CSM Campaigns

It's happening!

Well, since this question is going to come up eventually: are you an official HERO candidate?

Dave isn't the most experienced CSM candidate ever. But he's a hell of a good writer, and can explain exactly what he (and other newbies) find confusing or barriers to becoming more involved in the game. CCP can use hearing directly from new players on the CSM, and I can't think of someone better than Dave to represent new players firsthand.

As I said above, wormholes.

Elaborating on that, I think newbros don't get out to NullSec because:

1. They think it's too dangerous for them.
2. They don't know anyone out there.
3. It's too far away from their homebase.
4. If the constant gatecamps in HED-GP are anything to go by, gates between LoSec and NullSec are popular camping grounds.

Encouraging & teaching them how to use wormholes early on takes care of problems 3 & 4. Solving problem 1 would require some prodding, such as a HiSec mission that requires them to get a sample of Arkanor or Spodumain from NullSec, thus showing them they can survive long enough to swipe some valuables if they're careful. That encourages them to visit NullSec through wormholes whenever they feel daring. Problem 2 is solved with a mixture of active newbro recruitment by NullSec coalitions and the organic process of attackers chatting you up after they explode your T1 frigate for trespassing.

No I haven't seen that yet; I watched their presentation from Evefest in Iceland a half-year earlier.

-03:00: Discuss prospect of third-partying timers in 200-Maulus fleets with other Jr FCs. "We damp EVERYONE!" Attribute it to irrational hatred of artillery fits from overexposure.

-01:00: Imagine Talwar dance number to Dillon Francis's Messages.

00:00: Actually start video.

00:30: You're responsible for Ishtars Online! *shakes fist*

05:47: Noticed advanced tooltip for Recharge time at right of slide; did I somehow miss it in-game? Boot game quick to see; it didn't come up, so either it's not implemented yet or I'm missing a preference somewhere.

07:20: Personal idea for improving tooltips: option for showing quick tooltip of shiptype traits when moused over in Overview. Would help with slowly memorizing strengths/weaknesses of each shiptype. Keep it separate from Get Info window.

08:00: Notifications have been satisfactory so far, aside from the weird way insurance-expired notifications pop; they only pop up when you check insurance. Really think ships with no insurance should have symbol next to them in Ship Hangar inventory window. (Might be issue for people that don't purposely insure ships- perhaps let them opt out of insuring a ship to remove symbol?)

Looking over Insurance windows in-game reminds me of so many other annoying things. From/To Dates on Ship Insurance window could probably be removed; all I want to know is the Insurance Level and how many days are left. Insurance levels could probably use compacting, too; bet 95% of insurance is either Basic or Platinum. Why are there 6 different levels of insurance? At which point would I actually want to get Silver Insurance instead of Basic or Platinum?

10:13: Mention of killmails reminded me I wished there was a way to get killmails even if you didn't land the killing blow (in-game; not counting zKillboard and other 3rd-party apps here). I'd like it if the killmails were cleaned up period; hard to tell exactly who did what with every enemy's damage/ewar compressed into just one icon. Multiple icons per ship, separating guns from drones from ewar? Always hated it when I'm looking over a killmail and there's an entry that makes no sense, like a ship doing damage with itself.

Get into sidethought of how annoying it is zKillboard doesn't let you narrow down searches with AND conditions like "member of PL AND died in HED-GP". Double-check zKillboard to make sure there isn't an option to do just that I overlooked before I post this up and reveal my ignorance to the world. There doesn't seem to be. *whew*

12:30: Discussion of transferring Tutorials to Opportunities, and the testing involved, is where things are getting interesting. Discussion of thinking being rooted to the Tutorial, since it was in there so long, also interesting. Debating how, and whether, players could set up the opportunities themselves. Leads to thinking of opportunities for "pick-up groups" the recently announced changes to in-corp AWOXing could make. Initial thoughts are of a LowSec mercenary group putting up contracts in HiSec for players to help them in Faction Wars, using the game's mechanics somehow to automatically pay them for helping out.

Could be rather tricky to implement, but I like the idea of setting up a simple system for a player to be temporarily aligned to another player group, do mercenary work for them, and automatically get paid as a result. Would also encourage new players to travel out of HiSec to complete a job. Conversion of current NPC-driven mission structure to a variation of the Contract system where other players can post detailed job offers / requests could be a good way of getting that 40% of new players who get isolated doing missions by themselves more involved with other player groups. Goal is to have as little NPC involvement as possible.

Idly think of one forumer's "F*ck the Newbros" message, convert it to a philosophy of "F*ck the NPCs" instead.

(That and trial accounts should be able to use Contracts. I subscribed early solely to use them.)

13:45: Still nothing about wormholes on the opportunity goals.

15:00: I would laugh about the window covering the vital destination info, if I wasn't well aware of the many times I've accidently hidden stuff behind windows myself.

17:55: "People are smart and figure things out quickly." Weird to hear after several tales of people getting confused by very basic EVE mechanics, until you realize people can figure out 90% of things on their own, but that last 10% is often wildly different for everyone.

20:20: I didn't even know you could shoot the billboards.

(Continuing this in next post because I ran out of characters in this one.)

Yes, that is a humongous barrier to newbros getting out of HiSec and into LowSec/NullSec. If BRAVE had gamblers, we'd probably put the odds of a newbro successfully surviving the trip from HiSec to Catch in a ship that isn't a travel inty at 1-in-15. It's even sadder when the newbros themselves don't realize how dangerous it is, and it takes me 5 minutes of flailing my arms and shouting "STOP!" for them to realize that making the trip in a cruiser they spent all their ISK on is not the best idea.

The early plethora of rewards newbros get from the Tutorials is also an issue, as it gives them Stuff that ties them to their starting system right off the bat. That makes it extremely hard to convince them to restation themselves... well, anywhere else. I've talked about 12 newbros through moving from HiSec to Catch, and 10 of those times involved a conversation along these lines:

"Alright, first, you should sell everything you have- no, don't panic, it's not actually that much- no, 3 million ISK is not a lot of money. Just calm down, you can buy all that stuff out here- NO, don't try to fly it all out here! You'll lose it for sure! Look, there's these things called gatecamps..."

In addition to emphasizing the use of wormholes to go to LowSec/NullSec, it might be nice if the tutorial gave you coupons you could redeem at any time/station later for the modules/ships, rather than automatically delivering them to your starting station. That would keep newbros less tied to their starting station and HiSec in general, encouraging them to explore (and welp rookie ships) more often.

Actually, as I ponder welping rookie ships (and how often I welped in my first week of playing), I think the best reward for completing the initial tutorial/opportunities would be unlimited T1 ships/modules to welp for a week. It would be difficult to make it so people couldn't exploit that to flood the market*, but I think that would encourage the kind of reckless abandon and experimentation newbros need to try everything the sandbox has to offer and start finding out what they like.

*On second thought, it wouldn't be that difficult. CCP would just have to treat it more like other MMOs' respawn systems than Eve's usual "die and lose all your stuff" process. Attempts to get rich off exploiting the constant replacement could be stymied with these 2 mechanics:

1. Your replacement ship is exactly the same as the ship you lost. Filled with rigs and modules? They're all there. Completely empty because you sold/stripped all your modules? Your replacement ship is empty, too.
2. Everything on the ship is destroyed along with the ship itself, rather than some of it being lootable. This prevents people from having a friend blow them up and splitting the profits from selling the reimbursed modules.

Not sure how much extra coding that would involve, or how much that would break players' immersion in the game, but I definitely think a period of "reckless abandon" for new players starting out would be useful for getting them to experiment, explore, and find their niche rather than settling into the comfortable risk-averse rut of earning ISK from HiSec missions.

Cap Stable sat down with Dave Korhal recently for an interview: http://capstable.net/2015/02/03/dave-korhal/

Just wrapped up the "Vote for Me" Spectre Fleet, which was exhausting and satisfying, even if I spent half the fleet podded. I spent a solid half-hour before the fleet talking about my platform with the different members of Spectre Fleet, which I will elaborate on later. I spent a solid 2 days before that arranging everything: finding good spots to hit, figuring out which doctrine to use, arranging a premade fight, etc. Thanks to Jayne Fillon and Mike Azariah for helping arrange the whole thing and providing extra Atrons for quick reshipping when fleet members got repeatedly blasted. The fleet involved a roam into Nullsec and a tour to Faction Warfare, and while many ships were blapped quite a few juicy kills were had. The most interesting part was a question asked during the fleet preparation.

Someone asked how newbros would learn to duel, rather than just blob everything. The question resulted from me talking about getting newbros involved in PvP; one of the members groaned, saying the last thing Eve needed was more newbros learning to blob. Blobbing has been a large part of PvP for me, mainly because I've learned the concept of a fair fight in Eve is laughable at best, but not only does that deprive solo PvPers of content, it also leaves newbie PvPers ignorant of combat intricacies that get lost in "Throw all the Ships In" tactics. The dual mechanic is nice, but that doesn't nudge interested players towards it by itself.

So what if there were competitive missions?

From there, an idea is shaped. Special HiSec missions involving travel through cramped wormhole spaces where frigates fight 1v1 above lost planets, a form of instancing. The respective governments provide specially-designed ships and modules to the players for the mission; "Regular ships can't travel through these microholes, after all." Players can customize their fits for each type of mission, and the game remembers these fits and provides them each time they repeat the mission. An expansion of the Rookie Ships and Civilian Modules from something used solely by newbros and cyno-lighters to a platform for the purest dueling Eve can offer: no T2 or Deadspace modules, no implants, no boosts, just you, your skills, and your opponent.

I find the idea intriguing, and wonder if this could become a unique feature to HiSec.

(Note this is extremely similar to my previous idea of providing free respawning low-power ships/modules to new players for a week to experiment with. And could probably be tied into it. It's a shame how rookie ships and civilian modules are outgrown/discarded as quickly as possible, and I think/hope they could play a greater role in the education of Eve newbros with some tweaking.)

Day 1 of LowSec

In attempt to understand more about LowSec, a region I am wholly ignorant of, I resolve to spend a couple days in LowSec. The end of the Spectre Fleet last night gave me the perfect opportunity to move there. For support on this endeavor, I'm relying on advice from Spectre Fleet, the Stay Frosty pirate corp, and a group of TEST members that are vacationing in LowSec to third-party Faction Warfare.

After noticing how quickly my Security Status plummeted after a bit of third-partying on the Spectre Fleet, I decide the only way to do this for any length of time and still be able to visit Jita is to join a side of FW proper. Here I hit my first snag: I need to leave my corporation to join FW, unless my corporation also joins FW. My corp isn't too keen on getting shot at by NPCs in HiSec, and I don't want to leave my corp, so the only option to join FW is to dust off an alt. I buy a PLEX, activate his training queue, and hop onto him in the first time in months.

Here I hit my second snag. I want to join the Gallente Militia, so I head to a Gallente-owned system in Caldari space. I dock up at a station and try to join Factional Warfare... and the only option is to join the Caldaris. Confused, I fly to another system and try again... still just Caldari. It takes several tries before I realize it depends on the faction of the station you land in, not the system itself; I head to Gallente space to find a Gallente station. I find one in a Caldari-owned system, dock, and join the Gallentes... only to immediately to be denied access to the station market. "The Caldari owners do not like you." I blink for a few moments, trying to process that I can't join Gallente at a Gallente-owned Caldari station, but I can join them at a Caldari-owned Gallente station... and immediately get banned from redocking at the station for doing so.

Next, I want to find a corporation involved in FW to do some group assaults. My initial search produces a laugh when I find an ad that combines "New-Pilot Friendly" and "Minimum 15mil SP Requirement", but then another chatter in the Stay Frosty public channel refers me to his own corporation. Their advert looks appealing, but they have a Full API requirement; I'm not too keen on the thought of sharing my main's Emails in BRAVE, so I tell their recruiter upfront I'm an alt and ask if they can make an exception. Despite being referred by a corpmate, he turns me down: "We have enough trouble with spies getting in as-is, we can't make an exception. I get the feeling it'll be extremely tough for me to find a FW group that will take me in if a 130-man corp has spy troubles.

In the meantime, I've made my first FW PvP fit: an Afterburner Atron that should fit the "King-of-the-Hill" gameplay of FW. Gathering all the components requires visiting 3 different stations, which makes me nervous; what if I buy components at a Caldari-owned station I can't dock at? Wish I could filter the Regional Market by "Can dock at station". Once that's done, I jump to find an active FW system.

My first Rookie Node (only T1 frigs allowed) has me nearly shoot a friendly rat and earn 0 LP for controlling it for 15 minutes; apparently the system wasn't contested enough, so I move on. My second one, a Small Node (frigs and destroyers allowed), I quickly warp out of when I see 2 destroyers camping the site. My third, another Rookie Node, I finally hit paydirt: I see an enemy Merlin orbiting the node when I warp in. He flees before I can fire the first shot. I shrug and begin orbiting. A few minutes later, a neut frig warps in to third-party me. It's a close fight, but he has an edge in damage, so I burn away from his scram and warp off with half-structure. With that, I dock, repair, and call it a day.

The players actually participating in FW seem outnumbered by the players third-partying it, probably due in-part to being required to leave your corp unless your corp joins FW as well. I wonder why that requirement was implemented in the first place and what effect it would have if it was lifted; could be interesting if there was a privateering mechanic that let players fight for either side on a whim without leaving their corp.

I plan to try out more of LowSec in the upcoming days, now that I've established myself.