Test Server Feedback

The 10 is a bonus to Coherence, looks like the text hasn't been updated for some reason. Access Difficulty means nothing anymore the harder tiers in sites are gated by the module stats. I'll poke Superfriends tomorrow as they are the guys dealing with this.

The state display is important, the Data Sites actually have visible animation that shows the state but we should put that somewhere obvious as well.

Please point them towards my bug report for rigs not providing bonus propperly on SiSi, this afternoon: ID 159433
Aparantly it does not happen all the time but i have yet to see differently.
It might also be that i'm just confused and that everything is working as it should...could'nt find out anymore tbh...

Repost from the other thread...

Spent some time scanning and running data/relic sites in Null sec (typically -0.2 true sec). Scanning is quicker (the new mid-slot scanning mods are a nice addition). I did cargo scans on the cans prior to hacking attempts and the total loot seemed to be on-par with nice rolls on TQ now. Successful hacking (and collection of the right spew containers) lead to similar payouts as I currently get on TQ. The faction POS mod BPC was a nice touch too.

While I’m not a big fan of the loot spew, I’ve started to adapt and get better at the process. The reduced number of cans is nice, but clicking on the hard to see icons is still a problem. That said, I’m still having issues with a few collideable objects (the black monolith in the Ruined Guristas Crystal Quarry stood-out to me). Trying to collect cans is hard enough, but not understanding why your ship is bouncing off an object (knowing the cans are soon to disappear) is rage educing.

Today the biggest change I’ve notices is in the difficulty of the hacking mini-game. Running with lvl5 hacking/archeology skills in a Heron (+10 virus strength), T2 mods, T1 rigs for hacking/archeology… my virus strength is 135/40. Despite this, I was only ~50% successful at hacking attempts on the harder containers (Ruins, Remains, Mainframes, etc.). The other cans (Rubble, Com Towers, etc.) seemed like a decent difficulty, but maybe I was just getting lucky with the number of roadblocks I ran into.

Most of my failed attempts were at the result of running into one (or more) virus suppressor. Trying to progress with the reduced strength didn’t seem to work, but fighting them drained most of my coherence. Without finding a utility to boost coherence there was little chance to get through the various firewalls/anti-virus blocks… let alone the core at the end. I wouldn’t have had as much of a problem, but many of the firewalls/anti-virus had coherence of 60-90 each and took a while to get through them.

I can understand trying to have a progression with difficulty (especially by the time you reach the hardest cans in Null sec), but I think the failure rate is too high… especially for a fully-trained character using a specialized ship. Things should be a challenge, but with only having two attempts at hacking a container, there is a fairly high chance of complete failure. The failure also happens with the more difficult cans (which happen to contain the valuable loot), so greatly reducing the desirability and profitability of this profession.

Note: Every time I had a failed attempt a rat spawned. It was mentioned previously that this mechanism was going to change… is that still the plan?

Suggestions:
+ Implement the described mechanism for pre-loading various utilities to improve the chances during difficult hacking attempts. Until this is implemented, please consider decreasing the strength of the various supresors/firewalls/anti-virus. I feel a pilot with max skills, in a properly fitted ship, should fail one attempt from time-to-time, but rarely have a can explode.
+ Add additional mods to increase virus coherence/strength (similar to the new scanning mods).
+ Add additional ship bonuses to virus abilities… it seems weird having to trade-out of a T2/T3 scanning/combat ship for a T1 frig to successfully hack a can.
+ Increase the number of failure attempts possible (maybe even remove the exploding cans) to encourage people to progress towards more difficult sites. If someone decides they want to spend an hour hacking a can (due to skills/fitting/difficulty, the possible loot, etc.) they should be able to.

Tried the hacking mini game yesterday and I all I can say at the moment is that when the expansion comes out I simply won't bother with exploration anymore because its just not fun!

I tried with a Probe with hacking rigs, and reasonably high hacking skills (4s) and found the sites to be frustrating and boring.

1) Its a MASSIVE click-fest with no clear goal or objective that I can see other than 'click on all the pretty dots'

2) When a firewall comes up it seems to disable the other 'helpful' modules (like the spanner) so I can't click them.

3) The strength values on a firewall don't seem to relate to anything - I have around 70 points available and if I click a firewall with say a value of 10 I sometimes lose more or less than 10 points? So how can I decide which firewall to click if I don't know what the results will be?

4) If I just click on anything and everything and run out of clickable nodes and all I'm left with are firewall nodes (say 3 for example) but not enough points to do all 3, which node do I click? I can't see an 'end' node I need to reach so I don't know which node is best to click on. So its either take a random chance, run out of points and not be able to do the next one, fail.

I was fairly happy that the rats that spawn after a failure were only small and I could easily run away from them and use some drones to take them out.

The loot spillage affect to me is also very annoying simply because you put the work into getting this far to only get 10% of what your after - and most people won't be glad of the loot they got, they'll concern themselves with the stuff that they MISSED and so it'll seem like whenever you do exploration you'll LOSE something (or not gain 100%)

Even if you bring a friend the chances are that they'll be bored out of their minds waiting for you to scan down a site and then hack it just so that maybe they can click on some boxes that spew out and run away with the good stuff.

Personally I think the whole thing needs to be re-designed; at the end of the day you're taking an activity that before required ZERO skill (ie, click a can and wait for the module to finish) to now require some skill, understanding and a LOT of luck to finish.

You're also making an activity that before was done automatically within a decent time frame (less than 1 min) and 100% chance of success into something that can now take MUCH longer with no guarantee of success.

Basically this means you're EXCLUDING all the players who are bad at mini games.

1) HALVE the size of the mini game so that is short and quick (less than 30 seconds from start to finish)
2) If the hack is successful then the loot is left in ONE container for the hacker to access.
3) If the hack FAILS then you get the 'loot spawn' as before with SOME loot (but not the best).
4) If the user exits the mini game or the module ends then its NOT considered a failure
5) A failure only occurs when the hacker loses all points their in the mini game

At the end of the day the player has put in the time, effort and skills to FIND the site in the first place and therefore deserve SOMETHING for their time; especially if they've risked going into dangerous space to do it.

Giving loot upon failure means that the hacker now has a choice of action to take:

1) Spend more time (and risk of exposure) in completing the mini game for the best loot and 100% chance to full retrieval. Even if this means that they go so far in the mini game, find they can't complete it and cancel and try again. The additional time it takes to re-try is the risk they take.
2) Run the site quick and dirty to get SOME loot thrown out all over the place but not the best.

We're talking about the scattering mechanic just now and are making a lot of changes to make it more usable.

Listen to the feedback!

The loot scattering as a reward does not work on multiple levels: not rewarding, not enjoyable, too twitchy,...

If it feels like a punishment, make it a punishment.

It has been mentioned before by a number of posters: scatter the loot when you fail the minigame. It makes a lot more sense.
I understand that you guys heve worked hard on this and you don't want to throw all that work out of the window.
Please don't implement it as it is now. You will create a lot of unnecessary rage and frustration when it goes live.

Listen to Solkara..
And get ready for a **** storm on the forums when it goes live..

^^ this

I've been messing around with anom's on sisi and I have 2 comments.

1) Please don't spam these sites with a ton of glowy, particle effects. I found one site in nulsec that was just a massive, unnavigable mess of bunkers with what I can only assume was half a dozen glowing orbs just stacked on top of one another in the center. My PC isn't a beast but it handles most anything, when looking at this unholy ball of level-designer rage (I can only assume that the person who designed it hates all life and wishes for me to suffer) my fps dropped to 2. Not 20, not 12, 2 (two).
The low and high sec sites were better, but not by much. The dust clouds cause massive fps drops and while the clutter was not as bad as the nulsec anom I found (I wish I had taken a screenshot, it was just so bad.) it was still poor as far as level design in EVE goes.
Could the loot containers be spaced out a bit more? doesn't have to be by much, 50m or so would do it, so long as their not stacked on top of one another.



2) more an observation rather than a complaint but why do we need two separate modules for what are essentially the exact same thing? Both archeology and hacking have the same interface, the same mechanics and the same challenges, so why do we need to have 2 separate skills and 2 separate modules for the same task? wouldn't it make more sense to roll the functionality of both into the one skill and/or module?

Pretty much this. Also, I tried to do hacking with a friend in C1-2 Wormholes (Him in a BC and me in an Echelon due to having only lvl 4 ahcking/Arch skills). Supressors are instalose. Theres nothing else to say. Also, with a slow BC and me not having any kind of AB/MWD we could only get 3 out of something like 7 cans and we were trying HARD. Not to mention we werent hitting DScan every 3 secodns like we would normally do in WHs.

Also, it has been mentionned, but I had to turn off almost all particle effects because my FPS dropped to abyssmal levels due to the bling.

Final complaint: Considering how hard it was to find non-supressor-laden sites AND getting to the cans, the loot was just awful.

If you release this feature as it is, you're going to wind up with so many exploration ship wrecks in protest that the Probes and Magnates will go extinct.