Test Server Feedback

My only real comment so far after having done this for a day or two on SiSi is... why are these sites' beacons on the overview instead of anomalies in the probe scanner? I mean, don't get me wrong... I'm HAPPY that they are on the overview -- I wish all anomaly content was that way -- but they could REALLY use their own category instead of just the generic "beacon" category.

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In general this just brings up that the way CCP exposes content is highly inconsistent. Signatures being differentiated makes sense since they aren't warpable unless effort is expended. But the difference between anomalies and overview items seems completely arbitrary.

While I don't expect CCP has time to do anything about it right now, I REALLY hope you guys can be consistent on this in the future with any new content. Anomalies make no sense; anything that is an anomaly should just be an item I can filter for in the overview instead. Things that have multiple "states" (potential vs active FW plexes, private vs public Citadels, etc.) should just have more than one overview category to filter on so people can pick and choose what they want to see.

Requiring me to keep the probe scanner open just to see content that ought to be in the overview -- when I don't even have a probe scanner equipped -- is kind of silly.

We haven't really had a chance to see rewards for this yet I guess, but anyhow with the daily hunt going away I hope you guys consider putting a "newbro 10k SP injector restricted to <5M SP characters" item into the game and add it to reward track for these kinds of events. I've seen nothing but positive feedback from new players about the ability to get a bit of a bump in their training to keep them interested and motivated to go do these things.

I have so far seen 16 challenges in the current iteration. 4 were mining (various amounts of Veldspar or Kernite), the rest were combat. There are probably more mining challenges that I haven't seen; I'm not doing those so they aren't refreshing very quickly. The combat challenges are some variation of kill x Serpentis or Angel event rats, kill x of some very specific type of Serpentis or Angel event rat (gate guards), or complete x number of the combat sites that spawn. Oh, and one challenge was to complete an incursion.

Each challenge awards anywhere from 100 to 1000 points on the event track credit (well, the "compelete an incursion" event is 2000 points, but other than that I've seen none higher than 1000). The first event reward on the track is set at 10,000 points. It is a bronze container of some kind, with no hover-text. No clue what's in it.

There are 9 combat sites total; 4 Angel and 4 Serpentis ones that are mirrors of each other in terms of ships you are facing. The 9th one is a Serpentis one with a container that holds 1 to 4 "Serpentis Modified Capital Microprocessor". The event rats in the combat sites have reasonable NPC bounties, but there is no benefit (event-wise) to completing a site unless you have an active challenge for that specific site type or the rats inside it. From what I can tell the sites spawn everywhere except J-space in roughly equal proportions.

All of the sites can be solo'd in a decently flown Corax w/o too much effort. Only one site (the one with the cargo container) poses any kind of challenge for the Corax (totally doable, just a bit slow). That one is easy enough to faceroll in anything with a bit of tank. The rats do not drop loot, they do have bounties, and they do drop wrecks which appear to salvage to normal T1 wreck salvage. None of the LCO's in any of the sites can be damaged.

Serpentis frigates in the sites sensor damp. Angel cruisers will rarely web. The Serpentis like to hit MWD speed and close to point-blank range. The Angel's prefer to kite at >10km and max out at AB-level speeds.

In addition to below info, all sites have a small random chance to spawn one or more extra waves of frigates, cruisers, or BCs from the off-faction. There appears to be no trigger for this, you just see in local something to the effect of "Angel Cartel Cruisers appear to aid the Serpentis forces" or equivalent upon entering the site.

Angel Sortie / Serpentis Sortie
1 BC, 2 cruiser, 4 frigate

Angel Mining Outpost / Serpentis Transportation Facility
2 BC, 3 cruiser, 4 frigate

Angel Research Bunker / Serpentis Information Relay
2 BC, 4 cruiser, 6 frigate

Angel Assembly Point / Serpentis Mobilization Point
2 BC, 6 cruiser, 8 frigate

Serpentis Shipyard and Research Facility
6 BC, 13 cruiser, 18 frigate
split across 3 groups (2 groups immediately aggro, the 3rd can be avoided initially)
a cargo container that drops 1 to 4 microprocessors; it cannot be opened until all site rats are destroyed

I don't know if it's intentional but the 'Keep up the Pressure" challenge (destroy 5 shipyards) keeps popping up again immediately each time I've completed it. I've never had it replaced by any other challenge.

EDIT: If it's NOT intentional then, just FYI I guess, something's up there needs fixing :)

If it IS intentional, this might be a balance issue. This is the only site that drops any loot and seems to spawn a lot more often (and be a lot easier ot find) than any other sites. As a result it feels a lot more efficient to just keep clearing these for the 500 points + loot than to hunt around for hours looking for the hard to find guards or bother with any of the other less common sites and their related challenges.

I had the same problem with a Worm, several times. On the other hand the counter for the opportunity Keep Up the Pressure (complete 5 Serpentis Shipyard and Research Facilty sites) work correctly. I thought either the frigate used must be a tech 1 one (but if you have the same problem, that's not it) or only one active challenge can be completed at any given time (but you apparently can't choose it).

I did a bug report on this issue (with an alt): EBR-86048

More loot variety in sites please. Why does only ONE of the event sites (that I've noticed so far) have a loot container? The 10,000 and certainly the 25,000 point prize tiers are going to seem unreachable to some players who have limited game time. Even a low percent chance for a "good" item in a loot container dropped by a final NPC, helps reward weekend warriors & create "what will I get this time?" interest in every combat site.