Guristas Chemical Labs

[Torimika]

Has anyone else noticed a change in the Guristas Chemical Lab combat (gas) sites? I’ve been doing them semi-regularly over the last year, and in the last few days there seem to be some changes to them. It seems to have coincided with the launch of Crimson Harvest.

Firstly, the site seems to do slightly more dps - I have had to change how many rats and in which order I kill them to stop them overcoming my tank. A week ago I could just kill the cruise missiles while I went straight to the first can, then not worry about the rest. Yesterday I was into hull before I had to warp off trying the same approach.

Secondly, if one can is hacked, the site despawns off the probe scanner window, and disappears if you then warp away and back. This didn’t happen previously, as because I often play around downtime I am used to hacking some of the cans just before DT and then re-hacking the newly replenished cans just after. Now, that isn’t possible (and probably fair enough too).

And lastly, which has never happened before, some cans spawn a couple of frigate defenders once hacked, and you can’t access the loot until they’re dead. But not all the time, and not to all cans.

Has anyone else seen this happen? Is it a new permanent change, a deliberate change, an unintended consequence of the Crimson Harvest activation, or something else entirely?

[Io_Koval]

I can’t speak to the “X Chemical Lab” sites.

However, for the “X Gas Processing Site” I occasionally bump into, only this change that you list I found now occurs:

@Torimika

And lastly, which has never happened before, some cans spawn a couple of frigate defenders once hacked, and you can’t access the loot until they’re dead. But not all the time, and not to all cans.

For “X Gas Processing Site”, I am able to do a full clear in whatever ship I usually use – it is overtanked so I don’t notice any additional DPS. I am able to bookmark the cans and warp out, while the site is still spawned in space but the signature disappears. The only difference now, is I hop into one of the new Heron Navy Issue / Magnate Navy Issue / Probe Fleet Issue / Imicus Navy Issue instead of a cheap Heron/Magnate/Probe/Imicus to have both hacking & combat capabilities.

For the “X Gas Processing Site”, it is always the same can that spawns the 4 (IIRC) frigate defenders. It’s quite straightforward to come back to the bookmarked site in the combat frigate, hack the 3 non-spawning cans, then hack the 4th, quickly destroy the spawn, scoop loot, and flee.

Great sites for lowsec income.