Are wormholes going to end up like level 5's?

[Dr Zaius]

The sleepers are tough. And they are meant to be tough. That's cool, but is the reward really worth the level of risk and the time involved?

It would be sad if wormholes eventually become like level 5's because the risk vs. reward ratio is screwed.

 

[pward]

I think it's going to depend on the local level of "asshats" that interdict your operations.

Sleepers are bad enough, PVP fitted humans are worse.

Competition is one thing, I would prefer to be watched going through the wormhole, and told in local "leave or die, this is our system". Rather than get someone attacking me when I'm involved in a battle with the sleepers. (And who's intent is solely to kill me and loot my ship, rather than compete for the sleeper resources present.)

To be brutally honest, there are probably enough sleeper resources to go around.

Three "combat sites" and any number of gas and mineral exploration sites that generated sleeper ships... And that's just in the one system I've been into.

 

[Dr Zaius]

Well, we both know the people you're talking about aren't interested in fair competition for sleeper resources. What turns them on is pulling the rug out from under a group that is in the middle of a battle with the sleepers.

And since the nature of the wormholes blocks really powerful blobs from entering, battles against the sleepers will always be relatively dangerous affairs. A "griefer" who disrupts the operation by ambushing the logistics ship in the middle of the fight will likely cause the loss of the entire fleet. People are already posting videos of this type of stuff and cackling with glee over the resulting chaos.

But let's put that aside for a moment and assume the pirate/griefer activity is minimal. Is the reward for sleeper loot sufficient? There is a long list of time consuming tasks involved in putting together a gang and running a successful mission in wormhole space. And many gangs are discovering it can take 4-6 hours of real time to find your way back out once the wormhole collapses. Not to mention you may come out on the other side of the EVE universe in the middle of hostile null-sec territory, making it very difficult to ever get back home with your ship and loot.

It also appears that Gallante players are at a huge disadvantage because of the inherent vulnerability of drones. The sleepers pop them almost at will. And it goes without saying that if you lose a boat full of drones, the mission isn't going to be a profitable one. Of course, a lot of people are losing their ship in wormhole space as well, and that's something you rarely see when doing missions.

All of this makes me wonder whether wormholes will become like level 5's once people realize that wormhole space, while cool and interesting at first, just isn't worth the risk and time involved. I don't have any stats to make a definitive comparison, but I'll bet level 4's are more profitable as a general rule. And that should not be the case. If wormholes are going to be this dangerous and time time consuming to explore, often stranding players on the other side of EVE even when they do survive, then the rewards need to be something really worth it. Otherwise, I predict the activity will gradually taper off and people will simply return to business as usual.

 

[pward]

With the fixed floor for the goods via NPC buy orders, I would think some calculations could be done. I think it was 50k for the lowest (most frequent) loot drop we got, and 200k for the next numerous of the two. I didn't have a salvager with me the first run, so I haven't looked at the prices for those bits either.

It likely depends on the demand, what seems to be in short supply is the radar sites to get the prints and skills/etc to do the tech 3 production in the first place.

Realistically I expect the novelty will wear off and pirate and exploration activity will drop back to less competitive levels after a while. Pirates won't camp wormholes that aren't being explored...