Player Features and Ideas Discussion

+1
The exploration mechanics are utterly broken.

The can explosion is idiotic: it feels like a punishment, it IS a punishment.
Relic sites are also very laggy, which makes me miss most of the containers, and I have a good gaming machine.

Odyssey took all of the risk out of exploration: now anyone can speedrun lowsec sites with an inexpensive covops.

The scan/probe/hack/gather process has become a simple grind: exploration feels exactly like missioning.

Besides, the initial system scan.
I don't want it.
I don't need it.
Let me disable it.

I agree. I took my trusty scanning and travel fitted tengu out into nullsec yesterday to check out data/relic sites in nullsec. In almost every system I visited in Syndicate and Outer Ring, the systems had been stripped bare of all but wormholes and the combat sites that nobody wants to do, because they are all flying covert ops. Odyssey has taken what was a fun and intruiging aspect of eve and turned it into something worthless,and worse than that...BORING.

I enjoy the new mini-game. I think it's a good thing that more people are exploring. This increases demand for all exploration ships, modules, rigs, and probes. Everyone is doing it because it's the new thing. Give it a couple months and it will balance out. Profits from the activity will decrease and level out, people will get tired of traveling 30 systems to find two or three data/relic sites.

Edited to add:
In my opinion, old-style exploration made more sense. While I benefit from all sigs being auto-scanned as soon as I undock/enter system, it seems a little too easy to me. However, the new sites and the mini-game are a huge improvement over the old style. I think going back to having to scan down systems manually to find sigs but anoms showing up automatically would be a good middle-ground.

It's symptomatic of yet more dumbing down and plex inflation. Eve was much more intriging when I first started playing.

Now the mystery has gone to be replaced with a survey scanner. A couple more years of this **** and we will be playing wow in space.

T2 salvage is now worth less than half of pre-Odyssey values. I wonder where the bottom will be.

Exactly. It's like just going through the routines now. No mystery.

Beats me. I'd say "nope", but I'm not the Public Relations Officer either.
Ody certaintly wasn't nowhere as horrid as that other year with CQ that leaked "new marketing strategie of goldammo" or whatever the freaking hell somebody brainfarted :D.

I really do like the minigame and removal of rats.

HOWEVER.

I was disappointed to find that, unlike what I was led to believe, failures to hack a can don't summon rats to punish you, the can just blows up.

What should separate the elite professional treasure hunter from the guy in a T1 exploration frig in low and null sites is the ability to get it right the first time. In my mind, the best sites should be a thing that a guy with amazing probing skills can find, but to really leverage he's going to need knowledge of the hacking game, and a ship/implants set to tip the scales in his favor if he wants to do it without combat. The other option is the elite style ships that ran before. Not as good at hacking cans, and might have a 50% fail rate, but is capable of clearing out the rats he summons when he screws up. Our corp is predicated on exploration as a primary drive for play, and it's frustrating that currently techs get all the fun hacking while security often just rats while a scan is up and then waits by a can. They never het to save the tech from the result of a failed hack, or get in a tense holdout that makes the hack time sensitive because the tank is gonna break if you don't get that can open in 20 seconds.

We'd like more incentive for small gang hazardous ops. Ways to approach sites like having someone distract while the other pops cans, hacking a turret to down the OP tank on a mob or turn the tables on a gank, and generally integrate multiple playstyles in to exploration.

Increase the number and type of programs and their interactions in the minigame to add more meaningful choices and skill based gameplay. Higher end sites might even have multiple attack vectors or win conditions in a single hack, multilevel hacks, or intermittent rat spawns during a hack that need to be mitigated without breaking the connection.

Add a larger difficulty spectrum of not only scan difficulties but hack difficulties in similar security space.

Add "scavenger hunt" or other such collection based meta to the system to award amassing collections and puzzling out interactions. Maybe everything you hack isn't a loot can. Maybe there's a deadspace accelerator or offlined ancient stargate that opens up to previously unexplored space? Maybe you successfully hack and online a rogue drone ship and your "success" is a lucractive but tough NPC with great drops. Maybe there's a new type of rogue/sleeper that you need to hack WHILE IT SHOOTS AT YOU.

Exploration doesn't have enough unknown in it. Scan cans, hack cans, collect loot. Predictable outcomes are expected when mining or ratting, but "exploration" should revolve around the fear of and ability to deal with the terror of unknown outcomes of your actions, and the rewards should match that potential for getting in over your head.

+1 for me aswell...

i didnt do too much exploring but if i did it i enjoyed it and now its just a quick run no skills required. its hardly a career anymore.
the whole scanning is so dumbed down that a 10 year old could do it

i agree with OP, Odyssey was supposed to ADD to exploration, it actually removed it from the game.

this is not based on skills anymore, just on luck to be the first, to have a correct minigame, and for the loot spew....well...does anyone who worked on this at CCP have at least half a brain (even if you putt them all together)?


and lastly, why the hell whould i see this scanner thingy each and any time i enter a system?

if i activate the overlay => fine, cause i need it.

but i deactivated it, because i'm hauling / hunting someone / whatever is NOT exploration so WHY SHOULD I SEE THIS THRAWN TO MY FACE?

i'm done with exploration because of what you did to it, so at least, when i disable this overlay, i don't want to see it AT ALL, REMOVE IT!