Player Features and Ideas Discussion

THIS!

I want to see an archaeology minigame like digging trenches!

No.

So I take it you hate the exploration profession? Because this is a good way to **** it over even more. Rubicon really screwed it up by making it accessible to everyone almost at day 1. Before then, scanning took skill. I spent days learning to scan, and months learning to scan well. It was something to put on my resume: not everyone back then had the time nor desire to learn how to wrestle with the scanning system.

This created opportunity. Because it was hard to do, fewer people were doing it. Because fewer people were doing it, the gains from running the sites went up due to scarcity. ALSO, because fewer people were interested, there was actually a small market for being a cartographer. I got hired a few times in my early days to go around a chain of systems, scan down the sites, bookmark the ones my employer was looking for, and then sell them the bookmarks. I developed a skill, and turned it into isk.

Now, everyone and their dog can scan. It's trivial. And hence, the market for it crashed. You came into the game (if this is your first character, anyways) after all this happened. You didn't have to experience all your skills and knowledge becoming suddenly worth a lot less than before. You didn't really see the price devaluation of your loot hanger, nor that fewer and fewer people would pay for bookmarks anymore.

Having two skills is not "good difficulty", granted. It's an artificial barrier, since both hacking and archeology rely on the same mini game. But removing it would remove a further factor in scarcity, meaning someone who would have passed the sites over before now does them and gets the loot from them. The more loot being generated, the less worth it has. You might think archeology for T2 salvage is a good source of income, but before Ruibcon, it was a ******* gold mine. What it is now is a joke compared.

Instead, differentiate more between the two. Give better rewards, and tweak the mini game so that the hacking is noticeably different from the salvaging. Expand on it.

Salvaging should have the chance to give faction parts. And not just Guristas or Sperpentis or whatever pirate faction is in your area, you should also find Navy and NPC corporation wreck sites for variety's sake.

Hacking should have the chance to give faction blueprints. You're hacking secure databases, and you should have the potential to find much better rewards than now.

And for ****'s sake, make it harder to scan the higher value loot sites. Because right now, it's trivial. Make it harder and give better rewards.

To be completely honest, I don't think exploration will ever recover from Rubicon. Not in the direction CCP is taking it. But your idea is just one more nail in it's coffin.

It is true that making things more accessible leads to more people doing them, which in generally leads to reduced profits if the activity isn't an isk faucet.

However, I don't think this change signficiantly impacts accessiblity. Most people are only doing Relics and not Data sites anyway, and for those players the accessiblity has not changed at all. Even if the player does want both skills to IV before doing exploration for some reason, it's 4 extra days. It would really only matter to new players.

T2 module currently require lvl V so all those people with Arch V and Hack III/IV are weaker against the hardest hacking sites. If they merged and lowered T2 requirements, then all the data sites just got easier for those players. Skills at III or IV and T1 modules will fail on harder cans. Let the people that chose to invest in Hacking keep an advantage over those that did not. If people don't care about data sites then the merger will not make a huge impact, true. But then why bother making a change at all, leave well enough alone and let people keep skipping the data sites.

I rarely find the new sites. When I do, I'm often deep into unfriendly territory, and it is not the time I want to risk losing my ship to a sleeper cache. But if I did find one close to home, having good skills in both give me an advantage over someone that didn't train both to V.

If we really want to merge the 2 skills then make it the same SP as Arch V + Hack V and keep the lvl V requirement for T2 modules. Anyone not already 2x V will need to train up to use the T2 module again. This simplifies things while forcing people to decide if they want to be able to use T2 or not. I have said it earlier, I would rather a new module be made that does both data/relic sites and has Arch V and Hack V as requirements to use. This changes nothing for those only doing relic sites now unless they have already trained Hack V. If so then they can upgrade to the new module and do either site type for 1 mid slot.

I would have to politely disagree.

As it stands, right now the modules require 2 spaces in the mid slots. And it takes some consideration when fitting your ship. Most ships, if you want to fit 2 such modules, really sacrifice some tank and or mobility in the process.

If you combine 2 modules into one, some of the fitting problems go away, and it becomes easier and faster to do the data sites.

For example. passive tank nighthawk in C5 sleeper sites for ninja method. You have to choose what module to fit, because you cant fit 2 of them or your tank will fold. You have to choose what to nonja - talocan or the data cans. if you combine 2 modules into one, suddenly its possible to hack both the talocan AND the scattered data cans easily. There are more cases.

I wont go into specifics, just trust me, in some cases the combination of two modules into one will make site running easier and faster, meaning a change in relative isk income and an impact in EVE economy. this has to be studied.

I can dig it. Also make data sites not suck so hard.

Supporting this idea, I have both skills at V and it was annoying to basically train the same thing twice. Sadly, I don't remember if CCP ever merged skills (on the contrary, they are more likely to separate them - Destroyers, Battlecruiser, Scout drones) so I don't have any hopes.

Make data sites drop the raw materials we use to make implants. Then have the LP stores and loot drops stop providing complete implants - but rather only sell the BPC for the implants.

I'll need a faction beard and pipe to improve my success chances.

Hey Chance,

I've been thinking about your initial post into the thread and the way that it is put forward is bothering me.

This post is simply lobbying for support of what appears to be your idea or at least an idea put forward to you by someone close to you. Although, generally speaking, this isn't actually an issue, the problem comes when we look at human behavior. The fact that you are a member of the CSM means that when you speak, people are going to listen. They will also probably say things and act differently simply because you are a CSM member (although, you were popular and semi famous in EvE before you were elected) to potentially fall in your favour.

I think you really should have presented this issue in a far more open and unbiased format. You really shouldn't have made a suggestion that has such a binary answer. This should have been put forward in a far more structured fashion that spoke from both sides of the (percieved) issue and probably spoke about the hacking profession as a general whole.

I do know that you mean well but I do think people have "odd" behavior on these forums when it comes to replying to or getting a reply from a "Dev"/"CSM"/"GM" ticker.