Test Server Feedback

Sisi should be updated today and I went and pulled the trigger to remove the loot scattering mechanic from the Exploration Sites. I've also reverted most of the doubled rewards. Some need to be done manually by our designers so consider what you're getting out of the sites as WIP. It works pretty much as before but with the Hacking mechanic remaining. Simply hack the site to gain access to the cargo hold of your target.

We've tested quite a lot internally but there are likely to be some rough edges somewhere. Any feedback you guys can give me is greatly appreciated.

So long spew containers, don't let the door hit you on the way out.

not that the whole team up for maximum yield thing was a bad idea, it just didn't work for a bunch of reasons, this is one of them.

good to see it go away, now let's talk about expanding the minigame :D

Here is my feedback:

Personally, I do NOT share the distaste for the loot explosion. But it is certainly ok to remove it again.

BUT. Please don't cut the loot tables in half!
And no, I am NOT doing exploration (tested it in length though after the Odyssey release, so I hope I know what I am talking about).
Counter-intuitively, the removal of half of the loot will probably not do much to the income of explorers. If the prices explode and they'll just find half as many items, there may be little to no effect after a transition phase.

The effect will be another:
Clever players were - even solo - able to get like 80% of the loot all the time (cargo scanner+choosing the right cans). The main thing you did with the loot explosion was that you GREATLY increased the supply for T2 salvage materials (and ESPECIALLY the rare, wanted ones since explorers are ofc first targetting the expensive stuff).
Please have a look at the prices for T2 rigs in the last year. They were finally reasonable fitting options to consider in any situation. Which was imo one of the cool (although stealth) improvements in Odyssey.
If you reduce the loot by 50%, you will pretty much kill off the usage of those 300+ items again!

Just have a look at the F&I threadnaught about JF and Freighter rebalancing. The prices for Single-Crystal Superalloy I-Beams went through the roof after the announcement.
Yet they are less than 20% (!!) of what they used to be before Odyssey (remember selling them for 8-10mil apiece).


So please, tune the loot down a bit if you feel you must, but not by 50% (maybe 10-20% would more realistically reflect what a good explorer today loses to the loot scattering mechanism).

Agreed, that splosion was really irritating. I'll have to try this again now that it's gone.

Quoting this for truth. Any explorer worth their salt would get practically all of the loot from the cans by knowing which cans were worth clicking on in the loot spill minigame.

If you're halving the loot tables, you're essentially halving the supply of these sites. I know the doubling thing was initially done because you guys thought people wouldn't be able to get all of the good loot from the site alone, but it ended up being one of the better changes in Odyssey, what with making T2 rigs a viable option. T2 rig prices increasing to the old absurd levels would absolutely suck especially for capital pilots: Phoenixes after the changes will practically depend on T2 Rigors (already at least 500m a pop), and Freighters will need T2 rigs to not be debilitated by the nerfs.

Some people may hate me now... but why not get a wastefactof build in depending on how well you do in the minigame and rework the minigame a little bit, instead of removing loot (i am happy loot scattering gets removed :) )

Please add some rats or make it how it was a few years ago when even HS exploration was nice and rewarding.

Why would one want this?
This is finally some PvE content that is NOT based on dumb shooting red crosses.
If you still want to train Gunnery and/or kill rats, there is a ton of other sites out there.

edit: plus it's something that focusses more on PLAYER skill than on character skill (that's the part of the loot explosion I liked). If you have a complete N00b corpmate, who is in the first days of his EVE career when waiting 8 hours for a skill to complete is half an eternity, this is something you can point them to.
Tell them a few tricks and tell them: go there, get rich.

That is not possible if there are rats around or anything else that requires more character skills.

Halving the loot tables is going to have a huge effect. T2 rig prices will go back to being unaffordable for regular uses. And I'm sure you guys would love to see the prices rise on datacores, encryptors, etc.

Most explorers have become very proficient at doing these sites. With prescanning each can, I usually only lose a couple mill from each site. BPCs aren't even an issue because I can always get those 100% of the time if I want them. This could very well be a 45% nerf to player income. For the people that got used to loot spew, it really wasn't that bad...I'd rather have to deal with the spew than have the tables nerfed further.