Please make it possible for high lvl people to be able to hide stryll assassins and rogue tech collectors if they want.... Change the cloak on those two NPCs to 200... that's high enough that people can stay below it if they want to, yet low enough that people can still easily get them if they want them

That or scale the cloak like the defense/attack is scaled

You won't see anything like that happening. Not ever. Get used to these NPC's. They are here to stay. My biggest fear is tho that it's not over.

Part of my reset was specifically to avoid these, 82 missions makes you see tech collector always, and 45 missions the scan for the assassin. While the critical missions can be done under 45, it does preclude any that are purely for high xp gain. I have to remap my "to-do" mission set in excel to only have the most important ones like NPC slots , flux orb mission unlock, some planet upgraders like gamma crystal , and mission planets. IMO, autoranking on NPC can only be done now with a heavy en/tac build + all NPC increasing buffs and modules (such as surge plexus) + drannk + high AP/hr , at higher ranks. For me I didn't complete anything with a mission spawn, so I still have zolazin and data analyzer in the mix, keeping the fixed rank npcs helps and you can still avoid tech collector unless you did 82 missions. All around it's an attempt to lower the xp, the alternative was to nerf energy. I am going to extremes in fact to preserve the autoranking potential because otherwise I'll just get bored of the game again when I reset the first time. My objective is simply to get as many planet upgrades as possible in the long run, autorank NPCing is the only feasible way unless some alternative presents itself. It all becomes maths and rank, npc, and sustainability analysis to me after awhile.

fear the coming hordes of super tough, matched common NPCs, designed specifically to stop auto-leveling d: hahaha

Yeah I've started looking at other games in case that happens; if I have to wait for charge, then I better find somewhere else to put my time... maybe programming or finding a better job. GL was after all made for a larger # of casual players (we're talking FB here) playing 1-4 hours a day than hardcore math OCD people like me.

well I'm in it for the long haul, I want to go 1-3 ranks a day from now on, thing is, I don't want to find another game, so I'll milk this one for everything it's got, and lowering NPC ex is fine by me

Well the basic problem, at least when I was rank 1700 or so, with lowering the xp, is that the problem gets worse with rank. In other words the 120/hr max charge means ranking gets slower with time, while AP drops increase en/tac which offsets it. I was ranking maybe 8-10 times a day, about an hour to simply drain 18k or so energy bar on npcs and repair and all that (only 1m left by the time hull ran out to wait for repairs, 30k hull or so). I hit I think 17k attack at the peak. So, the solution since npcs get a bit easier as you rank IF you keep up your attack to their defense, you would need 9 attack per rank in prisoner drops, plus a bit of extra EN, although with a NI I still calculate that you can autorank with a 4.0 en over xp rate, I estimated 3.9 base with this thing in the mix along with other commons, if keeping up attack rate.

You know it has cloak because it would decimate npcing for a low rank player right ? It's power level is twice that of tech collector while the xp is halved.

In all honesty although the Stryll Assassin are a further annoyance they won't do anything but kill the NPC hunting for low ranked and/or the people that GP ranked their way up and have papier-mâché ships. With a strong ship I think auto-ranking is still doable, but like BinaryMan said limited to 2-3 ranks per day. Which would be fine, I suppose.

The thing that kills the NPC hunting for me is the Sha'din Envoy. Low cloak, same pool with the Rogue LabPod, Troop Carrier, Dark Arms Carrier and the new Crimson Scyte but with a drop that is worthless in every possible way.

I'm not familar with it .. what all are the new npcs ? I only hear about the common one which is going to have most impact on xp.

The Crimson Scythe, being rare, is acceptable.
The Sha'din Envoy, being rare, is acceptable (what is data terminal?)

Fixed it there for you. And here is why

So basically for let's say 10k done to a base you get a 200 Research Points return. Mind you, the only bases where you will get to do 10k (or whatever big number) damage to are the ones that will require you to spend thousands upon thousands of energy, plus the repair drones and shield re-chargers to do it. Like I said, not anywhere close to the drops of the other solo-able rares. Come to think of it I think the Sha'din Shockfighter's drop is more useful and those are uncommon. I can't think of a worse drop in the game to be honest.

Well if I am lucky one of these new matched ones is going to drop passive cloak, like I asked for. I would like to eventually make my 15x planets hidden without using the space.

Lool get used to them, people moaned about flamehawks and now we got a new common, yes these are tougher but give better rewards.. Dark Badges have only just come out you can expect more artis/modules rewards from them soon, suck it up and start collecting. Besides having yet another arti to boost defence against bases and also npcs? I wouldn't be complaining, less resources to take down warp station or good lv 4 bases and higher.

Depends completely on your objective. Once I have surge plexus I don't give a hoot about silvers. It's all about making 15x planets for me. Neither of the dark badge rewards entices me to take the energy pain on such low xp things by choice. Most of you won't have a choice either. I'm willing to ditch most of the missions to npc farm however, but it's a rather extreme strategy I wouldn't expect anyone to follow.

you're never going to make everyone happy, in-fact I'm an advocate for an energy-DEbuff, so I can level slower.
besides, where's the fun in level 9 times a day? just sounds like a sore finger to me

d:

why? better they are not cloaked ,..

but crimson flamehawks have 3000cloak

I'm not really complaining about any NPC but the Sha'din Envoy. Its drop it's worthless. Change the drop to "add passive cloak to planet" artifact and it's all good. Even half-half chance with that awful one. Anything but that.