Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Turrets and launchers will keep cycling when a target is out of range. This makes sense for launchers due to travel time, but for turrets this is often more a matter of convenience and network traffic. This is fine, these things make sense.

What doesn't make sense, wastes network traffic, and puts people with worse connections/computers/reactions at a disadvantage are modules that only work while in range and then deactivate when out of range.

By instead having eWar, Support and energy neutralizer modules miss when out of range instead of deactivating, there's a number of effects it would have.

• (possibly) Less network traffic (fewer initiations/cancellations). May increase traffic from event reports by the server, but this is greater download traffic rather than upload traffic for the user.
• Will probably increase frequency of events to be processed by server, can't exactly predict the behavior cause by changes.
• Slow players (mentally like me or with slow connections or computers) are at less disadvantage by having to worry less by timing.
• More management is necessary to prevent wasting cap or aggression, strategy to feint (get close, avoid getting too close) does more than force wasting ammunition or aggression.
• Cancelling activation is necessary to change targets.
• Players will not have to work as hard to remember differing ranges when under bonuses or overheating.
• Less button spamming, thousands of keyboards and fingers will weep in relief.
• Less spamming means less accidental deactivation.
• More log messages, could be annoying for some, could be useful for metric analysis.
• Can give away the intent of aggressors to uncertain victims sooner, hostiles would have to time their actual aggression a little more closely instead of relying on convenience.
• Defenders can start active defense without waiting for aggressors or unknowns to get near. Could increase the incidence of aggression, requiring more patience and awareness of consequences while also being less concerned about changes in behavior.
• Less work in multitasking, considering multiple ranges that fluctuate rapidly like when orbiting at high speed.

Overall, this would demand more consequential consideration and less attention to many numbers which people generally suck at paying attention to. There may be some minor performance benefit in this.

Oh, also, due to the discrepancy between the server and client and also the delay in refreshing of the UI, the numbers we see aren't ever accurate unless everyone's sitting still. We have to predict that we'll be in range by the time the server receives our call to activate a module.

http://www.cracked.com/article_19776_6-disasters-caused-by-poorly-designed-user-interfaces.html

Not saying that the EVE UI is poorly designed, it's just that there's limitations in technology we can't really cope for. There is always a delay in network communication, there is always the delay in the server processing the command, there is always the delay in getting feedback on the client's command.

I likened this to kernel preemption; by sacrificing some processor time to make your Start menu pop up when you click it, the user benefits emotionally and economically by accomplishing the tasks the want to accomplish instead of waiting on their Antivirus to finish a background scan they didn't expect to begin.

What this change does is reward that attention to numbers still and penalizes poor timing by wasting cap/aggression/charges, but the user benefits emotionally and economically by succeeding in activating their modules without fear of error or the frustration associated in not having the opportunity to make the not-green module green.

Finding it hard to believe that nobody else has any input for this.

You mean, I can activate my scrambler when my target is not in scramble range?
That's not gonna be frustrating when my target warps off while the module is still active....

This COULD be viable, if the modules only pulsed (like cloaks) when target is out of range, and then activate as soon as he is in range, but this is a bit meh. Too little management involved, and no thinking needed

Yeah, this would be nice.
Too many times i've sat there mashing the warp disruptor button trying to get a point, only to hit it red again....
Plus, makes people who fly curses, or bhaalgorns or something able to easily whore on mails :P

No to falloff for points. It's a feat being able to outmaneuver two guys that have points on you. Now you want to make it even harder by increasing the range of points by 50%.



It's not the game's fault for you or anyone else being slow. As in a traditional FPS, if you fail to move your crosshair fast enough towards the victims head, it's your own fault. You are trying to remove the importance of skill from the game. Imagine Counter-Strike where your crosshair always stays on the guys head and you just have to click to shoot. Certain pilots in the game have a reputation for being able to make fast decisions under pressure. Why on earth do you want to dumb EVE down ?!

PvP is not about 1-click-wins. You don't warp in and activate your guns and expect to win. You have to be prepared to change your tactic on the fly, adapt to whatever the enemy is throwing at you. That includes manually flying to lower transversal, overheating your point at the last second before the enemy warps out, switching targets based on proximity, velocity, available ammo, incoming and outgoing DPS etc.

So yes, stuff should shut down when you're out of range. That means that the player should pay attention to the status of his modules. The decision of reactivating the modules at the proper moment should belong entirely to the player, not an AI.



Oh yeah, this totally makes sense. You're suggesting that I should spam the button to change targets when the module isn't even active yet. Yeah, so much better than spamming it when it's active. I totally agree............



Again, why dumb EVE down?


I'm sorry, no, just plain no. Learn to play EVE well or at least don't come whining that certain players are better than you.

Aphoxema comes along and suggests a mechanical change that would make game-play more fluid / reduce button mashing, but punish lazy/worse players.

Neanderthal comes along and flames thread for making the game easier for bad players.

I love forums.

More than yours, buddy.

Aphoxema posts idea.
I post my opinion, which, as you said, is objective and most of all, debatable.
Halete calls me a neanderthal.

Yeah, I see how I'm the bad guy here.

Well then, I'll leave you two gals to liking each other's comments.




Me too! Isn't that great?