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Maybe you could ask your higher-ups what use does a solo player have for this kind of PvE content, or why should such narrowly niched content be prioritized over developing content which was of use for the bulk of PvE players.

I am puzzled beyond words to see an imitation of massive scale PvP being sold as PvE. PvE for who?

You're just doing you job, but, who else could I ask...?

Well, if CCP has come to realize what floats the boat of PvErs and has decided to give them what they pay for instead of the kind of stuff CCP has been doing for PvE since 2010, that will be a welcome change.

But to be frank, I've been waiting for literally years to share my feedback with CCP about PvE, and still it's time they even ASK why we PvE.

With PvE like these blood raider sites, I jsut feel that they (whoever makes these decsions) don't want us to PvE at all. Maybe they want somebody else to PvE, but, not us. vºv

From my experience, the current PvE is generally used for those who want to make money, either by farming bounties, completing DED sites, or looting Drifters in Wormhole Space for "elite PvE". In the past before these Shipyards, the highest level of PvE was the Sansha Incursions, where actual fleets are needed to fight the PvE incursions.

Since the core of your question is about "solo PvE", my guess is you don't have a Corp/Alliance you roll with.

These Shipyards (of which Blood Raiders are the first) are intended to become the new "top tier" for PvE content, and they are not intended to be easy. Not with the potential rewards that lie in their destroyed husks (Pirate Faction Capital BPC that go up to Titans). In other words, it is a heavily up-scaled version of the Mothership/HQ site in Sansha Incursions. Instead of just a Supercarrier with limited support for a fleet to take down, it is now a Sotiyo that will call in hundreds of NPCs depending on what the player fleet brings to bear (even other Captials and Supercapitals, I imagine).

Whereas before you could get together about sixty guys for Incursions (PvE for one or more Corps or an assortment of unaffiliated individuals in High-Sec), this is going to be Alliance-level PvE involving hundreds of players, with massive risk and massive reward.

This is EVE Online. They are not going to make PvE content easier to satisfy solo PvE players. Only thing to ask for in this day and age for the solo player would be Anomalies or DED that caters to Capital-class ships. Again, a system that wouldn't be easier for players.

So according to you, the players who pay CCP for PvE don't deserve getting content that entices them to keep paying CCP for PvE. If they want a reason to keep paying CCP, they must work hard for it, right?

Sarcasm aside, the whole thing I've asked Team Phenomenon is why they develop PvE content that it's not accessible to PvE players. Someone must be making this decission for some reason. Who, why or what sense does it, are a mistery.

Lets just clear up a couple of totally false assumptions inherent in your post.

1. That the current PVE is mainly done to make money. Now If you have a PVP alt you need to finance, I can quite believe it, that makes you a PVP player who uses PVE to make money. It doesn't make you a PVE player.

2. The highest level of PVE is incursions? Well it is pretty profitable when run in an obsessive and superefficient manner, But I would argue that PVE one enjoys is the highest form of PVE. Shock horror! Somebody confesses to enjoy PVE!

By the way, queueing for hours to be allowed into an incursion fleet, where one has no real option to have ANY independence of thought or action to fit EXACTLY as commanded, totally dependent on the iron domination of marginally sane FC's, amongst others whose only role is to press F1 on command, and rinse or repeat until your ears bleed from the inane crap that floods comms, then good luck, enjoy the ISK. I would dream of being able to sanely do PVE in HS with friends, who I actually like.

3. The assumption that someone HAS to operate in HS in a corp to share PVE. Actually you are half right, in that one cannot. One cannot do shared PVE in a corp in HS, because as soon as you do, your corp is perma-wardecced, how long the corp lasts is entirely due to how stubborn the CEO is and how long he keeps the corp after the members have all left or unsubbed. HS players are DESPERATE to play together, but it seems to do so they need to move to null.

4. Your belief that CCP do not give a damn about Solo or even Shared PVE in HS. You may be right, CCP promises changes for the winter that will either prove you totally wrong, or finally burn the last thread that holds people in the game, we will see.

"Every content has to cater to me and me alone if you ever release content that is not 100% designed for me to take on you are not doing your job properly"

Depending on how they spawn, it would be a good way to lure the defenders away to a Citadel or POS to kill the NPCs.

But yeah: not seeing a problem with the NPCs pursuing you till they blow your ship to tiny bits... or vice versa, if given the AI to warp away from such traps.

How do you expect CCP to cater to your needs?

Anthar Thebess explained it in a way that I agree with: this is a large scale PvE activity that operates as a way to obtain Faction Capital BPC that can be used for PvP. Depending on how they handle this, these Sotiyo could also be an alternative to getting Capital faction BPC for the Sansha (assuming they buff those guys with a Dread and Titan as well).

It is an extension of what higher levels of PvE have always been about: completing a PvE site for the opportunity to obtain rare and valuable loot, whether it be modules, materials, and so on.

I do not know what your entitlement issue is about, but I never said that people who pay CCP for PvE "don't deserve getting content that entices them to keep paying CCP". The only thing I did say was that they aren't going to make thing EASIER just to satisfy a specific type of player.

The new Sotiyo Pirate Shipyards are about advancing the game-play of EVE Online. With the slow but steady introduction of new Pirate Faction Capital ships to the game, the developers included a new way of attaining the BPC for these Capitals that doesn't come from special events. But they also made sure that it would not be easy for players to get them, with the new AI system that is included with the Sotiyo Shipyard NPCs.

That is the best reason I can think of for this decision being made.

There is no entitlement. This highly sophisticated and extremely niche PvE content is being developed in lieu of the meat-and-potatoes PvE CCP stopped adding in 2010. And by any measure accessible to a baseliner like me, that decisison is proving harmful for the game.

There is no value for CCP to provide new and interesting content. Not unless it can be used as part of their "million-man-fights" marketing plan. This whole thing is just to get nullbears to fleet up so CCP can use the resulting videos to advertise the game more. EVE is going to have the first 1,000 man PVE fight, and they are going to milk that for all the publicity they can. And for publicity value, it is worth far more than "we got new missions!" ever will have. Meanwhile the other 299,000 players will have literally zero benefit from this, or any other upcoming PVE. Keep your expectations low. Player retention is not a significant priority at CCP.