EVE General Discussion

Strong point! reminds me what made the Star Trek series (and movies) so immense popular for literally hundreds of millions of viewers: "to boldly go where no one has gone before" (thus the fun of never knowing what to EXACTLY expect next...thus changes)

My opinion as a relative new comer: CCP does realy an excellent job!

(Fyg: for many years I did not even know EVE existed??!? It was only much later on (5 months ago to be precise) that I noticed some message in STEAM stating "your friend AXAXAX at present is playing EVE online", so I took a look and it was at that time that I learned of EVE. There must be (and have been) many others just like me not even knowing of this brilliant and unmatched MMO.)

just a bitter vet, nothing else to see here, move along

THIS marks the beginning of the end of nerf moan posts.

What can I say... I am amazed by the amount of tinfoil hattery in this one sentence. Grats!

Totally. If only they were smart, they would limit the ability to be effective in PvP to the top 1% of the playerbase and leave everyone else as cannon fodder.

I'm sure that would attract new players and result in growth in an MMO after ten years, something that's almost unprecedented in the industry instead of what EVE is experiencing which is a shrinking playerbase due to the ability of new players to compete.

You should absolutely work for CCP and rescue EVE before it's too late.

Wait, except.

Right.

OP, when Ace Uoweme shows up in your thread and starts sharing wisdom you know you've probably wandered off into nonsense-ville at some point.

That comment/view is realy worth while reading and of quality contents, so I gave it 'a like' and I quoted it, to let the text appear for a second time, to be read! IMO of interest for all kinds of players, skilled either high, middle or new comers! (...and I myself am a relative new player)

I personally have to agree with the OP.

First of all the "Balance" pass does actually put T1 ships closer to the strength of their T2 counter parts. Maybe 1 on 1 the T2 may still be the better ship, the amount of proficiency increase is minimal at best. Though the line between T1 and T2 frigate may be fairly strong, the line between T1 and T2 HAC cruiser is a lot less distinct. Changing the medium Long-Range weapons is more of a fix for the HACs than the actual HAC rebalance.

That being said, it's true that the amount of SP required to become proficient in the T2 ships (and the core skills too) is more of a liability than it is a benefit. The cost or replacing clones reaches a point where the cost of the ship is negligible. This then de-incentivizes high SP players from ... well ... playing.

Another point was made in this thread. What are the new features we're getting now? Fixing the old stuff. We've gotten Jump effects that you can't turn off, we've gotten bounty system, a new mining system that basically turns mining lasers obsolete. We have the old scanning system with less sites to scan, a churched up site list and preset probe formation. We have the old ore's mineral composition adjusted. The biggest mechanic change that i've seen is the Ice Mining site change, and i have really no idea how big of a change that is oh and the tedious hacking minigame. All of these changes we've gotten work exactly the same as before: jumping jumps you, mining mines, ice mining mines, scanning scans. Really the only thing that has changed are the aesthetics.

And while i do believe in making the old stuff better, i'm starting to get this feeling i had before. A long time ago i was a World of Warcraft player. (yes i know, there goes my credibility) But anyways, long ago in the World of Warcraft, they had these things called "Skill Trees" that allowed you to allocate points into making specific skills and spells stronger. One of the Pro's was that you could build your class into many many different things, however the Con to this is that there were also many skill builds that were not very viable. So Blizzard thought it would be a grand idea to change the skill tree and make it so that you could no longer build a character that didn't work. But no only could you not fail your build, but your build would be the same build as everyone else's and each tree was meant for a specific "Role", IE Fire mage: PVE and Ice mage:pvp

To get an even greater idea of this, it's sort of like the Diablo 2 vs Diablo 3 skill system. Diablo 2 had nearly unlimited unique builds with many "Unique Snowflake" builds that would function greater than anyone would imagine causing people to remake the same class over and over. Unlike Diablo 3 where you can freely change your what 3 skill buffs? as often as you like.

But anyways, the point is this: It really feels like to me that all the "rebalanced" ships are being designed for "SPECIFIC ROLES" and they are losing a lot of their unique but functional builds. We're losing a lot of utility highs. We're getting a lot of Armor and Shield rep bonuses. and for those of you who don't know, if you're using a ship and neglecting a bonus, you're putting yourself at a disadvantage to another ship of the same class that is using all of it's bonuses. So using a Brutix without a rep is an automatic gimp compared to a damage resist bonus. And because of the nature of a Brutix, you have to fight a full rack of blasters, a WMD and a Rep, which means you have to fit more armor modules and less damage to be effective. This means that the effective fitting of a Brutix is extremely narrow. In fact it basically designates you specific builds to use.

And then dust.... Dust has a cycle, it goes something like this. Start account, gain SP, gain ISK, lots of ISK, Collect Proto Gear, Figure out there's nothing to save it for later, stomp pubbies with your proto gear.

...you tinfoils do understand that Dust has not "taken away" development from EVE, right? It's been created by a different team of people; a team of people who would not be working for CCP if Dust did not exist.

Yes, I agree, but I think this was officially stated (have to find it in the forum); but yes, their idea is to reduce the margin of freedom for "creative" builds and enforce premade roles/specialization to the ships. This is the idea behind the rebalancing. This has advantage (for them, I personally dislike this):

1. It's more easy and friendly. Players need less experience/skill to fit a ship properly, the main job is already made and the margin left for customization is reduced.

2. Keeping the balance is easier too. Cause you don't have to get crazy evaluating all the potential customization/experiments made by players.

3. Is easier to add new ships for specific roles/subroles, since the range of possible customizations is reduced.

Your comparation with WOW fits.

Also, regarding T2. I think this also was stated, but basically they're removed. At least removed as tidy superior option for PVP.

I would venture to suggest that the Sean Decker chap was been brought in specifically to deal with DUST and its poor player retention rates etc.