EVE General Discussion

So with the rollout of factional warfare upgrades, player influence on NPC space has reached an all-time high, and this is only going to increase with the rollout of Dust 514, where (as I best understand it) "instant action" quick matches will take place between NPC corporations, with Dusties fighting for them.

For the better part of two years now, there hasn't been a single factional news update in the News Channels. Apart from the three that we received with the release of Crucible, Chronicles haven't been updated since Christmas 2010. Live events have stopped, and as I understand it, the one major NPC-PC collaborative roleplay organisation, Arek'Jalaan, is dead in the water, with its main representative, Hilen Tukoss, not answering his phone. Apart from a few new articles on the EVE wiki, content regarding the EVE universe has ground to a halt. We roleplayers have absolutely no idea what's going on in the universe we're a part of. We don't know what's happened to the storyline.

During the 2009 Caldari occupation of Gallente space, there were almost weekly news updates about the state of the occupation, which, given that at the time there were no mechanical rewards for system capture whatsoever, were at least somewhat of a reward for roleplayers on both sides, who could argue about the state of the contested zone and engage in various shennanigans. A lot of the most memorable EVE experiences for me have been when I was in space with other roleplayers - the last-ditch suicide defence of a gate against Amarrian slavers with Ushra'Khan, mercenaries who we'd become friends with coming to our aid in our corp's hour of greatest need, old enemies becoming new friends in a fight against the Sansha - these are the moments I remember most fondly.

What we, as roleplayers, want from CCP is simply an answer to two questions - do you plan to resume work on EVE Online's storyline, and if so, when and how? If CCP has no plans to orfurther storyline content, we'd much rather know the truth than wait in uncertainty.

"Without CCP support" is the operative phrase here.

I'm going to have to echo Andreus on this. I've seen a growing number of people in RP with the outlook "why do anything at all? None of it matters anyways."

This is extremely frustrating for roleplayers to contend with but what fuels the viewpoint is the complete stagnation of the universe at large. The faction wars drone on for no reason, with no visible effects right now (from a lore perspective and until recently, even a mechanical one).

What you have CCP is a community of players willing to work voluntarily to help contribute to the lore of this great game and universe you've created through in-game actions, roleplay on the IGS and in various channels in game, fictional lore and backstories, compelling characters with involved goals and even entire corporations and alliances built upon facets of the lore that the players care about enough to expand. Continued work on the lore, history, universe, interactions with GMs, live events, news reports and chronicles fuels the RP community which, in turn, plays a part in fueling the game and the universe.

It wouldn't be so bad if the plot developed a bit more. Right now they show up in system, wreak some havoc and then players win and they go away. What's the point? Why are they doing this? Maybe it's time CCP develop the plot a bit more on the incursion side. Perhaps it's time for Sansha to finally get a foothold someplace in highsec and have a few systems "fall" for the long term.

Just my two isk on the matter

This is actually pretty insightful. I like you.

This is what I've felt about incursions for a long while now. They don't actually do anything, other than lock down a system until players rally to get rid of them. There are no real consequences for Sansha's Nation "winning", either - the incursion simply disappears.

By the same token, in factional warfare, the addition of system upgrades is nice, but there's still no long-term consequences in the war, which makes it feel like a meaningless and token proxy war to keep capsuleers occupied. There need to be real, long-lasting consequences to victory or defeat. There need to be reasons to capture or defend specific systems. One of the easiest things CCP could do is make the Luminaire Titan vulnerable if Gallente gained a certain percentage of warzone control, and make a live event around it.

Never thought of it like that. I like it, though!

Join nullsec wars and make your own storyline. That's what makes Eve great for me. Players make history. Not devs and writers.

Its much more entertaining to be a part of it. But each to their own.

The best stories have always been our stories.

Oh I was a part of it once, and I may be again someday if I can figure out how to make the way I want to play work with the nature of living with nullsec alliances.. It's fun to be a part of an entity that vies to control a portion of the EvE universe, but its not an entertaining story is all I'm saying. To me the best way to describe it is liking football (american or world, take your pick), you can play it and win and be a part of something that at the end of the season can bring the taste of victory and all that jazz that comes with it. That being said, you'd still never get nominated for an oscar for your performance.