Abyssal sites

[Zoe & Kids]

Anyone noticed the sites seem to have got harder, and the loot less?

Been running around 15-30 T4 sites a day for the past 3 weeks and the loot seems to be ever decreasing. I have a lot of time since losing my job due to pandemic.

Minimum I have received this week has been 14.2 mil with highest been 42 mil. These are full clears as well.

Not a whinge or invite for the usual trolls, just curious if anyone else has noticed this?

Earlier, I had 7 neuts in the same 'room', 3 Elite Cynbels and 4 normal which were all neuting me from 35k out. If I had been in my active fit, I'd of been toast as no way could I have DPS'd them out before my active and cap failed.

The above instance is becoming more and more frequent to the point where I dont even bother flying my active fit now. Its not just the neuts, the rooms in general just seem to have had their difficulty notched up recently.

Finally, I am a returning player from 2015 so my in game hours are not a fair reflection. I have only been playing since start of May :)

[Shotgun]

I believe they did adjust the drops a bit, but that was a while ago (a few months after release).

The real reason you're making less money from abyssals now is because aside from the NPC tags, all other loot prices are driven by the market, and volatility and demand have both settled as the Triglavian economy has matured. Things are simply worth less now. The exact same thing happened when wormholes came out. For the first couple of months/years, the salvage was worth much more than it is worth today.

[Zoe & Kids]

Appreciate the reply, thank you.

I think luck can't be with me as I was getting skill book drops before, highest one was worth 300mil but recently, haven't seen anything other than a single meta-thing that was worth 70 mil.

I will look into WH as Abyssals are getting a little stale now and if you take away the filament cost, the sites simply aren't worth the risk in some instances. Also what you've said makes perfect sense.

[Shotgun]

For some insight into the money stuff, look at this:

https://www.eveonline.com/news/view/monthly-economic-report-april-2021

NPC loot from wormholes and abyssals is by far the biggest ISK faucet in the game.

[Zoe & Kids]

Just going back to the sites been buffed... this was a level 4 :

https://ibb.co/b6YVJQG

83k damage taken in a single room, due to 2 x Marshal Battleships inflicting 1k damage per shot, 3 upholders, 4 Tyrannos all of which with neuts, webs and painters.

I honestly think rooms have had a buff recently as they're def harder than they were.

[Zoe & Kids]

Well I have done around 150 sites on T4 gamma and most I have ever had in a single site was 120mil with the lowest been 14.2m.

Generally, I get around 16 - 20 mil per site, which given the fit cost and if I buy the filaments they're usually 11-14 mil, is it really worth the risk...?

Following the loss above, I decided to try T3 for a change, see the difference. After 10 full clears of T4 gamma, I netted a total of 82.6 mil combined.

This last week or so, sites have been increasingly more difficult with insane waves. Which is what prompted this post. My ship has EHP of 98k and I rarely get to 40% shields before everything is dead.

However, today I encountered the enemies above and had two of the hardest hitting Battleships in the same room, each were hitting me for over 1k damage every 2-3 seconds from 65k out. My DPS is 840 with drones and I could not kill one let alone both before my tank collapsed. I would love to see any pilot or fit, be able to survive dual ships hitting 2k per 3 seconds, while dealing with no cap due to neuts, no speed tank due to webs and massive sig' due to painters. Seems a little extreme for a tier 4 room.

I genuinely agree with the players in Abyssal Lurkers who say that CCP has scripted the sites to eventually kill you, no matter what. To be clear, I have other losses, such as Cerberus and Ishtar etc and accept the fact that the ship is lost as soon as you undock. I do however get little demoralised when the odds are stacked massively against you, as was the case here.

This post is just wondering if anyone else is experiencing a massive change in difficult for familiar sites?

CCP ain't stupid. If you NEED to fly a bil fit (some of the fits going as high as 5bil) to be comfortably able to take on a T4+, then all that 'needs' to happen is a room which coincidentally kills you in every so often and you will always be at a deficit by time you've recovered your loss. Thus promoting PLEX sales. It generally takes 30-45 full clear gamma T4s to get a bil. I full clear gamma in 12-15 mins.

[Shotgun]

They added "idiot check" rooms essentially, which have the odds of appearing once every couple of runs. The reason for this is that Abyssals basically became the biggest ISK faucet in the game by far, and CCP wanted to do something to stem the tide, but didn't want to admit that they screwed up by adding instanced PvE content to the game.

You have to fit your ship to be able to cheese these rooms. There are strategies available online if you search around. You can also "overfit" your ships and use expensive implants so that you can still coast by T4 sites, but T5 are still going to be very difficult, and T6 requires insane cheese tactics.

I don't want to fly around in a 10B setup on the live server to run PvE, so when I do abyssals, I stick to T3 sites, or T2 in a frig/destroyer.

[Zoe & Kids]

Originally posted by Shotgun:

They added "idiot check" rooms essentially, which have the odds of appearing once every couple of runs. The reason for this is that Abyssals basically became the biggest ISK faucet in the game by far, and CCP wanted to do something to stem the tide, but didn't want to admit that they screwed up by adding instanced PvE content to the game.

You have to fit your ship to be able to cheese these rooms. There are strategies available online if you search around. You can also "overfit" your ships and use expensive implants so that you can still coast by T4 sites, but T5 are still going to be very difficult, and T6 requires insane cheese tactics.

I don't want to fly around in a 10B setup on the live server to run PvE, so when I do abyssals, I stick to T3 sites, or T2 in a frig/destroyer.

I do like your replies Shotgun. You're always to the point but without being inflammatory or derogatory.

Only problem I have with what CCP appear to have done, is that Abyssals have my interest beyond all else. I did WH, nullsec space, PVP etc all back in 2015 and got very bored and left. If it becomes just too much hassle or completely unviable to run Abyssals, I will struggle to remain engaged I reckon.

I have never been one for PVP gang roaming, ganking etc. I like to do my own thing with the constant element of unsolicited PVP attacks thrown in the mix.

[Shotgun]

Originally posted by Paladin '83:

I do like your replies Shotgun. You're always to the point but without being inflammatory or derogatory.

Only problem I have with what CCP appear to have done, is that Abyssals have my interest beyond all else. I did WH, nullsec space, PVP etc all back in 2015 and got very bored and left. If it becomes just too much hassle or completely unviable to run Abyssals, I will struggle to remain engaged I reckon.

I have never been one for PVP gang roaming, ganking etc. I like to do my own thing with the constant element of unsolicited PVP attacks thrown in the mix.

For better or worse, PvE has always been a background feature in this game. It exists as a delivery mechanism for the labor that powers the economy, but outside of that, the content is very flat. Some people do PvE as if it's a game in itself, but for me, it's always a temporary thing that generates funds that I use for more exciting things. If you truly desire an immersive PvE element, you're probably better off looking away from EVE. If you enjoy EVE, by all means play it, but I don't try to deceive people into sticking with a sub-optimal gaming experience. EVE shines as a social sim, and if you're into that (or think you could be in the future), it's probably the best option out there.

One thing you might want to look into is the new Triglavian content stuff (the Pochven region) which is like a pseudo-null/wh area that mixes group PvE with the permanent presence of open-world PvP possibilities.

[Summonsays]

" I would love to see any pilot or fit, be able to survive dual ships hitting 2k per 3 seconds, while dealing with no cap due to neuts, no speed tank due to webs and massive sig' due to painters. Seems a little extreme for a tier 4 room."

I haven't done a T4, only done T3s and that was some time ago (6+ months?). I think in this case you'd need to kill the webs first, then the painters. And I'm assuming you know this but for whoever else is reading these make sure you're flying at a wide angle from the damage dealers. You want to get close to them, the closer the better. But going straight in is asking to die. My experience (again T3s) is the damage falls off significantly around 20km.

Also it's crazy how much a 5% skill level here and there add up. On my main I could clear T3s in 8 minutes (not getting all the loot). While my free account I could barely scrape by the timer. For the most part, same fit.

[Zoe & Kids]

I don't bother running Abyssal sites anymore.

I had 3 sites, back to back, which had the first room with Marshal neuts and attackers and storm childs, second room that Karydios (whatever its called) and third room with Marshals again. I didn't lose my ship but each site gave me no more than 23 mil max so I decided it simply isn't worth the effort.

Not to put anyone else off as Abyssals can be fun but Shotgun made a very good point in his reply and my experience has been that sooner or later, the missions suspiciously get a lot harder and the loot a lot less..

[ZumZoom]

Tested now on Singularity with a super pimp-Gila (active tank + high crystal set - about 5-6kkk worth). First went to exotic T4 - got those 2 Marshals, only survived with overheating. Then tried T5 exotic - got Karybdis, who wasn't hard because it didn't have neuts in the room, then in the second room I got neuting trigs whom I survived with about 30% hull, and I was a little suspicious because I saw only single -70cap drained messages every couple of seconds, which wouldn't be enough to drain me dry...
Made about 20kk from T4 and about the same from T5.
Definitely seems like they did boost the spawns, and considering that mutaplasmids now sell for barely 10% of the price that they had a year ago I see no point in making isk in abysmal sites. Even L4 missions seem more profitable now.

[Shotgun]

Originally posted by ZumZoom:

Definitely seems like they did boost the spawns, and considering that mutaplasmids now sell for barely 10% of the price that they had a year ago I see no point in making isk in abysmal sites. Even L4 missions seem more profitable now.

Players over-farmed abyssals. The problem is that this led to CCP implementing a nerf as a reactionary measure, which was overlaid on top of this content type's economy maturing and prices coming down. But since prices aren't coming back up, it's kind of evident that there are still more than enough players running the content.

Probably because of its safe, instanced nature.

[ΔΙΑΚΟΣΙΑ]

Originally posted by david.hardie:

I did warn you guys. CCP (Pearl Abyss) are slowly strangling ways of making money.
They want you to buy plex as well as a monthly sub.

Then there will be no ISK to trade for PLEX...
No ISK to trade for PLEX means people won't buy PLEX to trade for ISK...
Your statement makes no sense.

[Shotgun]

Originally posted by Shinta215:

Originally posted by david.hardie:

I did warn you guys. CCP (Pearl Abyss) are slowly strangling ways of making money.
They want you to buy plex as well as a monthly sub.

Then there will be no ISK to trade for PLEX...
No ISK to trade for PLEX means people won't buy PLEX to trade for ISK...
Your statement makes no sense.

Yup. Some people suck at the whole "economics 101" thing, and don't understand that a derivative profession's (like mining) income can't be "nerfed" because mineral prices are set by the players. Literally the first thing that happened when the new mining yield tables were released was that mineral prices instantly jumped up to compensate, meaning that miners didn't make any less money despite mining fewer minerals (in fact they made more, due to speculation).

Abyssal sites drop NPC bounty tags, so their income can actually be somewhat adjusted by drop rate nerfs (but not fully, since most of the value comes from the other items that drop, whose values are once again set by the players).

[ΔΙΑΚΟΣΙΑ]

Originally posted by Shotgun:

Abyssal sites drop NPC bounty tags, so their income can actually be somewhat adjusted by drop rate nerfs (but not fully, since most of the value comes from the other items that drop, whose values are once again set by the players).

I know from experience that doing Abyssal sites solo in something less than a cruiser yields more loot (since they're meant for fleets, granted it costs you 2 or 3 times the filaments).
I just ran a tranquil site in an assault frigate and made 140mil in 5 minutes (one of the loot drops was an unstable large armor multiplasmid. It alone sold for 140mil before taxes).
So...have they been nerfed?