can I find the parameters to change the yield of wreckages?

i'd like something like this, too.

For example 6 options, so ppl could decide how they want it.

 

For example:

SpecialBlockResourcePercentage=100

NormalBlockResourcePercentage=75

ArmorBlockResourcePercentage=50

SpecialBlockResistance=100

NormalBlockResistance=125

ArmorBlockResistance=150

 

our server for example is running the bigger asteroids mod (x3 - means 27 times the ressources then normal) and everyone felt like it was nicely balanced before the last changes.

Do you know how to change the wreckage resource yields?

[Pree]

TBH I think salvaging was nerfed alot to a point that salvaging is pointless. I got a ship with a squad of salvaging fighters and now they are worthless. What file can I find the parameters to change the yield of wreckages?

i'd like something like this, too.

For example 6 options, so ppl could decide how they want it.

 

For example:

SpecialBlockResourcePercentage=100

NormalBlockResourcePercentage=75

ArmorBlockResourcePercentage=50

SpecialBlockResistance=100

NormalBlockResistance=125

ArmorBlockResistance=150

 

our server for example is running the bigger asteroids mod (x3 - means 27 times the ressources then normal) and everyone felt like it was nicely balanced before the last changes.

Do you know how to change the wreckage resource yields?

no, we didn't try to change anything yet.