EVE General Discussion

You don't even know how the system works yet. Why are you making all these dire predictions?
Do I have to keep repeating that Soundwave said that this was a work in progress?

The old hacking system was boring and needed changed, I don't disagree with that. However adding in a twitch based space pinata doesn't seem to fit, nor do I see it being anything more then an annoyance.

I posted an idea a few pages back, to expand the "new hacking" system to incorporate group play, without the pinata.

Have you ever kept your view in the same place, then moved it and watch the brackets jump? This is what I can see happening with this.

Also clicking on little green dots as quickly as possible while trying to avoid clicking on the little red dots, is inline with "WOWPandas" style of play. Or almost every ****** game on Ipad. Though I guess trying to use lolWOW as an example to try and flame someone, is what all the cool kids do.

50% of players play solo, quoted at fan-fest.

Exploration is surely the real solo player experience.

"Bring a friend" quote from chap demonstrating the new exploration, to 'catch' all the cans.

Seems odd to me.

Should be fun though.

I really don't think this is forcing group play at all.

All it is is making it so that you can't get maximum payout alone. If you could, group play wouldn't be viable at all.

IMO, the loot jettison thing is completely out of place in Eve. I just don't see how it makes any sense. It just seems so.... silly, both from a thematic and mechanical perspective. This would be a generic and boring mechanic in a single-player twitch game, but in Eve I think that it is unforgivably stupid. I will be truly sad if this is the best mechanic that CCP could come up with to encourage group play in exploration. It's like they aren't even trying.

As for the hacking mini-game - I will reserve judgement. I don't think there are enough details to make a fair judgement at this time. However, I will say that, from what I have seen, it doesn't look very interesting, and severely lacks visual appeal. I mean, why go to all the effort of making exploration sites look cool and then make players stare a black box with a few circles and lines on it?

Very poor effort on CCP's part, IMO.

I hear they are doing the same thing with the petition system.

You file a petition and then randomly sometime later in space (regardless of what you are doing) a large, obstructive screen pops up and in the middle is a picture of the GM who will be "helping" you, and then all of the Copy and Paste" and "We apologize for the late reply and appreciate your patience." and "The Logs show nothing" appear and fly to the edges of the screen.

And then you still don't get any help - so it's basically the same old petition system.

I finally watched the demonstration, and while I was fully prepared to dislike the new mechanics based on the previews here, it doesn't seem so bad. The mini-game looks like a decent prototype, the looting method doesn't in itself bother me, and there's certainly been major improvements in the UI and graphics.

I guess my concerns come down to:

1. In losec, am I going to be a lot more vulnerable while getting cans open?

Yeah, the current hacking system is dull as a matte doorknob on its own, but that allows me to focus on the real fun: the balance between looting loots and not getting ganked...too often.

2. Will solo exploration be about as lucrative for me as it is now (or better)?

I have nothing against teamwork being promoted in Exploration, but I think it should do this by scaling up better with more players, and some general adjustments to rewards, without reducing the returns for soloers. We have no way of knowing which way the new jettison system will swing this. (Though I think I'll feel sorry for you if you're color-blind, or have worse hand-eye coordination than I do.)

Anyway, if the answers to those two questions are "Basically no" and "Basically yes", in that order, I basically think I'll be a basically happy Explorer.

The new changes do look worrying, especially how there won't be any rats in the sites anymore, possibly meaning that you can just fly around doing sites while sitting safely in an uncatchable frigate. Unless they also dramatically change other parts of the sites such as loot and spawn frequency it could be a serious hit to how profitable exploration is.

Luckily, I am not one of those people, whom we all meet, that expects everyone to agree with them or thinks that you are somehow less for not. Hopefully, I am allowed the same courtesy. I have been thinking over a few of the posts written here.

There is no need to add more group dynamics to exploration in sector space when by nature of the job those that want group exploration will graduate to worm hole space where it is a requirement for the exploitation of resources. This new twitch mechanic threatens to KILL a classic profession from science fiction story telling that happens to be intrinsic to the play value of many EVE subscribers: The lone explorer. This should not be allowed to happen. The catch and grab mechanic is messy and leave those explorers feeling like they are always missing out on the honest rewards of their work while enforcing a needless limitation to group we violate every where else in play.

The only real way to involve more people in more jobs in EVE is to directly kill multi-boxing itself rather than attempting to eliminate the jobs it is often used for as you hurt and dissuade too many other players and their fun too. Since it is doubtful they can afford to do that directly it is something to be accepted. Attempting to design around it with twitch fails as boxer and other tools can be easily modified to deal with it. I’ll admit that I am a fan of the idea of one character and account per player IP and permadeath possibilities but I doubt anyone else could handle it.

Allowing the introduction of a twitch play mechanic such as catch and grab vanishing loot into a simulation is a counterproductive change in design philosophy that if accepted by the general player base opens the door to the introduction of yet more twitch game play killing the internal consistency of established mechanical design from years past progressively over time. It’s a tendency we call feature creep. Silliness such as exploding asteroids with catchable bits may actually not be out of the realm of possibility in years to come as unreasonable as it sounds now if this is quietly accepted.

Twitch play by its nature does not mean less boring and more fun over time. It doesn’t even imply more accessible to most players as EVE has never (and will never) be appreciable to those grounded in the “Nintendo” school of play philosophy. After dealing with catch and grab for the hundredth time the newness will wear off and that you will miss the old crack a can and run mode of play for sheer expediency. If you think the current method dull or bland that’s fine but changes for changes sake to something not game appropriate never pan out well. Instead of pandering to the twitch generation why not simply hold true to simulation design and create a mechanic vested in decision making?

Scanning and probing have been described as a mini-game that plays out like a logical extension of piloting your ship inside the simulation (it feels REAL) so that most people don’t notice the fact. These exploration site changes play out as a cobbled in twitch mechanic that runs contrary to established play methodology so strongly that it sticks out like a bruised thumb. They have no place in EVE.