That's excellent, I still think a certain cruiser class linked closely to exploration should get some strength bonus too, but the above is already a good start towards a working ship progression and risk/reward balancing.
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I'm going to represent the player base a little and +1 the hell out of this

Bonus points if the double-or-nothing mechanic is easier with a friend, maintaining the intent of more multiplayer PvE.

It's all about PR and spin, you're a politician now, I'm afraid this is stuff you need to consider. But at least you didn't refer to people as 'spoiled little whiners'

CCP Bayesian is it possible to make the 2 modules into one but still affected by the 2 different skills?
For instance a T1 Analyzer would have virus strength of 20 and a Relic Coherence of 40 and a Data Coherence of 40.
If you had hacking trained to level 4 and archeology trained to 1 you would have a Virus strength of 20, a Relic Coherence of 50 and a Data Coherence of 80.

In order to be even remotely efficient you must have a cargo scanner fitted also. I have ran across sites that have had 6 containers to hack and only 4 had anything in them.
With the length of time it takes to hack a site you need to know if the site is even worth hacking.

Tsubutai you have a point. That Proteus fit is pretty boss for the job.

I stand by my opinion that it would be silly if only frigs were good for hacking. The sensible thing for CCP would be to create an intermediate step. I've mentioned this a few times but so far looks i'm alone with that opinion.

The Force Recon ships look pretty good to me. What if they get a +15 virus strenght bonus? That would make them at roughly 200m isk price tag the best hacking ships. But they have neither the probe strenght bonuses of t2 frig and t3 cruiser nor the nullifier of t3.

The null sites could perhaps tweaked a bit so they emmit a smartbomb after failed hack so you have to fit at least some tank and not put all stabs and nanos in the lows or probe mods in the mids. That would mean you cant run them in frig anymore but the option to use Force Recon would make that aceptable imo.

A prowler can do that with no problems, has two highs, 3 Mids, and 2 lows. With T2 rigs has a 4s align time
And recons already have a specialized role as a cyno ship.

I like the idea of a transport exploration ship. Some of the useful loot can be quite bulky. Would be a nice incentive to not leave it behind. Don't see much room to iterate on that idea with the loot spew tho unless CCP makes an exception and puts bulky loot in the containers after the hacking. Otherwise it's gonna **** everyone else off.

Unless you have five virus on the board at once and fail the hack.......

I will admit at least that would give the second needed person SOMETHING TO DO instead of twiddling their thumbs until the clickfest begins....

in other words: "CCP should reward us for failure. The punishment will be in knowing that we did not get all the shiny."
Is this really what EVE players have become? Everyone should get a medal for trying?!


I for one am now quite content with the can spew mechanic and the mini-game. I especially like the fact that you have maintained solo payouts while simultaneously opening the door for non-zero sum cooperative play. If there was one thing I would change it would be to maintain "failure" spawns in the higher end Null sites. This is really a matter of taste though and is not necessary.


Next fanfest I owe you all beers.