A new planetary command center variant called Expedition Centers. Initially thought of with Pochven in mind–sending reconnaissance missions down to colonized Triglavian planets; however the feature idea isn’t necessarily bound mechanically to the region.
On Planet:
These Expedition Centers are lightweight (50m3) and deployed to planets exactly like Planetary Industry Command Centers. The ECs passively make discoveries and carefully package contents on planet in a stash via an automated drone network (or some NPC spy, for fluff text).
In Space:
When the player is ready to collect, a launch can be initiated which brings the cargo stash up to space for anyone to see. It appears in space as a relic or data container for the player to hack and decrypt to acquire its contents. The access difficulty for a hacking mini-game can be variable depending on many factors.
Due to their discreet acquisition nature, Expedition Centers are not connected to the POCO network. Players must balance risk / reward when making launch collections.
is this meant to be an alternative to regular command centers?
will this count to the maximum limit of 6 command centers?
is the planet itself set up like with other command centers, and producing the same PI goods? I think so, but better ask
can I put this on a planet with a regular poco to avoid tax?
why are they lightweight? I mean, a blockade rinner can easily fit a couple regular command centers, what is the reason these need to be so small?
will I be able to launch the contents at my own choice of time, like with regular planets?
will the launched goods be visible in the entire system like a beacon or cyno? (I like that risk)
will we need a new T2 version for the Epithal with PI cargohold and hacking bonuses for this?
could you explain the following quoted part a bit more?
(Is it like regular PI setups with fluff text, or something completely new?)
As I see it, this offers a possibility of doing PI in hostile space where you have no control over POCOs, for the added risk of being much more easily ganked when you haul the goods.
For the spaghetti code that could be Plantetary Industry, I envisioned this as a similar, yet mostly separate interface to Planetary Industry. With the current vision, you can’t take heavy (or any size) PI mats and smuggle them over. The Expedition Center deals with a framework of relic and data loot only.
It could, if development wanted to introduce a cost trade off to using one system or another. However development difficultly at tinkering with an existing PI system may necessitate mostly separate code development branches.
Other players can be using that same planet to extract Planetary Industry goods as currently. Expedition Centers should be a parallel, yet separate system.
The idea was a few could fit into a T1 or T3C exploration ship that uses a filament to go explore Pochven. Data and Relic sites don’t seem to particularly spawn in Pochven. I envisioned using these Triglavian occupied planets as exploration sites themselves (except you really can’t land on a planet in Eve; so bring the planet to space with the rudimentary launch mechanics seen in PI command centers).
Yes, except if you leave the stash idle for too long it’ll auto launch. In that regard, it behaves like a moon drill timer when, where you can set the pick-up time window…however if you exceed the launch window it’ll auto launch to space. Like the moon drill you would need to reset the expedition center collector.
Direct visibility on the overview might be a bit much and I worry about the clutter. As cans will only spawn around a planet dscan visibility seems sufficient for hunting. Quite likely several cans can be see on a single grid depending on where they launch from planet.
While a new bonus for the Primae would be neat, again I see this filling a role for hacking and data site in Pochven.
Yes, this is mostly a new system in current vision. You can’t take heavy (or any size) PI mats and smuggle them over. The Expedition Center deals with a framework of relic and data loot only. There is already a Planetary Interaction rocket feature for bypassing a POCO–its just the current fees for using it are exorbitant. That’s a suggestion for another topic.
Ah thanks, I did see that we need relic and data hacking to open the launched cans from these planets, but I missed the type of goods that were launched. Not the regular PI materials, but relic and data loot then!
So this system would not be a competitor to planetary industry, but would be more like a ‘create your own relic/data site’ idea?
I guess that would be nice, but do you not risk the possibility of devaluing relic and data loot this way? A big part of relic and data exploration is the exploration part where you travel through space to find sites. If you can just extract local planets for the relic and data loot, we’ll see less traveling and lower relic and data loot prices.
True, however there are tens of thousands of planets across New Eden…exploration certainly isn’t out of the picture.
For the sake of feature scope, if this was initially limited to Pochven planets I could see it playing out as a form of exploration proving grounds where you have the option to bring a fleet to support the hacker if they get jumped or not (in cheap T1 explorer egg thief, SOE ships, nullified T3C, or even a fleet of hacking Nestors that can use filaments to extract).
There’s also opportunity to modify the relationship explorers have to cherry picking cans. In the case of planetary launched cans, I’d argue that the value of contents can only be known upon successful hack.
i.e. The Expedition Center is only vague about what they found within the timer you set for them and cargo scanners do not work on these launched containers.
