Player Features and Ideas Discussion

One of the most interesting aspects of the new ghost sites is that you have a specific problem that requires a specific type of ship fitting to complete the content. In this case the equation is fairly simple: Fit enough of a tank to take the damage of the site + Fit hacking modules + Be quick about it = profit.

I had a couple of ideas that revolved around this concept, and perhaps even expands upon it by creating situations that require certain modules to complete, or ideally giving players a problem that they can approach from different angles. Essentially, creating Fitting Puzzles.

1)
There are developing brood chambers of drones appearing in all security levels of space, these embryonic hives are sought after for some shiny loot that lies inside, you could even maybe create the option of putting powerful, no bounty rogue drones in belts and on gates of the system if the hive goes into "active mode" and at that point removing some of the value of the loot.

These brood chambers have a mechanic similar to an indestructible reinforced mode force field, but the capsuleers have a work around, if you were to neut the capacitor powering the shields you could then attack and destroy the hive while still in it's embryonic stage. All the while the hive is sending sorties of drones out to attack the offenders.

This would require a pre determined amount of neuting power, cap boosting, damage, tank and speed to accomplish (based on system sec status).

2)
The idea for this next content is that you have to haul a volatile item from one site to another, probably a few jumps away. This item (an unstable reactor core or the like) causes damage to the hull of the ship as long as it is in the cargo hold. There should be a very real threat of losing ones ship and requires a player to fit heat sinks, damage controls, speed mods, hull tanking mods etc. you could even up the ante and compound the problem by giving capsuleers a suspect flag while the item is in the ship's cargo hold. If the player ejects the cargo they lose all of the reward but stop taking damage.

These are just a couple of simple ideas for fitting puzzles.

If anyone has any thoughts or additional ideas to expand on the concept of fitting puzzles, I'd love to hear your input.

Edit: One pretty obvious thing I overlooked is that once the player base discovers an optimal way to do these, the content would more or less lose it's "puzzle" aspect. I think that creating a few variations on each site, or mission, or what have you would keep things interesting.

I'm not sure that ghost sites really count as puzzles now that they've been out for more than just a few days. It's more or less what you describe: Buffer tank, analyzer, prop mod. Not exactly an EFT-warrior level challenge.

This will always be a problem with PVE content that can be repeated - players will determine the most optimal way to complete it with the resources available and grind until it is changed or there's something more interesting/profitable to do.

Your ideas are cool and there's certainly no harm in CCP providing more PVE content, but it feels like you're missing the obvious point here:

If you want situations where you don't know what to expect, with the potential for good rewards and emergent content, then actively engage in PVP. You will always have more fun and challenge than with PVE and literally anything can happen from a one-volley kill to entire alliances dropping capitals. With smaller engagements, there's always the chance that the enemy has used some out-of-the-box fitting or technique that you have to counter on the fly or die to. Give it a try sometime :)

this sounds like it could be a cool idea that opens the way for many new PVE experiences!