Ok something that has really been pissing me off is the inconsistency of these guardian sites, and how they spawn.
From what I can tell, for the regular sites, they spawn about once every 15 minutes, given there is no site currently in system (in lowsec). This is pretty much the only consistent thing ive been able to observe about the spawn rates of these sites. But there are exceptions. For example I’ve come across some systems that had about 8 regular gala sites spawned in system at once. I’ve seen about 2 of these systems. Another thing ive noticed is some systems with about about 4-8 VIP sites currently spawn. You can run them all and not a single one will spawn to replace it.
I’ve run a chain of the normal sites… about 10 in a row… thinking this would eventually spawn a VIP site. Wrong. It never spawned one and eventually I just gave up.
So what is the freaking deal CCP? Are there just a finite number of VIP sites? If not, hwo do you get them to spawn? How come some systems are able to spawn multiple regular sites but almost all others only 1 at a time?
No these sites are unlike any other events ive personally witnessed. In previous events there was only one named site and if they didnt get run, they would just accumulate to hilarious numbers… like during the blood raiders gauntlet I remember coming across some systems with 20+ untouched sites.
I really cannot figure out what the deal is with these VIP, and it’s very frustrating… I doubt they work like faction spawns. From what i can tell they were all suddenly just there one day, and in the systems people ran them they never came back. Which leads me to believe they were just randomly dispersed throughout new eden and do not respawn.
CCP_Dragon has said in previous feedback threads that he wanted to stop event sites from piling up in out of the way systems. I would guess that having only one site per system is a consequence of that.
As for VIP sites, I would guess they are simply very rare and if they are sitting in some region and not being run (if only one per system) then you aren’t going to see many.
Pinging @CCP_Dragon who maybe able to shed more light on it.
I finally witnessed this site spawning, after running about 12 consecutive regular sites int he same system. seems i had previously stopped just short of the number of sites it took to spawn one. I really think it was a mistake for them to change it so out of the way systems dont just pile up with the sites… that was part of the fun for me, finding those systems. But these days thats pretty much going to be every system off the main pipes… everything is so dead right now.
The problem is that you are focusing on only 1 system.
Sites tend to share their spawns on a constellation or even a regional basis. Even then. Vip sites probably are a product of RNG so there is no “magic number”
Bounce between the other systems in the constellation and see what you can find that way.
Site distribution is another system in need of some slight tweaks but we haven’t put together a solid plan yet, so it’s on the back burner. It was very advanced when it was made and compared to some of the MMO systems I’ve worked with this is pretty cool stuff.
With that being said, it’s fairly simple and distributions are independent of each other. Completing one site doesn’t affect a different site’s spawn. The sites had different distribution settings so they spawned at different rates and with different behaviors. Normal Guardian’s Gala sites were generally everywhere with a 15 minute delay between spawns. VIP sites were only in Null and Low with a long cooldown after completion.
The delay and cooldown are different. One will start when it spawned, the other will start when it was completed.
man this really drove me nuts trying to figure out, thanks for finally chiming in. i knew something was different this time. in the end I figured out that the vip sites only accumulated in systems where they werent being run, but coming across systems with multiple regular sites continued to baffle me. is this system going to be used for future events? can you give us some insight on when to expect the next event? really enjoy the interactions i get with these events, so looking forward to the next one.