Test Server Feedback

I've have been sitting here trying to think how best to explain what it is that I really dislike about the spew mechanic as it stands that would make me want to pass up these sites if it goes live as it stands. I would like to start by stating you have done a lot to make it less head bangingly annoying to deal with but it still has a long way to go.

The single biggest issue I've had so far is that it's hard with the size of the objects themselves on screen to pick out and click on what I want in a hurry, complicated further by the fact that eve as a 3d environment is difficult for me to work in, the overview works much better normally for interacting with spatial objects. Another issue I've had is that sometimes it is difficult to tell exactly when you loot the can unless you are watching to cargo button (there is a delay between looting and the icons setting back to green it seems).

I can deal with the feelings I may have missed a key can in the spew and the mass of crap loot that cans often give as it sounds like you are trying to make cherry picking a little easier, I can even deal with the annoyance of having to click in X number of cans to equal the loot I got out of the old method. But the way it currently interfaces is just a pain, please strongly consider either adding the cans to the overview or maybe make a scanner work like the current asteroid scanners and make a list of the cans.

Well, it's not so hard to win if you do it in rigged bonused ship with t2 analyzer. Implants help also. But if you don't - then yeah. Hacking is now for specialized pilots, not just sticking module on a ship.

I realize he is talking about low sec sites here, but doesn't it strike you as a bit wrong that you would need to have hacking 5+implants+rigs just to do sites? I mean it's not like he tossed a hacking modules on his cruiser he obviously was using a cov ops frig to do the sites. Face it new pilots aren't likely doing combat sites, if you take away profession sites what is there for the newer pilots in exploration?

Tying the loot scatter to whether the hacker is successful or not would solve both of the problems. Unlucky hackers get a consolation prize (from whatever they can grab from the scatter) and the successful hacker is rewarded for his or her work.

Well, no. If you have 50 virus strength you will squash any 50hp nodes without taking damage and 80hp ones taking damage ones. With all mentioned you will have more then 100 coherence. With this you can pretty much squash EVERY node before reaching the end even without utility.



As it stand because how inherently important strength is there is big gap between low-mid and high skill level pilots. But that's not bad at all. Bad is the fact you have only 2 tries. Right now on tranq you can have very low skill and just keep spinning around container waiting for hack. What you risk is your life - you can get ganked. It is just. And i believe same should be applied here. You can try hacking as many times, but you risk getting ganked while you play the game.

Yeah learning those tricks myself, however I would like to note that a tengu with a t2 analyzer means you have higher coherance and the same virus strength as the person having issues with the sites.

Now I don't really think you need to be super specialized to do basic sites, but it does seem to make it much more luck based at those skill levels, so it can be daunting/frustrating for newer explorers in a way the old system never was. My comment though was mostly in response to the notion that one needs to be specialized to do profession sites which seems like it would be wrong to lower skills characters.

Also something that occurs to me, doesn't it seem like the +5 virus strength bonus from the scanning frigs is largely useless? I have yet to come across nodes that weren't in round numbers like 10, 20, etc. Is there a situation I'm missing where 25 vrus strength is actually useful over 20?

Ah okay I kept coming across nodes with 60 or 70, hadn't thought about it being one less click on the 70 one, dumb me on that one.

I'd love to test more but the area of space I'm in still has blood raiders spawning on failure or sitting at the site when I get there, and my poor buzzard cannot seem to take down a blood raider cruiser.

Good that should help some on the lower end of skills.

Echelon needs a probe launcher or some massive coherence/virus bonus. It is meant to be an overspecialized novelty ship...

It depends on what numbers they look at. It's not like anyone will unsub over loot spew. They likely will get a nontrivial number of returns or new subs by virtue of the fact that it's "an expansion" and it will get some media coverage and account for some new ad buys. People might stay for reasons that have nothing to do with exploration, and that's always good. If they just count new subs, then it will almost certainly come out as a "win" no matter how the actual content is perceived in the end.

I assume they can track how many instances of what types of explo sites people run before and after the patch. It's certain there will be a big uptick in explo activity right after the patch drops. If it settles at a higher level than it was before the expansion, then that's at least something. And no matter what people say about it here, if there is any overall uptick in explo activity, it will certainly be proclaimed a win, even if it's just a very low level of activity getting somewhat less low. If the numbers are small enough now, it's pretty easy to add a small number to a small number and get a "200% improvement!"

Whatever numbers they look at though, none of them will tell you what those same numbers would have been with everything else in Odyssey the same, but minus the loot spew. We're never going to see that number, because that permutation is never going to be tested.