EVE General Discussion

I've changed my opinion. I used to think that CCP didn't quite ruin, but certainly did a good job on making exploration not very fun anymore. The loot spew, the simplification of scanning, ect. But now that I come back to it after taking a break from the game, I find myself enjoying it more than I had before.

Sure, they did really crash the exploration market when they made scanning all but trivial. Now I need to spend more time exploring instead of making a good haul on a couple of sites. But as time goes on and people drift away from exploration, it makes things a bit better; the market is slowly recovering.

While I certainly don't appreciate having to chase after the stuff I just worked to get, it makes it much easier if you know what to look for and you do a little work before hand by scanning the container before hacking. Sure I've lost some good loot, but making smart, quick decisions and paying for sloppiness and indecision is a good mechanic.

Even the market crash makes sense; it forces players to take chances in lower security space if they want the good loot, Thereby making it safer and more profitable to explore in groups. Certainly a lone hacker can get by; I made about 150 million in two days of hacking (more if I hadn't screwed up a T2 BPC container), and today alone I made 180 million.

The much simplified scanning makes being a loner hard though. If you know how to effectively use the probes, the Dscan and the icons that appear in space then you can zero in on an explorer and pounce on them quickly. So either you get a group, or you get better.

When it comes to the mini-game... well, I've actually always liked it. Nothing new there. Though sometimes it really does just screw you no matter what rout you take, it is more often pretty fair. Only the most difficult containers in Null actually give me trouble, though the ones found in wormholes are still quite challenging.


So, after a good while of getting used to exploration, how do you feel about the new systems introduced in Odyssey?

To be honest, I haven't tried it since the change. Used to do it a lot, but the stories and the baffling reasoning behind CCP's lets make people play in groups (loot spew) but make it all hinge on solo play (mini game) has really put me off.

Guess I should dust off my exploration ship and give it a go....

Yea for the easy ones...

Have you cargo scanned some of the relic sites? They have like 9+ different salvage items, 2-3 blue T2 salvage. Good luck getting all of them, or even half of them. They spew out like 10+ material and parts cans and some of them are junk cans.


All this roll of the dice random **** is kinda making me go nuts. I have had some be like 2 salvage parts and 1 BPC. It spewed out like 8 or so parts/material cans and I got the first 4 as junk. I gave up on those, got the ****** BPC no one wants (Capital T2 Astro Rig) and the other cans disappeared.

It's pretty frustrating. I liked it more when I didn't know what I would get and my ability to scan down sites.

The loot spill must die. I'm not a fan of the hacking mini game, mostly because it keeps on being referred to as a mini game and I don't like the direction this is taking eve in, I'm trying to learn to live with it though.

For me, most of the fun in exploration was the exploring part where you use your advanced capsuleer skills and player skill to pinpoint targets that are hard to locate. It was like an obstacle course, with the satisfaction coming from overcoming a challenge which other people either couldn't or wouldn't overcome.

CCP took away the DSP single-probe inventory from the advanced explorers (it was essentially a perk of having astrometrics 5), and instead gave us the system overview which lets everyone see exactly where every signature is located. No longer do you need to plonk down a "discovery" constellation of probes: the discovery has been done for you. You now now which celestial to send your 4AU precision constellation to, and from there it's only a couple of scans until you have a 100% hit.

The new exploration model feels very theme-park-like. It's not all the way there yet since we don't have attendants waiting at the gates advising us to keep our limbs inside the ride at all time.

CCP have put ramps and stairs over all the obstacles in order to improve "accessibility". The fun has gone, because the fun was being able to do something that other people couldn't or wouldn't do.

Everything makes sense in the end.. all it takes is a little lube