Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Hello there, the last topic on this subject was closed so I’ve decided to make a new thread. I want to expand on the previous ideas of how Clone insurance could be put into Eve online. Improving the experience for all players new and vets alike.

First to reiterate I’ll go over why the current clone system is not enjoyable for players and even why it can be thematically jarring. The current clone system starts with a base set clone “vessel” that holds the SP accumulated through real time training. Upon death in game the clone retains their SP so they can continue to fly the ships they want to fly and use the fittings they’ve trained for. As SP accumulates the player must upgrade their clone to hold all their SP. Failure to upgrade your clone into a vessel large enough to hold your SP followed by a death in game results in Loss of SP by your largest Skill being demoted from its highest rank to its next highest Tracking V to Tracking IV for example.

This System isn’t necessarily bad or detrimental to gameplay it presents real risks with management of your character if you do decide to fly without an upgraded clone outside of station. What is detrimental is the Crippling costs of Clones. To upgrade your clone to contain the SP you accumulate you must pay multiplicatively increasing costs with every upgrade to the clones size which must be repurchased on death. This systems severity is extremely unfair to older players who wish to fly small cheap ships like frigates or interceptors where they are at high risk of losing both their ship and their pods. This results in players not wanting to risk their ships and exorbitantly expensive clones creating risk aversion where the players refuse to fly anything but ships hardy enough to protect them lowering the amount of fights in game. Overall this is not thematically accurate and is detrimental to gameplay We the Capsuleer’s should not be afraid to risk a pod in a firefight and consequently not destroy ships in combat that would’ve removed isk from the game. PvP relatively assures mutual ship destruction and is primarily to the benefit of CCP who wants to remove isk from the game through means of isk sinks.

Now why is the current System still in place? It has been a functional means of Character progression in game holding all SP accumulated of the player. It presents game mechanics that presents risks to players who choose not to adequately prepare their clone before combat and builds a sense of worth. It has an interesting way of gating and valuing the means of teleportation in-game. A player with a clone can death-clone to any system they have visited in the past that has cloning services the clone presents a cost they must pay to retain SP while marshaling around the universe. This is prohibitive on alliance levels where a contingent of 1,000 players with 30 million isk clones would collectively pay 30 billion for the means of their instant travel. However its downside is that it is outdated as a isk sink creating risk aversion lowering overall ship destruction from non existent fights which ultimately means less isk is being siphoned from the game.

The means I propose in which to fix the issues of the current clone system is an old idea which I believe was not fleshed out well enough to be considered a viable option to fix the issues plaguing the old system while retaining the core mechanics that have supported the progressions and risks posed to our characters. What I propose is a Clone Insurance system which for all intents and purposes will stand alongside the current clone system allowing the former to operate in the manner that it currently does but mitigate the costs players will have to spend in said system equally so that Newbies and Vets alike has fair pricing on clones promoting pvp across all players.

Clone Insurance would work just like the name suggests you insure your clone with a downpayment of isk this would cover the full price of the upgraded clone assuming you die in said clone within the timeframe that the insurance covers. In many ways I think this should be added to the current ship insurance system that’s in place. Clones would be considered “pods/Capsules” by the ship insurance system. The pod would be identified by the amount of SP the character holds. Pricing of insurance and what it covers would be based on the total SP range of the clone paying out the amount specified for the appropriate SP sized pod at time of death/destruction of the pod so long as insurance was purchased for said pod. Insurance would have a set amount of days before it expires this way it keeps a minor isk sink in game. Players who are good at not getting podded wouldn’t get full use of the insurance but overall I think it’d promote pvp and lessen risk aversion in Eve Online all while being entirely optional.

The Clone Insurance covering the Pod should have rules over its coverage limiting payment to actual combat scenarios. This could be easily implemented with the current ship insurance program setup in the game. A pod that self destructs would not be covered by insurance nor would a pod be covered from destruction by a fellow Corpmate or blued member of an Alliance. This would keep the tenant of the old system in place by not allowing death cloning to be an easily affordable act preventing the problem of power projection in game through teleportation. Clone insurance would treat the pod like a ship vessel Implants used in the current clone would be considered as fittings and therefore not be covered by the insurance. Players who are willing to risk implants have the means to replace them and the clone they were currently flying anyways unless they were breaking the tenant of flying what they couldn’t afford to lose. Clone insurance should be equal opportunity for everyone and not value one player over another rich or poor.

-Continued in 2nd post.