EVE General Discussion

Was a nice read from a Tourist viewpoint. Your blog statements are highlighted due to not being able to place each in a quote.

Future of the CSM

CCP Xhagen and the CSM spent a good ninety minutes discussing everything from how the current CSM compares to previous ones to the actual nomination / election process.

This seems to be more about getting your ego's stroked. I highly doubt there were any recommendations made that would hinder big Alliance's ability to manipulate the current process of getting their own candidate elected.

EVE Veterans / Loyalty Program

Most online games have some sort of initiative to reward long time players for forking over their money every month for long periods of time. This discussion was not only about what kind of 'rewards' might be offered but also how to continue increasing information flow to players so they don't rage quit over things like the Retribution still only having one mid-slot.

First of all, just exactly how long does a player need to play Eve to become a Vet? 1, 3, 5 or more years? Whatever amount is decided, it will inevitably alienate various players causing more bad feelings towards CCP. Long time players already have beneficial knowledge about various 'Tips' and 'Tricks' to successfully play this game. Personally I look at this whole subject as being biased and prejudiced, not to mention unfair to players who haven't put in as much time..

Talk about players 'Rage Quitting', that's mostly done by new players with less than 1 year in-game. Usually due to being ganked in high security space. Now there's a misrepresentation - high security space.

Nullsec - Stations, Sov, Resources

There was quite a bit discussed here but the #1 request the CSM made is that we want to blow up stations. Destructible Outposts are going to be absolutely key to any kind of sov revamp. In the past, for Dominion, the idea was to have wreckable stations that you would be able to repair. Progress on several fronts has apparently made it possible to completely destroy player built outposts. 'Possibly' does not mean with 100% certainty that it will happen, but it's looking more likely than ever before. Obviously the mechanics of what to do with people's stuff need to be worked out but I feel like CCP is now on-board with the fact that big explosions are good things.

Another big topic in this session was how NPC stations in 0.0 affect null sec warfare. Looking at ways to put more control in the hands of the players is something else CCP Soundwave and his team will be looking at this next year.

The old 'Farms & Fields' topic came up again, along with moon goo re-balancing and other sov / null sec-related incomes. There is a lot to do here but for the first time in years CCP seems to have the resources and the mindset to actually tackle and resolve many of the old issues that continue to plague us all.

Looking at real life wars and tactics, it's usually imperative to capture strategic structures. This creates a 'Tug of War' between opposing forces. Total destruction is only a last ditch option which is rarely used. Obviously due to neutral players with items in the station/outpost that are not involved with the war, destroying these structures would create more work on CCP just by petitions alone. How would you like to come back from vacation only to find out that all your possessions have been destroyed? Also what about the characters docked in that structure? Are they destroyed/podded?

NPC stations affecting Null Sec Warfare? Just because it's a neutral station and you have to camp war targets doesn't mean it should be changed. Those stations serve a purpose, especially for non Sov affiliated pilots who need to dock up for whatever reason.

Moon goo re-balancing and other sov / null sec-related incomes? Funny how you make it sound like it's the poor house when in reality Null sec space has the highest isk making potential in the game. This whole subject looks like another way to buff killboard stats and gain more isk, not to mention it doesn't plague us all..

Game Balance

Another issue the CSM brought up was something close to my own heart - for characters that have been in supercaps for the past few years (Seleene has been in a Nyx since late 2006), pretty much everyone has maxed their drone skills. With the complete removal of the ability to use drones in supers, this renders several million skill points worth of training completely obsolete.

Well, that is indeed a shame. What exactly are you guys fishing for, re-allocation of skill points? Have the Drone bay replaced? Suck it up and learn to deal with the changes. Everyone gets hit unfavorably from time to time by changes to the game.

Art - Eye Candy

First off, one of the things that CSM 6 bitched about early on was the horrible rookie ships that everyone starts with. This is your introduction to the game and you are forced to fly something that looks pretty ghetto. Well, that's being solved as we were shown the concept art and nearly complete renderings of all four new Rookie ship skins that will be going into EVE "soon". The new Reaper, in particular, looked amazing and makes me wonder how scary the Rifter will look if / when they get around to tweaking it as well. So, yet another example of how the CSM has no power. :)

Yeah, Rookie ships are ghetto. So what? This makes the other ships gained from Career Agents look that much better. Besides that, the T1 ships are gained rather quickly so the new player is only in a Rookie ship for a very short time. I'm sorry but this to me sounds like a complete waste of development resources. Somebody needs to remind CCP about Murphy's Law.

What I see here is CSM again not representing the majority of the playerbase.

True, which is why I added that in a sidenote to my main problems with your idea (besides the sanity check, of course).

If you don't really have elections, it fails to be a real voting system.

And so the politician runs for office while refusing to accept the explosive skull perk. Write in candidates are a feature of voting systems.

Finally, dealing with intra voter collusion and other aspects of Political Parties by killing the politicians simply invites the equivalent of suicide ganks.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voting_system

Read up on voting systems, and design a voting system that eliminates the influence of Political Parties on the election. (Punishing them for doing so doesn't stop them from doing so, as the punishment invariably occurs after the influence occurs)

Was a nice read from a Tourist viewpoint. Your blog statements are highlighted due to not being able to place each in a quote.

Future of the CSM

This seems to be more about getting your ego's stroked. I highly doubt there were any recommendations made that would hinder big Alliance's ability to manipulate the current process of getting their own candidate elected.

About the nomination / election process, it is in the Alliance members best interest to propose and agree with procedures that are favorable to them, such as being able to indirectly influence the outcome. You can be sure the last thing they would do is cut their own throats by recommending any changes that would hinder that ability. I would venture to say that at least 1 hour discussion was spent on this subject.

so because you don't like the current CSM, the next one should be voted for by the uninformed drooling masses, through mandatory voting, in hopes that it will accomplish absolutely nothing? what an idea

This is an easy one. They represent the people who bothered to vote.

i only represent my constituents

Just a quick thought. Destructable stations mean that someone could destroy every station and not rebuild them in order to disable nullsec just for the fun of it. And also there's the issue with neutral assets in destroyed stations... how does CCP plan to deal with a potential break of the rule that "docked is safe"? By making neutrals indestructable so station owners just keep the corpo hangars empty and contract all stuff to neutral alts if they can't hold the station? Or will CCP really go and break the "docked is safe" rule?

If i was CCP, *I* would not trust nullsec to the gratuitously assumed good will of bored players; destructable game rules are a call to destructable gameplay, which is a call to destroying the game.

Who runs the country? We're looking for a voting system that results in a government, not nobody showing up.

Manipulation by parties is not talking about fraud, it's talking about times when a voter might vote for a choice other than their most favored choice, often due to the expectation that their most favored choice has no chance to win, and thus they vote to avoid their less favored choice among the major party candidates.

I do take lessons from history... and if you go back WWII or before scorched earth was the name of the game, son. Fields were burned to prevent movement of armies and decimate enemy populations throughout the history of war/mankind. During the 30 years war plague infested bodies were catapulted into towns to wipe out their populations. Hell, in Vietnam the US sprayed agent orange over entire forests/cities and invented the "daisy cutter". These are not precision weapons. ...nor are Nukes. To this day scorched earth is still policy (though it's been renamed mutually assured destruction now) but the truth is that in a REAL war... wars about the very survival of the populace on both sides, wars in which greater powers will not intervene, wars without bounds or humanity such as those I think we would all love to have in EvE, scorched earth is VERY effective at wiping out opposing populations and making potential future enemies pay the f*** attention when you are swinging your stick. You should take a lesson from history and realize this tiny little island of time we live in is one of the most peaceful and civilized periods since long before Europeans turned gunpowder into bullet go-juice.

TL;DR; - History: you're doing it wrong. Google harder.