Player Features and Ideas Discussion

I was just thinking how cool it would be to expand on the in-game coding skill...

Imagine if you could write and sell scripts for various operations. Also, with the right skill, you could introduce hidden malware into the device with the potential to usurp or disrupt an operation using digital warfare.

No troll! Just throwing out ideas that might be good and are quite possibly bad :)

I like this, heres why

I know i can get a few systems locked down completely for bot miners. nice belts lots of them in out of the way systems,
I dont currently mine, but if i could bot it i might set them up to strip the belts clear in a few hours. Im sure all the other miners would understand when they look for ore and dont find any, anywhere. an hour or two after dt.

all those new players? yeah im sure that the late US TZ players would just be over joyed that there isnt a rock left in space.

Ive got a few billion to drop on this, do you? Ive got a list of friends with deactivated miners (couldnt take the UnInv) that would use a CCP sanctioned bot. oh and i think i still know people who hold null sov, anyone buying titans?

Please be a fail troll . and not seriously asking this question.

My simple logic is - people are using scripts now. So, instead, create a way to use them that's fun for the people who like that kind of thing and add control at the same time.

I am not suggesting that the ability to remote control technology should go unchecked. For instance, it could be that the tech had a chance to "go rogue" or that by using it - it might actually draw rogue drones to the user etc.

Certainly not army after army of uncontrolled devices harvesting all the rocks.

There are ways to implement things without shattering the universe :)

Honestly, strictly speaking from an in-game perspective the complete lack of automation of many aspects of the game is utterly ludicrous. The idea that as ship pilots of highly sophisticated ships we cannot set up simple automation routines to transfer ore from one ship/hold/can to another is just plain idiotic. Even having scanners and targetting systems set to automatically target asteroids of a given type or all types within a given range should be available simply because with the technology at hand it not only would have been implemented but it should have been implemented. Humanity constantly spends effort, time, and money in the pursuit of getting more done faster and with less work on the part of humans, and to that effect ever escalating automation of manual labor tasks is key. In effect we're flying 28th century ships with 18th century labor and it doesn't make a lot of sense.

From the perspective of an MMO player automating any aspect of an MMO is a potential headache waiting to happen, but then so is not automating anything. It rewards people for being able to game the system and, not for actually playing the game. In and of itself "gaming the system" is one of the core aspects of EVE Online. It's what everyone refers to as the "meta-game" after all. In and of itself I don't see this as a bad thing necessarily. Oh, granted it has the potential to cause issues, but steps can be taken to work around them.

For example. Implement a "workforce automation" mid-slot module that allows you to create a couple very basic scripts for automating some of the more tedious aspects of the game. These can include reloading your ammo for you every time you go more than 30 seconds without firing a shot to targetting asteroids based on type or proximity.

Then implement the following restrictions/penalties.
#1 When used in high-sec all CONCORD protections for the ship equipped with it is removed. This would reflect CCP's dislike for this sort of activity while also allowing for players to "police their own" so to speak.

#2 Increase the ship's signature radius by 650%. This helps reduce the chances of macro-miners, and macro-anything'ers really, have of hiding out in sites/anomalies, wormholes, and deadspace by making them far easier to probe down.

#3 Consume a fairly significant amount of capacitor or reduce the ship's total available capacitor amount when active. By having a significant capacitor penalty for using the module it will prevent other modules from being used as often or as effectively as they currently can be. This can take shape as either not being able to run 3 strip miners 23.5/7/365 or not being able to make a SSB tank perma-run on an exhumer. In short it will lower absolute ship productivity while making them easier to blow up.

I could probably come up with one or two more penalties to such a module, but the fact is that I don't need to. CCP will never do it because it violates the core spirit of most MMOs which is that when you play the game you should be playing the game, not having something else play it for you. If you can't be assed to run missions or mine ore for money and pay attention to the client then hop in a retriever or a mackinaw and mine ice. You can go half an hour or more, depending on skills and fleet composition, without needing to interact with your ships that way, and it will give you plenty of time to read books, watch movies, take a bath, walk the dog, get in a quick workout, or even play other games.

Please boil your hands and never post again.

Mining is already riddled with bots as it is, and with the latest mining barge buffs they've made bots as safe as they can possibly be in hisec, without actually banning ganking in its entirety ... and you want to make this worse?

No. Get out.

Honestly, the only really bad part of 1.2 as regards this topic is the procurer buffs. The procurer is cheap enough that there's not much ePeen reward in ganking one and they don't have the possibility of decent T2 salvage like the skiff so ganking one in and of itself will likely never be rewarding. The covetor and hulk didn't receive much of an EHP boost with the patch, and while the retriever and mackinaw did they're still within shouting distances of the covetor line so still reasonably gankable. That holds doubly true when you come across pilots who think that just because they got an EHP boost they suddenly don't need to tank their AFK-bot ships.

Now if all the macro-miners start flying procurers and nothing else it'll be a problem, but I don't see that happening. Maybe most of them, but not all of them

I agree that scripting outside of the game is a bad thing.
I also acknowledge that for whatever reason - some people enjoy the scripting/automation part of that activity.

I am suggesting that the scripting activity be encapsulated and integrated into the game itself. I think that outside scripting should result in a ban. I am assuming that CCP doesn't just start banning every scripter for various well-thought out reasons.

So, I am simply suggesting that an in-game solution could be found to:
a) Satisfy the players that like to automate things
b) Satisfy those who abhor AFK activities
c) Give people a new skill to learn
d) Provide new avenues for game balance.

I think some people read the title and thought this was a thread to encourage the propogation of the type of out-of-game scripting that requires no human to be present to control.

Because CCP can create and control it. Imagine if you could only use CCP created procedures to add to your script. Furthermore that these script modules had to be earned through learning, training etc.