Player Features and Ideas Discussion

As usual, sorry if this has been debated/ruled out before. I just thought of it while doing the email survey and figured I'd stick it in here.

I'm a bored, (very) long-term player who wishes exploration could be actual exploration, rather than just scanning for random pop-up sites. How about adding a few fixed, constant 'monuments' to EVE, that players can track down?

For example, someone finds an 'artifact' or something somewhere, that tells of an ancient monument lost in, say, Solitude. The artifact points to a clue leading somewhere else, they solve it and there's a trail of clues until eventually they get to the relevant system, scan it down, and there it is - a monument.

They can't interact with it, it just looks old and weird and unique and has a story behind it, but as the first character to find it their name gets permanently added to the info box for the monument as the person who 'discovered' it.

If you make the clues bloody hard it could be for only the people who are really committed to exploration. You can make them fly into low/null sec to add a bit of danger. The pay-off is simply being the first to see the monument of all the players in EVE. Devs could add them occasionally so there are enough to keep discovering but don't end up with one in every system. There could be interesting lore behind each one. There's no isk in it so it doesn't affect other game mechanisms much. If you're not interested you don't need to get involved and you don't lose out by not being involved. It could lead to a competitive, Indiana Jones-style mini profession for people who like discovering things.

It sounds like something I'd like to do, as a player who's done everything else and has enough isk to need no more. It could be the old people's home of EVE to keep people like me happy without bothering anyone else, like a never-ending supply of tea and a bottomless colostomy bag.

Come on then, tell me why it's an awful idea.

I like, only they need some sort of lootable valuable at the end.

Exploration needs work across the board, something like this is definitely a worthy addition even if it is just a novelty only appreciated by a few vets. It'd be icing on the cake for the rest of us new players who use exploration as our primary income.

But good god CCP, can we please fix exploration? Hacking is terrible, scanning induces catatonia, data and relic sites are risk free regardless of what security of space you're in now that loot spew is gone and combat signatures get ignored everywhere outside of high sec and the small percentage of gravy systems that low and null alliances actually have the population to farm, and they only do so when they can almost guarantee they won't get dropped on.

It's currently like being a low income mission runner, with much more work involved. Nobody asked for this.

Entity is quite possibly standing behind us at this moment, and I don't know where his hands are, but I feel dirty...

There are a lot of nifty things you can do with this. You can throw a loot container beside it that has a proof of discovery like the new player tutorials use. Take it and sell it to an NPC buyer in an area where the scientific NPC corps seed items and you've got your "reward" for locating it.

Or... Give players a choice. You can take the Proof of Discovery, which is an instant cash-in. You can take the artifact, which is unique and will thus gain value over time, or you can take your name on the monument, and take the glory.