EVE General Discussion

You're suggesting removing the thing that makes EvE special (constant player vs player interaction) in order to draw in more customers.

Honestly, that might work for the short term. It would bring in the traveling troupe of MMO players who play each new theme park MMO until they run out of content then leave. But it would drive out the hardcore players who've provide most of the real sandbox content.

After the troupe leaves in about a month and a half (enough time to sample all the HS PvE activities), the game will die just like every other theme park MMO that crops up to compete with Blizzard's behemoth.

So the reason we're not open to this is that it would remove the thing that makes EvE what it is. Without the freedom to screw over other players at any time and in any way, EvE is left with miserably boring PvE grinds, and PvP without the significance that it currently has.

There are a TON of MMOs that cater to the type of play that you espouse, several of them are spaceship themed. If you don't like EvE's core concepts, don't play EvE.

Really one of the biggest downfall to player retention is the fact that Eve is not very "casual" friendly. Anything that is casual friendly in Eve is repetitive and lack luster. The only saving grace Eve has for casual players is its skill system, which in itself is a double-edged sword, since it doesn't reward the more active as far as character progression.

This isn't a bad thing mind you, but it does place it and keeps it in a niche market.

The only reason UO isn't dead is because of the low operating costs involved with keeping it running. However Trammel did pretty much kill UO.

This was a terrible suggestion made worse by the fact you claim to be a developer.

Coming from UO and SWG, I know people love PvP and that isn't what is keeping them away. You see in pvp, whether consensual or otherwise, there can be consequences to it. What do I mean? Someone gate camps you, you retaliate by bringing in your corp fleet to wipe them out. No, pvp isn't the problem. The problem is scammers and ponzi scheme artists. There is no retribution the players can impose on these people. They take billions, then launder it to other players, delete the scammer character. And no penalties for it from CCP makes this game seem like everyone is out to get you. So no, its not pvp, its the scammers and schemers with the ease of laundering money and no consequences from ccp which has caused the eve culture to be cuastic. And that is why eve falls short of its full potential.

They don't take billions, stupid people give them billions.

You can't rob anyone in EVE.

I wholeheartedly agree. It's not the scammers fault some players are ignorant, however, there should be some punishment for exploiting a paying customer, a person, another human; just as there is punishment for exploiting a game mechanic where no person is harmed.

With that said, I understand where the OP is coming from, offering suggestions to increase population/player base. We all want more people to pvp with, whether it's trade pvp, ship pvp or mining pvp. My suggestions would be this:

1. Don't change the game to cater to those not in it now as then your core would leave and at the same time the mysteriousness of the game that draws people in now wouldn't work with the core gone and the game mechanics changed, but instead incorporate some new ideas without frying the core.
2. Incorporate some new pvp. Faction warfare is in place and updated, and from what I have read, in a good way. Take it another step. Some ideas around this: put in a "dungeon" like Darkness Falls from DAOC. So then whatever Faction is "winning", they unlock access to this space "dungeon" which could have special rewards within itself as well as another component to mixing pve with pvp. Another idea, add another "level" to Faction Warfare and by that I mean, instead of 2vs2, add in a component that makes it so all 4 factions fight each other (Caldari vs amarr vs gallente vs minmatar) and add in something like a spacestation for each faction which when controlled, bonuses are given to that faction, and when you control an opponents space station, bonuses are multiplied, etc.
3. Yes, add in more pve. Its kind of annoying to run a mission, go back get a new mission only to get the exact same mission you just ran. More missions, more variety. Exploration missions would be good, pvp missions, etc. More epic arcs. Mix pve with pvp. There is a lot more that can be done here without upsetting the pvp ness.
4. And yes, consequences to scamming and botting. Sure these are real life humans as well, but 1 person taking advantage of another's ignorance shouldn't be tolerated especially since the one who was taken advantage of could not only quit but tell his gamer friends about it which in turn would mean less subscribers. No one signs up for a game to be taken advantage of.

Fortunately, such a mechanism is already in place. CCP allow the exploitee to take as much revenge as he wishes against the exploiter, and on exactly the same terms.

If the exploitee chooses not to employ this mechanism, that's up to them.

The ideas presented in this thread are a prime example of people not wanting to or being unable to accept responsibility for their own actions and wanting someone else to take care of the problems they face for them.

This isn't how I was brought up and I like EVE for the fact that you have to accept responsibility and stand on your own two feet. The ideas in this thread are about having your hand held when you cross the road. There are rules and a certain level of safeguards in EVE to try and balance things but as soon as it becomes a theme park it will not be fun for a good portion of the current playerbase any more.

"New players" don't have billions. Any player who has made "billions" in EVE has played long enough to know better... and almost certainly taken advantage of a few chumps themselves in their time.

The difference between what we colloquially call a "scam" and simply getting a good deal is frequently merely one of degree. A noob player manages to kill a faction spawn frigate rat on his second day and in his ignorance puts a low-grade Epsilon up for sale at the same price as a +2 Charisma implant, and you buy it. You've made the same profit as you would by selling a Charisma implant as a low-grade Epsilon, at 10% under the lowest contract price, but you're actually more morally reprehensible because you've taken advantage of someone who really might be too new to know better.

Yet we call the first - taking advantage of a new player who is simply ignorant of the value of his find "getting a good deal", whilst the second, fooling a rich older player who got greedy and thought he was taking advantage of you, is a "scam".



What strange days we live in.

Fixed that for ya.

You're welcome.