Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Hrm, i never considered this.

You're right, PvP is pretty boring. I guess i'll have to buy a hulk and have some fun

So far most of the ideas I am seeing, "Crimewatch" etc, seem to be just part of a big carebear wet dream. We get to read loads of disingenuous self-serving carebear suggestions on how to 'improve' ganking - all of which involve various ways to make it nearly impossible and/or highly unprofitable. They simply want to be 100% safe instead of just 98% safe like they are today.

But MAYBE, just maybe - that's simply because CCP hasn't heard much of anything constructive from the suicide ganking community.

Maybe they just need OUR input, on common sense things that can be done to make our profession

A) more convenient.
B) more accessable to younger gankers
C) more profitable.

1. Income for Pod Killers
-Killing pods is generally very difficult to do in highsec (without bubbles), and often you have to forcably 'remove' the ship first - before Concord intervenes. Yet despite the tasty implants that lie within, NONE EVER DROP. Pod killers are struck with the harshest of security status penalties. They deserve an income as well. Allow reprocessing of corpses for a 50% drop rate on the implants....with all the talk of RISK vs REWARD - lets have some rewards for podding already.

2. Orca 'Stealth' Cargo Bay nerf
- We've seen a ton of Orca nerfs lately. But the most damaging and game-distorting Orca 'bug' of all still remains. Its the effortless profits that come from hauling highly valuable goods in Orcas - almost completely without risk. Every day, goods are moved from one sector of space to another, and earn their pilots billions in profit. The only possible risk? Suicide gankers. Yet gankers aren't allowed to scan Orcas - to see what is concealed within the magic 40K cargo bay. And even if the Orca does get randomly popped (unlikely due to high EHP) - the 'secret' loot is 100% destroyed, without even a record of its destruction on the KM.

Lets just say - if I was going to theoretically move multiple T2 BPO's from point A to point B in highsec.....they would be moved in the 'secret compartment' of a heavily tanked Orca with an empty 'normal' cargo bay. Its safer than the fastest blockade runner or fleetest Covert-Ops ship. Safer than the highest EHP Jump Freighter. Because nobody knows what you have behind all the EHP - and they won't get it anyway. The less dim traders out there have figured this out long ago - and this abuse needs to end.

3. Crimewatch seems to be about getting other players involved in law enforcement! Thats Great! Guess that means we can roll back Concord a bit, then.

You know, kind of like 2007/2008. When Concord took 30 seconds to show up in 0.5, and sec status penalties were about 1/3 of today. I am all for greater player involvement in enforcing high-sec rules, rewards for 'white hats', a meaningful bounty/sec status reward system. Even the 'suspect' flag can be worked with - (though if it happens, I'd like to see ALL player wrecks set blue - not just for gankers - so a succesful sui-ganker can actually loot a victim without having to picking up aggro from everyone else on the gate. As it is, its already a race with the vultures....)

But with all that extra player involvement, we don't need Concord to be quite so lightning prompt, now do we? As it is, annoying pop-ups and normal trans-Atlantic lag (or crappy internet service) eats up a LOT of your 'ganking window'. Reset Concord to 2008-era reponse times, give gankers a bit more 'breathing room' to account for lag-issues and additional risks added by Crimewatch.

4. Return Concord Pop-up Window defaulting to 'YES' from 'No.'
-Sorry to say this, CCP but this was a **** move. That window (impossible to shut off in highsec, BTW) is dealt with by the ganking community far more than any other class of player. In just TONIGHTs miner ganking session, I've had to clear it 36 times. Yes, Tab-Enter is FAR more annoying than just hitting Enter, because only have two hands and one is on the mouse.

I don't get it - is your aim really to eventually force gankers down the road of hotkey and macro use, just to clear multiple clunky pop-ups? You know, kind of like a sick joke - as miner gankers tend to blow up botters and AFKers more than anything else?

Granted, sounds like you are going to have this 'fixed' with Crimewatch safety condoms for carebears. (and kill off the entire 'profession' of baiting and destroying LVL 4 mission runners in the process....well, it was a 4 year run, Suddenly Ninjas, sorry CCP don't want you around no more.....) But I suppose we'll get to that bridge when someone starts coding on something other than a whiteboard.

5. I don't know! What do you think??
I understand that gankers tend to be a pretty adaptable bunch. Generally we just figuring out how to make things work through experimentation and practice. We just aren't used to asking CCP to change the conditions of the game on our behalf - short of asking for clarifications of stealth-nerfs and complaining about the goalposts always being shifted against us.

I see so PLEX to win for pirates then? Or as is the actual case PLEX to avoid risk for pirates. The reasons why tags where quoted is to ensure some effort is placed into the aquisition of tags either directly or by proxy.

Considering that ratting is the effective recognised method of repairing security at present I don't see what if any reduction of significance in this activity your are actually providing here as a result.

Or moreso that CCP are considering rebalancing bounties to avoid any economic issues.

Actually, the fastest 'ratting' is in highsec is just farming adjacent LVL 4 missions. (B/C killing different racial rats gives faster bonuses, and the targets are in consistant locations), so sec status repair doesn't exactly 'force' anyone into lowsec now.

Second, as far as 'PLEX to win' goes:
PLEX > ISK > Tags > Sec status isn't really much different than PLEX > ISK > Sec status, agreed?

Third, While the 'Direct ISK sink' effect is the more important of the two effects, sec status amnesty would also reduce the faucet. Because some people rat exclusively for sec status (and incidentally, earn the bounties)
If players are not required to 'rat for sec status', it also creates a downward pressure on ISK inflation from rat bounties.
Because less people are now ratting......

Some people will continue to rat because they can't afford amnesty. But if the price is set appropriately (and who can say what that is, I speculate between 100M-200M for a single point would be fair), some people will pay, and others will rat, and the EVE player base is better served by it.

More options are good. I personally don't rat. -10 with a highsec alt works fine for me, but different players may go a different route and the suggestion deserves a place on the front page.

I'd argue that earning ISK takes effort, however....why else would people be out there mining and grinding missions?

I was merely posing that if your concern was: people 'buying PLEX' converting it to ISK and buying their way out of 'outlaw' status....

well, its functionally not much different than buying a PLEX, converting it to ISK, then buying tags.... or anything else for that matter.

EXCEPT, you lose the ISK sink, AND the disincentive to rat. (rat bounties being the largest ISK faucet, by far, in the game.)


And if the cost of forgiveness is priced right, I don't think it will be a 'slam dunk' for anyone, especially if you are planning on going out and committing more crimes. In reality, it likely would have to be a bit more complicated than simply

X Million ISK per point of sec status, because sec status doesn't go up and down on a linear scale......the effort it takes to go from -9.0 to -10.0 is a lot more than say, 0.0 to -1.0.

Doesn't mean that a system couldn't be put in place.

"Improvements for me, but not for thee." huh?
Happens to be helpful in providing an ISK sink...(I mean, that WAS an argument for removal of insurance - but only for us)
....but if the ISK sink somehow benefits 'criminals' it just shouldn't be considered.

Got it.