Jita Park Speakers Corner

Can I join your alliance?

And will a TEST player be your vice president?

CSMOTEC it.

Could you tell me more about this please?

What exactly are your issues with high sec POSes?

Primer

Right now Hi Sec is rather broken in terms of standings and how easy it is to put up a POS. I included the above primer as I have spoken on this issue before and may help clear us some questions for you. As it stands being able to put up and keep a POS in Hi Sec is the EVE equivalent of getting a concealed carry permit in Texas (Read: Disturbingly easy.) You don't have to keep good standings once you have one up, you can have someone else with the standings come in put one up for you if you lack said standings, and realistically the "fees" paid for keeping one are almost nonexistent. Thematically this is a problem because no government would just let you pull a bait and switch, free boot after your standings drop, or tax you so lightly despite the disproportionate gains that can be received from using a POS. I think it also causes some player retention issues as well, a new player discovers he or she spent all that time to get standings learns that a loophole existed that everyone else has been abusing is probably a major turn off. Alone would it get someone to quit EVE? Maybe not but it will certainly start them down the path of looking for whats wrong in the game and contribute to the "bitter vet" syndrome we all joke about. Cleaning up the games thematics and mechanics goes a long way in keeping players happy and around.

Sure some players, especially Hi Sec ones, will probably pull their hair, grit their teeth and scream how awful these changes would be. But why wouldn't they? They benefit from a broken system to the detriment of others including new players, Hi Sec, Low and Null. Try taking crack from an addict and make that person go cold turkey. Its going to be ugly. Its not just going to be Hi Sec players that have this reaction. Low Sec and Null need some reworking thematically too and its going to be a tough pill to swallow, but for the good of the game and keeping attractive to everyone we have to do it.

My job on the CSM is pointing that fact out, getting everyone to drop the Meta gaming as best I can and focus the direction of CCP on what the game really needs, not necessarily what some people want. Their will be complaints, alt posting and chants of "I'll unsub." My job there is to individually call out the terrible people in this game that resort temper tantrums so CCP can focus not on the changing of diapers but code and mechanics. I wish a Dev would be kind enough to give me some stats on how many petitions are "unfounded" complaints because someone's sand castle in the sandbox got kicked over.

Fireside Chat Time

I'd like to take a minute and call your attention to a couple of important issues facing this game and the upcoming CSM election. First I'd like to go over saving Low Sec, address what the upcoming PS4 means to EVE and Dust 514, and the importance of thematics as a means of acquiring new players.

In Low Sec its quiet, too quiet.

If I had to describe Low Sec with just two words they would have to be "Life Support," because right now Low Sec is in dire need of attention. Part of the problem is the current nature of the Hi Sec itself and any solutions for Low Sec require some austerity measures in Hi Sec to balance out the game thematically. The other half of the problem is the low level of potential in Low Sec for players to create content with, they need a boost and a way to make Low Sec more interesting. In my asking questions thread I opined a vision for Low Sec:



Maybe its not the silver bullet that makes Low Sec the vibrant seedy underbelly to the stifled welfare state that is Hi Sec, but its certainly a step in the right direction. Thematically it would make sense the further you get outside the governments reach more likely it is for someone else to be running the show. Would it be hard to code a system that measures who controls a system under the purported flag of a specific faction? Can we code a system that also siphons taxes off to who controls that system in some fashion? How much fun do you think bounty hunting would become if a collective of Low Sec miners needed them to help push out the local pirates oppressing them financially? Likewise what if you had some enlightened despots not completely squeezing a system dry competing against a larger band of pirates who would be even worse. Now imagine if your are regular faction warfare player and you earn loyalty points by going to a system that is purportedly out of control and asserting your factions right to rule. Whether or not you like that suggestion its better than Low Sec's current state of affairs and I am willing to work with the folks in Low Sec to get them the content they need.

Dust 514 Exclusively for the PS3...ouch.

The Backwards Compatibility Elephant In The Room

Above is an article from today, 2/21/2013, explaining how the upcoming PS4 will not support any games on the PS3, disc or digital. Considering DUST 514 has been a major project for CCP this hurts. We are past whether or not any MMO company should ever partner with Sony. But we are at the point where DUST needs to be made attractive enough that Sony will be obliged to see it carried over to the PS4 in some fashion or at the very least another console would want to pick up Dust. That means expanding Dust beyond simple faction warfare. Dust needs to be apart of Null Sec warfare and the rest of the game. I think Dust has the potential to be a major part of CCP and EVE's future if done right and right now. If I had my druthers here is what would happen to DUST:

• DUST 514 gets tied into how Null Sec Sov gets decided.
• Bigger guns for orbital bombardment, ask the ladies bigger is better and everyone loves big explosions otherwise director Michael Bay wouldn't have a job.
• Let anyone get involved. Mercenaries aren't just tied to factions for fire support, some mercenary groups would conceivably have their own ships or pilots they partner up with. This will also help bridge the EVE/DUST gap created by two separate games on two different platforms.
• Dust In Space: Develop a way for Dust players to capture Capital and Super Capital Ships. Imagine if a Null Sec group could bring a "troop ship" that allowed players from Dust to suddenly find themselves fighting to capture a ship while another group got to defend it. Suddenly the self destruct button becomes tactically important and a fun mini game in DUST where players have to race against the clock to shut the countdown off.

Certainly not perfect but again it would expand not only Dust's importance in EVE but certainly bridge the gap between EVE and Dust in a fun way. It also would probably help make the case for making other consoles picking up DUST...

Thematic Issue Alert: 100% Refining!

Latest Patch Notes



If you recall an earlier post I talked about how no government would ever allow perfect refining even with the best of standings. If you have ever paid income tax you know Big Brother gets his. Making things perfect in Hi Sec is detrimental to the rest of EVE thematically because the further you get outside of the governments in EVE control, the more realistic it is for you to have a better refinery output. Again we have CCP going in the wrong direction with no "Hi Sec CSM" reps calling the problem for what it is. Why would they when it solely benefits them?

Yeah, Scooter, it was a display thing only. You could always get 100% refines in highsec. And if you read the CSM minutes, CCP actually does say they want to move away from it :ssh:

Yeah but it gives me a chance to raise it as an issue again, and I don't usually pass on an opportunity like that. Once CCP actually moves away from perfect refining then I'll have one less thing to talk about.

If fixing the game and making the game's thematics leads to the Hi Sec "welfare addicts" shooting down statutes I can live with that.

Hello there!

I would like to name several situations that I feel are detrimental to the game. Give a solution and ask you for your stance on both. I do need answers to all the situations for my vote(s)

POS those three letters bring nightmares to just about anyone having the misfortune of having to operate one. The solution in the long term is obviously modular POS. Yet CCP seems to be backpedaling on implementing this despite the MANY benefits. What is your stance on the possibility of a near term bandage of a form of player POS that is only designed to be the equilivant of a Secure Container for ships until modular POS is ready?

Overpowered passive cloaking. It is now to the point where people are now beyond AFK cloaking but running Twitch.tv streams of enemy stations and systems! Would you support balancing cloaking to punish those who go AFK (Eventually able to be scanned down for decloak) while maintaining the benefits to people actively cloaking (Remaining at their keyboard)

Lack of Ring Mining. Again with the CCP backpedaling despite the many benefits for nullsec and other areas for the game. What is your stand on the crap that is moon mining?

The silly push by some in the community to end or delay "Local" or any effective means for those in a nullsec system to determine if a hostile or unknown is in system in them. This obviously needs no solution but I want your thoughts.

The horrible state of missions in hisec. The solution in my opinion is a complete rewrite to allow for a more incursion like approach that rewards those who want to train up logistic frigs and cruisers or be a specific role in a fleet. Also providing a way for newer players to experience group play in EVE.

Incursion suckage. With the nerfs to Incursions fleets have slowed to a trickle and it was sad to see CCP willing to spend more development time nerfing entire expansions instead of doing what was right being making other aspects of EVE better. Modular POS and Ring mining need dev time sooner so I will admit this ought to be looked at later however I wanted to get your views on them and have this to be some context to the next aspect of Logi.

Logi suckage. Logis do not have the tools to do their job. They need to be able to tell who is locked and taking damage and in large fleets the watchlist can't handle that leading to dependence on broadcasts that most of EVE seems to not know or refuse to use right. Look at any average HQ incursion fleet where people don't broadcast right stressing out logi or in fleet fights where following FCs orders makes it harder to broadcast properly. A solution is a logi only screen that is completely configurable to show who is taking the most DPS and who has the most locks in fleet.

Logi Suckage #2 Reps don't get you on mails? Wut? Solution obviously is to have repping those in fleet land you on killmails generated from fleet.