DSpite Culhach
Sebiestor Tribe
Minmatar Republic
109
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Posted - 2013.05.25 10:50:00 -
[1] - Quote
TL;DR : Both minigames seem to need more mechanics that factor a player skill - which would improve over time - into the outcome. Right now, both minigames seems to simply act as mechanics to replace one time wasting mechanic for another, and to specifically encourage rewards for group exploration.
My first impressions on the mechanics:
* Hacking:
Seems to be missing a "thinking/skill" element. Unlike say, the hacking minigame in Deus Ex Human Revolution. In here, we can frantically click on nodes and fluke a way out. The minigame really needs to be expanded so we are rewarded for carefully weaving our way through, and penalized more for rushing it, or failure.
If the concept of the minigame is to mainly turn the "time wasting" of running the scan cycles into "time wasting" while doing some actual clicking, then I would love to have cans that have to be taken back to station and hacked there for example. Hard ones could take a VERY long time and/or many attempts, so really we are WORKING hard for our loot, and this concept is something that also could NOT be done faster with more people or ALT's, so it balances out.
* The loot spew:
Feels generally "wrong". If the mechanic is to make "solo" work a lot harder because even a player who is multiboxing still only has 2 hands to click on flying cans, the process could still be archived by much slower flying cans, allowing us to pick and choose better, and a slower click-to-retrieve system, and a more variable time-to-evaporate on cans, allowing us some more control on can choices, and still stopping us from getting everything.
Right now it feels like frantic clicking for the sake of clicking, just like a game of whack-a-mole. Again, needs more controlled mechanics that give a sense that we are more in control of the outcome, when we choose to be more focused on the job.
If 40 cans spew out, and a single player can only grab ten, then a solo player clicking randomly should only get 25% of the ISK worth in loot, while a careful player that's been methodical, and selective, and paying attention should be able to get 30% or more of the worth in ISK, because they are taking their time AND maybe because when they did a "full clear, 100% hack" in the previous minigame, some cans (or all cans) get labels on them while flying through space ... just saying 
I suddenly woke up thinking I had a nightmare, then remembered I can't even fly Amarr Battleships.
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