Yeah, I’ve only gotten 1 advanced from the sites, 2 improved, and 2 basic… from about 20 sites so far. I’m around 350 points each on 3 toons. I’m also at 12 skins from the sites.
Very glad that the crates add to my accels AND my skins, as the drop rates in the sites themselves are not too hot. You’re right that past 800 points, the motivation for most will drop off a lot, however for those like me who A) want as many accels as they can get for multiple accounts, especially since they don’t expire for a full month this time, unlike the Grand Prix race accels, which were only good for 2 weeks… and B) want to collect as many of the skins as they can for multiple accounts/to sell the extras… there’s still reason to grind some more past then, but… not as hard, certainly.
I’ve had sites with just 1 or 2 spawns from hacking cans… and I’ve had sites with 4 or 5 spawns. A few that are just frigs/cruisers, one spawn per site max–from what I’ve seen–with the BS accompanied by frigs and/or cruisers… and two times in one site I had the Bestower indutrial spawn along with frigs/cruisers.
Yeah, I can see that. If you drop 400 in the hauler, fill up your ship, and warp off… the site will despawn.
However, there is a solution for you single-ship guys… drop a MTU in the site, then hack all 9 cans, jetcan as you fill up with freed slaves, and bookmark the MTU. Take slaves to station, warp back to bookmark, repeat as necessary, take MTU with you before you leave for the last time.
CCP making us do so much hauling for this event if we want to free 'em all. ;D
Probably the most well constructed event so far. naturally, anything i grind from 0-800 points in a day will feel a bit tedious but the fact that I felt i could do it in a number of different ways was very well done.
maybe remove the 15 min timer for getting 10 points per site, and i still hate the hacking mini game. also can we get skins/boosters etc dropping from things other than npcs? aka if you force me to play the god awful mini game give me a chance to get a skin from the can.
i think the key to success for events like this is multiple ways to obtain points in order to work towards rewards. Eg if you hated hacking in this event you could buy slaves (which could be sold because there were more slaves dropping than were required), or you could hack for them.
while the events haven’t been perfect, they’re getting there. keep it up.
Lovely fluff stuff. I like the little cultural bits and pieces in the fluff drops, the ship/structure descriptions etc. Very nicely done. If there’s criticism to be put there, it’s largely that this was a great opportunity to use and solidify “MSM - Modern Standard Matari” as the general language, as that’s been used for a decade and a half now. “Republic Matari” sounds weird, since so many who would use the language wouldn’t be in the Republic.
Great overall concept, we need more ways to actually -do- ■■■■ in space if you’re against the Empire and slavery.
Minmatar focused skins? Lovely! Criticism: Maybe don’t have the color blind dude make them.
The Bad:
Ogod the gameplay is ■■■■■■■ atrocious! This has been the worst damn grind I’ve ever done in Eve. The most tedious ■■■■■■■ hacking and hauling ■■■■ ever.
Rewards: Honestly, if I wasn’t into the whole story/setting thing, I would have wondered just what the hell anyone doing this was on. It’s probably the worst isk/hr activity I’ve done since L1 missions. Combine this with the activity being downright cancerously dull as far as gameplay goes and this is a bad thing.
No seriously, stop letting the colorblind guy make skins. That stuff was eye-cancer.
TL;DR: Awesome concept, great lore/fluff stuff, cancer gameplay.
Edit: Well look at me forgetting that this auto-censor thing is sensitive as ■■■■. Enjoy all the fuckin’ blocks boys.
Was moving forward yesterday to 700 points. Very little competition, looks like not that many people doing it. The combination of different tasks is nice and balanced, but as said, no challenge. You just have to grind in the right order to get maximum points. Yesterday the loot was way better, so maybe I just had bad luck on Tuesday.
You’re absolutely right Colinde. In fact, The Mind Clash Podcast wants to discuss this on next week’s episode. Would you be able to join us to talk about this travesty?
Well, I just started the event, only have 90 points but I basically like the whole aspect.
I think there should be various ‘difficulty’ levels for the sites to allow all players the option to engage in the event. I think the amount of cans in the sites should be more even, like have 8 or 10 cans total to allow group play.
The amount of slaves in the cans at each site needs to equal the hauler’s cargohold so that all cans need to be hacked open in order to fill up the hauler.
I think a small NPC combat fleet should warp in right after the player lands on grid before any hacking is done. Also the NPC spawns should be random and happen at any time, not just be randomly triggered by a successful hack of the can.
For loot drops I like how the amount of Cerebral Accelerators are limited, that should help them maintain their value and not flood the market so quickly. Definitely like the Lore ‘fluff’ items, very cool. This event should have Apparel items drop, just like the other events had.
I’m not a big fan of the color on the skins, doesn’t look Minmatar to me, too much contrast and way too bright. Should be brown and tan with red highlight’s like rust setting in.
I think the sites should spawn all over New Eden, not just in Amarr, Ammatar and Angel space.
Other than that, I like the whole concept. Definitely a step in the right direction.
Really like the idea of this event. The hacking aspect is a welcome addition. However, the overall grinding isn’t great, but maybe that’s more down to the Agency and events mechanics than this particular event.
I’d like to see something like this permanently in the game, but maybe with a little bit more depth and less dependent on grinding. It’s a shame that there is no real smuggling gameplay in EVE. It certainly seems like the next thing you should be doing with the Freed Slaves is smuggling them back to Minmatar space.
I’m at 600 points and have enjoyed this event so far. The level of hacking required is a tad on the heavy side, though - and there’s a noticeable gap between the rewards from 240 to 640. I’m finding that the NPC spawns offer substantially more than the rewards, so I think they should’ve been beefed up a bit. Can’t say that I’m a huge fan of the French’s Mustard SKIN theme, but I guess they’re free so… As always, the premium SKINs seem to be the best - but I have a hard time justifying the cost.
Not sure if this event attracts a lot of theft and opportunities for PvP, but these sites are a royal PITA to maneuver around so that may be one deterrent. I found a lot of lag hacking the containers and moving from one to the other (many of my movement commands were ignored by the client and I had to repeatedly re-issue commands). To be honest, even though there weren’t a lot of players in many systems I found everything to be lagged (thinks like stacking loot, etc. were really delayed).
I’m now at 400 points and I think the loot drops are too light. There should definitely be more NPC spawns. Maybe RNG hates me but I’ll keep at it, hopefully Lady Luck will be my co-pilot tomorrow.
Used a Praxis, found a quite little corner and finished my 800 points. I love the little knickknacks, the skill injectors only work until 8/7? Guess I’ll have to use them up…
I like the smuggling idea and agree that these game mechanics have potential.
The more hacking I’ve done the more I’ve appreciated the design of it. The puzzle itself but also the sound effects and overall ui design is excellent when you consider how difficult it is to make something like hacking accessible and yet also interesting. Congratulations to whoever was behind it.
The only major issue has been having to hack too much and consequently ending up with too many slaves but that’s a balance problem which can be tweaked.
However, I think CCP should also emphasis the “solve a puzzle” aspect more going forwards. I’m sure quite a few of us have played Portal 1 & 2 and remember how much fun those were, doubly so when attempted with a companion. EvE is at heart a PvP but people also forget it’s a PaP game (Player assisting Player). Solo PvE content is great but we need more collaborative content too.
Plus side
Something different.
Rewards weren’t too bad (at least accelerators dropped).
SKINs sponsored by French’s Mustard.
Not so plus side
Carpal tunnel from hacking.
Bouncing and colliding into absolutely everything.
No real threat/danger from NPCs (maybe this was intended).
Lackluster reward crates (except for the last one).
Only got one kill when a Gnosis went suspect. I don’t even think he realized how screwed he was until I opened fire (never a great idea tangling with a Leshak solo).
