EVE General Discussion

The function of the watch list should only be to inform a player that a friend of his has logged on. That's it.

Instead it's used as an early warning tool, confirming enemy supers being logged on, destroying what little suspense and excitement this game has left. It discourages battles as FCs know beforehand if the battle is lost.

The WL is also used to alert pilots when single high value targets log in. This could be a stranded super in a hostile system.

I believe this kind of instantaneous notification is a poor design decision and should be terminated.

You wish to know when enemy supers log on?
Have a scout in their staging system or spend more resources on improving your spy network.

Want to know when an isolated titan logs in?
Have 'around the clock' eyes in the system.

Why CCP decided to implement the WL the way they did is beyond me. It's not good game design and it's detrimental to the overall game play. It destroys many of the elements that make up a good game. Suspense, uncertainty and the act of being surprised.

Every coalition level FC will have enemy super pilots added to WL and once that **** starts to light up, they know they need to gtfo. They also know not to bite the bait if such a thing is being presented.

It's wrong that in order to surprise the enemy, your pilots must not be logged in.

Some of you may argue the same with 'local', but that's another topic.

So, in order to add someone to WL, that someone must agree. I sincerely believe this will make for a better game.

This.
There's a reason why you are given the choice to inform the other party…

It seems to me that OP wants to rat in his supercarrier.

I was just talking to someone who was thinking of killing himself. I added him to my watchlist so I can talk to him and make friends with him when he comes online later. The watchlist is useful for doing good deeds around high sec.

I found a POS in a wormhole connected to my HQ in lowsec one time. Nobody was in there but me... so I researched the POS's corp and added everyone I could find on my watch list. It turns out all those players were one guy, and when they all logged in at once it gave me the notice I needed to take action. The result was one of if not the most lucrative spat of piracy I've ever had in EvE.

OP is right from a lore perspective. Doesn't make any sense to know that someone is online.

Not only supers, btw...

First thing you do in HS/LS Wars is add every member of the other corp to your list, all of the names of said members you'll conveniently find online.

Then locators. Then war declaration.

The same goes for local. Basically a chat that always shows you are there. It doesn't make any sense - unless we assume all pilots are GalNet junkies - and often kills surprise.

Now, it doesn't make sense. Is it bad the way it is?

I don't know. EVE is such a waiting game at times... This "lightens" that fact a bit.
Also, space would feel VERY lonely - more so than it already is - if Local was gone, I think.

So, both WL & Local are probably good as they are.

I'm going to play devil's advocate for a minute (which makes CCP the devil):

CCP is constructing a system with certain, unstable elements (us). They can't know how those unstable, unpredictable elements are going to interact with the system they are constructing.

Often, by the time they find that some tool or feature they created is detrimental to the game, that tool or feature has already come into standard use and it's abuse is now common practice. Attempting to change that tool or feature causes people to whine and complain and even threaten to financially punish the company (IRL) if said tool or feature is removed/changed.

In that setting, it's easy to understand how a "bad" tool or feature is often better left as it is, from their perspective. We're ******* brats and ******** and some of us are prone to irrational behavior like unsubscribing our 595498393489 accounts because CCP wants to give us the option to wear hats in-game.

...

With that all said, the "problem" of the watchlist is easily resolved if they would give us the option to Always Appear Online. Then people could even watch us when we weren't logged in.

like really if you're in n3/pl and you're crying about how nobody wants to trade blows with your supercap fleet, loooool