This has been an issue for quite some time. We were discussing this and have a possible solution for the cherry picking. When a can is hacked, the pilot’s name is then attached (similar to a cargo can). The pilot is then identified if they leave the site without completing. The empty cans all disappear once the site is completed.
And this would stop cherry picking…how? Everyone and their dog has an army of alts. No one cares if their name is attached to a cherry-picked cargo can…
How about we do the same thing to miners who leave all but a couple of units in an asteroid? Exactly how pedantic would you like to get with this?
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Wouldn’t making the cans cargo scan immune solve the problem? 
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Sadly, I actually complete cherry picked sites because I don’t have a cargo scanner- and find the “skipped” cans are sometimes still decent.
Stupidly micro-managey.
I do not support this.
I come to eve to get away from that kind of bollocks and it’s why I left my “corporation”.
■■■■ that noise.
If you wish to identify cherry picking explorers that you encounter while exploring you can bookmark the sites of other explorers who got to sites before you and come back later to see if they finished them.
Or just indiscriminately kill all explorers you can catch, that also solves the issue. Killing the cherry pickers was you goal right? Nobody minds if you also accidentally kill some non-cherry picking explorers too.
It’s a legitimate PVP activity and the only countermeasure against the offensive use of these new exploration SHub upgrades, for instance.
Besides, with these new SHub sites, you should be thankful to the cherrypickers because they speed up your time to an escalation by removing a number of cans and warp time for you from the site.
Damn, calm down. It’s just a video game. No need to blow up like that.
Observation
Pilots will enter a Data or Relic site and cherry pick just one or 2 cans with the highest valued loot leaving the rest. The next Pilot to scan that site down and warp to it will find only junk because hacking sites to not disappear until all the cans have been hacked.
Expected Behaviour
Upon hacking the last can in a Data or Relic site begins a RNG timer which will spawn one last loot can that may have moderate loot, or perhaps a very low chance of hitting a big ticket isk item (50 to 100m). As soon as the spawned loot can is accessed, a 2 minute timer begins for the can to be hacked which is also more difficult than the site cans. Once the can is hacked or the timer ends the site will disappear. All items from all cans MUST BE LOOTED for the spawn loot can to appear. The spawn loot can should appear closer to the Pilot that has hacked and emptied the most cans in the site.
Conclusion
The chance of getting a huge reward after hacking all the cans and taking all the loot will provide much more incentive for greedy and lazy Pilots to clear the site completely.
Not only that. It would also improve the overall situation:
- pilots would want to hack (and probably loot) all of the containers, to prevent missing a “jackpot”
- this makes them stay longer in the sites → makes them more vulnerable for hunters → more chances for PvP
- it results in more (if not all) sites ending being cleared totally → despawning → respawning somewhere else → less frustration for the explorers → more profits for active explorers → more attractive activity → more people doing it → more chances for PvP
It’s basically a win-win-win-win situation. Except for the cherrypickers. Screw them.
I think it’s healthy for the game that players can choose to cherry pick a site, or can choose to completely finish it.
Cherry picking is a valid strategy if you know hostiles may be camping the site and want to minimize exposure, or if you’re in hostile space and wish to slow down competing explorers.
Completely finishing the site too is a valid strategy, especially if you’re in friendly space and cooperating with other explorers, or simply if you wish to maximize your own chance of finding new sites while you continue exploring in the same area.
I prefer to not cherry pick as I like the extra loot, but I think it’s good that the game also gives other options.
I don’t think there needs to be any change to the game to discourage either of these choices.
It’s fine that you “think” that, but you haven’t brought up any objective benefit to back up that position. Why exactly does it have net-positive effects on the game in your opinion? Making the containers scan-immune wouldn’t even limit the players choice, they could still decide not to empty all the cans, but only the first 3 and then move on to get out of the site quicker for example. They just wouldn’t know if they missed something valuable, so they can’t just take the jackpot and leave the crap, to waste other players time and cause frustration to others.
Scan-immune cans means people cannot minimize their exposure in a site by only picking the most expensive cans.
Yeah, and thats “good for the game”… why? Spending less time in the site means less opportunity for player interaction.
It would be better for the game if people would get rewarded for staying longer, but having to pay more attention as well, to not get killed by hunters. Because that creates opportunities for player interaction. Exactly what scan-immune containers would achive.
Where is the risk vs reward balance in that? They can both minimize their risk and maximize their reward using the cargo scanner and it takes minimal amount of time to do so.
If anything cargo scanning the cans should bear a 50% chance of the can exploding and the combat rats or site-wide explosion triggered (whichever is normal response for the site), though the scan immunity sounds better as it doesn’t result in easier removal of the sites and maintains the old balance formula just removes the ability of cherry picking (not all explorers use cargo scanner thus it is indeed the original balance of the site).
They aren’t maximizing their reward though, only minimizing risk.
To maximize reward I personally use a scan upgrade instead of cargo scanner to find sites sooner, and hack all the cans to find more respawned sites.
Skipping a few less valuable cans barely saves time, while most of the exploration time is about finding new sites. Speeding up the process to find new sites is the best way to maximize your reward as explorer, in my experience, so I’d always recommend skipping the cargo scanner, using scan upgrade mid slots and hacking all cans if you’re looking to maximize reward.
Nevertheless I like that cargo scanning fits are an option, even though I detest cherry pickers and would kill them if I get the chance.
Not only are cargo scanning fits a good strategy to minimize exposure while exploring, EVE also benefits from the existence of antagonists.
I don’t think they should be patched out of the game.