Player Features and Ideas Discussion

All right let's face it: There are no meaningful differences between these skills. They take a significant time for new players to train, but don't offer significantly different risks or benefits, except that data loot is mostly garbage.

Yet die hard explorers feel compelled to carry and or fit both modules around, even though they result in identical minigames and mechanics.

Hell, some newer exploration sites, like Ghost Sites, don't even care which module you use!

So let's end the charade. Merge both skills into Hacking, make all current data and relic sites "hacking" sites and just make things simpler and less arbitrarily silly.

This means less arbitrary training time, fewer wasted ship midslots, and no need to explain why "archeology" is a computer hacking game. The side bonus is hacking "data" sites wont be as bad since the training and fitting requirements being halved adds some value to your day.

Give people Hacking to whichever level of the two existing skills is higher, and give them the lower skill's SP as freely distributable bonus SP. Whaddya think?

This sounds reasonable. No change is ever perfect, as there will always be detractors, but one should always try to see the larger picture and see if something is a net good. This seems like a net good.

+1

I do not see how adding more steps to the process really improves it. As someone who runs relic sites and hunts my competition, I think it is pretty well balanced. I currently have no problem killing relic ninjas - except for the most cautious ones. Whether that is by having a cloaked Astero, cloaked stealth bomber, cloaked interdictor, or warping in on them with an interdictor - the ones who are not cautious get killed. That is a system working as intended.

Firstly: Stop babbling like a 3-years old.

Secondly: I do not think anything of this. Data site hacking and Relic site analyzing are different activities and instead of merging these into one, they should be made more distinct from each other. Advocating for less variety and distinct activities is something I will not support.

It came to my mind recently that Relic sites should never again drop skill books. Skill books, especially the 10M science books, are very valuable and add significantly to the overall reward of a site. Skill books are also basically data and code that is implanted into our brains. It would be only natural to remove them from relic sites and have them drop exclusively in Data sites, making data sites more unique and actually worth running or at least give something for cherrypickers.

Furthermore, the mini games should be different from each other. It has been suggested many times and also agreed on by CCP that the grid should not consist of only one final node, but many treasure caches. Reduce the number of cans in the sites and have only a couple with larger grids that you need to explore fully to get to the good stuff. This could be applied only to relic sites as it makes more sense in my opinion to search through lots of different rooms/corners/caches in a ruin or rubble to uncover hidden treasures than in a databank where the good stuff is basically stored in one secure vault protected by counter measures.

Lastly, I would very much like to see CCP pick up the dropped project they demonstrated in the 2012 (or was it 2013) player gathering in Berlin. They demonstrated a rough prototype of actually entering a ruins (either in person or via a drone) and maneuver through a maze grid with counter measures and obstacles towards the treasure chest.

Because that would work very well with your ship (and pod) stuck outside of your FOV (of whatever kind) and never having the opportunity to burn out of that proteus/tengu.

The difference between Relic and Data sites is verbal at best. Variety isn't as great as some preach it to be. We have "variety", and then we have Tristans, Algoses and Ishtars is just one of the many examples of how variety and rock,paper, scissor is an outdated and horribly flawed paradigm.

+1

Please go in either direction CCP.

Make the Archeology mini game significantly different.
and...
Improve the Data site drops.

OR

Merge both modules into 1, and merge the sites so that data and relic cans drop in both, basically homogenizing the value of the sites.
Retool and refund SP.

I agree, there's no point having both identical gameplay (scan & hack) requiring 2 different skills and using 2 slots on your ship. A lot of explorer do not bother to go after data sites anymore. Special data only sites are not increasing my willingness to put a data module on my ship.

Merge thoses activities or differenciate them more.

Let's also notice that since we have node's number help (which is a good mechanic) it's too easy to hack the red core cans. An increase in best cans' difficulty would be good.

I am personally against this, they should not be folded into 1 skill/module for an overall basis.
(Side note it would be nice to see a Sisters Analyzer that does both but with the stats of the T1 modules)

I would prefer to see them more distinct from one another in the mini-game.

Also i think all sites should get the Sleeper Cache treatment rather than how they are now, they should be little puzzles and mild defenses in them, scaling form easy to moderate for normal sites and leave the sleeper cache sites as the difficult ones.
This would also entail merging data and relic sites into one site just like the sleeper cache sites are.

i can support this, either merge it into one activity or make them different in a way that snot 'use this mod vs that'

As a novice explorer myself, I fully support this idea.