Add exploration content, especially accessible introductory exploration content to get people hooked.
Exploration has one big advantage over missions: if it goes south, you can just cut your losses. There's no unfinished mission you have to either complete or lose standings. I'd much rather go to lowsec for exploration than missions. Rewards need to be comparable to wormholes, since the danger is.
Exploration also has a disadvantage: you need prober, salvager, analyzer, and codebreaker to make the most of it. That means more skills, two ships (ideally two accounts), or one pretty funky ship. This is a barrier to entry, you could get T2 launchers on your mission raven while you're training all that stuff. A hefty injection of lower end combat sites, paying paying better than L2s and L3s, might get newbies to check it out. Some of those newbies would keep at it.
Comments (3)
apart from beeing able to "cut your losses" more easily, exploration also has the advantage to be more spread out then mission agents, thereby making it harder for us pirates to "camp" exploration systems then mission runner systems.
This could of course also be solved by spreading out agents more
Exploration needs to be boosted. Mag sites in particular are pathetic - I only run them when I haven't found anything else, because a meagre handful of low end salvage (on a good day) isn't worth the effort. In addition to being able to cut your losses, most sites can be finished up at a later time as well unless someone else gets there first.
I like the idea of Archaeological sites in low-sec.
These could involve all of the skills of exploration, scanning the site out, hacking, code-breaking, etc. A long process but very rewarding. Pirates would be unlikely to camp there, although as an a Archaeologist you would certainly be easy Pirate prey.
I think once discovered, the ship would look like the 'broken ship' of the Amarrian battle site.
This is a great opportunity to add to (or reinforce) a lot of the 'backstory' of EVE as well.
Imagine finding one of the first ships that was 'lost' as it came through the EVE gate. What stories would it tell? What relics would be found?
The things found on an ancient space ship from Earth may seem strange to the inhabitants of EVE. A child's toy might be amusingly interpreted as the idol of a primitive God, for example.
The financial rewards for such a discovery would be substantial, but there would also be the opportunity of EVE wide fame.
I think that the site which the players 'discover' would be displayed on the billboards as 'breaking news'.
An ordinary EVE pilot may wonder why we are seeing Jackie Gleason saying 'To the moon Alice!' on an EVE billboard. The explorer will understand that it is because (s)he has become 'famous' as the discoverer of a lost ship from the EVE gate.
(e.g. This movie track is believed to be evidence of one of the first Earth 'astronauts' who attempted a moon landing.)
Of course, the same (or similar) Archeological site will be 'rediscovered' over and over again. Seeing Jackie Gleason's face on a CONCORD billboard doesn't mean much, but once someone does the exploration it makes sense.
The pilot archaeologists name will not be shown on the billboard, but the Pilot's name will appear in a 'standard form' article on EVE news. There will be a multitude of 'mysterious artifacts' from 21st century Earth amusingly misinterpreted and taken out of context.
There may also be a 'lost fleet' of ancient ships, to keep the archeological discovery sites somewhat varied. In actuality it would be the same 'ship', but found in different low-sec locations and with different artifacts recovered.
Of course, each of the four Empires would have their own unique interpretations of what they found, claiming that this find lends credibility to their own world view (and discredits opponents).