EVE General Discussion

Of course it is. It was CCP that introduced the mechanic, it was CCP that introduced the Ships, The modules.. are you seriously trying to say that CCP did not foresee that people would actually try and use such a powerful tool?

the problem is not the FCs, the problem is the fleet system. its 11 years old, and it takes only 10 seconds of looking at it to realize it was designed before the game even existed. if you ask someone who never played eve in his life to design a fleet system, the current fleet system would be the result. at first glance it looks ok, with wings and squads and other 'cool' things... almost everything in it has some logical reason to be there, leadership positions, boosts, broadcasting tools...

the thing is,10 years later even people who have never FCed more than two alts doing mining in highsec have a huge lists of improvements and changes to make. some have slowly been making its way in, like the "flag exempt from warp", color coding, expanded watch lists, saving of naming on wigs and squads... etc.

this outdated fleet system, that for some reason has resisted any meaningful change is the main reason behind FCs losing their **** when someone misses an alignment. or goes outside of damped lock range of the logis, or doesn't move from a lead spot fast enough, etc, etc. we don't have any way of relaying that information in a clear visual way, we depend on everyone "knowing their ****".

the main issue is simple, if you have 4+ years of practice you can appreciate some of the things in the fleet system. if you are new in the game, you will hate it with passion and feel every CTA as a chore. and yes, i just did that, i played the NPE card.

a newbie flying an exequror wont play for months until they can effectively make the call to bounce off a celestial/safe to change their position on the grid, they will just get yelled at when they get caught and killed, and they wont come back.

we need tools to create not only fleet positions and roles, but also suggested fits to take them. this would make newbie gangs all the more easy to run.

we need alliance level tools IN GAME for FCs to make a shopping list before the call for the fleet is up. so that the dudes doing logistics can set up contracts.

we need to get rid of the crap contract system... -.-' and have some kind of alliance/corporate ship dispenser of some sort that industrialist can "fill up" as needed with hulls and modules and from the other end ships matching the skills of the requester came out. (following the authorization by the FC, and following his doctrine)

we need a way for FCs to "draw" in space instead of broadcasting something and having everyone mindlessly following the alignments.

we need to allow FCs to que up fleet movements and alignments.

we need ships to be able to follow predefined trajectories in space. and we need a way to relay them to other ships in the fleet.

we need to able to share intel upwards. a combat prober should be able to relay his results to the FC, then the FC can relay the warps down to the fleet.

we need a flexible fleet structure with tradeoffs. want a squadless, wingless fleet so you can take a herd of newbies in an adventure? alright, here is the deal, you get a fleet that can grow up to 50 members, all of them under the same lead. and you can assign one booster that will affect the whole fleet for every 10 members in it, but every booster can only activate one link. and lets not call this thing a fleet, lets call it a "gang". (im feeling original)

we cant really blame the people yelling at the newbies, and we cant blame the newbies either... the problem is the fleet system.

I'm fine with it. Large fleet fights are right up there with mining for how little attention you need to pay to the game. You need one ear and one hand focused on the game. That leaves a hand free for beer and pizza, an ear free for listening to the TV show you are streaming on your other monitor and your eyes free to watch that show.

Mr Epeen

I do agree with the idea of logi being perhaps too powerful. However, having recently switched from the "dps/f1/only the FC is having any fun" side of the fleet to logi, I find that logistics is vastly more interesting gameplay. I'm constantly making decisions, predicting the near future, having to be alert etc. must have a great fit. my skills trained make an enormous difference. can't be semi-afk logi.

I would recommend cutting rep power over range though, to have more impact without killing the strategic part of logistic play. At the same time smooth the curve out so it's not "logi 5 or go home." i.e. scale outgoing rep power with the logi skill, not cap viability.

if any balance comes to the logi side, I would hope that ccp preserves what is currently the most fun (to me anyway) aspect of fleet battles.

However, having recently switched from the "dps/f1/only the FC is having any fun" side of the fleet to logi, I find that logistics is vastly more interesting gameplay. I'm constantly making decisions, predicting the near future, having to be alert etc