Chance Ravinne wrote: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?
Hey Chance,
I've been thinking about your initial post into the thread and the way that it is put forward is bothering me.
This post is simply lobbying for support of what appears to be your idea or at least an idea put forward to you by someone close to you. Although, generally speaking, this isn't actually an issue, the problem comes when we look at human behavior. The fact that you are a member of the CSM means that when you speak, people are going to listen. They will also probably say things and act differently simply because you are a CSM member (although, you were popular and semi famous in EvE before you were elected) to potentially fall in your favour.
I think you really should have presented this issue in a far more open and unbiased format. You really shouldn't have made a suggestion that has such a binary answer. This should have been put forward in a far more structured fashion that spoke from both sides of the (percieved) issue and probably spoke about the hacking profession as a general whole.
I do know that you mean well but I do think people have "odd" behavior on these forums when it comes to replying to or getting a reply from a "Dev"/"CSM"/"GM" ticker.