Engineers Taking a break cause reasons.

[Ddraig]

I think this is the first time I am doing this in this game. Writing a complain in the forums I mean.

I like this game, even now I still do. I was really happy with the proposed changes to the game with 2.1, but: What happened?

Well. I feel... at a total disadvantage with the game.
I am happy with the increased difficulty, however the buffed engineered NPCs, that supposedly were taken out in the last server side patch keep appearing and they make your life a pain instead of fun. I wont presume to say I am a hardcore pilot and I am sure that in the eyes of the top guns here whatever I write about this issue will be "pilot error", "git gud" or what not. However, in HAZ RES got my butt kicked so hard, but I didnt feel that I was inadequate or THAT lame, a DBS took my shields down and targeting the creep was so hard and it was full rails too, so no amount of chaff worked and its aim was deadshot, nailed every single rail on me no matter what I did. At the end I got it and destroyed it, and only lost 15% of my hull, waited for my shields to regen and kept on it, carefully choosing my targets to not bite something bigger that I could chew and fought an Anaconda, and probably was using dirty tuned engines and circled me faster than my FDL could with 4 pips to engines, my chance with FAOFF meant that it kept his nose at me the whole time shooting a mix of plasma, rails, lasers and cannons; yeah sure blame me because I am not a master at FAOFF. Why should I be by the way? Shields down again and had to run because I knew that I wasn't going to win this. NPCs fire the SCB one after the other same with chaffs and I dont see heat sinks being deployed or they having issues with heat or ammo count for that matter. They damage my ship and not even 50% hull and my modules are failing, while I have to make theirs reach the 0% mark to see any malfunction. I just think is not fair, thus is not fun.

I do the engineers stuff, not grinding, just at whatever pace I can, to even my chances at what I like to do in the game, that is to fight NPCs. Sure you can call me a grinder fighting NPCs that respawn over and over in a RES mindlessly, but happens that the game allows this and now I feel that I cant. So sure I feel down. But finding the things they request, while not impossible take too much randomness to be practical. Sadly I am a filthy casual, happens when you have a life, so to me, spending 3 hours with no certainty to find what I need it is simply a no go. I think I roamed a metal planet for hours to find iron and nickel in every single mineral deposit, not a single arsenic or any other rare material, not one, but iron and nickel which you find by sneezing in the dust. I even had to for the first time playing this game to check internet help. First time since a year I am playing Elite.

I have good standing in the empire, federation and alliance, so I have access to a lot of allied starports and factions and I haven't found a single missions that rewards me with the damn legacy firmwares or any other firmaware for that matter, and the ones I have found in the USS are the ones you don't need because there is not a single recipe that use them.

I do understand the point of view of the players that have the time to spare and play 8 hours a day. I understand the point of view of the players that are good at this and can flight their ships as seasoned sports podium players. But I do understand the helplessness of the players that want to have fun but the game suddenly it does not let them anymore. I am in the middle of all these perspectives but I am tired.

I do not want to blame FD, I think they are doing their best. I do think they are passionate about the game they have developed. I am sure they will tune or balance this in time, but I can't be here feeling not having fun at a game, which sole purpose is to give the player fun.
I have no idea nor do I wish to speculate how many more feel like this, we all know the state of the forums right now.

I know people do not care about this, but as everyone else I have the right to use and write my opinion about this dear game that I still like so much and hope it improves in time. But until I do not read a thread or patch note speaking of re-balance or a change in how to approach the engineers content, I am out. It is a matter of principles after all, I am not having fun.

Cheerio.

 

[Cmdr Esteban]

Well I agree with you about the silliness of the NPCs spamming shield cells without any heat issues, and the seemingly fully functioning yet heavily damaged modules (even at 1% health). These issues need to be addressed by SJA, but I'm confident they will be.

I vehemently disagree with all the rest of what you said though, and I really like the new AI (sans those awful super duper weapons that are being removed anyway).

I for one am very pleased that the days of unrealistic and immersion-breaking RES "farming" are well and truly over.

Give me the challenge of defeating difficult AI any day. So much more rewarding and satisfying than "farming" credits, which is dull dull dull.

PS - I would edit out that masked swearing if I were you, or the mods will do it for you and possibly hit you with an infraction.

 

[Leskit]

I think i'll be fine with the harder ai (once they work out the kinks) as long as there's an accompanied increase in their wanted bounties. otherwise it's a direct nerf to bounty hunting for income and I can't stand trading.

 

[Robin of Spiritwood]

The rare materials drop rates do need adjustments.

 

[CMDR M Kozak]

Well I agree with you about the silliness of the NPCs spamming shield cells without any heat issues, and the seemingly fully functioning yet heavily damaged modules (even at 1% health). These issues need to be addressed by SJA, but I'm confident they will be.

I vehemently disagree with all the rest of what you said though, and I really like the new AI (sans those awful super duper weapons that are being removed anyway).

I for one am very pleased that the days of unrealistic and immersion-breaking RES "farming" are well and truly over.

Give me the challenge of defeating difficult AI any day. So much more rewarding and satisfying than "farming" credits, which is dull dull dull.

PS - I would edit out that masked swearing if I were you, or the mods will do it for you and possibly hit you with an infraction.

With you all the way.

The sense of accomplishment when you prevail/get out of a hairy situation is ENTIRELY new for me in this game.
Previously you were not in danger anywhere. So much more life has been added JUST by giving the AI some brain.

As for the bounties Im not sure. Mostly because I dont get why bounty hunting should pay some fixed CR/HOUR. Sometimes its good, sometimes not so much.
And the bounties do already scale with difficulty btw.

 

[starjump]

When me and my friend was hunting it was ok. When i was alone i started to lose a lot of money lol. Whatever weapon the purple glowing one is, that was the one i was messed up with over and over. Countermeasures did nothing against it and i couldnt keep them off my tail. And i attacked NPC's that was my combat level or under and they were really hard. I like challenge and would not want to have an easy game, but tweaking the NPC's a little would be nice. I dont like trading either even if i do it from time to time to mix it up.

 

[Nara]

Two reasons why the current NPC AI is fine.

1) The game needs some challenge. Many of us were bored of rolling around in HAZRES's killing everything. Great credits yes... But what do you even need the creds for? Vulture was enough to kill everything. Credits have more meaning now.

2) There was virtually no reason to wing up in 2.0. Why wing up? Everything was soloable with a vulture. Now in 2.1 winging up is highly recommended for a HAZRES. If you can't wing up then luckily FD have still provided for you with a large choice of USS's with even their difficulty labelled, and hunting in Supercruise is still good. Low RES sites are also probably fine, haven't tried it myself.

I feel that the majority of these complaints are coming from people that want to keep soloing that hardest content in the game, get max credits, and don't really care about what's actually good for the longevity of this game.

 

[CMDR M Kozak]

Two reasons why the current NPC AI is fine.

1) The game needs some challenge. Many of us were bored of rolling around in HAZRES's killing everything. Great credits yes... But what do you even need the creds for? Vulture was enough to kill everything. Credits have more meaning now.

2) There was virtually no reason to wing up in 2.0. Why wing up? Everything was soloable with a vulture. Now in 2.1 winging up is highly recommended for a HAZRES. If you can't wing up then luckily FD have still provided for you with a large choice of USS's with even their difficulty labelled, and hunting in Supercruise is still good. Low RES sites are also probably fine, haven't tried it myself.

I feel that the majority of these complaints are coming from people that want to keep soloing that hardest content in the game, get max credits, and don't really care about what's actually good for the longevity of this game.

Another thing is that some people expect Anaconda's etc to be death stars.... except when flown by the AI of course.

 

[jgm]

...carefully choosing my targets to not bite something bigger that I could chew and fought an Anaconda...

Top-end Anacondas are tough now. So are Pythons, Federal Assault/Gun Ships and FdLs.

The AI has been balanced out to provide a range of challenges. You can't take everything on with impunity. No-one can. I've run from any number of fights since 2.1 came out, and that's not admitting defeat that's being realistic.

If you struggle with Elite opponents leave them alone and go down to Deadly. If you struggle with them go down to Dangerous. Keep going until you find your level then work your way back up.

 

[NCFCpaul]

It does look as though FD are trying to do something about balancing the game a bit better, for my part I've taken up exploring and I'll give it a few weeks to let them iron things out a bit. I'm with the idea that an elite anaconda should be a challenge to bring down, but a harmless cobra shouldn't tear through an FDL with a rated shields and military alloys. I think they'll get the balance much better, give it some time

 

[Rardain]

I am so glad I am out in the black for another six months lol.

 

[GammaZ]

IMO try to adapt. Change your loadout to be able to break through shield cells, use fixed if possible, it is really easy to hit big targets, just keep something gimballed so that you can kill smaller ones. Use boost+lateral thrusters to stay behind your targets, you do not need to turn FA off to outmaneuver conda in FDL.
Challenge is always a good thing, it is a lot more fun to try beating something hard than to gring helpless NPC-s for money.
And yes, NPC-s will obviously work a bit different to players, it is unavoidable, but they are still "AI" so it is possible to find and exploit their weaknesses, they will not be able to adapt.

 

[Electric Kite]

The thing that makes everything you said even worse is collecting materials like Iron on planets is the dullest experience in Elite for me. Just driving around for what feels like hours listening to beeps. Exploration IS fun and the planets can be very cool looking sometimes...sometimes.....but with little or no distractions down there appart from the repeated appearence of drones guarding exclusion zones wich spawn around you...and are not persisent..there is really no appeal to this activity after the nth time looking for a blob of iron.


If FD want to make collecting materials a reason to go down and explore planets ok i get it. People complained there was nothing to do/no reason to go down there. But the act of collecting materials is not a fun one. Not for me...and id be hard pressed to imagine anyone sitting at their desk in work this friday..looking at the clock and not being able to wait to get home and look for some iron.


Il just boot up witcher 3/fallout 4 anything else instead.

 

[JuicerPrime]

When me and my friend was hunting it was ok. When i was alone i started to lose a lot of money lol. Whatever weapon the purple glowing one is, that was the one i was messed up with over and over. Countermeasures did nothing against it and i couldnt keep them off my tail. And i attacked NPC's that was my combat level or under and they were really hard. I like challenge and would not want to have an easy game, but tweaking the NPC's a little would be nice. I dont like trading either even if i do it from time to time to mix it up.

The purple glowing one is the plasma vulcan bug. If the NPC's suffered heat from it they should pop like a grape after a second or so spamming, but the bug doesn't seem to generate any extra heat. Just streams of uberdeath, forever.

Good luck to the OP - when a game stops being fun, find something else. There's a patch being deployed between today and the start of next week which should hopefully fix the bugged weapon issues, since the server-side changes haven't eliminated them completely. I'm going to wait in dock until then. I haven't got enough resources to throw away on 'gitting gud' and as much as I like the Sidewinder, it's best as a curiosity and late-game fun project rather than a permanent home

 

[EValve]

carefully choosing my targets to not bite something bigger that I could chew and fought an Anaconda

... Is this a troll post? I have a hard time believing what I'm reading here...

 

[robertpmc]

I agree and I think a host of players and a majority of those polled agree for similar, circumstantial reasons. On assessing the situ after 2.1 and changing loadout to more like a combat rig - although most modules and hardpoints were already A rated or maxed class - I decided that, in the words of BB King, "The Thrill Has Gone", and I have the blues! I haven't played since June started as losing so quickly all those benefits earned by working hard with but with ongoing enjoyment and fun, is now not fun, and definitely not good with future prospects of a drawn out repeat procedure that now makes trading, non kill missioning, mining and exploration a rather lame set of excuses for an intensified, robotic duckshoot. Best wishes.

 

[Ian Skippy]

I think this is the first time I am doing this in this game. Writing a complain in the forums I mean.

I like this game, even now I still do. I was really happy with the proposed changes to the game with 2.1, but: What happened?

Well. I feel... at a total disadvantage with the game.
I am happy with the increased difficulty, however the buffed engineered NPCs, that supposedly were taken out in the last server side patch keep appearing and they make your life a pain instead of fun. I wont presume to say I am a hardcore pilot and I am sure that in the eyes of the top guns here whatever I write about this issue will be "pilot error", "git gud" or what not. However, in HAZ RES got my butt kicked so hard, but I didnt feel that I was inadequate or THAT lame, a DBS took my shields down and targeting the creep was so hard and it was full rails too, so no amount of chaff worked and its aim was deadshot, nailed every single rail on me no matter what I did. At the end I got it and destroyed it, and only lost 15% of my hull, waited for my shields to regen and kept on it, carefully choosing my targets to not bite something bigger that I could chew and fought an Anaconda, and probably was using dirty tuned engines and circled me faster than my FDL could with 4 pips to engines, my chance with FAOFF meant that it kept his nose at me the whole time shooting a mix of plasma, rails, lasers and cannons; yeah sure blame me because I am not a master at FAOFF. Why should I be by the way? Shields down again and had to run because I knew that I wasn't going to win this. NPCs fire the SCB one after the other same with chaffs and I dont see heat sinks being deployed or they having issues with heat or ammo count for that matter. They damage my ship and not even 50% hull and my modules are failing, while I have to make theirs reach the 0% mark to see any malfunction. I just think is not fair, thus is not fun.

I do the engineers stuff, not grinding, just at whatever pace I can, to even my chances at what I like to do in the game, that is to fight NPCs. Sure you can call me a grinder fighting NPCs that respawn over and over in a RES mindlessly, but happens that the game allows this and now I feel that I cant. So sure I feel down. But finding the things they request, while not impossible take too much randomness to be practical. Sadly I am a filthy casual, happens when you have a life, so to me, spending 3 hours with no certainty to find what I need it is simply a no go. I think I roamed a metal planet for hours to find iron and nickel in every single mineral deposit, not a single arsenic or any other rare material, not one, but iron and nickel which you find by sneezing in the dust. I even had to for the first time playing this game to check internet help. First time since a year I am playing Elite.

I have good standing in the empire, federation and alliance, so I have access to a lot of allied starports and factions and I haven't found a single missions that rewards me with the damn legacy firmwares or any other firmaware for that matter, and the ones I have found in the USS are the ones you don't need because there is not a single recipe that use them.

I do understand the point of view of the players that have the time to spare and play 8 hours a day. I understand the point of view of the players that are good at this and can flight their ships as seasoned sports podium players. But I do understand the helplessness of the players that want to have fun but the game suddenly it does not let them anymore. I am in the middle of all these perspectives but I am tired.

I do not want to blame FD, I think they are doing their best. I do think they are passionate about the game they have developed. I am sure they will tune or balance this in time, but I can't be here feeling not having fun at a game, which sole purpose is to give the player fun.
I have no idea nor do I wish to speculate how many more feel like this, we all know the state of the forums right now.

I know people do not care about this, but as everyone else I have the right to use and write my opinion about this dear game that I still like so much and hope it improves in time. But until I do not read a thread or patch note speaking of re-balance or a change in how to approach the engineers content, I am out. It is a matter of principles after all, I am not having fun.

Cheerio.

Oh great, another 'casual' upset about not being able to 'casually' do the hardest RES, and resorting to accusing AI of cheating as a result. If casuals could easily do hazres, what are people with some skill supposed to do?

Its really like ordering the hottest chili and complaining its too hot for a 'casual spicy eater'. The obvious solution would be to order something less spicy, rather than accuse the chef of making it 'unfairly spicy'...

 

[Cynaqq]

I swear this forum will turn me into a conspiracy nut. I'm starting to believe there is a PR firm or something at work here either trying to extort money from FD or trying to paint them in a bad light so other space games may have a chance against theirs. I know this isn't the case and people are probably genuinely complaining but somehow that feels even more sad to me.

Up to 2.1, everyone was complaining, and rightly so, about how easy the AI was since it was dialed back after 1.2. Most people were finding it immersion breaking that you could go to a hazres and farm it to your heart's content without a care in the world. Once with a friend we took on a wing of 3 condas and 4 pythons as two vultures and won easily causing us to loao. I got so bored of farming in an FAS by myself, I started trading in between to spice things up a bit and I wish I was joking.

Now that the top AI got buffed while leaving low to mid mostly the same, I thought it would be relief and praises but no. Another set of people found different niches to complain about. Before, it was emptiness, nothing to do, width and depth, and immersion, you know the drill. Now it's 'omg too hard, I feel my insecurities surface every time I play', and 'I couldn't hand in a mission in two thousand so this game is broken'.

I'm not gonna quit the game anytime soon but I'm considering quitting the forum altogether. The last few months before the update where I didn't even read the forums were total ED bliss where I just had fun with the game I love. Now I read about people stressed out, threatening quitting and I get stressed in return.

I don't want to blame the players, I think they are doing their best. I do think they are passionate about the game they are playing. I'm sure they'll get used to the new difficulty in time, but I can't be here feeling not having fun on the forums, which sole purpose is to give players a feeling of community and provide necessary feedback to the developers. I have a very good idea and I don't need to speculate how many more feel like this, we all know the state of the forums right now.

If I'm right and this really is a conspiracy from a PR firm, GFY because it's a very nice thing you are trying to ruin for the sake of money. I hope a better PR firm out PRs you so you go out of business. However, if I'm still sane and this is regular player outrage;

Jesus! Get a hold of yourself. This is just a game, a good one too. Relax, adapt and have fun. You seriously don't have to play for 8 hours a day to enjoy it. It's equally enjoyable in all roles and with all ships. Have a game plan and execute it as perfectly as you can. Don't press yourself in arbitrary goals to have x amount of money or fly y ship. Don't grind up to a cutter to trade in it then cry when you lose 25mil for rebuy plus your cargo. Trade in something you can reasonably afford etc. This is a game where you need to think a minuscule amount, not too much. It's not beating a supercomputer at chess. Just evaluate a situation, take advantage of your strengths and avoid succumbing to your weaknesses. Don't feel ashamed of using the right tool for the job. Don't insist on farming Hazres in a corvette if you'll be upset when you die. Try it in a vulture first, then buy an FAS and A rate it. Take it slow and steady.

I don't know why I'm still typing. I'm upset I guess. I also guess I'm done with the forums for at least a few months.

 

[Thetele]

I swear this forum will turn me into a conspiracy nut. I'm starting to believe there is a PR firm or something at work here either trying to extort money from FD or trying to paint them in a bad light so other space games may have a chance against theirs. I know this isn't the case and people are probably genuinely complaining but somehow that feels even more sad to me.

Up to 2.1, everyone was complaining, and rightly so, about how easy the AI was since it was dialed back after 1.2. Most people were finding it immersion breaking that you could go to a hazres and farm it to your heart's content without a care in the world. Once with a friend we took on a wing of 3 condas and 4 pythons as two vultures and won easily causing us to loao. I got so bored of farming in an FAS by myself, I started trading in between to spice things up a bit and I wish I was joking.

Now that the top AI got buffed while leaving low to mid mostly the same, I thought it would be relief and praises but no. Another set of people found different niches to complain about. Before, it was emptiness, nothing to do, width and depth, and immersion, you know the drill. Now it's 'omg too hard, I feel my insecurities surface every time I play', and 'I couldn't hand in a mission in two thousand so this game is broken'.

I'm not gonna quit the game anytime soon but I'm considering quitting the forum altogether. The last few months before the update where I didn't even read the forums were total ED bliss where I just had fun with the game I love. Now I read about people stressed out, threatening quitting and I get stressed in return.

I don't want to blame the players, I think they are doing their best. I do think they are passionate about the game they are playing. I'm sure they'll get used to the new difficulty in time, but I can't be here feeling not having fun on the forums, which sole purpose is to give players a feeling of community and provide necessary feedback to the developers. I have a very good idea and I don't need to speculate how many more feel like this, we all know the state of the forums right now.

If I'm right and this really is a conspiracy from a PR firm, GFY because it's a very nice thing you are trying to ruin for the sake of money. I hope a better PR firm out PRs you so you go out of business. However, if I'm still sane and this is regular player outrage;

Jesus! Get a hold of yourself. This is just a game, a good one too. Relax, adapt and have fun. You seriously don't have to play for 8 hours a day to enjoy it. It's equally enjoyable in all roles and with all ships. Have a game plan and execute it as perfectly as you can. Don't press yourself in arbitrary goals to have x amount of money or fly y ship. Don't grind up to a cutter to trade in it then cry when you lose 25mil for rebuy plus your cargo. Trade in something you can reasonably afford etc. This is a game where you need to think a minuscule amount, not too much. It's not beating a supercomputer at chess. Just evaluate a situation, take advantage of your strengths and avoid succumbing to your weaknesses. Don't feel ashamed of using the right tool for the job. Don't insist on farming Hazres in a corvette if you'll be upset when you die. Try it in a vulture first, then buy an FAS and A rate it. Take it slow and steady.

I don't know why I'm still typing. I'm upset I guess. I also guess I'm done with the forums for at least a few months.

I feel other way. I think that there is a lot of people defending Frontier and elite and can't understand why others are unhappy whit what they got. Its okey to say you liked what was in 2.1. But if others say that they don't like it then don't go there to say get gud and that there isn't any problem when clearly they think there is a problem. They don't come hear to dislike elite they come here because they think they got fun they had before taken away and want it back.

It isn't wrong to ask for easier npc if you enjoyed it more than current npc. I personally enjoy new harder npc, but I rather have people have fun with npcs they like rather than get killed by harder npc that they didn't ask for. Frontier didn't need to take their enjoyment away to give me harder and more challenging npc. Same to other direction there should be harder npc option for those who want them.

 

[zombieapocalypse]

Well I agree with you about the silliness of the NPCs spamming shield cells without any heat issues, and the seemingly fully functioning yet heavily damaged modules (even at 1% health). These issues need to be addressed by SJA, but I'm confident they will be.

I vehemently disagree with all the rest of what you said though, and I really like the new AI (sans those awful super duper weapons that are being removed anyway).

I for one am very pleased that the days of unrealistic and immersion-breaking RES "farming" are well and truly over.

Give me the challenge of defeating difficult AI any day. So much more rewarding and satisfying than "farming" credits, which is dull dull dull.

PS - I would edit out that masked swearing if I were you, or the mods will do it for you and possibly hit you with an infraction.

Well put. I lost a ship for the first time since the original beta and that's a good thing. Prior to 2.1, there wasn't anything I wouldn't take on - I never felt at risk. Now I carefully consider their ship, rank and numbers before engaging.

- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -

I swear this forum will turn me into a conspiracy nut. I'm starting to believe there is a PR firm or something at work here either trying to extort money from FD or trying to paint them in a bad light so other space games may have a chance against theirs. I know this isn't the case and people are probably genuinely complaining but somehow that feels even more sad to me.

Up to 2.1, everyone was complaining, and rightly so, about how easy the AI was since it was dialed back after 1.2. Most people were finding it immersion breaking that you could go to a hazres and farm it to your heart's content without a care in the world. Once with a friend we took on a wing of 3 condas and 4 pythons as two vultures and won easily causing us to loao. I got so bored of farming in an FAS by myself, I started trading in between to spice things up a bit and I wish I was joking.

Now that the top AI got buffed while leaving low to mid mostly the same, I thought it would be relief and praises but no. Another set of people found different niches to complain about. Before, it was emptiness, nothing to do, width and depth, and immersion, you know the drill. Now it's 'omg too hard, I feel my insecurities surface every time I play', and 'I couldn't hand in a mission in two thousand so this game is broken'.

I'm not gonna quit the game anytime soon but I'm considering quitting the forum altogether. The last few months before the update where I didn't even read the forums were total ED bliss where I just had fun with the game I love. Now I read about people stressed out, threatening quitting and I get stressed in return.

I don't want to blame the players, I think they are doing their best. I do think they are passionate about the game they are playing. I'm sure they'll get used to the new difficulty in time, but I can't be here feeling not having fun on the forums, which sole purpose is to give players a feeling of community and provide necessary feedback to the developers. I have a very good idea and I don't need to speculate how many more feel like this, we all know the state of the forums right now.

If I'm right and this really is a conspiracy from a PR firm, GFY because it's a very nice thing you are trying to ruin for the sake of money. I hope a better PR firm out PRs you so you go out of business. However, if I'm still sane and this is regular player outrage;

Jesus! Get a hold of yourself. This is just a game, a good one too. Relax, adapt and have fun. You seriously don't have to play for 8 hours a day to enjoy it. It's equally enjoyable in all roles and with all ships. Have a game plan and execute it as perfectly as you can. Don't press yourself in arbitrary goals to have x amount of money or fly y ship. Don't grind up to a cutter to trade in it then cry when you lose 25mil for rebuy plus your cargo. Trade in something you can reasonably afford etc. This is a game where you need to think a minuscule amount, not too much. It's not beating a supercomputer at chess. Just evaluate a situation, take advantage of your strengths and avoid succumbing to your weaknesses. Don't feel ashamed of using the right tool for the job. Don't insist on farming Hazres in a corvette if you'll be upset when you die. Try it in a vulture first, then buy an FAS and A rate it. Take it slow and steady.

I don't know why I'm still typing. I'm upset I guess. I also guess I'm done with the forums for at least a few months.

The forums have been a very caustic place to be lately, far more so than usual. Criticism is fine and in fact necessary, but it needs to be polite, measured and, above all, constructive.