Missions & Complexes

For record this is no longer my "main" as in this one I was training random stuff for a month, then focused on a Caldari ALT to make ISK from L4 missions to use as income for later PvP, as this one was too spread out.

I of course raced that Caldari toon to a Drake, and even at medium skills, I could sorta manage some L4's, with the idea to train to a Raven, maybe afford a CNR then move to a Golem. That was my logical direction to make ISK from L4's, in order to finance frig PvP.

Just to start:

* I agree that the Drake BC should not be able able to tank L4's that well.
* I agree that the AI needs a revamp to make it less predictable.
* I agree that missions are very "linear" and with EVE Survival, a sleepfest. It's really just Trigger management.

Now, with full room aggro and drones getting attacked, L4's are finally challenging. I went to the test server, and amost lost a CNR in WC room 3, and had a lot more problems using the Drake as the drones were getting targeted quite a lot. My Drake in EFT was saying 605 Defence vs Angels, and WC room 3 JUST breaks that apparently.

I don't really have THAT big an issue with it, however, I don't see what it's meant to do for the "fun" factor for players that just start out in L4's because the way I see it right now, if I end up losing a Raven, or god forbid, my new CNR that I'm still scared to fly cause my skills bother me, all I would do is:

* Buy and fit a Rattlesnake and overtank to say 1500+ which is fairly easy to do, when you leave out drone damage amps.
* Rubbish damage from missiles. Drones hard to manage, but all I have to do is keep 5 flights of Hob 1's to kill scram frigs, use a Micro Jump Drive to pop out to 100K, and deploy Sentries.
* Even if all my Hobs 1's die off, in MOST missions, I cant get killed, so I can log out, wait the timer, and have ship warp to safety.

This is not how running missions should be.

Compare this to a level in Portal. You can play a level that's a massive puzzle. You wreck your brains, and when you suddenly see the solution form in your head you go "Oh yessss!" then you have the ones that you have to flawlessly fire 10 portals in sequence while twirling in mid air, at small targets, where one mistake gets you killed because instead of normal floors, the level maker decided that acid was far more interesting. Challenging? Yes. Fun? Maybe, as longs as not EVERY Level is like that.

I would have ZERO problems if missions could be redone so they had unexpected script events, needed a small fleet to complete, had objectives that worked on timers, had multiple bonus rooms that scaled in difficulty so you you could try your luck just a bit further every time, had space changing anomalies or effect like wormholes etc etc, THEN to me, losing a ship would be "oh well, we pushed our luck" and not a coin toss as to weather or not your drones can out kill the scram frigs.

I fully understand that EVE is PvP and the PvE is probably an afterthought, and that most of the changes/patches to PvE are to stop easy farming, but I really hope that more love is put into PvE as a fun activity, rather then the kind of grindy needed way for players to kickstart other activities, but I still fully agree though that when/if players settle into a groove running PvE missions of any kind, they should be tweaked to force new tactics to evolve, I just think the latest change was a TAD too extreme.