This is great news, I'm glad that PvE is getting some new content. I'm loving the "pressure-cooker circumstances" concept (especially as if it is successful, it paves the way for the avatar-based exploration prototype we know you've got hidden in the cellar). It all sounds very intriguing and I look forward to seeing how it plays out.

God knows PvE needs something fresh.

The only shame is the suggested scarcity of these Ghost Sites. Will they be something that most will only ever see a YouTube video of rather than be able to experience themselves because every site will have been exploited within an hour of downtime?

You say the explosions will rip apart bulkheads. We talking they will insta pop untanked frigates levels of damage, or levels that will cause even a well tanked battleship to worry about the timer.

Or will damage, and damage type vary between region/sec status?

Realise you don't want to give away all the secrets, just after ball park info

If this is the case will you be addressing the pure random elements of the hacking game which condem you to failure through no fault of the player.
I'm talking about NullSec level sites where you meet restoration node after restoration node and you're doomed to failure even with max skill, T2 modules, correct ship and rigs.

This has even been noted as something which needs to be addressed.


Source

I'm glad to hear this, and it's exciting to see a bit of new mystery being injected into the narrative. I was wondering if a humanitarian organisation like Sisters of EVE should be getting labelled as a 'pirate faction,' but they're clearly up to something too.

Is the appearance and re-seeding of these sites constrained to server downtimes or have you developed a way to have them materialise throughout the day so as not to favour those who can log on immediately after downtime?

\o/

So going to cruise around in my new sister's ship ghost busting

So this is how you get the rare Depots, how do you get the normal Depots?

There is something Im not quite getting lore-wise.
If the empires are so concerned with these activities, why are they not placing bounties on the rats that show up? I understand you do not want people farming these sites, but:

They do not show up that often, so whatever is gained from farming will be small in the overall scheme of things.
You could make the bounties be smaller than usual, so farming would be less lucrative than other activities. All it would be is a consolation prize for blowing the site.

So please reconsider the "no bounty" plan, if for no other reason than lore consistency.

Im hoping you go higher. I feel it should enough to put a covops frigate into structure, and a recon ship into deep armor. Scare us!

Even though i'm probably never going to use these sites, it's always nice with new(and new) content!

On top of my head, one thing made my cringe abit, and is exactly why i dont want to touch these sites. - The new hacking system.
I like the minigame, i really do, i dont have any problems with -it- whatsoever.

However, i think putting hack/analyser modules in as a requirement in order to do these sites, a very very bad idea.
If you want to do any kind of exploration, and dont want to use a multi billion isk ship, you jump into a covert op.
This makes you very good at doing the hack sites, and useless at combat sites.
Vice versa, with pve fitted "dps" ships.
Someone is not going to do this with a normally fitted pve ship, which means you have to go back and get your covert op, this is a timesink, of more warping around.. this does not make it a better enjoyment - This is boring.
It's exactly the same problem the non-ded sites have, warping around for very little reward where you might get an escalation, or you may not, loot may drop, or it may not.
(yay for using 4-5 hours on a escalation chain, only to have it drop 3 meta 1 modules)


Also the double negative random factor of getting a site, doing a hack, which "might" drop something worthwhile. Sounds like an extremely random encounter.


As an explorer, who has done and used more time at exploration than what is healthy, i do not foresee this new content as being wildy used, and probably not hugely profitable, i know i wouldn't use any time on it. - And i love(well except certain exceptions) every aspect of the exploration game we have in eve.


But we'll see. And if i'm wrong i'll only be glad to be so.

That being said, i have one question for the devs doing content stuff. - When are you going to fix the current pve content that so desperately need a tune up?

For those interested, and have no clue on what i'm talking about... i'm refering to our current CSM Jester's blog.
http://jestertrek.blogspot.dk/2013/10/serpentis-prison-camp.html

Any info on explosion range?
Thinking, if you know you're gonna fail the hack, could you just burn away 1st?

The content looks good but those rewards look pointless. How much isk should you make from a site?

I could almost live with that value, even if you get hit by 2, with 80% resists (you know the damage type you would surely tank against it!) you only going to suffer 3600 or so (if my maths is wrong feel free to correct it)

PVE needs to be made more of a challenge, and the introduction of these sites are totally a step in the right direction. They just need to be made hard enough that people actually feel their ship is at risk.

If you do lower the damage, try and mix up the damage types a bit. Lower overall damage, but the inability to predict what type would be brilliant. Plus im sure the art guys could have some fun designing different style explosions for the different types. Massive ball of fire for thermal, EM shockwave (like a smartbomb) Kinectic with proper sharpnel effects.

There isn't a problem when failure comes from mistakes or incompetence of the pilot, but when the game mechanics are the reason you're failing with no way to overcome it, that is a problem.

I should be failing because of my own bad choices within the mini-game not because the game randomly generates three restoration nodes in a row or sometimes worse. There are times when the game will start and not be winnable no matter the players set-up or skill. That's basically the same as having some cans just explode any way when we first activate the module.

The fact another Developer has even agreed this is a problem and could use some work makes it even more frustrating.

I'm a little concerned about the distribution of implant blueprint copies (BPCs) between the different security/wspace bands of space. Nullsec ghost sites do not have any "unique" implant BPCs -- it can be skipped completely and covered by low-sec and w-space areas, whereas even highsec has BPCs that can only be acquired within. Is there the possibility of the drops being tweaked so that there are a few implant BPCs that are exclusive to nullsec?

Will cargo scanners work in ghost sites like they do in existing hacking sites? i.e. tell us what loot we'll get.

Why is the most expensive module bpc only dropping in WH ?

Ascendancy Omega Blueprint Copy

Adding yet more income to the WH guys, vs those who provide all the content in 0.0 where isk vs reward is way out of balance as it stands.

I don't see a problem with the different bpc's in different area's, but putting the most valuable one into just WH's is simply bad.

Also, the initial announcement made it sound like something having to do with this would mean that Angel space might have different drops than Serpentis vs. Sansha etc.? Will that still be the case? Will there be multiple racial types of Villard Wheels, or would it be more like the alpha implants drop for Angels, and the Beta for Sansha etc?

Also, like I asked before, where will these be manufactured? What kind of slots?

Also! CCP Affinity, could I perhaps trouble you to add the total set buff to the list of stats in the devblog? Implant math makes my eyes foggy when I haven't had my Monday morning coffee yet. :x

Otherwise-- hmmmm.

I shan't derail the thread any more and thank you for the replies that were given. Even with the complaints I am looking forward to Ghost Sites and player made implants (I hope for more implants in the future).

It might be worth seeing if the iteration to the hacking game can be looked at for Rubicon 1.1 however as Ghost Site's wont give you that second chance when you meet one of the impossible games it will instead just be over.

In regards to those failures do these containers damage you when you fail, or only when the sites timer runs out? (sorry if this was already addressed). As it's going to be more frustrating if you start losing ships over it as well.

As a low sec dweller myself, I am usually poking around in a pvp fit vessel. Depending on how dangerous these sites end up being, it sounds like I will most likely not be able to do them if I happened to come across one.

It also sounds like the masses of herons and buzzards that come through fit for data/relic might also have some issues with the sites.

Which means, the most likely explorers to do these, will be the ones cruising around in the "do it all" cloaky tengus.

Currently, some sites do not allow tengus to enter the acceleration gates. Is there any restriction on what ship class can enter these sites? Will there be acceleration gates?

Sounds really exciting, can't wait to see it first hand!

When I first heard ghost sites I thought you were actually talking about the introduction of ghosts. Glad it was just a name. Please, in the future, never introduce ghosts, magic, or even aliens into EvE. I like that EvE is human, industrial, scientific, and mathematical. We can always play World of Warcraft or Minecraft if we want monsters.

You could start by making them signatures rather than anomalies. Yes I know you need to put stuff in so that all that time that went into the system scanner was not wasted. But what about all the time invested by the players in scanning skills.

I hate to use the words dumbing down but they are pretty much the way I feel about this stuff.

So someone finally realized how awful this is? Why don't you guys go ahead and go back and change relic/hacking containers to not use it again, as well.

While you're at it, maybe you could severely reduce the number of cans in deep wormhole space to make it so you can't clear an entire system's anomalies in the time it takes a specialized ship to clear one data sites cans. Or look at the relative value of wormhole data sites in general. If a Talocan doesn't spawn, they're barely worth the time to hack.

I forgot to ask - the 'Yurt' and 'Wetu' Mobile Depots - what are those exactly? Are those supposed to be the meta versions of the Mobile Depots, or are they the *only* Depots available and also the only way we'll be able to get those BPC's?

Out of curiosity, can we ask the reasons and criteria for why you chose system scanners instead of probing? It would be nice if we might be able to have some foundation to which we can convincing you why it might be better to choose probes.

My thoughts. From the perspective of a highsec pirate (AWOXer, merc, ganker) that does visit other types of space.

1) Requiring a hacking module will be a bit weird on non-exploration fits. As the first person into the site has a time advantage, it will be a huge disadvantage to have to refit a hacker (either in station or via one of the new depots) so most of these sites will be 'won' by the first person in.

2) The NPCs have had time to refit by the time they appear, so they should be fitted sensibly for fighting against capsuleers. That means warp scramblers (not disruptors), webs, (maybe) smartbombs to deal with drones, and racial ewar and/or logistics.

3) These have real potential to drive player versus player conflict, with players racing to the site then fighting over them. To facilitate this in highsec, I strongly think you should make looting these sites a Crimewatch yellow card offence. This will really drive conflict, and does not break immersion (you stole evidence of secret pirate experiments, so you are interfering with a crime scene). This will help those newer players that want to experience PVP but are afraid of high-low gates to get their feet wet, and add tension - do I prealign and loot one can, or do I stay and fight for the other three?

4) 5000 explosive damage is basically saying 'bring a HAC or larger'. Is that your intention?

5) I would like to see these be active in approximately 5% of systems at any given time. Is that your goal, or do you have a different goal?

So, ghost sites in w space...will these be seeded with sleepers at the start like current data and relic sites are in w space? And if so, will they be even meaner sonovabitches?

From a lore perspective, being as neither the pirates or the 4 empires want us in these sites, shouldn't hacking them in high sec give a suspect timer?

I'm glad to hear this, and it's exciting to see a bit of new mystery being injected into the narrative. I was wondering if a humanitarian organisation like Sisters of EVE should be getting labelled as a 'pirate faction,' but they're clearly up to something too.

Ghost is also a military term :) CCP Abraxas picked it and I can't imagine us ever doing 'fantasy'esque expansions ;) would be crazy, in a bad way!

but you could pull off something they did in movies like event horizon. Its a movie about hell, but they don't mention it in the movie.

Even better: Last years special edition items included a perpetual motion machine. And you could reprocess it and get... Thats right a Villard wheel!

In RL a Villard wheel is an "over balanced" wheel type of perpetual motion machine made by people who do not understand basic physics, think anything is possible, and with just a little more effort they will get it to work.

Why are there pirates in Wormholes ?

Can you please include one of the ingredients for building the implants as a corpse (or an item made from a reprocessing a corpse)

The it will make corpse collecting a career instead of a hobby!

More utterly pointless BLING Designed by people paid way to much and with far to little imagination, sorry guys another -10 on the interest factor scale.

If you allow me, I have some suggestions that address player suggestions, keep in line with your intended effect and resolve lore concerns:

3) Lore fix. It can be explained that the site is visible on basic scanner because there was an accident at the site that caused it's cloaking field to go offline. The absence of ships on warp in is because they were destroyed in the accident. The entire site will explode within a set amount of time due to some type of chain reaction taking place that will destroy the entire station. Perfectly fits with having to use a salvager to access the containers. "Ghost site" refers to the fact that everyone manning the place was killed in the initial accident leaving it a ghost town possibly haunted by the ghosts of dead employees. The NPC's who arrive during a failed hack can be explained as a response team attempting to salvage some of the research before it is destroyed.

*jumps around with her hand raised*

I still have one nagging lore-related question. In the Dev blog, it mentioned we have Crews on our ships. Is this actually true? I thought the purpose of Jovian Pod technology was to give us completely automated ships?

Quote from the Dev Blog:

Yes, and depending on the language of your client you here different variations of panic and cussing in your local language.

I would like to point out that HG Omega is now 1.5x modifier on the test server, is this a final number? and if so, why was it stated in this very devblog that it was going to be 1.8x?

Edit; Kinda hate when CCP tries to be sneaky about things.