No.
Are you having criminal timer in each site? I doubt about that. Read up on criminal timer. It might not be best idea to use smartbombs for PvE in hisec. But at lest don’t spread false information about game mechanics. Especially to new players.
Unfortunately the combat sites seem to have devolved into runs for Kiki’s and Worms. I wanted to use a Breacher fit I made as something a bit different but as the weekend arrived every site I started to clear was pinched by a ‘copy and paste’ warrior in a Kiki or Worm that would out dps me for the loot. Instead I went to low-sec scanning and got a couple of multi-hundred-mill implants… thanks I guess???
I’m not sure how this event would help CCP’s newbro retention push as there is no preparation info on the difficulty of even the high-sec sites. The ‘ships killed in the last hour’ map setting suggests that many may have underestimated the site requirements.
That’s not false information 
" Don’t use Smartbombs it in Hi-Sec" - as I mentioned. What? I should have been to write “Any matter there”…
is wrong.
ps. can’t understand a thing from your reply…
Why would it?
Event’s are not content as they disapear and we are back to where we started 2 years ago.
1 Like
Same here. Down 150 million ISK in ships so far on the combat sites, one Hi Sec data site found in about 10 hours of searching.
I don’t know where the data sites are, but the combat sites have a habit of stacking up in rarely visited systems.
With a little bit of research you can find a fit that costs less than 30mil that will do these sites and will pay for itself in 1-3 sites. There really isn’t much excuse to not make a decent profit here. Especially now the initial rush is over. Find a nice quiet area and kill the foragers first so you can warp out if needed.
I have to point out yet again that it is really not ideal to make the hacking can flash red once you successfully hacked it. Red-flashing containers signify that you did something wrong, the can will explode now and you will explode soon. If anything the cans should light up green of blue or some other positive color that tells you you hacked it successfully. Red lights don’t make sense even from a fluff perspective because you just hacked and turned off all security measures that would sound an alarm and turn on the red-flashy sirens. It is nothing but misleading and confusing.
5 Likes
[Algos, Heavy Algos]
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Co-Processor II
Drone Damage Amplifier II1MN Y-S8 Compact Afterburner
Multispectrum Shield Hardener II
Caldari Navy Medium Shield Extender[Empty High slot]
Light Neutron Blaster II
Light Neutron Blaster II
Light Neutron Blaster II
Light Neutron Blaster II
Light Neutron Blaster IISmall Core Defense Field Extender II
Small Ancillary Current Router II
Small Core Defense Field Extender IISalvage Drone II x4
Hobgoblin II x2
‘Augmented’ Hobgoblin x6Void S x10000
Null S x10000
This was a fun fit to put together, the CPU being the big limiting factor.
384 DPS and 10k EHP for 80 million, though it does work without the shileld and drone bling if you only want to spend 45 million.
Also, after days of trying the combat sites I finally managed to kill (steal) my first boss, finishing the combat chain for the first time. 25 more boss steals and I will have the Nestor skin.
Alternatively, I can do 200-ish data sites.
Who designed this event?
I have to say that the AIR data sites are relatively nice to watch. Just a bit resource hungry.
Here goes my little rant, as I’m fed up with this nonsense.
First of all - insane grind. You have to spend hours per day, traveling across dozens of systems just to find data/combat site. Their respawn rate is low. Why respawn rate was not increased? This leads to a situation, when there’s 2-3 competitors per combat site, and probably 4-5 competitors for data site hunt. I’m talking about high sec.
Secondly - I just wonder, why events like this ALWAYS trigger the absolute worst and most primitive behavior in other players. I know, stealing sites and rewards is part of this game. But what is going on at combat sites is just disgusting and maximum discouraging to take part in the event. Dozens of players are frustrated by the fact that either someone is picking up their overseer or they have to pick up someone else’s overseer. Otherwise it is impossible to complete the second part of the event combat mission.
And it would be enough if the game granted credit to an overseer if you dealt a minimum of 30% damage to his HP. So more people could progress in event mission chain. If someone thinks that, in addition, the loot from the wreck is due to him - go ahead, let him try to steal it and face the consequences of getting suspect status.
But, it seems to suit the game developers to promote toxic parasitism as a form of player interaction during an event.
And finally, third - it’s sad to see how hard the game is going for the P2W mentality. Of course someone will immediately bring a pitchfork and torch to grill me for this statement. However, I know what I see - and I see the people in Kikis, who clean up combat sites in a flash and easily and without any inhibitions pick up an overseer from absolutely anyone who tries their luck against drones in anything other than… Kimimora.
Since Kikimora outclasses all other ships allowed on combat sites in terms of durability and damage dealt, it always wins the dps race.
How do you think the Alpha player feels when, once again, despite doing his best piloting Algos, Corax or even Worm, the drone overseer gets picked up by the guy in Kikimora who showed up at the very end of the site cleanup and pressed F1, then collected loot from the wreckage with a wide smile? And 10 points for the event mission.
This unfortunately looks like P2W promotion to me. Because an event is the fastest and easiest to do in one particular destroyer. A destroyer which has no equal, well maybe there’s still Skybreaker, which supposedly clears sites fast too (surprise, Skybreaker is only for Omegas too). A destroyer that “just by chance” is behind an Omega-status-paywall.
Sorry to write this, but the event leaves me with a sense of distaste, embarrassment and frustration. And yet the 2020 winter event was well prepared and designed for all groups of players. That is, CCP could have served something cool, but they preferred to take shortcuts and, as usual, create conflicts between players, which I don’t know who it serves. I guess the sociopaths that are overrepresented in this game.
And that’s about it.
3 Likes
If you are clever, you would see that this is the problem.
Else it’s a competitive game, and grind is optional, so many people enjoy the PvP aspect of events and avoid PvE like the plaque. If there is someone dumb enough to do the grind, why no taking the price if you can? It’s faster, more fun as you might get a kill on top, you know, it’s EvE.
You can out dps the Kiki in a Worm, which is not a omega only ship.
Where else would people go to do PvE events? To a blue doughnut in null? Is the site spawn rate or the loot better there? I know that there often are more difficult versions of the sites outside hi-sec, that’s not what I’m talking about.
Also, how do you wish to sustain your PvP lifestyle without PvE players? All the resources you need to build the ships and modules are coming from PvE. T2 and pirate blueprins are also PvE. Deadspace, faction and officer modules? PvE. If you would remove everything that isn’t strictly ship-to-ship combat PvP because that is what EVE is supposed to be, all currently existing assets would be destroyed in a few months. There would be nothing on the market, except what NPCs sell, and no one would have money either. What then?
These events are intended to be new player friendly PvE content, with nice but ultimately useless loot like unique skins. Those are nothing more than bragging rights. Or achievements for completing the event. And just for the note: I really do like these SOE skins, and I would enjoy working for them, if the “progress” wouldn’t be stagnation 90% of the time, making the whole thing seem like an impossible task.
These events should be fun, but unless you enjoy griefing people and have no other interests, this event seems to fail at it’s purpose.
2 Likes
Before flying off the handle my friend, you should consider: these sites are available in all areas of space, including lowsec and wormholes. The lowsec loot is the most valuable, and is indeed very worthwhile doing for most players - corpie got over 500m from one combat site in low last night. There were half a dozen within a few jumps.
These sites are not solely intended to be new player friendly, they are intended to be entertaining for all players. Part of that entertainment is intended to be searching for the best place to do those sites - this encourages players out of the high sec bubble, to take risks etc.
A very successful fit for these sites is a lml or rocket worm, I’m told. These are alpha-able, as far as that goes. Get into a quieter lowsec area (do NOT just go to Tama from Jita, you will die) and have a poke about. Alternatively, use Eve-Scout’s Thera mapping (a free service available to all) and see if you can find a route to a quiet nullsec area. You can check for this on Dotlan, or by looking at who owns the space and when they are commonly not online.
In Eve there is always more than one way to skin the cat. If you have tried the obvious way, and it’s not working, perhaps do some research and look for other options rather than complaining on the forums first of all. It will do you well in the long run in this game to always seek solutions to obstacles rather than raging that the first attempt failed, as there will be many more disappointments to come…
Fly dangerous buddy!
My main issue isn’t really the value of the sites but the amount of them. After doing about a dozen data sites and successfully finishing combat sites thanks to empty systems, I got a Firetail skin, 2 low level boosters, some overseer boxes and the usual garbage. When it comes to stuff like this, I have negative luck, I got used to it.
But here is an idea: if the loot is garbage in HS anyway, why not increase the site spawn rate? This way people who want to progress in the event (to get items they can’t even trade because all of them auto-applies when you redeem them) can do that, while people who are interested in precious loot and PvP can go to LS and farm as much as they feel like. Everyone wins, regardless of how they want to play the game.
1 Like
I’ll leave here one more thing: calculations.
The Nestor skin (the thing I’m most interested in) requires 480 points to unlock.
Data site route: the initial chain gives you 5 points for entering the site, 5 for opening the casket and 2 more caskets for the last 5 points for a total of 15. Then the last segment repeats. 6 more sites are required to get the first reward (at 30 points) and 12 sites for each additional reward.
If I remember grade school math correctly, I would need to find 189 data sites total to get to the Nestor skin.
Combat site route: again, 5 point for entering, 5 for killing some drones and 15 for killing the boss, for a total of 25 points for the initial chain. Then the repeating parts gives you 5 points for killing drones and 10 for killing the boss, for a total of 15. This basically means I can unlock a new reward for every 2 combat sites.
So I need to complete 31 sites, and kill some drones in the 32nd site, for the Nestor skin.
Why do the data sites even exist at this point? Especially with the low spawn rate they are at right now? Attempting to do them is just a waste of time.
2 Likes
Re: data sites, I believe this is a standard CCP over-reaction to the last few events where one could completely cheese the points rewards using datasites. They have overdone the response, and made them not really viable for points this time around. But hey, there’s always next time, right?!
1 Like
This is a pay to play game. Just subscribe.