Assembly Hall

In response to my post in another thread, this is more what I would have liked Archaeology to be like...

You discover something and scan it

Which leads to...

Using science and industry skills to study it and narrow down other linked sites

so you...

Fly there and discover more clues

which then goes to...

More exploration of New Eden's history, landmarks and scenic vistas

and so on and so on, until...

The resulting data and notes from your search are turned over to interested agents, corps or factions, thus leading to rewards, unique items, LP, standing, knowledge or a feeling of accomplishment (whatever seems fitting)

Added future features...

Incarna lab to study discoveries

and...

Cartography room to view results and plan your next move.

(Thanks to CCP, Bioware, Square-Enix and Relic for some of the art)

(Not suggesting you change the existing idea or implement this, just saying, in an ideal world, this is what I would have liked EVE Achaeology to be like. Though others have expressed a liking for the idea)

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

Yeah, I envisioned it as something that requires a little of everything to complete, some projects can be completed within a day and some of the more epic tales and mysteries could be months and years but with the rewards scaling to match (I also like the idea of small groups or solo players needing to drum up support and funding to pursue leads like a desperate scientist pleading that the next stage of his research will yield massive rewards for investors). A solo player could do it but there are lots of skills (new and old) so it doesn't fit a tightly focused character build or specialised alts but is easier for corps and groups to complete with diverse skill sets.

I have been meaning to do a mock-up of the Discovery Codex, which would keep track of projects and also work as an ingame lore encyclopedia, there is a section that shows the branches of a project that would look like the Dust skill tree or the Ship progress UI shown at this years fanfest.

You can follow clues down one path and if you hit a dead-end or something requiring skills that you don't have you can double back down the project tree and follow other clues and different leads. In a corp or group these branching leads can be explored simultaneously and discoveries pooled to refine results and data.

Really it shouldn't be called archaeology but more investigations but I wanted it to focus on discovering the history of New Eden and bring the lore into the game.