Feedback on Guristas Hunt 2022 Event

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I’m happy to have another event to participate in. Though we’re only a few days into this event, I’ve got some feedback to share after having discussed my thoughts with a good friend and longtime colleague who gave me some insight into the event and its execution. Since I’ve been playing EVE as of December 2009 and I’ve grown to largely enjoy Agency events, I draw comparison to past events such as Crimson Harvest, Guardians Gala, Operation: Permafrost, and others.

The following assessment and opinions are my own.

This assessment is made with the recognition of the limitations placed upon the event’s execution in high-sec (i.e., fewer sites, lower-quality drops).

Pros:

-SKIN, cerebral accelerator, clothes, faction hardware, Gecko BPC prizes/drops
-bounties
-emphasis on directional scanner usage (which I actually barely used prior to this)
-visually pleasing environments
-functioning challenges
-focus on smaller ships which rarely see much usage in these events

Cons:

-hit-or-miss frequency of both “eggs” and combat sites
-extreme infrequency of scandown sites
-requirement to obtain “keys” to fully complete combat sites and earn qualifying Agency points (and thus better progress along the Agency 950-points track to event “completion”)
-SKINs and booster prizes lose their luster without a more tangible reward coupled with them
-an unfortunate grindfest: 950 points, at 30 points per combat site, plus 10 points for every 5 egg kills, requires obtaining at least 30 keys
-a key is consumed regardless of whether or not the site is completed by another player, resulting in wasted keys

Bugs:
-the “drone” miniboss and turrets in room 2 do not count as an “enemy destroyed” in the challenge tracker, but the boss Jackdaw does.
-on occasion, more than 1 key was consumed upon gate activation into the second room of the combat site

Now that I understand how to effectively operate the directional scanner and I’ve found a ship that can process the combat sites without issues, my issue is not with “hunting eggs.” My ultimate issue is the (effectively) “requirement” to obtain “keys” to what amounts to “progressing” or “completing” the combat sites. In my view, the key requirement acts like a “gatekeeper” which interferes with participation in the event. This is because obtaining the key to access the second room and kill the Jackdaw is a requirement to obtain points to progress along the Agency points track, which eventually leads to “event completion.”

I say this coupled with the seemingly infrequent appearance of scandown sites that I have personally experienced. Were these scandowns encountered with greater frequency, they would be an alternative path to progressing along the Agency points path to 950-point completion. However, as they are so infrequent, they are almost forgettable as a path to event completion. Therefore, the “key” serves as the catalyst to “participation” in the event, itself and acts as a “tier-access” restriction which lengthens the time it takes to complete the event.

The sites are rare enough, and at times I was encountering more sites than actual keys while stuck on the “destroy Jackdaw” challenge; coupling them with finding the eggs means it takes even longer to complete the event. We are talking about investing hours of playing into going dozens of jumps across multiple regions and even empires and finding nothing.

That said, getting low-level “overseer effects” or mere Tier-1 goods after burning hours on fruitless jumps is rather insulting.

This does not encourage me to continue this even, nor play future events, because I don’t have time to have my time wasted.

Without the key, you are unable to enable the environment and circumstances to score the points required to progress along the combat site track.

Therefore, one has no choice but to “hunt eggs,” which is understandable as the point of the event itself. The alternative is to explore the contract market and get subjected to inflated prices…

It thus far seems to be a circumstances of finding an amount of either eggs or sites at times…

Recommendations:

-drop the “key” as a requirement for “participation” in the event itself; have higher-value items drop from the ‘eggs’
-if a “key” is required, increase its frequency of drop, such as from the “mini-boss” in the first room or as an item obtained from scandown site nodes
-increase the frequency of scandown sites
-provide more tangible and usable rewards, such as faction items, repairers, analyzers; things that the player can more frequently use on the ship, especially considering how much time is invested into completing these events

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One thing to consider is how eggs impact competition for newer players. For one, older players with higher skills can more easily steam roll sites, reducing availability and outcompeting newbros. For this event, however, the need to find keys through d-scan slows them down, and discourages them from over farming content that they would otherwise be able to blitz at incredible rates. And, while their d-scan skills are likely to be more developed, and they can leverage their skills and isk in the form of faster ships, their skill points and wallet sizes don’t improve their ability to hunt eggs to the same degree that those things improve their ability to blitz sites. This effectively reduces the advantage that they would otherwise have over newbros. Oh, and another thing those keys do is to discourage dual/multiboxers, as they now have to find a key for each account.

And yes, I am positive that CCP did this on purpose because there are other events with gate keys, where using the key unlocks the gate for everyone to use, and not just the player with the key.

And then there’s the matter of how the need to find keys may very well discourage ninja-looting, as they now have to pay a much higher opportunity cost for each attempt.

Anyway, I can sympathize with how you feel. However, I think CCP was right to set up the event the way they did, as it dramatically reduces competition to newbros. I know some people might assert that low rewards accomplish that -and they do to a certain extent. However, sometimes you can make better money from “lower end” content if you can figure out how to blitz it. It’s not the money per site that counts, but the money per site times the number of sites per hour. Know what I mean. (Speaking of which, this event might be a good excuse to bust out with a skybreaker).

I’m not sure how newer players would feel about changing key related stuff, but I’m willing to bet that there would be consequences in terms of the competition they have to deal with.

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This entire problem sounds more like an issue with points values than with the availability of the keys. You get 5 or 10 points only, which makes this entire event a ridiculous grindfest, which makes the limited availability of keys and other elements much worse.

REDNES

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Both good points - this event definitely doesn’t feel “new-player” friendly, but I’m not sure it was designed to be.

Likewise, this is another massive tedious grindfest, I agree. And the limited frequency of keys doesn’t make this event any more enjoyable…

I’m finding myself having zero fun engaging in the “hunt” for keys - I’d rather focus my energy on finding sites; this reminds me of the Dr. Who “filament” requirement, whereas at least this time you don’t have to “build” the keys - you just need to find them intact. Still, the keys are you “access” requirement that get in the way of fully processing and engaging in the event itself.

I’ve crossed borders into 3 different empires and I’ve found enough keys to net me only 300 points since this event began.

I don’t like it, agree with it, nor encourage it for future events.

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I found the issue is with points as well. You only really need to shoot the pods for the keys, otherwise, the points for killing 5 are far too low.

Each data sites will net you 30 points per site presuming you don’t fail a hack and you have a key. So you need to do 32 sites to do the entire 950 points for all rewards.

In contrast, you need to shoot 15 pods for the equivalent points as a data site. thats 475 pods to get total rewards.

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@CCP_Fozzie @CCP_Rattati hoping at least one of you reads this.

Could you extend this event by a couple of days? This is probably one of the more fun yearly events, and it doesn’t last nearly as long as the more “useless” Christmas and Anniversary events. And you’re only giving people 12 days to claim 10 rewards. I know some people who aren’t going to be able to get the entire set already, even though we still have a few more days to go.

Plus, implant drops are fun.

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  1. The key mechanic is the best thing about the event. So i disagree about it being dropped. It’s really not difficult. You fly around. You pop into a system …….you see a capsule……you dscan it down. Blast it and move on. The whole thing is down in around 3 minutes. It’s hardly any effort. That in itself also provides points towards the event. (Refer to point 5 below)

  2. The data site regularly drop keys. This is already happening. There are also the golden capsules which I’ve had drop as many as 7 keys at one time.

  3. There is no problem with the frequency of sites of you move off the beaten track. I played the event for about 4 hours on Thursday evening, 3 hours on Friday evening. Then around 10-11 hours over the weekend. I have over 1200 points. That suggests the event reward chain could easily be completed over the 12 days playing an average of 1.5hours a day. I wouldn’t describe that as a grind fest.

  4. There are plenty tangible rewards. Ive had implants drop. Ive had the Guristas mods that boost missile AND drone damage at different tiers. In addition to the boosters.

I’m sorry the bulk of these comments just read as “i logged in. You should just give me the stuff and save me having to interact with anything”

  1. Another GREAT thing about this event as its a fantastic reason to actually teach Dscan. I’ve spent a few hours with newer players in corp playing find the Etch. Talking them through the d-scan mechanics to find me at a random moon so they can then apply that to finding the capsules. Although i accept that a day one player is not going to automatically uinderstand how the capsules are “located”. But its not difficult to teach.

I think this is one of the better events. In terms of actually having mechanics that are beyond “warp to a site and shot” in terms of the sites themselves being fun to do (mostly fine but if the mini boss spawns at the wrong time can give you an “oh sh*t” moment). It’s great to see an event that isn’t just loads of folks sitting in sites in a Praxis not moving and blasting everything. I’m seeing tons of ships in space that i dont normally see. Kiki’s, worms, retributions, hawks and even folk running them in dragoons. Reminding everyone that small ships are fun.

MORE OF THIS PLEASE.

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the whole point of the eggs is to teach you to d scan. learning how to d scan is one of the things that separates new players from intermediate ones.

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Awesome event for Explorers and the randomness of the loot drop.

Please keep these type of events coming and if possible extend it for another week or two.

Thanks.

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Real nice event, enjoyed that!

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