Can we get some idea if this is because of oversight or by design please?
Yes absolutely.
Thatâs intentional, the Porpoise is not allowed due to balance reasons (for now at least).
Have a nice weekend everyone!
-Turtle
so - we really have no viable logi ships that can actually contribute to site times. nice.
Not every ship type is viable for every piece of content, thatâs why there are multiple ship types. If youâre going to continue to be stuck on âLogi or go home!!â, wellâŚguess you go home.
apparently a pair of mining ships arenât viable for mining sites, but hey ho.
combat ships arenât viable for these sites either, but theyâre on the list. so why not logi?
stop trying to excuse piss poor content design.
Ok, finally got around to testing the new ai.
will edit this post as iâve done more.
level 1 site;
still soloable, seems the reward screen has 3 âbadgesâ for speedy completion i got none of them. this further encourages stacking mining ships and discourages bringing anything else lest you just become a leeching deadweight detrimental to your teams progress.
the AI still seems intent to not attack me, and when it does itâs piss poor easily tankable dps. they did web a bit more than before but i sat there stationary for long enough mining it didnât really matter.
level 2 site;
not soloable, this is because i was jammed 90% of the site. site allows 4 people, still no reason to bring a combat ship. still encourages stacking mining ships as even if you kill the jamming rat youâve still only got 3 people mining. no additional rats spawned as i only bothered killing the webbing frigates and left the ewar cruiser alive.
AI actually bothered to attack me - 2 frigs 1 cruiser, easily tankable still no need for combat ships.
level 3; not going to bother testing these. itâs the only site where you canât use a skiff and arenât limited to a venture. iâm being lazy, i know.
level 4; youâve taken off the standings thing so i canât test them anyway. i donât have enough standing to enter them.
looks like the sites are still utter garbage and have only FURTHER increased the redundancy for combat ships. gg
and holy hell thereâs some kind of high pitched screeching noise in a site that loops and doesnât end when the site is complete - it was driving me crazy. you REALLY need to fix that.
also, the loot crates - the caldari ships have non-caldari drones. is this intentional? makes no sense to me if youâre racial locking the sites, just seems logical to give racial rewards.
Here are the current problems that need addressing.
thereâs no reason to interact with other players;
you warp in to a site and solo mine it like a regular asteroid belt then drop the ore in to an orca. this requires no interaction with other players what so ever. iâm not going to fleet up with them since youâve removed boosting ships from entering sites, iâm not going to talk to them because i donât need to talk to them to mine ore, and if they need to be told what to do then youâve thoroughly failed to create an intuitive UI to explain what it is theyâre about to do when they warp through the acceleration gate.
combat ships are completely useless;
rats donât have the dps to break even a ventureâs tank. i tanked level 1 and 2 sites easily using nothing more than a t2 small shield booster and a damage control. no invuln, no rigs, no shield boost amps. just those 2 modules was all of my tanking capacity. what do we need combat ships for when the rats can be ignored?
moreover - why would i bring a combat ship when it makes sites slower, and site payouts are tied to mining speed and NOTHING else⌠bringing us toâŚ
thereâs no reason to ever do anything but stack mining ships
site payouts are tied to how fast you mine, and rats can be ignored, and the distance between orcas is kinda dumb as hell. so what you want is basically to stack mining ships and blitz sites. jinâtaan said that âinstantly completing sitesâ was a concern so the sites are designed to⌠be done as instantly as possible? and only by a selection of 9 ships?
solutions to these problems?
make the rats an actual issue that needs dealing with and/or make rat kills contribute to site times. iâve outlined how to do this before. none of the issues have been addressed.
i also predict lots of whining about sites that cannot be completed as theyâre inhabited completely by dead weight combat ships and no miners with no way to remove people in order to let miners in and stop people leeching rewards like iâm going to be doing.
like a lot of ccp ideas - the concept was good and the execution inevitably has let it down. i donât hold any hope of these sites being any good next tuesday when they go live. maybe in a year when you finally get around to fixing the issues weâve been highlighting for the last few weeks.
sorry if iâm being a bit brutal - i like pve and youâre delivering garbage and since you guys insist on a subscription model making you a very expensive game compared to all of your competitors i kinda expect you to be delivering better content than them, not worse.
3 Likes
I do kind of get where you are coming from in that there are no requirements for ships other than miners.
But is that a bad thing? You wouldnât take a barge or exhumer into an incursion site would you? Or into a level 5 (or any combat) mission?
What is wrong with having content solely for miners?
OK CCP should probably message that better but thatâs about all I can criticise.
then why bother allowing combat ships in?
combat ships are entirely detrimental to the sites. just ban them.
I would be fine with that. I think it would remove a lot of the ambiguity.
However that would shut the alphaâs out totally and there is NO WAY CCP will do that.
how would it?
you can bring ventures to any size site.
Can the current alphaâs fly ventureâs? I thought they were totally race locked?
Yes I know this is going to change (but even then they wonât get barges)
nope, alphas can get ventures iâm pretty sure. they are (or were)handed out in the tutorials so itâd be odd if they couldnât.
Maybe combat ships are allowed so they can gank miners. Make sense as the only reason for them to be there. Just remove the contribution given by attacking npcs and we have a greifers/gankers/miners ffa.
doesnât make a difference whatâs allowed when the site is at max capacity.
also level 3 sites are in a weird place.
i canât use anything better than a venture in l1 and 2, and l4s let me use an exhumerâŚ
kinda like, skip level 3s and just grind 1s/2s for rep until you hit 4s. ainât worth turning around and picking up a barge just for level 3s which will rapidly become irrelevant as you hit l4s and can fly your âend gameâ ships.
Iâve been using a Prospect in 2âs and 3âs. But I do agree that 3âs are odd. The Prospect can get alphaâd by Angels if you get picked on by all the target painting cruisers at the same time as being webbed down by the frigates.
Iâve tried Procurers but I find they donât have the speed to get around all the Orcaâs.
So I had come to the same conclusion as you have, run 1âs and 2âs until I have enough standing to jump to 4âs in a Skiff.
i havenât tried either of the t2 variants of the venture. iâm simply unwilling to spend the money on a t2 frig for low level crappy payout sites.
If I didnât have the ships on TQ I wouldnât buy them for Resources Wars, but I do have them so âŚ
On SISI I have found the Prospect to be the better ship verses the Procurer for 3âs, but still I lose one in every 5 or so sites. 
to be honest, i think the optimal ship for l3s might actually be the VNI in a strange twist of irony.
it still has drone yield, AND drone velocity bonuses. which iâm assuming is why orcas/porpoises have been banned. mining drones that 1 cycle rocks at a 50km range will be absurdly good.
fly in to a mining site at like 2k m/s or however fast your vni goes, 1 cycle every rock near you (ok exaggeration, itâll take 2-3 drone cycles for 10k ore - but youâre popping 5 asteroids per 60 second cycle, itâs insane), drop ore in orca. done.