It’s pretty clear people want all of this at once - finding a site, doing it and getting loot. But out of these what do you enjoy the most?
For me it depends if it’s combat or hacking. I enjoy both the mini game and loot. But in k-space combat, I just want to be done with it ASAP because it takes multiple sites to get worthy loot and killing everything other than triggers and faction spawns is pretty much meaningless. Same reason I wanted to try going back to w-space for consistent rewards. C2s because I want to start it cheap and I haven’t been to w-space in years.
To be honest the Agency 3.0 thread surprised me. I’m the kind who wants to do sites more than just finding them but people there seemed to like finding sites more than anything. Frankly I saw that as ■■■■■■■■ and people defending existence of their favorite spots for multiple sites in a system while disguising that as exploration. The irony of people defending what’s exploration supposed to be while relying on something completely opposite, which was threatened to be exposed to everyone with the new Agency.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t need Agency for that. After using it I even find it dysfunctional, because of lack of updating what can be seen in real time. It shows sites that are no longer there, and the ones I scan aren’t saved into Agency systems’ signature lists. At the same time side pocket systems work the same as before in region I explore in.
I wouldn’t even be making this thread if not for what happened today. I made a fit for testing in C2 wormholes I can find in HS. I went to SISI and yesterday I could find few wormholes. Today I couldn’t even get 1 for 14 systems straight. I was multitasking at my PC at the same time and in the end I ran out of time and had to log off from SISI. It made me angry and wonder if it’s something SISI specific.
But also it made me wonder if people really enjoy gameplay like this, it made me remember dev Agency thread.
If there were some randomly generated elements, gates, triggers, traps; even people to rescue or ‘‘side quests’’ they might be interesting to run but they arent designed like that. They are very grindy.
Defending favourite spots? Wtf? Sites are randomly generated. They would stack up in pipe systems. Non combat explorer can’t defend them and for combat ones it was content. It’s common knowledge ffs, and just because new players don’t know that we shouldn’t change whole system. NS just going to change into more dangerous teritory now, new sites system in agrncy is reverse what CCP try to acomplish with exploration and risk reward NS.
By defending I meant existence of systems on a side, often dead end systems, which get visited by players less often so sites in them start to stack, there’s more of them. That’s true at least for some regions in HS. So my impression was people want them to stay and not be seen by everyone in the new Agency. I don’t know about null, if similar thing happens there and I don’t get a word you’re saying.
That is the part of exploration and learning about it. People should explore dead end systems to find if sites stacked there. I’m not defending old system because I want stacked sites for myself but because new one dumbed down exploration into nullified ceptor grind. If CCP wanted to help new players to do sites they should reveal it in HS only for training.
I enjoy finding a site, it’s a potential spot in which i can catch and shoot explorers. This means i don’t have to do the site (unless someone else is hunting here as well, in which case I take out a bait magnate.) After I shoot someone, looting their wreck is a nice bonus. So really, I choose the fourth option: shooting people in the site.
As an explorer I can tell you that after searching multiple locations and then finally stumbling upon a pool of exploration sites in a dead-end system is like hitting a rich vein in a gold mine that you’ve been working for a long time. That’s the pay-off for all your hard work and the last thing you want is for everybody else to know about it. Acquiring the knowledge to find those locations required dedication and perseverance which are the main characteristics of a true explorer.
The new Agency basically made having those characteristics obsolete and turned the act of exploration into a race to the finish line. Since everybody now has an ‘X marks the spot’ map for exploration sites, the only thing the Agency did is promote more blitzing and cherry-picking instead of actually running all the sites in those dead-end sweet spots.
Ok if may I’d like to know in what space do you guys explore in? Recently I found calmer HS region for myself and I can pretty much say I can take every side pocket having multiple sites for granted. I can even find multiple sleeper caches there, including 2 superior ones to date, if it means anything. Very few ded sites though.
I mostly do High Sec, always chase down expeditions all the way to the last stage in Low Sec. Also run all DED 5/10 sites that escalate from Anomalies.
I do wormhole and null sec relic sites. I love to be stealthy and scan around for a site. Hacking the cans is something i like doing aswell. But the best thing is when you see those intact armor plates in the loot.