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Oh CCP, you cry about losing a bunch of subs and do a dramatic change of direction for part of your playerbase and then turn around and sh*t on another part. I made decent isk on PI in 0.0 then I moved into hisec and made squat. You've now made PI flat out unprofitable in hisec. Is now really the right time to be making things more difficult for any of your playerbase?
Shouldn't every change you make be asked the question "how does this change make our game better for our current and perspective new players?"
If I see more layoffs, I'm just going to laugh in your faces.

I am sorry, whether you needed to change PI taxation is debatable, but the way you have done this, is rather reprehensible. It's gone from bad to worse to insulting.

1) Changes announced in Dev Blog - change stated as tax doubling among other things - changes controversial and feedback commences. (usual)
2) CCP seems to listen to feedback and a second Dev blog comes out with some changes - still stating tax doubling.
3) People, happy CCP is doing the 'new thing' and listening/compromising seems inline with the 'new ccp' publicly announced mode of operations. Most accept taxes doubling as it doesn't break the bank.
4) Patch notes come out confirming taxes doubling.

Upgrade day and people shocked to find in many cases the tax they have to pay has been multiplied by 100x or more.

5) After multiple confused/angry threads finally on like the 50th page an official response by CCP NULLarbor:

"Our apologies for not being more prompt with this message, the base prices were changed late in the piece after reviewing a lot of feedback. Still, the information is available now and we are happy with the current course so it is in your hands to see what you can do with it."

Lame apology (what feedback were they reviewing that made them do this God knows and they certainly aren't saying) basically back to the bad old-school CCP of 'we are happy so deal with it - the end'. Add to this many people have been told FOR WEEKS no more changes were allowed to all other items.

6) People aren't exactly thrliled with this crap of an explanation and many unaware start filing petitions CERTAIN some bug is at work because we all knew -and was announced repeatedly - taxes were simply doubling right?

Today on Eve news - front page - this:

"We have received a number of petitions, asking if new tax rates of the NPC Customs Offices are working properly as they are in some cases drastically higher compared to the pre-Crucible tax rates. Our developers have confirthis posmed that the tax rates match the design specifications."

So it matches design specifications? OH WHAT A RELIEF! Well that makes it all OK, and I am not talking just the massive tax increase far beyond what announced right up to launch, but in how it was put in despite all the official blogs and patch notes stating otherwise.

Oh and what in the world does 'confirthis posmed' mean? Seem like a rather rushed announcement to plaster that on your front page. More concerned with cutting down all the petitions rather than why they are happening?

Yes I hate the new tax, but in reality I hate more how you did this and how it's old CCP again. Yes it's just a game but I am morally offended regardless. Am sure there will be some stupid replies about my tears... sorry not crying... am just disappointed.

WOW couldn't have said it better. +100

Morally offended? No, no tears. Just concerned about your health. Hope your conscience and you feel better soon.

Well you see that's a underwelleming ideal as if you have the man power and can do all that in low sec you can do it easyer in Null sec and even mine the moons to boot.

So I would say shame on the guys with underwelleming ideals. Much like the hybird buff was underwelleming.

Did they meet there stated goals yes. "The goal is to make them better at what they already do, not to change their roles"

Do they still suck yes. Why becouse the goal was sucky to begin with just like yours.

Everyone HTFU

Higher taxes mean that in order for people to make money they'll need to sell their PI at more than it costs to make the stuff. This will interrupt supply and demand and raise the price of PI naturally. Eventually highsec PI people will still make money doing it. They'll just pay higher taxes and charge more for their stuff.

The vast majority of PI is done in highsec so prices will normalize based on highsec supply and demand. Everyone in low and nullsec who actually bother to do PI will just set their prices based on what they are in highsec anyway.

This really helps out lowsec where the people who actually live out there can do PI out of their own offices and actually make good money off of it. OR they can set up a public office and charge people to use it, this might actually make them more welcoming of highsec carebears coming into their space.

In nullsec PI was pretty dead already, Sometimes people would make POS fuel, (mechanical parts, coolant, construction blocks) But the new POS pellets pretty much killed that off. But with PI actually being valuable now people might start doing it and trying to ship it down to jita. Plus this will give Jump Freighter and Transport Ship pilots something to do other than selling T2 modules for more than they are worth in highsec.

If highsec carebears want to get rich quick and dodge the taxes then find some lowsec system 1 jump out of highsec. Then set up your own tax free private PI office. And get mining.

Gameplay pro tip: find a lowsec system without a station, it'll have fewer people in it.

If someone shoots at your PI office then get your corp / alliance people together and fight them off.

Yeah you can get shot at in lowsec, and so can your office. And unlike a wardeck you can't just dock up until the bad people go away.

If you are willing to take a risk there are more rewards. And that's Eve.

On a related note a tax rate based on market value is a far better, healthier dynamic than based on an arbitrary (low ball) fictitious value that remains static.

The main point of these changes is as obvious as it is simple. That being to provide incentive to take chances on low sec PI POCO's. Note I did not say force.

A person will make roughly what they did before this patch doing High Sec PI once the prices stabilize.
A person will make slightly better money, despite a somewhat higher tax rate, by doing Low Sec PI via Interbus.
A person will make a much better profit margin putting up their own POCO.

The overall value of PI products goes up significantly, which is important for EVE and DUST.
The overall value of planets with existing infrastructure (at this point a POCO) goes up significantly, which is important for EVE and DUST.
Another point of conflict is produced, which is important for everyone.

Individual PI producers have free but taxed customs offices that cannot be blown up. This encourages them to work on basic raw material production, or purchasing the raw materials to make high tier items. It becomes trickier to produce the whole P4 chain from start to finish profitably. Consequently the granularity of pricing between the different tiers of PI products becomes more defined.

This single move restructures the whole industry, and puts serious money on the line instead of meaningless peanuts. It gives the whole process meaning, and raises the stakes.

I quite understand why people are shaken up, there was a failure to fully explain how the taxation would be determined before the patch. It's also going to be a rough transition, with many people getting confused and throwing up their hands... or getting taken advantage of (welcome to EVE). But when the air clears, PI will be a much more significant factor in the EVE economy, and be a large step closer to being something worth fighting over.

I'm just laughing at how badly CCP failed on this one. Utterly ridiculous.

I actually think the High Sec tax is a decent move. My biggest beef with this whole thing was that this whole patch was a big "send more newbs to High-Sec" scheme. Now it's a little better, but still doesn't fix the utterly ridiculous way in which you guys have nerfed PI for new players. As I said before, for big organized corps, this is a big boom. For new players? Screwed!!

Do you know how many new'ish players are going to leave null sec/low sec and go back to doing missions in high sec? I'm willing to bet the number is in the thousands.

Truly though, regardless of whether or not the new taxes are a good idea, you guys really screwed the pooch on preparing the community for it. Your subscribers are rightly pissed. They should be. First you said it would be "slightly higher" than current; then you changed it to "double"; then you changed it to 100x and never bothered to tell anyone!

It's like you're Nancy Pelosi: "You gotta pass the bill to see what's in it!"

silly.

CCP, you guys are pretty cool, but you totally pulled a Pelosi on this one. You should hire me for Crisis Management and Public Relations.

I'm in full agreement on the communication failure.

Not that anything would have changed.

People would have screamed for weeks and not attempted to understand the reason it was necessary, statues would have been shot, people would have threatened to leave over it.

But even though it would have been a ridiculous little slice of hell at least CCP wouldn't have been accused of dropping the communication ball again.

This exactly. Well said.