Missions & Complexes

I just tried a lv 4 mission against serpentis, 120 seconds lock time on a frigate
i can go have breakfast and come back maybe ? Take a break, strech my legs ?

Edit: i got dampened and lost lock, time for another short break and forum post

So let me get this right, you like and want boring mindless outdated content? Yup that makes perfect sense.

So if some one comes buy and offers you a free standard transmission sports car, your reply will be "No thanks I like my boring slow van because I don't need to think about shifting gears" Do you see how wrong that sounds? You just said the video game equivalent.

Hey folks, here is an update on our earlier post.


NPC Tracking disruptor update:

After looking at this thread feedback this issue has been reopened internally (we thought it fixed a few weeks back). No promises on a resolution yet but we are currently looking into this.


A bit of further explanation on our previous post as well, since there has been quite some conversation about it:

EVE PvE systems, mainly mission running, are terribly outdated and are due for a change. Exactly how and when is not something we can state on the paper, but we had having several internal discussions on how this could be done.

One of them is to bring PvE closer to PvP as mentioned before. What does that mean exactly? It means significantly reducing NPC numbers and bringing their attributes, AI closer with what you would expect from a PvP encounter. NPC bounties could be merged, or moved on progressive secondary objectives that require more and more skill from the player to achieve, while possibly having more risk. For instance, saving the Damsel could pay less or the same than it does today, but you could get extra rewards for completing special, more difficult objectives like rescuing her in a specific period of time, or blowing the evil Zor up before he runs away with her sister in his ship cargohold. Keep in mind this remain just an theoretical idea though that is most likely going to change if and when we start work on this particular point.

Reducing NPC numbers also allows us to better scale EW player faces on a regular basis (mainly, we are referring to missions like the Blockade here). Assigning strong EW effects to few NPCs is fine, but it becomes horribly frustrating when faced with 5 full waves of NPCs sensor dampening you, as there is little the player can do to counter it. We should be relying on gameplay players can overcome if they are smart instead of brute force mechanics.

Why are we considering changing PvE like this? That is because we are running missions and PvE content ourselves, and we are not particularly fond of the stale state PvE is in EVE Online right now, except for the most recent content (Incursions and Wormholes). Missions and exploration should let players gamble with risk if they feel up to it. While people looking for quick and relaxing content should still be able to do so, we also want players to find excitement from accomplishing missions and feel great about it. You should not be forced to shoot the same dull and repetitive encounters if you don’t feel up to it. It is a tricky thing to achieve though, as it does not mean we want you to lose ships every mission either.

This would also be done to put mission runners more on an equal footing with hostile players when moving into hazardous space. People accomplishing missions in low-security or null-security space should not be at a disadvantage when engaged by other players because they have ship fittings tailored to fight NPCs. Ideally, battling NPCs should teach players how PvP works, how to defend and be better prepared about it should they choose to move into dangerous areas.

We often hear "EVE is a PvP game, PvE is secondary". To this we would like to respond that EVE is a sandbox and shouldn’t necessarily favor one side over the other. What you do with it is up to you: all player activities should feel as appealing and rewarding no matter which choice you take, as long as you are willing to live up with the consequences of your actions.


You are murdering our drone ships!

We are aware of the recent changes brought by the NPC AI. As said in our previous post, the first NPC behavior deployed for Retribution was too extreme and has been corrected. However, we are aware that drone ships are receiving the short end of the stick here and have been ignored for quite a bit.

This is especially valid since as the tiericide initiative continues, we are adding more drone hulls, but not looking at the drone mechanics themselves, which do need much love. Again, while we are not in a position to state how or when such revamp will happen, this definitely is on our to-do list not only to rebalance drones in general, but also update their behavior, improve their handling through the UI and finally add more combat options for players choosing to specialize in such gameplay. The need for such drone rebalance will only grow with time as we keep on rebalancing ships, so we do hope this can be done as soon as humanly possible.


Oops, now I've written a wall of text Well anyway, we hope this do help a bit.

So let me get this right, you like and want boring mindless outdated content? Yup that makes perfect sense.

So if some one comes buy and offers you a free standard transmission sports car, your reply will be "No thanks I like my boring slow van because I don't need to think about shifting gears" Do you see how wrong that sounds? You just said the video game equivalent.

Hey folks, here is an update on our earlier post.


NPC Tracking disruptor update:

After looking at this thread feedback this issue has been reopened internally (we thought it fixed a few weeks back). No promises on a resolution yet but we are currently looking into this.


A bit of further explanation on our previous post as well, since there has been quite some conversation about it:

EVE PvE systems, mainly mission running, are terribly outdated and are due for a change. Exactly how and when is not something we can state on the paper, but we had having several internal discussions on how this could be done.

One of them is to bring PvE closer to PvP as mentioned before. What does that mean exactly? It means significantly reducing NPC numbers and bringing their attributes, AI closer with what you would expect from a PvP encounter. NPC bounties could be merged, or moved on progressive secondary objectives that require more and more skill from the player to achieve, while possibly having more risk. For instance, saving the Damsel could pay less or the same than it does today, but you could get extra rewards for completing special, more difficult objectives like rescuing her in a specific period of time, or blowing the evil Zor up before he runs away with her sister in his ship cargohold. Keep in mind this remain just an theoretical idea though that is most likely going to change if and when we start work on this particular point.

Reducing NPC numbers also allows us to better scale EW player faces on a regular basis (mainly, we are referring to missions like the Blockade here). Assigning strong EW effects to few NPCs is fine, but it becomes horribly frustrating when faced with 5 full waves of NPCs sensor dampening you, as there is little the player can do to counter it. We should be relying on gameplay players can overcome if they are smart instead of brute force mechanics.

Why are we considering changing PvE like this? That is because we are running missions and PvE content ourselves, and we are not particularly fond of the stale state PvE is in EVE Online right now, except for the most recent content (Incursions and Wormholes). Missions and exploration should let players gamble with risk if they feel up to it. While people looking for quick and relaxing content should still be able to do so, we also want players to find excitement from accomplishing missions and feel great about it. You should not be forced to shoot the same dull and repetitive encounters if you don’t feel up to it. It is a tricky thing to achieve though, as it does not mean we want you to lose ships every mission either.

This would also be done to put mission runners more on an equal footing with hostile players when moving into hazardous space. People accomplishing missions in low-security or null-security space should not be at a disadvantage when engaged by other players because they have ship fittings tailored to fight NPCs. Ideally, battling NPCs should teach players how PvP works, how to defend and be better prepared about it should they choose to move into dangerous areas.

We often hear "EVE is a PvP game, PvE is secondary". To this we would like to respond that EVE is a sandbox and shouldn’t necessarily favor one side over the other. What you do with it is up to you: all player activities should feel as appealing and rewarding no matter which choice you take, as long as you are willing to live up with the consequences of your actions.


You are murdering our drone ships!

We are aware of the recent changes brought by the NPC AI. As said in our previous post, the first NPC behavior deployed for Retribution was too extreme and has been corrected. However, we are aware that drone ships are receiving the short end of the stick here and have been ignored for quite a bit.

This is especially valid since as the tiericide initiative continues, we are adding more drone hulls, but not looking at the drone mechanics themselves, which do need much love. Again, while we are not in a position to state how or when such revamp will happen, this definitely is on our to-do list not only to rebalance drones in general, but also update their behavior, improve their handling through the UI and finally add more combat options for players choosing to specialize in such gameplay. The need for such drone rebalance will only grow with time as we keep on rebalancing ships, so we do hope this can be done as soon as humanly possible.


Oops, now I've written a wall of text Well anyway, we hope this do help a bit.

More like -

Do I want a boring slow van with manual.
Or do I want a boring slow van with automatic.

They're both boring as hell, one is just easier to drive with less bulls*** and both get me where I want to go at the same time. Which is to the PVP.


If this has gone over your head again, then here's a TL:DR -

1- PVE is boring to me, full stop. It will never interest me in a million years beyond a way to obtain ISK. I don't care how close to PVP it is, unless there is another person controlling that ship, I'm not interested.
2- The only reason I do any PVE is to get PVP.
3- Less interaction with the PVE is better, because it means I can do other things while doing the boring PVE.
4- More interaction is going to cause more boredom, because I can't do more interesting things while doing boring PVE.

The last response there:

smarter, stronger and fewer enemies, but not so smart and strong that it turns into PvP, we still want to feel invincible when we PvE.

New mission types (protection of asset/ship, attack against boss, and so on).

I like those 2 things, and altho there should be a risk of dieing(Like there is now, a small mistake might snowball quickly) it should not mean that we die every 5 missions, if I would want to die very often I'd just do PvP roams non-stop in null.

And I like the idea somewhere else in this thread of advanced missions, that would be more rewarding and more dangerous(require more than 1 ship) while also keeping the current missions that are not as rewarding and not as dangerous.

As a member of goonswarm I shall go downstairs to my basement and get my ccp pets on this right away.

You can already see it: Smart players bring LOTS of brute force.