EVE General Discussion

Perhaps you are familiar with EA Sports console games like FIFA and NBA? This is the same principle. One person filling the roles of many.

It's a tough issue.

On one hand - the solo player who choose to fly a procurer or skiff in order to enjoy the amazing defensive potential of these ships in a "hostile" area is just following game mechanics.

On the other hand - I don't think CCP really considered the insanity that we all see from one player with 20+ accounts running ISboxer + Orca boosts + a freighter has actually done to EVE.

Since CCP has determined that running two dozen accounts via ISboxer is not in any way in violation of the rules against use of macros to provide advantage over other players, perhaps the solution is a change to high-sec itself? Perhaps making changes to the way mining works in the first place is in order? As it stands - if your goal as someone with a dozen or more accounts is to simply print ISK, there is no point in leaving high-sec whatsoever - after all, once you move your bot-fleet (Errr, ISboxed fleet, ISboxing is not at all macroing or botting!) to any area outside of high-sec, the risk gets a lot more extreme while the reward stays mostly the same.

Final point: CCP has decided macroing as many accounts as you want using ISboxer is not macroing, and macroing as many accounts as you want for advantage over other players is totally cool (wait, I mean ISboxing! It's not macroing/botting!) That's just established game mechanics. The only change that will fix this is a change to to the Risk vs. Reward formula that exist in areas of space that are determined to be "high-sec". The amazing tank of the procurer and skiff suddenly does not matter nearly as much when CONCORD / FacPol response is no longer a factor :)

We circle back to the best ideas and most need changes in EVE:

-Nerf highsec,

-Remove NPC corps.

for what reason?

it's not like it produces huge amounts of isk like incursions, or it's remotely fun (then again, none of eve's pve could ever be described as fun but that's another discussion)

can I be greedy and ask for both?

Start with the amusing ones though if you would, i could do with a good giggle.

create a whine thread in GD?

too obvious, i'm not biting today :P

What exactly has it done to EVE?

Looking at the price history in Jita, hisec minerals like Tritanium and Pyerites have been steady for at least the last year, and is overall slightly higher than it was in previous years. That doesn't sound like the result of an overabundance of hisec multiboxers out there working the ore fields. Prices for Nullsec minerals like Megacyte have dropped over the year, but that's clearly nothing to do with hisec miners - I'd guess it's more to do with the rise in rental empires and the current period of relative peace in null.

Ice prices unfortunately don't tell us much, since the change to anomalies on a timer means there's more-or-less a finite amount mined every day, regardless of number of miners competing for it. At the very least the fact that ice has been trending upwards means that the market's not exactly flooded at peak production. Further, I can say for myself that I can easily make PLEX for all my accounts, just mining casually (IE hitting a couple of spawns in the evening after work). Given exactly how much ISK I make above PLEX price with that same level of mining, I'm pretty sure that even without boosts or haulage a genuine solo miner could also PLEX their accounts with that same casual mining alone. The fact that I can currently see about a dozen isolated barges/exhumers that I assume are solo miners mining ice as I type this also seems to support that. In other words, locusts like me aren't even driving away solo miners with our supposed domination of the icebelts - which makes a lot of sense, since if we'd multiplied to the extent that it wasn't possible for solo miners to support themselves, the profit margin for us would be slim enough that many would look for other ISK sources.

So, really, what is the insanity that we've done to EVE?

oh go on then, I've got nothing else to do while i wait for my dinner to cook.

hit me.

*shrug*
this chicken is delicious, mind you.