Player Features and Ideas Discussion

I mostly agree with the idea of this proposal, but I also agree with Donnachadh on the last bit he said.

I agree with Rain here, the post about why character automation is a bad thing was poorly thought out and doesn't really correlate with EVE Online. While this proposal is unlikely to happen, it is not diametrically opposed to CCP's design philosophy and it would not necessarily be game breaking.

Limiting non-drone-specialized ships to two drones out at a time would reduce server load WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY more than this idea would increase it.

I am sorry that you choose not to understand a forum wide way of posting simple answers to questions thoughts and ideas. So please allow me to rephrase it.

No to your idea because we need MORE PAYER interaction not more NPC involvement.
No to any form of mechanic that gives an NPC / AI control of a player owned AND player fit ship.

Drones are only marginally relevant to this discussion.
While it is true that drones can be set to aggressive mode(needs to be removed by the way) allowing the AI to control them they are not a player fit ship and the important part in my post was the "player fit ship" .

I hope this clears up your misunderstanding of my post.

You should work for CCP. Stupid sentries are the best alpha strike tool and nobody flies Maelstroms anymore for that. Archons use sentries instead of fighters. Simple fix: make the drones scatter fire times, with greater scatter the more drones are being controlled by one player. But it has yet to be implemented.

Seems like you did not understand the uniqueness of EVE.
Whenever you log in, you are in a world where you play other players' ships and the other players. Thats where the money for CCP will come from in the long run and why the game is still alive.
If it is comanding or supporting a Fleet or hunting targets in a wormhole, you are not alone.
=>Suggestion: Invite a Friend over to play with you a session; instruct him how to use your tablet (if it is working on a tablet); give him your tablet and a seat on your couch; log in both; make a Fleet; do something interesting and fun. There you are, the Friend-Ship!

I remember a friend saying EVE is all about scale, so this would fit perfectly. And there are always others, who bring more. Doesn't matter if they are humans or NPCs.

And for the argument, the game needs more player interaction: Yes, it does. and player controlled NPCs could help a lot. The space is most of the time empty and unpopulated. I mean, even the most common things like PI or Industry are handled to 99% by NPCs because you just issue the order, and then do nothing else except the hauling.

When you consider, that the only way to control more ships is to also accept that such control is limited, you realize that each of the controlled accounts has more risk as a result.

In the time it takes to direct your main ship to attack someone, your other ships can either be told to attack that same target as a group (FC style), do nothing, or simply wait to be attacked so they can return fire to that specific target.

If you want to micro manage them, you are either flying through hot-keys or right click menus.
(Let's not forget they each need to target lock something first, more details to be slowing things down)

Basically, the reaction time of such a group would be focused only on what a single player could pay attention to.
For simple targets, that is great, might even be faster than individual players.

For encounters where you wish you had several independently controlled ships, you are going to have tunnel-vision on a fleet level, and be slow to respond to threats where a single player would also be outmatched.

TL;DR: This setup will be at a disadvantage against actual groups of players, and experience a likely far higher loss rate.

This would also allow CCP to have control of what the botting software allows players to do. If they decide an action gives unfair rulez bending, alter the botware so it can't be done. This could be a real profit for CCP, not hurt them, if only they can also govern what botting allows.

Also, with a pretty good AI driving the alts, and a fairly limited menu for the player to control the alts, this could enhance gameplay throuhout the game.

If I were CCP I'd try it with a limited number of alts, (2-6) at the beginning. The ability to tweak the AI and control the number of alt accounts would be additional tools to govern/balance the change.

edit:) Posted after reading the first couple pages, then read pages 3-6, only to find much of what I said in those pages..... Oh well, still my opinion, and I think a fairly succinct recap of some positive comments in the last few pages.

(The control of the ship should not be given to the same player but in the next ship because it remove tactical situation where head-shotting the FC is a working strat. You really want an FC to have the buffer of a dozen ships?[/quote]) -- was supposed to be a quote, got too hasty with the backspace button, lol


No problem there, so long as I and my fleetmates can each can have a dozen guns there to blow the FC's head off with.

As long as the playing field is level, it does not matter if the field is at sea level or atop Mt. Everest.

For that matter, CCP could put in a skill, "12 days till I can run my 4th alt, YAY"