Missions & Complexes

Well, more than likely the spawning aspect for expeditions is all messed up now.

My memory might be a little hazy now but I believe DED 4/10 has always been the largest expedition site able to spawn in high sec.

At first all final locations for expeditions would always be in a lower security level (high to low, low to null) or unfriendly space (different Sov in null). Sometimes that resulted in the escalation route having way too many jumps, thus players usually ignored it.

CCP reduced the amount of jumps for expeditions and made expedition sites able to spawn within the same system security level (high to high, etc.). Also in an attempt to entice more players into low sec, CCP made all exploration sites able to spawn there.

CCP has done a lot of other changes to the exploration career too, such as changing the expedition timer, moving various sites into different scan classifications, imposing ship restrictions on specific sites, etc.

Yeah, lot's of other 'Instant Gratification' changes have been made to exploration / expedition sites within the past year or two. Unfortunately those changes have also introduced various bugs that when fixed, usually messes up another aspect of it. In other words, exploration has been messed with quite a bit. Hell, I'm surprised the whole system still works as good as it does.

At least expeditions are still spawning, right ? Maybe the amount of jumps over-rides the system security level ? I don't know, thinking about all of this is depressing.



DMC

How far away was it if you went through low security space?

Low sec can get 7/10 escalations for sure (I've had handful) and obviously high can get 5/10s even if they're rare. I think quite a bit has to do with where you generate the escalation and how close it is to a lower sec band.

The game is supposed to not give you an escalation more than 10 jumps from each stage - using the fastest route to get there. The game is not supposed to pick based on your autopilot settings.

If you have "avoid this system" or "safest" route checked, I would expect some weird results when you try to autopilot your route there.

I would love to plug your results into Dotlan and see what comes up. In which system did you receive the initial escalation? To which system did it escalate? And where is the third part now?

Journal -> Expeditions (if you did indeed get an escalation from it, I've yet to get one after completing a DED site).

And in regards to the OP, In the past couple of months of grabbing escalations, only once did I get one that was more then the half dozen or so jumps it is on average nowadays (for me at least); from Ikao, some 20 odd-jumps deep into Syndicate. I've also had 7+8/10's as low-sec escalations (when they themselves aren't native to low), although those came from combat anoms in low-sec so that shouldn't be too surprising.

In regards to that YT vid, if it was the Angel 5/10 then that would be the odd one out, as you can get that as an escalation from Refuge's. For everything else, I'd just put it down to the RNG living up to it's name, and what the surrounding systems are like sec-wise.

There's a chance that the expedition pop up message may appear with a message stating that the expedition has hit a dead-end, even at the start. When that happens there is no entry listed in the journal.

Sounds like that might have happened in your situation..



DMC

Okay, so it is working as CCP intended. Good to hear.

Well, at least it's not 44 jumps.

As for the 16 jumps running you through low sec systems, CCP's main intention has always been to make it very tough for players to succeed. They revel in seeing players fail. Yeah I know it's sadistic but their track record shows it to be true.

Anyway, hope you have lot's of success with your expedition and may it escalate to 4th stage.



DMC

That is easy to explain, DMC. It depends where you are triggering the escalation of a den. If there are no low/nullsec within a 16 jumps distance (shortest path, without any security status restriction for travelling) the system behind choses to offer the escalation in highsec. That way you can get 5/10s in highsec. Or at least that is what it is intended to do. For whatever reason i also had a 5/10 in highsec, only 5 jumps away from the system it was triggerd in and i had low sec border in 3, 5 and 6 jumps distance, and even null in 7 jump distance. Why ive got it? No idea. You are probably right when saying it is all somehow bugged.

Cheers

Last week, something weird happened:

I got a Maze escalation from a sactum in nullsec to lowsec