Jita Park Speakers Corner

Hey all

Thank you for your participation in this discussion.

First, let me spell out what we agree on in CCP:

• The current starbase system has a number of usability problems and design issues that cause pain for pretty much anyone who uses a starbase.
• People use starbases for a number of different purposes in the game, and many of the areas of the game where they form a key part, are ones we haven't iterated on in a long time - or the starbases are so fundamental to a type of gameplay, that the shortcomings of the existing system are felt daily.
• Lots more people are affected by starbases and starbase-related mechanics in the game, than just the people that manage them - and there are many cases where they are managed and used by "Enablers" and "Instigators" who use the capabilities of the starbase in the schemes of a larger group.
• Structures that players create, own, build and do stuff with is a very cool thing. We can see tons of potential in how a re-vamped system could both fix the stuff that's broken about the existing system, and open up for all kinds of exciting new things for both new and old players to do in EVE.

For all of these reasons, we wanted to create a new and better system, and started work to design and prototype an approach dubbed "modular POS:es" last release - the system you have heard about in various places.

The result was design work and a prototype, where the prototype and art requirements were centered on stuff that was very cool for the person creating the starbase. This was not the entire ambition of the design, but it was where the prototype and art requirements were focused. Because there were too many open questions around the functionality outside the features for starbase creation, we could not responsibly green light the design to go into production for the summer expansion. When we talk about "the POS system" only affecting a "small portion of the community", we are referring to the focus of the prototype, not to the current starbase system or the concept of the full "modular POS system" - but this does not come across well in the CSM Summit minutes.

The potential for player created and owned structures in EVE is great. But just like both me and CCP Unifex talked about in our recent devblogs, and in the summit sessions, we need to work out how we can realize each piece of that, using our new processes. One expansion worth of work won't be able to address all the problems with the current system, while also giving us all the new possibilities. While we weren't ready to commit to implementing the prototype we have at the moment, we are not abandoning either starbases or their potential.

You will see the first results of our new way of planning expansions towards the end of February, and you can follow the process through the CSM participation and also some updates I'll be giving. I can't and won't promise that specific features or fixes will be part of the summer expansion until we have gone through our pre-production phase.

Thanks for reading this, and for engaging in this discussion.

Some of you are so easily pacified. None of what Seagull said changed their direction in any way. All Seagull did was explain some comments.

You're still not getting a POS revamp this year.

It was never going to be an easy one release feature. Personally, I thought they would have been done with prototyping by now and would have announced a two year release schedule. Instead, we find out that its big and scary and they haven't put it on the schedule yet.

Are you suggesting that whining will make it happen this year?

I urge CCP to consider how most everyone in this thread is either a current resident of 0.0 or an alt of one.

What this is really about, is stopping or at least delaying the 0.0 sov changes you are working on, by making you 'refocus' on something else that will keep the game in the doldrums of mediocrity where they continue to thrive. Gee, that sounds familiar.

The problem with a plan like this is that it's missing the very large chunk of work/code that is needed to re-work the current code base to allow the changes.

Like many other 'early' features in EvE, POSes are based on code tweaked into doing stuff it wasn't coded for, and made to work a lot of voodoo and other practices of dark arts.

A splash of new paint and some go-faster stripes will not help when the problem is deep in core functionality.

CCP is well aware of the work needed, and that they have to dig down and do it right, which will take time and resources.