Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Guess what would happen if you didn't have to click every day

having just setup some 27 planets for PI, removing some of the redundant and downright annoying extra clicking would be great.



to prop up sales of new gaming mice?

PI does need a lot of work from CCP, they really haven't touched it since its revamp years ago to fix the really really broken system.


I would like to see the following:

T2 Command centers (more powergrid and cpu)
Command center blueprints so we can build them instead of having to go into empire to get them, ccp wants us to build everything else why not these. CCP can even make them more expensive 3-5 million and make them take PI goods to build.

Maybe even think about having multiple types of command centers per planet type, so you can have a command center focused on extracting and extracts more in a shorter timeor one that's focused on productions and it gives speed bonus's to allow you to process faster etc. this would give us a chance to specialize.

A highlight function so i can mass select structures for routing to and from storage. (for example i highlight 4 factories, open up my storage and select a PI material and it automatically routes it to the highlight structures and vice versa)

The ability to save my PI setups like a ship fitting, it will save all the routing information, upgrades and everything so all i have to do is import the goods. It also saves them in a way that the setups are not planet locked... so for example i could transplant ocean planet setup to an ice planet etc.



Also this argument where if you don't have to click 2000 times to set up a planet you don't deserve the money is bullshit, even if they implemented everything i mentioned here, you would still have to build/buy/transport the command center, set everything up at least 1 time for every different PI chain you want to run, you still have to baby sit them every day or 2 by moving goods around and in some cases you might even have to by the poco's as well. then i have to transport the end product to market... there will always be work and risk while doing PI.

No, it is not. I know what you mean, done it myself. There is a sweet spot, e.g. a colony that builds P2 on a 3day-cycle. Restart twice per week, collect only once.
Ressources hardly deplete.
But it is still not afk. Please compare it to Data Core mining. Start once, return a year later: tons of ISK.

With PI, the amount of ISK generated per click is finite.
Also, ISK/goods production stops if you ignore it.

You can argue that it is too easy money, but that is not about the concept itself, but only about numbers.
And there I have to add: don't take the current situation as a reference, markets are extremely distorted due to citadels.

Actually that is my point of creating this thread:
It seems quite paradox, but to me the high PI prices indicate that producing PI goods is not "fun" enough.
If it was sufficiently entertaining, people would instantly flock to it and prices would come down.
Instead, PI seems to ne mostly done by relatively few hardcore producers.
That is why I suggest improvements.

But this brings me to another point: PI alts.
Why?

In my opinion, nearly all alts that are created to circumvent restrictions or the second M in MMO indicate bad game design.
Apparently some people like PI very much.
But there is an arbitrary barrier that stops them at some point from doing more.
After the initial setup and testing period with all the planning and designing and decisions, harvester colonies run smoothly and need only few clicks now and then.
Even if I enjoy PI, I cant do more since: max. 6 colonies.

Therefore... PI alts.

I suggest:
- trash the arbitrary limit of 6 colonies. If that is too radical, please give us another skill "Advanced Interplanetary Consolidation" to turn it up o 11. If you need the fees from the extra accounts desperately, please sell colony licenses for Aurum.

- to make harvester colonies more engaging an less afk, increase the ressources on all planets, but make them deplete faster and respawn in different locations (more emphasis on nuggets). It should not be possible to have permanently stable harvesting setups. Instead, the decision process where to set up extractors should be required more often.

Give me adv planetary consolidation and I'll just put more networks on each planet with each alt. And i already delete and replant extractor contol units on a near daily basis. Pi should have hard limits so long as you dont have to be physically present to extract resources like mining.

So you want to remove trading, research and industry completely then? Sounds legit...

Removing all forms of afk isk-gain will just result in more people carbearing, which will lead to less PvP overall. Is that what you want?

PvP is expensive and rarely profitable. I don't really think it's a good idea to force all players to grind the ridiculously boring missions in ordert to earn isk to partake in PvP.

Besides, the profits of PI are well balanced. You can make a decent living with some planning and effort (that requires hauling) but you won't make anywhere near the profits you'll make through more "active" PvE endavours (mining, running combat sites etc.)

It's better set up as it is now, where you can earn some money through afk:ing that will let you buy decent ships for PvP, but if you want the really blingy stuff then you'll either have to wait for weeks to accumulate enough afk, or you have to put more active work into it.

Due to the relatively high average age of the players in this game, you need to be able to cater to those with actual dayjobs, not just the hopeless nerd no-lifers in their teens who can spend 12 hours every day of the week grinding for isk.

Well then that's the fault of the players and not ccp. The buy and sell orders for PI-goods are what they are due to player supply and demand, and the value of everything will sort itself out in the end.

It's not like PI are comparable to running missions for NPC agents that give a pre-determined amount of isk as rewards with a random bonus in the form of loot. All your profits from PI are solely determined by market trends, and will eventually plan out.

I don't think it would be a good idea for ccp to intervene and make PI more demanding just because player activites happened to make PI somewhat profitable.

Isn't it pretty accessible already? The command centers barely cost a thing to buy, the skills required are rather small scale (you can easily train to run profitable PI in less than a months time), there's a ton of guides and third party websites which facilitate PI and a big part of the process is automated so it doesn't even require constant monitoring like running missions, sites and mining does.

So really, how could it get any more accessible than it already is?