Test Server Feedback

Well since it looks like we're splitting feedback threads, I'll just say that on the other thread I noted this morning I was about 50% finishing the mini-game in lowsec. Now I just go to run another site and completed all three hacks. However, the only reason I was successful was because I tried out a T1 ship with a bonus and put the bonus rigs for hacking on. LVL 4 hacking skill. Had I been in my Covet Ops ship rigged for scan probe strength (which is how I will always end up doing exploration on TQ) I defiantly would have failed one (possibly two) without the bonuses.

The loot piñata was well, the loot piñata. There's really nothing more to say about it that hasn't been said other than it worked technically correct. It was hard to get the right zoom out to both read the containers and get a good look at how all of them drift away to maneuver. didn't get stuck this time on a structure. I was able to get about half the cans on the first tower and 1/2-2/3 the cans on the next two. My total income was about 6mil isk, which is about right for the absolute low end of TQ lowsec sites right now (I usually range from 5-25 mil sometimes even more). Hopefully I can try this out tomorrow in a system I know a few pirates live in and see how this mess works when you actually have to watch Dscan and are under pressure.

Edit: Removed snark.

The whole thing is luck based it seems. I've only done about 5 Relic Sites though. Not very exciting loot yet. The spew cans seem to change color based on distance from what I've been able to see. I don't like that you can't add them to the Overview. I think that is a very bad idea. And where does that tractor beam come from exactly? It doesn't exist normally.

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.

Great idea! Right now a lower skilled player can still get the same loot as a higher skilled one, it just takes them longer to do it. The new mingame with the 2 strikes boom mechanic seem like CCP just stepped in front of a bunch of part time and newer explorers and shouted "not perfect skills… NO LOOT FOR YOU!"

As i mentioned in the last thread, it was a problem for me clicking like 50 nodes for each container because of rsi (Repetitive-Strain-Injury).
so i was very pleased to see that you got rid of them and created a much smaller layout (because you care about the health of your players, right ? ).

Well till yesterday when i tried it again after 1-2 weeks and had to realize you went back to the click 50 - mostly empty - nodes layout to get cookie or be doomed. it lead for me to not being able to continue exploration after the 2nd site because it simply did hurt too much
I don't understand why you did that, there is no way to even guess where to click to reach anything till you click it and then it's pure luck if it's a trap, a cookie or one of ~40 empty useless nodes.

[edit]
Why not clicking a desired destination and the virus starts working it's way there - hacking one empty node after another - till it reaches a node which requires user interaction. that way you can leave the interface size how it is now. you could even slow down this hacking visually if a suppressor is active for example.

Maybe that's just another barrier to get the goodies or even the price for easier and faster scanning. the loot in general looked good to me. some sites where crap as usual and then there is the random faction loot to make your day and come back tomorrow.

But i don't see bringing people together to do exploration except for DED sites where you might need help killing stuff. Exploration is what i do if there simply is nobody else around to do something else, so i get in my frig and start looking for profession sites. Forcing me to partner up even with strangers to get all the loot seems strange to me but maybe it will work out, maybe not.

Looting the stuff takes some practice but as far as i understand it works so that you click any green container, all others become yellow. if loot finished the yellow ones become green again.

• green=loot 1 of them now
• yellow=loot in progress wait till green
• white=out of range (oh no my cookies floating away, doubleclick to approach)
• blinking=container is lost in space soon(tm)

My hopes are still very high on this expansion as it looks really great so far, so keep on your good work.

You can tractor the loot cans.

On the devblog front the numbers are changing at the moment as we work on balancing things. I'll pass on to the guys involved in that work the request for a devblog outlining the changes.

With the hacking now harder, after succeeding the hack then grabbing the cans only to get a few worthless items ( last time I was able to test) felt terrible, like despite succeeding at the hard part you still fail.
Edit: I forgot that I was able to do some testing with a cargo scanner in which greatly increased the chances of catching the correct piñata cans.
But on that note I don't think I agree with the ability to cargo scan these sites, it would be like Indiana Jones walking up to a ancient ruin and saying to himself "I don't know these ruins only have a couple gold coins, I will pass"

About the loot pinata sucking, it's hard to explain why i feel this way, but i will try.

I think it is mostly the idea that there is loot you could get, but are not getting because you cannot loot the cans in time, if there is a structure in the way preventing you to get to the cans, that is extra frustrating. Also, if half your hacks fail and you fail to loot more then 50% of then cans, your efforts seem kinda useless.

I also feel that the way it is done is another extra set of stuff in EVE. I like consistency as much as possible, but with the loot pinata there is a new type of can being dropped (spewed) in a way we didn't see before. Also there is some mystery tractor beam picking the cans up. On top of this it ads new mystery brackets around these cans that are completely new too.

Why not keep it simple and just have the old sites with their 5-6 cans and make these hackable without the loot pinata. This way you do have to think about your ship fitting because of the rats and there is still some thinking involved doing the actual hacking.

What is exactly the idea behind the loot pinata? to make these sites doable for multiple people and have the rewards scale with the amount of people actually picking the cans up?

- Wild random clicking is not the way any I would WANT EVE to work? (Regardless if it was previously so or not)
- What about lag?
- Things that REQUIRE a mouse are not optimal, ideally everything should be keybindable or at least a combination of mouse + key. (My wrist is suffering enough as is :( )

Sorry I can't take this part seriously, are you implying that someone would scan down a complex run the complex all the way up to the point the faction ships comes out, scan the ship and then warp off because they didn't like what loot was in there?