Sure, you could go to different regions to spice things up, but though each loot table per pirate region is different, each loot table is still quite small and restricted.
How about giving us the chance of finding some very odd things? This isn’t about more isk-- I think the isk making potential of exploration is where it needs to be. Just different things. Everytime you hack a container, it gives you the excitement of rolling a pair of die-- the problem is that you are only ever excited for one thing, consoles, armor plates, etc…
How about finding random stashes of moon goo? No, I’m not suggesting that exploration become a way to supplement moon mining. Not that much goo-- it would be very rare. How about faction mods and other blueprints? Man, the blueprints you get from most sites are really worthless…
OP
i think you have not tried to hack all sorts of cans available in eve
have you done superior sleeper caches?
have you done ghost sites?
have you looted a 500MM implant (rare but it occurred for me 2-3 times in the last 3 years)?
I think what the OP is getting at is more interesting loot. Not so much “hey look it’s another 300mil isk doohickey” but more of a “oh wtf is this thing? Let me keep it because it’s cool.”
Like a kid finding a cool looking rock instead of being a hardcore gold miner.
According to CCP, exploration is anything that requires a core probe launcher. Therefore these are “exploration” activities:
Hacking
Combat sites
Let’s list all these sites:
Hacking:
Data (generic)
Ghost
Sleeper (Wormholes)
Sleeper (Know (K) Space
Rogue Drone Data (These require low end weapons and can escalate)
Relic
Combat:
Dozens. These are rated (1/10 to 10/10) and unrated that are near equivalent to the rated ones. They are represented by each of the pirate factions and each tier of site is generally similar to all within that tier.
The only thing that is UNKNOWN about these sites is IF you get loot and what quality. I suppose the “exploration” here is making the unknown loot known.
The OP has a point. The loot tables are static and largely ignored. EVE Online exploration is working as intended and any iteration would involve resources from other projects.
Unfortunately for the OP, by introducing more “interesting” loot to the tables you do something many will disapprove of: Dilute the money making potential of each type of site.
Exploration as defined by the dictionaries does not exist in EVE Online. Pity
That’s a fair conundrum. Most non-pvp activities provide the resources to participate in the pvp side of Eve (which, many would say, IS what Eve is: a pvp game. Everything else is secondary to that aim.) CCP has given us a 7000 star system playground, yet there’s no sense of discovery. It’s bigger sandbox to kick each other’s sand castles down. Personally, I’m not a pvp’er. I’m not competitive in nature. I don’t care about kill marks or killboard stats. I joined Eve because I saw this huge open world ripe for discovery. I think that’s what the OP is trying to get back. A sense of wonder. Most of us are in a daily grind IRL, then we log onto this vast cosmic theatre and… Grind virtually.
I have to look at the real possibility that this might not be the game for me. I’m picking up Elite Dangerous this weekend because that seems like it’ll scratch my exploration itch. In the meantime, I still feel there’s a lot of potential going to waste given all the backstory, lore, and world crafting that was done to create the universe we play in.
I perfectly understand Ahari’s answer. Your post is well written and full of sense. You are right, Eve is not like Star Trek (the series with Kirk and Spock) . It is a pvp game, and most non-pvp activites either help you to buy your pvp ships, or take sense in the setting of pvp (spying, trading, building, etc).
But after several years, i still find so many things i have not tried yet…
If CCP had any interest in developing the lore, this would be a great venue for it. Seed only a few copies of each hint. We, the players, would need to gather up these extremely rare finds to piece together the history of the drone lands, or the sleepers, or whatever. The little relics wouldn’t have any use or market value, other than as collectors items.
I completely agree that this would make hacking worth while. Alas after 16 years this is the “1 to the n time” this suggestion has come up. Evidence suggests no one at CCP is listening, can do anything about it or cares.
As an old becoming more bitter vet, I really miss exploration of old
