It actually is quite a good comparison. We are talking about the equivalent of taking on a well skilled and trained Gate-camp in null, blind, with no intel about the camp composition, in a cruiser, solo. Three times in a row.
Whilst I am sure there may be people doing that, I suggest that they aren’t that common.
For added excitement we have wormhole effects, local effects, and on grid citadel weapons.
What can possibly go wrong?
The plus side is that PVE players who are able to achieve this will be the most violent, aggressive effective PVP players that this game has ever seen.
I must say though, with repeated efforts (that would cost a lot on TQ), I am finally fairly confident at anything up to level 3’s, all effects, in a Deimos.
I can’t squeeze a large cap battery in but a medium seems to be fine so far. I dropped a turret for a smart bomb. Does the trick for swarms and other things that get in range ofc. I also moved from Heavy Neutron Blaster II to Heavy Ion Blaster II to gain that extra bit of tracking. WIth void or null, range dependant obviously.
I use a standard tech II web, AB and tracking scripted tracking comp. Duel rep with normal med II and a ancillary, a reactive, a tracking enhancer and just the one mag stab () and ofc a ADC II.
Hybrid metastasis tracking rig and a auxiliary nano repair amount rig, both tech II.
No boosters or implants, but a shed load of repair paste. 5x War II’s and 5x light web drones.
I have been aiming directly at the loot pod and orbiting at 500 so the bomb kills it and I’m close enough to loot and start moving towards primary NPC target.
Don’t even get drones out till you are 40km from the structures.
Ship is 380’something million overall. I still loose them but it’s becoming blindingly clear it’s down to me making silly mistakes. Like forgeting my blasters are on overheat and then having to wait till the timer ends because I can’t shoot anything…
edit:
Can not break 4’s with it very well at all. Was there a good reason why we can’t purchase faction/deadspace modules from the market on sisi?
I blitz level 5 missions (on an alt, with faction pullers). I checked what Asklepian implants cost on TQ and I can easily make that amount in a few hours.
I realize this is more ISK/hr than most people who might run these sites would make, but I am talking about the highest end site here.
I did die several times to the drones before I managed to get it right consistently, and once I took the final gate and popped out with exactly 0 seconds on the clock. But I was still learning how to use the towers effectively.
Everyone has access to sisi. Nobody has to try and lose asklepians a bunch of times without practicing first. For good or for bad.
the problem is with the lack of consistency and occasional death spawns that one cannot realistically expect perfect fit and perfect tactics to actually allow you to survive.
It’s interesting, people will naturally have to balance the inevitable regular loss of deadspace fit hacks versus the rewards that can realistically be achieved.
But when the difficulty level exceeds the hardest PVP encounters, one has to question if the balance is quite right.
and that balance will determine whether this will be the most popular PVE in a long time, with great player engagement, right across the player base. or mainly abandoned with a very very small subset making bank, or not.
You are aware, you can’t prefit for what spawn you get. You can’t refit in site, and if you don’t fit to EXACTLY optimise for the spawn, depending on the spawn you get, then you blow up?
At best you can roll the dice and hope you get a kind spawn. get a full on spawn and you better have earned enough since last time they blew you up to pay for your latest loss.
So NO you can’t adapt. theres the problem.
T1 and T2 sites, you can over fit, for some leeway, and even they can be a shock to the system.
Higher than that is currently a dice Roll. I’m all for a challenge, But this gets into blind chance.
That’s indeed a plus for the new sites, if people not risk-affine are willing to put the loss and learning effort on the line.
But I’m putting more weight on the fact that it’s actually not PvP. It will not give the shakes, the GFs, the close calls, the sneaky, and the social part. The sense of accomplishment will fade fast, and is overcompensated by the frustration of loss against a stupid AI and RNG.
EDIT: That’s my personal stance on it, and the reason why I’m willing to risk losing a B in PvP but not even 100M in a PvE engagement. I like a modest challenge in PvE, but I would never risk losing something against RNG/scripted variables I can’t control. For me losses against NPCs are stupid losses and deserve being laughed at.
This is just overly dramatic and untrue. A fairly number of those of us testing these sites regularly on SISI have achieved a reasonable success rate on at least tier 4 filaments. Its about how you approach spawns. Once you’ve encountered a certain spawn pattern a number of times you know how to best approach it, and therefore can optimise your play style and fit to succeed.
I agree for the most part. While it would give me the shakes once I realize there are still 5 minutes on the clock but simply not enough DPS to chew through what is on field, it won’t be the same shakes as in interesting PVP fights. Some of the mechanics in there really need a workover.
About the RNG I can’t agree. If you run enough tests you know actually pretty exactly what you can expect. If you expect all of it and prepare for all of it, you can relax because mostly you’ll not have to face all of it.
In other words: prepare for the worst case scenario. If you know that this case is too much to handle, don’t do it or face the consequences of taking the bet.
I’m pretty sure that the difficulty will lead to a certain specialization on filament type/tier rather soon. As it currently stands we’ll not see many people successfully farming the highest tier from the start on. My presumption is, that the more experienced PVErs will focus on mid-tier and find out which type is the safest to run. After figuring that out, they’ll try to min/max.
And that could be actually it. Farming or even just running the highest tier could be (maybe should be?) only for those, who are really putting a lot of thought into it. That’s maybe not so bad, if you think about what normally would happen to any type of PVE. Every dumbo wants dank loot and ready-made guides with fits and all that. Those will exist for lower or mid-tier sites quickly. I hope they won’t for high tier.
Suggestion to Devs who maybe read this:
Give us the option to stabilize the spacetime anomaly for 5 more minutes, by hacking a container or something like that, in the 2nd room. Or maybe give the option to not loot the 2nd container and do something with it instead to get those 5 minutes. If we run into too much EHP to chew through, it would be nice to have a way to get ourselves a bit more time. Nothing is more frustrating than to have too much EHP on the field. Once you enter the last room and you immediately know you don’t even have to try, just because of EHP vs time, not danger of the NPCs.
The design appears locked into win or lose, with no escape option if a player can’t solve the puzzle. This harsh fact brought applause when announced at fanfest: PvE with real stakes and consequences.
Casual players and most leveled mission runners may not like the high stakes, but its not hidden from players: we’re told by each filament up front.
Well, I was wrong. Apparently CCP made these sites much harder than when I first ran them. Still, I feel like I’m approaching a good strategy on consistently getting through a site.
) and ofc a ADC II.