Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Dangerous levels of smug detected

So I've read the whole thread, which took me a couple days ( and the thread grew by over 15 pages in that time. ) off and on. I'll say first and foremost I've been mostly a solo player. I used to solo indy in low and npc null, and now I run missions in a one man corp. I don't think I've ever shot aggressively at another player in my time playing, and admit that because of this I likely know little to nothing about this subject. Feel free to disregard and ignore me and my post, though I assume you would even if I was relevant. I have no connection to any coalition, faction, or cause.

I've been a drone pilot, am a drone pilot, fly a domi. I love drones. I loved them before the amps, love them now. I support this change. Mostly because it isn't really a change. Oh no, you now have to assign to multiple people, the horror.

What I disagree with, is a few arguments being thrown around in this thread, that seem to make no sense to me.

First would have to be that too many drones on a field is a problem. From a technical standpoint this is probably true. However I think saying " too many drones is a problem" is antithetical to the very concept of Eve as a game. Have you watched Eve's trailers? Eve is a game marketed as a sandbox. The entire world is ran simultaneously. There aren't seperate servers. There aren't divisions between players. Right now I can fly out to nullsec and meet anyone playing out there (and promptly get ganked ) The isk you earn, the size of your industry, the scale of your empire, the totality of a fleet battle, is only as big as your imagination.

To be frank, it shouldn't matter if it is 4000 people fighting in a system, or 10000. To say this is currently impossible due to mechanics is fair, and even accurate. But to say the problem is "too many drones" as though that number of drones should not be deployable, as suggested by people saying we should simply remove drone bays from certain ships, or remove number of drones and boost dps, and other such things, is against Eve as a concept in my opinion. No one would be suggesting a max number of ships in a system if so many people were partaking in battles that they routinely crashed nodes. It might be done as a quick fix, but everyone would be clamoring for a fix and demanding for those larger battles.

I support the nerf to drone assist because it has shown itself to be a problem and the Devs, who know a lot more than myself, think it will help. I flew drone ships before the damage amps, I fly them now, and I will fly them when CCP eventually makes full circle and nerfs them sometime in the future. I can use other weapon systems, but I like drones. I like the flavor. I have fun with them. Something like this won't drive me away from them. I am not less likely to run an incursion. If I go to nullsec as part of a coalition, I will not have more or less fun based on fleet doctrines of all things.

But CCP Rise, please, never let Eve be too small in your mind. Never think to yourself " We can't do this because it is too big. ". The size of Eve is what is beautiful about it. It's potential is why I love it and still play. Never let it become small.

There are a couple of other arguments about drones I'd like to discuss but won't, because that isn't what this thread is about, and because I've rambled enough, sorry.

huehuehue

No one really gives a **** about who is swaying who.

What most of the people posting (read not shitting the thread up because Martini told us too, or it fits the anti-goon position) here want to know what exactly Rise hopes to accomplish here.

If the issue is drones causing lag this "fix" doesn't address it. If the issue is to have everyone hit buttons instead of just 1 guy, this "fix" doesn't address it.

a lot of us really don't care what CFC or N3 do, it really doesn't matter. What matters is why is CCP making changes to something that doesn't even fix the issues they claim.

Drones are still going to cause lag, and 5 people will press F1 now instead of 1. Stop bandaiding **** and actually address the isses.

Drone assist doesn't do anythign. Take it out or leave it in. It doesn't matter. Stop trying to dress it up that it is drones assist that is the cause for lag or people not having fun in big fights.

Anyone with a rational thought of their own knows drone assist is irrelevant to both issues presented in CCP Rise's OP. If Rise actually wanted to solve the issues Drone Assist would be on the very bottom of his fix list, because it doesn't impact the game at all in a positive or negative way.

You could remove it completely and still be left with the exact same issues.

Then why aren't those the issue that CCP Rise intends to fix. Not once does he say that it present an unfair advantage in combat mechanics. Not once is there an issue presented with evading various types of EWAR.

If those are actual issues observed by CCP why are they not being mentioned by CCP, and if those are the actual issues CCP hopes to fix, why change it from 1 assist, to 5 assists in a fleet instead of removing it all together.

This "fix" doesn't even fix any of the issues you just mentioned, and doesn't even impact the ones Rise actually mentioned.

uh, yes, drone assist nerf helps to fix all three of these by distributing drone triggers in such a way that they can be more easily countered with damps, jams, and the like

but keep on pretending like they don't, I'm sure you will eventually convince someone you aren't completely out of touch with reality by dint of posting more words about it than anyone else

Also for a fleet of 250 drone subcaps, it's not 5 assists, it's 25.

Also CCP Rise does the right thing for the wrong reasons pretty consistently. His justification given recently for having drone chips drop that can be traded for SOE ship BPCs was that he wanted to bring the price on the ships down to make them affordable. Okay... but that's not why it should be done. Rather it should be done because SOE mission running provides way too much value for highsec mission running.

In the same vein CCP Rise gives the reasons for capping drone assist as "it's passive gameplay that people don't like" and "it puts strain on the servers." It's really ******* annoying that he can't actually grasp that while the server strain thing is important, it and the passive gameplay concern (which is whatever) take a distant second and third to the fact that drone assist ignores targeting range and scan resolution, and produces a single alpha strike from a single command from a single person. Additionally with proper choices in drone triggers it can be very difficult (or even impossible) to jam, damp, or destroy the ship controlling the drones.

Removed some off topic posts. Please keep it civil and on topic. Thank you.

Approach, keep at range, and orbit all have limitations of their own.

Not in the way that they eliminate human error, try and stick to a narrative here James. You can't eliminate one form of 1 man fleet work when you have your entire fleet being driven around the battle field by one man.

EDIT: Its not a hard position to defend James, its either Ok for one guy to perform actions for an entire fleet or its not, which is it?

I mean I can grant that fleet warping might be a quality of life thing though thats arguable, however even somebody as stuck up his own sides ass as you has to admit that not driving your own space ship must cross that same line that not firing your own guns does right?