Menu
What's New
By:
Filters

Pioneer saying hello

P

Pioneer|SDS

Provider
Joined
Sep 27, 2010
Posts
125
Hello everyone. Finally, I have my own account here, so I don't have to rely on Hanne anymore. Some of you have chatted with me at Twin Peaks, and there have been a few posts thanks to Hanne, but to introduce myself to those that didn't read those posts or chatted with me, I thought I'd introduce myself.

I'm the questmaster here at FPC. Even if I don't write or implement all the missions by myself (although I do most of them, there's a small staff that I can call upon), I'm the one responsible for them being done. I also do a lot of the writing here, and some other stuff. It was pretty fun challenging your brightest with the robot codes. When you got the hang of it, you had the intercepts posted within minutes and cracked within the hour. I have to confess, right now I'm at my wits' end when it comes to creating new code systems, but on the other hand, there are so few of you that do the actual cracking, so I think it's time for me to stop inventing new codes. What's the point of giving out secrets to you if you can't read them?

It was a fun game though, and I may devise a new compression tree some day, just to keep you on the edge. If I'm nasty, I'll do it at the same time I change the encryption key. :D

We've had the quest authoring tool since February, and it has developed pretty nicely. We have used it to churn out a bunch of missions. If my count is correct, we should be over 150 at the moment, and a bunch more coming in the upcoming release. We'll tell you more about it when it's time for FPC to release.

As for my forum presence, Hanne is still community manager, so she'll do most of the talking. I'll read the forum anyway, especially the mission board but also anything that fancies my interest, but I won't have time to reply that often. My main job is to make quests, not chat on the forum, but I do like to keep in touch and get the feel for the community.

Well, that's it for now. Until next time,

- Pioneer

PS: Currently reading "State of the Art" by Iain M Banks. I soooo love his spaceship names!
 
Welcome to the loony bin! :)


Oh, and in regards to your sig... GROOVY!
 
Last edited:
Nice to see ya on the Forum Pioneer.

Good to know more about you and that you're the one behind those devil messages. :laugh:
 
:laugh: @ Tommy. Good to see you again Pioneer. Btw do u still wear that pioneer armour or have you upgraded? :D
 
Pioneer|FPC said:
I'm the questmaster here at FPC. Even if I don't write or implement all the missions by myself (although I do most of them, there's a small staff that I can call upon), I'm the one responsible for them being done. I also do a lot of the writing here, and some other stuff. It was pretty fun challenging your brightest with the robot codes. When you got the hang of it, you had the intercepts posted within minutes and cracked within the hour. I have to confess, right now I'm at my wits' end when it comes to creating new code systems, but on the other hand, there are so few of you that do the actual cracking, so I think it's time for me to stop inventing new codes. What's the point of giving out secrets to you if you can't read them?

It was a fun game though, and I may devise a new compression tree some day, just to keep you on the edge. If I'm nasty, I'll do it at the same time I change the encryption key. :D
Click to expand...

Have you seen for example - "Data Compression: The Complete Reference " by Salomon, Motta & Bryant?

Pioneer|FPC said:
We've had the quest authoring tool since February, and it has developed pretty nicely. We have used it to churn out a bunch of missions. If my count is correct, we should be over 150 at the moment, and a bunch more coming in the upcoming release. We'll tell you more about it when it's time for FPC to release.
Click to expand...

Right, so ... Will we see you in the missions subforum? It would be nice to for example be able to see commentary on completed missions . Also, have you considered letting us do atleast some of the work for you by holding a mission design contest in the forums?
 
Pioneer|FPC said:
PS: Currently reading "State of the Art" by Iain M Banks. I soooo love his spaceship names!
Click to expand...

Greetings from the crew of SS Just Testing :laugh:
 
Glad to meet ya.

So, uh, Pioneer - interesting name... As I recall some while back, there used to be a place to buy Pioneer armor from an armor trader NPC that was in the Capitol City that no longer exists... any chance there might be a quest to resurrect that guy introduced at some point in time?.. or perhaps a series of quests to reconstruct the city from scratch?
 
Great to see you here :thumbup: I certainly understand letting Hanne do most of the talking as she is the PR person... but please don't forget us. An occasional post in the mission forum (or even start a developers blog) would be very well received by the community.

Thanks for the missions! :yay:
 
AlphaGeek said:
Oh, and in regards to your sig... GROOVY!
Click to expand...

I have that quote of Parlog's post on a small sign next to my desk. It reminds me of what I'm up against: you.

remontoire said:
Have you seen for example - "Data Compression: The Complete Reference " by Salomon, Motta & Bryant?
Click to expand...

No, I'm not that familiar with compression. A long time ago, I did a lossy cosine-based sound compression algorithm, mostly to see if I could. It could almost decode in real time on my Amiga (yes, I'm that old). But I've never done anything non-lossy, except for the robocode, and that has a fixed compression table.

I'm a bit more familiar with encryption. I could probably create a prime number-based public key encryption, and I know a bit about the Enigma code machine. Given some research about the specifics, I could code an Enigma emulator. But those are hard to figure out and crack.

Then there are other historic code systems that could be used, but considering that only one of the Beale ciphers was cracked, it's a bit hard to expect that you would find the particular text I'd use as key if I used that.

One of my favourite books on the subject is "The Code Book" by Simon Singh, which not only tells how the code systems work, but the history behind them. And I love history.

remontoire said:
Right, so ... Will we see you in the missions subforum? It would be nice to for example be able to see commentary on completed missions .
Click to expand...

You will see me on the missions board from time to time. Not that often, tho, and mostly when there is a problem where I require feedback, for instance if there is a weird bug in a mission somewhere and I need more information on how to reproduce it.

As for commentaries, do you mean like a "director's commentary" track on any DVD? I like it, but I think that will have to wait until we've progressed a bit more.

remontoire said:
Also, have you considered letting us do atleast some of the work for you by holding a mission design contest in the forums?
Click to expand...

I like that idea. Can't promise anything, but I'll float it around the office and see what happens.

M Rufen Power said:
Btw do u still wear that pioneer armour or have you upgraded? :D
Click to expand...

I still have it. I have a soft spot for that name. It has the air of both musket-carrying frontier heroes like Lewis&Clarke as well as spaceships on the border to the unknown. And despite being a lousy armour, the name is very much Calypso.
 
Welcome to the forum :wtg:

Looking farward to the new missions :)
 
Marco, UNDER ALL CIRCUMSTANCES, KEEP THIS GUY!

He gets it! :)

The game is afoot!


AG
 
Nice job on the missions, just my opinion but I still love doing ( trying ) those RPGquestfeellikestuff ^^
 
...wait a minute...

You're not the guy that talked the robots into invading on H-Day, are ya??? :handgun:


:laugh:
 
Pioneer|FPC said:
Hello everyone. Finally, I have my own account here, so I don't have to rely on Hanne anymore. Some of you have chatted with me at Twin Peaks, and there have been a few posts thanks to Hanne, but to introduce myself to those that didn't read those posts or chatted with me, I thought I'd introduce myself.

I'm the questmaster here at FPC. Even if I don't write or implement all the missions by myself (although I do most of them, there's a small staff that I can call upon), I'm the one responsible for them being done. I also do a lot of the writing here, and some other stuff. It was pretty fun challenging your brightest with the robot codes. When you got the hang of it, you had the intercepts posted within minutes and cracked within the hour. I have to confess, right now I'm at my wits' end when it comes to creating new code systems, but on the other hand, there are so few of you that do the actual cracking, so I think it's time for me to stop inventing new codes. What's the point of giving out secrets to you if you can't read them?

It was a fun game though, and I may devise a new compression tree some day, just to keep you on the edge. If I'm nasty, I'll do it at the same time I change the encryption key. :D

We've had the quest authoring tool since February, and it has developed pretty nicely. We have used it to churn out a bunch of missions. If my count is correct, we should be over 150 at the moment, and a bunch more coming in the upcoming release. We'll tell you more about it when it's time for FPC to release.

As for my forum presence, Hanne is still community manager, so she'll do most of the talking. I'll read the forum anyway, especially the mission board but also anything that fancies my interest, but I won't have time to reply that often. My main job is to make quests, not chat on the forum, but I do like to keep in touch and get the feel for the community.

Well, that's it for now. Until next time,

- Pioneer

PS: Currently reading "State of the Art" by Iain M Banks. I soooo love his spaceship names!
Click to expand...

Ah, well it's good to hear from you. It puts a name behind the codes.

I enjoyed matching wits with you during the events. Thanks for the "aha" moments.

I particularly enjoyed the "aha" of noticing the keyboard-layout of the grids. That was nice.

I also enjoyed the AYBABTU line. It took me forever to convince my mates that this was actually the plain text in the original instance of it. If you are at all interested, I used the letter Q to demonstrate that there was likely a code key in the original AYBABTU key, as opposed to a polyalphabetic substitution.

My father was a Navy Cryptographer in the late 50's to early 60's, and I spent my childhood doing codes with him as a cheap entertainment. I still solve all of these codes the old way. With pen and paper.

Overall, I felt that this was a good way to enrich the various events. But for purpose of feedback, I would say that after the code was well known, it was a simple matter of calculating the code key, and this was done simply by the "end of line". After this, it became more of a simple matter to decode, and later more of an inconvenience. Eventually, I ended decoding them at all due to the amount of time it will take to decode vs the reward for doing it. Originally, the satisfaction of the solving of it was enough, but after some time it just became like work, but for someone else to take the reward.

Mostly it was satisfying though, and so thank you for this challenge.

-fish
 
So many words and no mention of chocolate! I am starting to doubt your authenticity as Pioneer! ;)

Welcome to the forum!
 
Pioneer|FPC said:
No, I'm not that familiar with compression. A long time ago, I did a lossy cosine-based sound compression algorithm, mostly to see if I could. It could almost decode in real time on my Amiga (yes, I'm that old). But I've never done anything non-lossy, except for the robocode, and that has a fixed compression table.

I'm a bit more familiar with encryption. I could probably create a prime number-based public key encryption, and I know a bit about the Enigma code machine. Given some research about the specifics, I could code an Enigma emulator. But those are hard to figure out and crack.

Then there are other historic code systems that could be used, but considering that only one of the Beale ciphers was cracked, it's a bit hard to expect that you would find the particular text I'd use as key if I used that.

One of my favourite books on the subject is "The Code Book" by Simon Singh, which not only tells how the code systems work, but the history behind them. And I love history.
Click to expand...

The book reference was in case you did want some more ideas with compression, or just to read up more on it.

Pioneer|FPC said:
I still have it. I have a soft spot for that name. It has the air of both musket-carrying frontier heroes like Lewis&Clarke as well as spaceships on the border to the unknown. And despite being a lousy armour, the name is very much Calypso.
Click to expand...

Let me get my eco armor advocate hat. Right, so :
  • Pioneer, esp Pioneer(L), is a very good armor, including against many of the young of the mission mobs. Best used with the right plates.
 
pioneer,
i only have two questions..
1. why the heck do we get nova fragments at the end of so many missions? :scratch2:
2. is there some special use for the massive quantities of these nova fragments that has yet to be implemented?

in my honest opinion, i believe we should receive a variety of items that the general player can actually use! the majority of us are miners/hunters/resellers, not "mass quantity enhancer manufactures". it would be great to recive at least a little ped or even ammo at the end of a mission such as the 5k atrox mission, just to help make ends meet. i can only state this for myself, but, i personally believe that my avatar is severely unlucky, and i rarely come close to breaking even at the end of a two hour hunt.. let alone making a tiny profit even after getting a few globals (globals really help :) i need more of em' btw).

i dont mean to flame, i just need those questions answered , please :)
 
sidxx said:
pioneer,
i only have two questions..
1. why the heck do we get nova fragments at the end of so many missions? :scratch2:
2. is there some special use for the massive quantities of these nova fragments that has yet to be implemented?

in my honest opinion, i believe we should receive a variety of items that the general player can actually use!
Click to expand...

I understand your concerns, and had this been any other MMO than Entropia, that's the way I would have done it. It is the Real Cash Economy that makes rewards difficult.

Because of the Real Cash Economy, we're pretty restricted in our reward options. Anything we hand out will affect the economy, and it's a pretty delicate balance. The only option that is somewhat safe and that would not debase someone else's business was to use Fragments.

We've moved away from Fragments since you didn't like them, but we haven't changed the old missions because there are a lot of people that have completed them. It would be unfair to the early birds if we changed those missions now, so we're letting the old missions be as they are.

Also, remember that the loot system is separate from the mission system. The mission system can't influence the loot in any way. That means that if you get on average X PEDs worth of loot from killing 10 000 Atroxes, you get on average X PEDs worth of loot from killing 10 000 Atroxes in the context of a mission. Any reward you get is in addition to that.
 
Pioneer|FPC said:
Because of the Real Cash Economy, we're pretty restricted in our reward options. Anything we hand out will affect the economy, and it's a pretty delicate balance. The only option that is somewhat safe and that would not debase someone else's business was to use Fragments.
Click to expand...

I've floated the idea before, but now that you are here I can ask it again - could you give out (L) blueprints of items as mission rewards? Something that would be available only from the mission? My original example was melee hunting Daikiba and getting a (L) bp of adjusted castorian enblade-a as a reward.

If the mission wasn't trivial, the amount of (L) BP of the item would be controlled. Also, not all clicks would succeed and not everybody would choose to have their BP crafted at once.
 
Pioneer|FPC said:
Also, remember that the loot system is separate from the mission system. The mission system can't influence the loot in any way. That means that if you get on average X PEDs worth of loot from killing 10 000 Atroxes, you get on average X PEDs worth of loot from killing 10 000 Atroxes in the context of a mission. Any reward you get is in addition to that.
Click to expand...

Hi Pioneer, nice to meet you. While I'm not a huge mission person, I've noticed the increase in mission quality, keep up the good work.

I'm going to encourage you to push the right buttons at the office to make the quoted statement more flexible. I would guess that a significant number of people increase their PED turnover when doing missions, meaning that MA and FPC make more money from these people than they would have without the missions. I guess your salary might come from that extra turnover, but see no reason why some of the extra mission spending cannot be returned to the participant in the form of a more valuable mission reward. Imagine a mission where a "nicer" reward was given--instant spending increase! Everybody wins, IMO.

Of course, my guess about the PED turnover might be dead wrong. :silly2:
 
Pioneer|FPC said:
We've had the quest authoring tool since February, and it has developed pretty nicely. We have used it to churn out a bunch of missions. If my count is correct, we should be over 150 at the moment, and a bunch more coming in the upcoming release. We'll tell you more about it when it's time for FPC to release.
Click to expand...


Please no more iron quests involving crummy annoying mobs that are exceedingly tedious and difficult to hunt due to spawn or mob size/unreasonably low hp. Merp, hiryuu, ripper, foul, molisk, daikiba are and were terrible and repeatedly dull choices. I am quite sure these mobs were never tested for hunting in the current spawn conditions. 1000 on small mobs is ok, 10000 for a mob you repeatedly have to aim, then switch weapons to avoid overkill is cause for giving the players serious long term injuries (my left thumb hates whoever thought these would be a good idea))

As an example, do this 2000 times in 3.5 hrs, 10 times in a week:
Press 3 to switch weapon
Turn mouse to aim
Hold Forward
Right click to fire
Press 4 to switch to lower damage weapon
Release Forward
Right click till dead
Right click for loot

And do each iteration in 1-5 seconds with 20 green dots on your map fighting over 40 mobs.

That's daikiba iron mission.
 
If he's the guy that unleashed all those robots on H-Day, I withdraw my request. LOL
 
Pioneer|FPC said:
I have that quote of Parlog's post on a small sign next to my desk. It reminds me of what I'm up against: you.
Click to expand...

I think that that you should pass that thought around the office and send it as a memo over to the MA side of things.


anyway good to see more officials poking around here.
 
Pioneer.... I have to be honest...

the "Pub Crawl" mission angered me and irritated me. Seriously... what would be so difficult about handing out a "hand held" bottle of beer? It would not affect the value/MU of ANY other item(s) in game.

I was real excited figuring we finally had beer. The mission was good to show people some of Calypso's TP's and old "Taverns".... But not getting any beer in the end really was a major disappointment.

For YEARS the community has been asking for "beer" because of the "fun aspect" it would provide. FPC finally set up the PERFECT introduction for beer.... and.... you blew it.

Menace
 
Welcome! I am enjoying your work despite a few drawbacks ;) I believe that I'm not the only one but there is always room for improvement and always will be. 2 :thumbup: so far :D
 
Pioneer, I would also like to throw up another suggestion that I made a while ago for mission rewards. It would be nice to see this added as a reward AS WELL as the current rewards.

A certificate to hang on the wall of an apartment. Could be almost nil TT value but would have to use up 0 item points as eventually people would have a tonne of them. BUT.... it would be cool for people to display the mission certificates on the walls of the apartments. Skill rewards are AWESOME! And I understand if you give out items it will affect the market. So you have to be creative and give out "Fun" stuff. Even if the certificates were for completing the different levels (ie: Iron, bronze, silver, gold) instead of each single step of the missions. The trophy for the Aurli mission was a GREAT idea. I'd like to see Trophy's for the bigger mission mobs like the Aurli and for smaller mobs a certificate. Anyway... just an idea.

As far as items go... I do believe that for a 10k mission the PEDs and decay cycled SHOULD be deserving of a useful item though. Kind of a "Thanks for spending all that decay with us. Here's a 1 pec TT (Insert item here)" type of gesture. That being said..... MA doesn't like giving ANYTHING useful anymore.... we seen that with the implementation of (L) items in loot.

How about:

- Noob Bravo that hits for max 12 dmg?
- Noob long range BLP that hits for 12 dmg?
- Night vision goggles?
- Flashlight for those who are doing the "scouting" missions at night?
- (L) Mod Fap/ Imp Fap with 5 PED TT? (For something like the 1k Eomon mission so that there wouldn't be a million of them around all year round)
- Single Use item replicator to use for tiering up hard to find items. (Again... for bigger missions)

I dunno.... stay creative.... and for GOD SAKES.... give us some beer already man. It would be such a minor thing for you to do on your part but would add so much fun to the game and make thousands of players happy (for a while anyway).

Menace
 
Menace said:
- Single Use item replicator to use for tiering up hard to find items. (Again... for bigger missions)
Click to expand...

this wouldn't be such a good idea for example somebody gets a hold of one them, replicates a mod fap then bam hes got 700k peds worth of faps that's like an uber getting yet again another super uber loot it would start an uproar from a ton of lover lvl ppl thinking it isnt fair

now if the replicated item could only be used as mirror item for tiering ONLY (ie replicated item cant be physically used for its original use or traded/sold) and gets destroyed after that one-time-use, then yes it would be cool to have
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top