Player Features and Ideas Discussion

If it also includes a chance to find Sajuuk, I'm totally backing you!

Now, aside from Homeworld, I'd love to see archeology being actually different from hacking - all the year I've been playing EVE i kept wondering why we have 2 different modules that happen to do precisely the same, but just bear different names.
Archeology/hacking now - find site, kill rats, lock box, push button and wait.
Archeology/hacking in a couple of weeks - find site, push button, complete mini game and then chase after stuff, flying in space.
I still don't see a reason to carry 2 "different" modules :(

I like your idea of finding, lets call it notes and photos for the purpose of simplicity - those are a rather good way of introducing little bits of lore to an MMO. If you could every time get a new piece, some of which maybe connected to each other like a jigsaw puzzle and each set tied to a particular area - that would be fun to do - every time being tingled by the prospect to find the last piece you need for something. Of course, such "notes and pictures"would take significant development time in order to provide sufficient variety, so they should be best kept at minimal size, so new cane produced at regular basis, without taking much resources, best allocated elsewhere.

Excellent presentation, well done.

On topic, it seems a bit complex and a lot of effort to complete. But I do like the "clues that lead to clues" concept, it plays into what I think of when someone says "archaeology" very nicely.

I would suggest a method to scan all items on-grid to find anomalies, use an analyser on the object (another mini-game maybe), then launch into the "clues to clues" concept, use the same process on the next site as described before, that eventually leads to a reward.

Lots of potential, just possibly complex to integrate.

EDIT: Now that I think of it, that discovery codex is an awesome idea.

I like the general idea and kudos for the quality mockups. Also, nice one for your qualifier at the end of your post. Good idea, well presented and not pushy.

+1

For Dust and Planetary tie-ins I figure that capsuleer's could hire dust troops (with contracts) to secure crash/dig sites, raid storage facilities and Empire museums for relics, data and artifacts, attack other capsuleer's station storage or CQ for their data or relics (capture, hold and extraction gameplay, of course the only way another player would know you had something worth stealing is if you are careless in who you tell ).

PI could have planetside research and computing structures that boost your analysis speeds as you split the data processing between facilities and planetary based radio telescopes and cartography labs that add bonuses to finding sites in space. These could also, possibly, be subject to Dust troop attack, especially the larger corp district based versions of the structures.

The branching mission thing is why I mentioned in my feedback post (here) something like this being easier to implament after CCP beef up the Epic missions, PI, Incarna, Lore and the new Hacking as it would feature the same or similar elements within archaeology to complete a project and linking them will be easer to implament.

This system could be very skill and time intensive and work on individual leads for/from discoveries could be handled by groups or corps. A solo pilot could still do it, just at a slower rate.

The ideas are limitless really... I may need to do more mock-ups.

(P.S. Thanks to all for their kind words and support )

maybe archaeology could be planet based instead i.e.
you have to warp to the planet and then by magic you are transported to the planet in ... oh wait WiS doesn't work yet.... mmm...

Archaeology - Planetary Interaction

Concept image

Okay, an idea for PI to link into my Archaeology feature. Unlike the current PI, which I think of as industrial, this is for more science based structures.

So you start with an 'Expedition Command Centre' (or ECC) this serves the same purpose as the current command centre, providing power, CPU, limited storage and a basic launch capability, but players will be unable to place both types of commands on the same planet. The ECC also counts toward your 'Interplanetary Consolidation' skill limit. This forces the player to choose between the (somewhat) certain income of industrial PI or the riskier but more rewarding exploration and science approach.

From the ECC you can deploy a 'Survey Drone' over an adjustable area of the planet. It's purpose is to fly over the area and search for anomalies and potential excavation sites. The actual working is similar to the current PI mining survey, you plan/set the length of time the drone will be gone, the longer the survey the wider the area covered, you then place a pin at the central point of the area you wish to search.

Any discoveries will be highlighted in the planet view and notifications will be sent to the Discovery Codex (whether this happens during or only at the end of a survey is up for debate). Varying skills, time of year, sovereignty, recent system activities, current lore, planets and their location within New Eden affect the probability of a discovery.

Once you have discovered something you send out the 'Excavation Crawler', a land vehicle with a small team to pinpoint, uncover and if possible return any relics, data or clues to the ECC. Crawlers work similar to drones but with a smaller area of activity and a fixed time to complete their job, which is decided by the type of anomaly or discovery.

With both the drone and crawler, overlapping areas of activity diminish productivity (again similar to current PI mining)

Additional Buildings

Radio Telescope – Able to detect potential sites of interest in space and provide a rough location to the Capsuleer. Increased numbers, upgrades and skills narrow the results from whole regions to a few solar systems, the player then needs to fly there and probe down what the telescope detected.

Cartography Facility – Refines the possible location results from analysing relics and data. Only works for certain types of discoveries, does little on it's own but building one provides a boost to the players analysis report accuracy.

R&D Facility – Reduces the time needed to study relics and physical discoveries. Upgrading the facility increases the bonus.

Data Processing Facility – Similar to the R&D Facility but works to reduce the time needed to study data and sensor readings.

Data Bandwidth – Unlike current PI that uses transport links to move goods, the exploration PI uses data links that carry a limited bandwidth, players are able to upgrade this to match the increased data being send to and from facilities.

Finally, it should go without saying that the lower the 'Sec' of a system the higher the chance of discovery, but it can also affect the type of discovery. Empire system are move likely to provide relics and projects relating to those Empires, null and low sec have higher chances of pirate and discoveries based on EVE's wider lore and story. Wormholes and new systems reachable by player built Stargates would have higher chances of truly unknown and mysterious encounter (though wormholes do have a higher Sleeper/Talocan discovery chance).

Cartography 2nd Concept as first is unclear

From the depths to the surface.