Assembly Hall

This is not going to be the expected salty tears of a bittervet , but a series of valid points that took multiple factors into account and an attempt to remain objective:

Mercenaries: These organizations once had entire communities, and on-call channels where you could pay your hard-earned ISK to defend your assets against an overwhelming force, to deny assets/routes/hubs to enemies, or to mercilessly hunt and slaughter your enemies, wherever they were.

Unfortunately, that is not the case today. Today, many of the larger mercenary organizations have become mass-deccing, instalocking, trade-hub/choke point camping F1 monkeys who are half paying attention to their intended targets as they pass through a choke point or undock from a station while they're doing something far more entertaining than just sitting in the same place. Why is that? It is because one of the best tools that they had was ripped away to protect the delicate sensitivities of the supercapital pilots who "never could log on" because "everyone knew where they were" or "everyone knew they were online."

So what we have today is an entire group that has turned into griefing mass-deccers with no better purpose than podding a newbro as he undocks because he didn't know better, or an industrial corp CEO telling people they can't play a game that they pay for, or thousands who now can't go sell their products that they worked hard to obtain/produce/steal, etc, etc, etc.

My proposal is the removal of the "Buddy List" and going back to the old-school Watch List.

The reasoning is simple. Supercapitals can now tether/dock at Citadels (and any alliance which can afford a fleet of supercapitals should be able to afford at least one Citadel to serve as a home station for their supers/and should be able to defend this location).

Am I asking for a nerf to anything? No.

Am I saying a feature need to be absolutely removed? No

What I am asking is that CCP take into account that they created a feature which has created serious ramifications, and have ostracized an entire community of pilots that was once great (as if one merc org had too many running contracts, they would pass it off to another for a finders fee and to ensure that the client received the best services for the ISK provided). I am thinking that some constructive feedback and dialogue between CCP and the playerbase (not just those with large numbers of subscriptions) and the re-evaluation of a "feature" that they have created which is not in the best of interests of the community, the playerbase as a whole (think of how many subscriptions get lost to permadecs from the current "merc" groups). What I am asking for is balance.

It is a shame that your instant, uncounterable, unlimited and perfectly reliable intel source has been removed to the detriment of your old playstyle. I myself would like a shield mod that gives 100% omni resists for when I just want to AFK rat while watching a film - this is to name but one example - so I share something of your sorrow.

As it is, I find myself forced to consider alternative methodologies, some of which - to my dismay and regret, I will not hide or deny - involve effort and risk. At this time I can only suggest that you investigate analogous options to advance your own goals until such time a CCP restores your entitlements.

It does seem a little unbalanced that players can now logout of the game leaving those hunting them no mechanism to determine if they should continue to chase or if they are spinning their wheels. Such a counter to this instant, uncounterable, unlimited and perfectly reliable ability to leave the game universe doesn't have to be instant and free as the watchlist was, but there should be some tool to counter the ability of players to completely and infallibly remove themselves from the game universe without the ability of the other players to find out they are now in an invulnerable state.

I don't think anyone will claim the plight of super pilots didn't need to be addressed in some manner, but the solution has seriously hurt wormhole pilots and bounty hunters/mercenaries stalking specific targets. You can tell them to just 'HTFU' and go infiltrate corps or keep alts logged in 24/7 everywhere but that doesn't change the equation where it is just now too much work to hunt specific targets now that it is more likely than not they will be logged off when you find them. So players have stopped, and will continue to stop doing it.

Less things are going to happen now in the sandbox because of this change. A roll-back isn't going to happen, but some sort of accommodation or new intel channel is necessary if you want hunter-style game play to continue to take place in Eve.

I feel like the buddy list is overall what was intended for the original mechanic. The watchlist became a gameable intel source and not much more. Locator agents are a different topic, and I would be more than happy to hear your opinions on that (mail me!), but I will have to disagree that we should revert back to the old watchlist. Keep moving foward, never back!

-Judge