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[Proposal] - Industrial Revamp

Author
Alx Warlord
The Scope
Gallente Federation
#1 - 2013-01-31 20:17:31 UTC  |  Edited by: Alx Warlord
INDUSTRY REVAMP

Before anything, I'm a Mechanical Engineer and I deal with patents in the real life, and despite the fact that I really enjoy the game-play in EVE, I think it should get some improvements to look more real then it is today... Since it is Scy-Fi, it should be a future vision of our world... And having BPOs the way they are now is like a spaceship burning coal running a steam engine...

This Proposal is not something really needed now, but it would come in hand with an industrial expansion, it would add to the game, solving some game issues and bring it closer to reality, adding more freedom to industry and easing the life of industrial players. In a way they could leave hi-sec and try to build things in more dangerous space.


BPO

As everyone knows, one of the most important features in EVE Online are the Blueprints and the ship assembly system. But sadly it is completely outdated. The blueprint system existed in our world from 1861 up to 1960 when the CAD (Computer-aided drafting) started to replaced it.

The Idea of Having a Blueprint back then, meant that you had the data to make a product. But now, as the data is digital and we can easy make a Copy and send it throug the internet thinking about having a blueprint in a scyfi futuristic game is a bit of wierd.

If you want to produce something today, much more important then the Construction process Data, you need the permission (License) to build it.

And How should the game be? the way things are now at last.

The Item blueprint should be changed to something like a skill-book, but since it is not a skill, lets call it a for now a "data-pack" or "DP".
By using it, the data should be added to a character tab (much like the skill tab) unlocking the production of these items, being them ships/modules/ammunition/t1/t2/t3/faction, once injected the player would always have access to build these items. And would be able to Start any amount of manufacture jobs from it.
Lore: The information would be in a private cloud server, possibly with copies on every system and in the hardware of the player's POD. So he would have access to it everywhere, and as he get killed, he would download to his POD the information while he gets a new clone and capsule.

These DP would be sold in the stations that currently sells the BPO/BPC.

Like Skill-books these will only be used once.


LICENSES

As the Construction process Data can easily be copied or reverse engineered, what really keeps the economic balance today is the industrial law of patents/licenses and rights.
In EVE it should be the same.

There should be 2 types of licenses. The unlimited license (UL) that would allow you to construct the items with no limit, and the limited runs license (LL) that have a limited number of runs.

These licenses should be a In-game Item that can be used to add its, "value" to the character Industrial Tab.

Being an item, it can be traded in the market without the need to use contracts.

It would be sold in the stations that currently sells the BPO/BPC
Alx Warlord
The Scope
Gallente Federation
#2 - 2013-01-31 20:17:40 UTC  |  Edited by: Alx Warlord
T2 INVENTION

It would be the same, but without consuming the bpo/bpc in the process.
To start it, player should have the DP with unlimited license of the T1 item and also The material requirements for the research (that could be increased compared to what is now to balance the importance of it.)
The first time you do it, As you can only put the DP to research in one lab at a time, there is a chance that the research get successful or not. On success the player obtain the DP of the T2 item, also a license to run it 1 time.

To obtain further limited runs licenses the player would go trough a licensing process, Trading research for the right to build the item. It have the same mechanics as the invention, but the player can set any amount of licensing jobs, getting the Limited Run License on the success. (Remembering that Players would be able to sell these T2 Licenses in the market.)


DP COPY

As the data can be easily copied, the player could create a copy of its DP to transfer/sell it to other player. The copy would have the same material consumption as the copy job have today.(Remembering that the player would still need the License to produce.)
The created DP would have the default material and production efficiency ( 0 / 0 ). Like bought from the NPC in a station.


LICENSES COPY

Having a Unlimited License, the player should be able to create limited licenses. The copy would have the same material consumption as the copy job have today.


MATERIAL AND PRODUCTIVITY LEVEL

The research ME and PE would be performed over the player DP in its Character sheet. It keeps the material requirements that have today.

If the character get poded, he may lose some of the researched ME and PE if the clone don't cover the points. so keep the clone updated.


UNLICENSED PRODUCTION

Here there is 2 options
- Allow to manufacture without consuming licenses (Null-sec and WH-Space only)
- Don't allow. Since Concord is everywhere!
Alx Warlord
The Scope
Gallente Federation
#3 - 2013-01-31 20:18:17 UTC  |  Edited by: Alx Warlord
ANALYSIS

- The obsolete blue print system would be updated. So no more need to carry pieces of blue paper in your ship.

- To add this system to the game, all BPOs would be split into 2 different items 1 unique DP(That keeps the ME and PE) and one full license, while the BPCs would be split into 1 DP and a limited run license. This way people will not lose their assets vallue.

- By activating a DP that contains a ME and PE higher then your current value, you will be prompted to replace the old one. (Remembering that these DP with ME and PE can only be obtained with and old BPO/PBC converted.)

- The Untrained Blueprints, turned into DP and Licenses, would be simple Items, don't needing contracts to be traded like the modified BPO and BPCs.

- As the Information of ME and PE get removed from the Untrained BPO item, to the character sheet, it would need much less info stored in the server.

- As information and rights can't be destroyed, like in the real world, industrial players would fell much more comfortable about moving to unsecured space to set up industrial operations there.

- Those who make isk selling Trained blueprints and BPCs would be still able to make isk on it.

- For nullsec it would be a Industrial revolution.

- Industrial Characters would be much more valued then they are now.

- This system would add a small difference to the game, but would have big consequences...
Kirtar Makanen
State War Academy
Caldari State
#4 - 2013-01-31 21:02:02 UTC
I see a few issues with this. If everything is done through injecting into the character, there's no element of risk to losing a blueprint when moving it. The possibility of loss is a core component in eve and there must be a way in which the DP (and it's research levels) can be lost. Furthermore your idea of "DP copying" is not very well explained. It seems as if you're trying to delink the number of runs from the research level in general. However, using a DP copy gives a permanent upgrade to ME or PE (or it's possible to indefinitely add licenses) it isn't good for those that currently make money off of selling researched BPOs. As for the unlicensed production suggestions, if I'm reading your T2 production suggestions correclty, the second option would effectively be giving nullsec and w-space producers T2 BPOs.
Alx Warlord
The Scope
Gallente Federation
#5 - 2013-01-31 22:38:22 UTC  |  Edited by: Alx Warlord
Kirtar Makanen wrote:
I see a few issues with this. If everything is done through injecting into the character, there's no element of risk to losing a blueprint when moving it. The possibility of loss is a core component in eve and there must be a way in which the DP (and it's research levels) can be lost. Furthermore your idea of "DP copying" is not very well explained. It seems as if you're trying to delink the number of runs from the research level in general. However, using a DP copy gives a permanent upgrade to ME or PE (or it's possible to indefinitely add licenses) it isn't good for those that currently make money off of selling researched BPOs. As for the unlicensed production suggestions, if I'm reading your T2 production suggestions correclty, the second option would effectively be giving nullsec and w-space producers T2 BPOs.


I will try to rewrite it clearer, later...

But for now, about the concept:

The risk of losing a blueprint is something that should never exist. As it is a DATA... it is virtual... the element of risk is present on the transport of materials/ the life of the capsuler / the vulnerability of the POS where the item is being manufactured. Today in our world, we have no risk on losing a blueprint, or a project, it is all in the Internet cloud. Why in the future there should be such a silly risk? I really like that eve have elements of risk, but the risks that make sense... pirates, NPCs, war... but forgetting to make a a backup file? lol

Yes, the Idea is to Delink the Research level from the number of runs. As the ME and PE are technical and depend on your level of understanding on the product, while the number of runs are just a Law issue. They are not linked in the real life. You can obtain the license to produce 10000 Nike shoes, but if you don't make researches on the process of making them, you will end up with very expensive product in the end. And if you get a license to run more 10000 copies, it makes no sense that you lose the research already done.

So it would be like
DP - technical, carries the ME and PE - As item, like a skill-book, can only be used once to learn.
License - how many times you can run a manufacture job (can be limited or unlimited) - As item can be used many times.

And for those who makes money selling researched BPOs, they would have the option to keep selling licenses and DPs, this time like commodities in the market. And the Already reserched BPOs would be turned into "Reserched DP" and "Unlimited License" that would have a significant value.
Kirtar Makanen
State War Academy
Caldari State
#6 - 2013-02-01 02:02:10 UTC
Alx Warlord wrote:
Kirtar Makanen wrote:
I see a few issues with this. If everything is done through injecting into the character, there's no element of risk to losing a blueprint when moving it. The possibility of loss is a core component in eve and there must be a way in which the DP (and it's research levels) can be lost. Furthermore your idea of "DP copying" is not very well explained. It seems as if you're trying to delink the number of runs from the research level in general. However, using a DP copy gives a permanent upgrade to ME or PE (or it's possible to indefinitely add licenses) it isn't good for those that currently make money off of selling researched BPOs. As for the unlicensed production suggestions, if I'm reading your T2 production suggestions correclty, the second option would effectively be giving nullsec and w-space producers T2 BPOs.


I will try to rewrite it clearer, and more explained latter.

But for now, about the concept:

The risk of losing a blueprint is something that should never exist. As it is a DATA... it is virtual... the element of risk is present on the transport of materials/ the life of the capsuler / the vulnerability of the POS where the item is being manufactured. Today in our world, we have no risk on losing a blueprint, or a project, it is all in the Internet cloud. Why in the future there should be such a silly risk? I really like that eve have elements of risk, but the risks that make sense... pirates, NPCs, war... but forgetting to make a a backup file? lol

Yes, the Idea is to Delink the Research level from the number of runs. As the ME and PE are technical and depend on your level of understanding on the product, while the number of runs are just a Law issue. They are not linked in the real life. You can obtain the license to produce 10000 Nike shoes, but if you don't make researches on the process of making them, you will end up with very expensive product in the end. And if you get a license to run more 10000 copies, it makes no sense that you lose the research already done.


What's your point? Skills are basically just "data" yet they can be lost if you don't update your clone. The risk of losing a blueprint or at least losing some research levels should continue to exist. Perhaps if you included some link in how much you can hold in a clone there could be that element (think of blueprints/DPs as skills), but then that can hurt producers by forcing a more expensive clone if not balanced properly. So in other words it would make it so that if you don't have a proper clone you lose research levels as you would lose skills if you were to be podded. Moreover, this also eliminates the ability of pirates to loot BPs upon destruction of a ship carrying it (or really the ability to destroy other people's BPs in general), which i'm not sure is necessarily good either. Think of it as corporate espionage in a sense.

There is nothing strictly wrong with the current system and I'm not sure if the game balance complexities that your idea would add outweigh any benefits it would create. Comparing things to how "real life" is not a very good argument as things in real life don't always make for good game balance. Besides by your reasoning you should be able to manufacture while researching (whether that's ME, PE, or invention) which eliminates the opportunity cost of doing one over the other.

As for your idea of selling the DPs, that doesn't work very well either if you want them to carry research levels with them (same reason that you can't do BPCs or researched BPOs on the regular market). At the point that a BP is researched it is no longer equivalent to other BPs and thus would add complexity into the structure of the market (I don't see there being a separate listing for ME1, ME2, ME3... being added).

Alx Warlord
The Scope
Gallente Federation
#7 - 2013-02-01 02:19:54 UTC
Kirtar Makanen wrote:

What's your point? Skills are basically just "data" yet they can be lost if you don't update your clone. The risk of losing a blueprint or at least losing some research levels should continue to exist. Perhaps if you included some link in how much you can hold in a clone there could be that element (think of blueprints/DPs as skills), but then that can hurt producers by forcing a more expensive clone if not balanced properly. So in other words it would make it so that if you don't have a proper clone you lose research levels as you would lose skills if you were to be podded. Moreover, this also eliminates the ability of pirates to loot BPs upon destruction of a ship carrying it (or really the ability to destroy other people's BPs in general), which i'm not sure is necessarily good either. Think of it as corporate espionage in a sense.


Indeed, it would be interesting to have a chance to lose some ME and PE if your clone is not updated, it would be like forgeting to make a backup... this would add a spice to the system...

Kirtar Makanen wrote:

There is nothing strictly wrong with the current system and I'm not sure if the game balance complexities that your idea would add outweigh any benefits it would create. Comparing things to how "real life" is not a very good argument as things in real life don't always make for good game balance. Besides by your reasoning you should be able to manufacture while researching (whether that's ME, PE, or invention) which eliminates the opportunity cost of doing one over the other.


Well, since this is a Sci-Fi game, or some people dare to say, a Sci-Fi simulator, it would be good to add some more realism to the system... as this can solve some of the biggest problems CCP is facing with null-sec.

About manufacturing while researching, the research may lock the Item, it would be easy to do that...

Kirtar Makanen wrote:

As for your idea of selling the DPs, that doesn't work very well either if you want them to carry research levels with them (same reason that you can't do BPCs or researched BPOs on the regular market). At the point that a BP is researched it is no longer equivalent to other BPs and thus would add complexity into the structure of the market (I don't see there being a separate listing for ME1, ME2, ME3... being added).


The only DP that would be researched would be the DP upgraded from the Blueprint. The ones produced by players would always start up "empty".
Luc Chastot
#8 - 2013-02-01 03:32:42 UTC
What's the point of changing a system that works for another one that is very similar? I do think industry needs a thorough revision, since it's starting to show its age, but your suggestion is not the way to go, in my opinion.

Make it idiot-proof and someone will make a better idiot.

Kirtar Makanen
State War Academy
Caldari State
#9 - 2013-02-01 05:16:52 UTC
Alx Warlord wrote:

The only DP that would be researched would be the DP upgraded from the Blueprint. The ones produced by players would always start up "empty".

So what you're saying is that copying them does absolutely nothing useful since there are already NPC seeds.
Hakan MacTrew
Science and Trade Institute
Caldari State
#10 - 2013-02-01 07:04:20 UTC
I have always view BPO's as a proprietary licensable product.

OP, you are correct that a piece of paper would.be totally obsolete, but much like today where music, films, games and so much more data is pirated over the internet, the only way to ensure that your intellectual property does nor suffer the same fate would ne an heavily encrypted hard copy.

Other issues I see with your plan revolve around the 'injection' process. Can you trade a skill once you have learned it? Can your friends use it while you aren't? But these are things that are done with BPOs.

What happens to corp BPO vaults? What about people using multiple industry alts for production? Your idea removes much of the versatility of the current system and over complicates it.

The current system is fine.

(And ALL things should have the potential to be lost in EvE.)
Hakan MacTrew
Science and Trade Institute
Caldari State
#11 - 2013-02-01 07:29:20 UTC
You have given me an idea though.

Pirated BPO's
Similar process as Invention but uses BPO's and produces illegal BPO's. Customs will seize them and fine them, but who will care in null?

It would make accessing BPs much easier out there, possibly aiding the fueling of the null industrial revolution.

Hmmm...
TheSkeptic
Federal Navy Academy
Gallente Federation
#12 - 2013-02-01 09:07:24 UTC
For this to not be stupidly over powered, the DP's should reside in a clone instead, and you lose them if you get podded.

Otherwise, keep BPOs.

If it aint broke...

...

Alx Warlord
The Scope
Gallente Federation
#13 - 2013-02-01 12:54:54 UTC
Kirtar Makanen wrote:
Alx Warlord wrote:

The only DP that would be researched would be the DP upgraded from the Blueprint. The ones produced by players would always start up "empty".

So what you're saying is that copying them does absolutely nothing useful since there are already NPC seeds.


It is only that the BPCs are not seeded everywhere, and if you are at an outpost, and need to give a BPO/BPC to someone else it would be the easiest way to go.

Alx Warlord
The Scope
Gallente Federation
#14 - 2013-02-01 13:05:32 UTC  |  Edited by: Alx Warlord
Hakan MacTrew wrote:
I have always view BPO's as a proprietary licensable product.

OP, you are correct that a piece of paper would.be totally obsolete, but much like today where music, films, games and so much more data is pirated over the internet, the only way to ensure that your intellectual property does nor suffer the same fate would ne an heavily encrypted hard copy.

Other issues I see with your plan revolve around the 'injection' process. Can you trade a skill once you have learned it? Can your friends use it while you aren't? But these are things that are done with BPOs.

What happens to corp BPO vaults? What about people using multiple industry alts for production? Your idea removes much of the versatility of the current system and over complicates it.

The current system is fine.

(And ALL things should have the potential to be lost in EvE.)


As stated above, everything is copied today, and i'm not talking about music or digital media, i'm talking about products without license. Even a Ferrari can be copied if you want, and it is not a encrypted had copy that will prevent that...

Can you trade real life skills once you have learned it? no, what you can do is try to teach to someone else, and then these people would develop their own skills... Even between factories, or they move engineers from an older factory to set up a new one, or the new factory have a hard time to get to work...

The corp BPO vault would still exist, storing DP copies and some Licenses...

The current system is unreal... And have allot of drawbacks... preventing industrial players to move to more dangerous space...
Only material things should be lost on eve.

TheSkeptic wrote:
For this to not be stupidly over powered, the DP's should reside in a clone instead, and you lose them if you get podded.

Otherwise, keep BPOs.

If it aint broke...


Indeed. if you have a lesser clone and get poded you should lose some of your DP... ou some ME and PE on them. (As you lose the memory on how to run the process)

Edited the main post...
Hakan MacTrew
Science and Trade Institute
Caldari State
#15 - 2013-02-01 14:59:40 UTC
Alx Warlord wrote:
Hakan MacTrew wrote:
I have always view BPO's as a proprietary licensable product.

OP, you are correct that a piece of paper would.be totally obsolete, but much like today where music, films, games and so much more data is pirated over the internet, the only way to ensure that your intellectual property does nor suffer the same fate would ne an heavily encrypted hard copy.

Other issues I see with your plan revolve around the 'injection' process. Can you trade a skill once you have learned it? Can your friends use it while you aren't? But these are things that are done with BPOs.

What happens to corp BPO vaults? What about people using multiple industry alts for production? Your idea removes much of the versatility of the current system and over complicates it.

The current system is fine.

(And ALL things should have the potential to be lost in EvE.)


As stated above, everything is copied today, and i'm not talking about music or digital media, i'm talking about products without license. Even a Ferrari can be copied if you want, and it is not a encrypted had copy that will prevent that...

Can you trade real life skills once you have learned it? no, what you can do is try to teach to someone else, and then these people would develop their own skills... Even between factories, or they move engineers from an older factory to set up a new one, or the new factory have a hard time to get to work...

The corp BPO vault would still exist, storing DP copies and some Licenses...

The current system is unreal... And have allot of drawbacks... preventing industrial players to move to more dangerous space...
Only material things should be lost on eve.

Of course, you can copy a Ferrari, but by the time you have duplicated all the parts, down tot he nuts and bolts, it woulod have been cheaper to buy one in the first place. Also, when you tried to sell it you would get sued into the stone age.
And you are talking about digital media, you directly referenced it in your OP. My point about the 'copyright' is that the manufacturer of the design uses it to gain profit. The point of BPO's is that they ARE the license, not just the details for construction of the item they are for. Thats is why a copy has a 'Licensed Number of Runs' on it. Technology has come full circle:
Data is purely physical.
Digital media allows data to become digital.
Methods of transfering data allow digital media to be copied without license.
Encryption protects media from illegal copying.
Encryption is broken, leaving data vulnerable once more.
Continuous efforts to create ever greater levels of encryption to protect media from illegal copying.
Encryption is continually broken, leaving that form of protection obsolete.
Only way to prevent pirate copying is hard copies using proprietary technology.

In the words of Pearl Jam; "It's evolution, baby!"

With your idea in place, there would be no way for anyone to research BPO's and then sell it on, it would all be copies. You could not transfer a BPO to a friend who has a POS and is willing to research it on your behalf. You could not give that BPO to a corp mate to bang out multiple runs for a said amount of time. It would all rely on copies and licenses.

BPO's preventing people moving production out to null because they don't want to lose them is ridiculous. When the Venture BPO was released, I was already docked up in an ORE station out in null. I bought enough copies for my friends, myself and a few for sale in Jita too. I came back through some pretty big gate camps. But guess what, no problem. I wish I had just fitted a Tengu for it, it would have been quicker than using a nano fit SB. It's really not an issue if you use a little caution. If you going to afk it, thats your own dumb fault, as the amount of unfitted T1 frigs and rookie ships full of BPO's on killboards prove.

As TheSkeptic said: If it ain't broke...

BPO's are not broken, they do not need fixing.
Alx Warlord
The Scope
Gallente Federation
#16 - 2013-02-01 15:52:04 UTC
Hakan MacTrew wrote:

Of course, you can copy a Ferrari, but by the time you have duplicated all the parts, down tot he nuts and bolts, it woulod have been cheaper to buy one in the first place. Also, when you tried to sell it you would get sued into the stone age.


As it should be in EVE... Since Ferrari have the ME and PE researched and also the unlimited license to produce.
If someone try to copy, them would end up wasting more material then it should and wasting more time then it should.

Hakan MacTrew wrote:

And you are talking about digital media, you directly referenced it in your OP. My point about the 'copyright' is that the manufacturer of the design uses it to gain profit. The point of BPO's is that they ARE the license, not just the details for construction of the item they are for. Thats is why a copy has a 'Licensed Number of Runs' on it. Technology has come full circle:
Data is purely physical.
Digital media allows data to become digital.
Methods of transfering data allow digital media to be copied without license.
Encryption protects media from illegal copying.
Encryption is broken, leaving data vulnerable once more.
Continuous efforts to create ever greater levels of encryption to protect media from illegal copying.
Encryption is continually broken, leaving that form of protection obsolete.
Only way to prevent pirate copying is hard copies using proprietary technology.

In the words of Pearl Jam; "It's evolution, baby!"


That is exactly the issue, you can't prevent a product to be illegally copied, since even a first year engineering student can make a reverse engineering on a product and obtain it's "CAD"... If you have the product you can make a "blueprint" of it. It is useless to protect so much a information that the user will see in the finished product...


Hakan MacTrew wrote:

With your idea in place, there would be no way for anyone to research BPO's and then sell it on, it would all be copies. You could not transfer a BPO to a friend who has a POS and is willing to research it on your behalf. You could not give that BPO to a corp mate to bang out multiple runs for a said amount of time. It would all rely on copies and licenses.


Don't this make sense? No one can study for you, why should it be possible in eve?
You could Use his POS to study, why not? Go there and use a Lab Slot.
Why would you need someone to build things for you? if you can do it by yourself?


Hakan MacTrew wrote:

BPO's preventing people moving production out to null because they don't want to lose them is ridiculous. When the Venture BPO was released, I was already docked up in an ORE station out in null. I bought enough copies for my friends, myself and a few for sale in Jita too. I came back through some pretty big gate camps. But guess what, no problem. I wish I had just fitted a Tengu for it, it would have been quicker than using a nano fit SB. It's really not an issue if you use a little caution. If you going to afk it, thats your own dumb fault, as the amount of unfitted T1 frigs and rookie ships full of BPO's on killboards prove.

As TheSkeptic said: If it ain't broke...

BPO's are not broken, they do not need fixing.


It is not that ridiculous... you are talking about a couple of milions, I have friends that have a couple of trilions in BPO also T2 BPOs and Titans BPO... Outpost BPO... ... They would never take a Full trained "perfect" BPO out of the station in hi-sec. This is how the big industrial players play... they have other chars for fun, and take their industry operation like a real corporation...

I agree with you, it is one of the first things I said... It is a feature that have more then 10 Years and still work. but it could use a update, becouse it if far from something logically acceptable in real life... Well... I'm an Engineer.. that is my point of view...
Nevyn Auscent
Broke Sauce
#17 - 2013-02-01 20:35:57 UTC
Ignoring how the current mechanics are intended for game balance....

Lets take your assumption of everything being Digital.
Given the nature of Eve, it can be reasonably assumed that there is not a 'cloud' server across the whole of New Eden. Due to how vulnerable that sort of thing would be to piracy. Or viruses wiping your entire database would be common.

So in order to prevent this kind of easy Virus wipe, plans for industrialists are stored on hard coded chips. These chips are known as BPO's. The manufacture of BPO's is tightly controlled by the goverments, & even the pirate organisations keep a very tight lid on the process. And none of them want capsuleers to ever have the technology as it removes a balance on capsuleers. Hence why we can't make BPO's. Only use them.
If you have a hard coded chip, you can append some additional data onto it in a softer coded area. Non flashable SSD drive as example. So once writen becomes permanent. This is your research.
Once you have a hard code chip, there also exists a duplication process, which makes a soft code chip that is only good for so many reads before the data may begin to corrupt. The larger the information, the smaller the number of reads that can be made obviously, hence why Titan BPC's are few runs than T1 small guns.

Hey presto, one possible explanation for the current system, that doesn't involve any recoding work, yet still keeps a Sci Fi explanation for it all.
Alx Warlord
The Scope
Gallente Federation
#18 - 2013-02-02 12:35:12 UTC  |  Edited by: Alx Warlord
Nevyn Auscent wrote:
Ignoring how the current mechanics are intended for game balance....

Lets take your assumption of everything being Digital.
Given the nature of Eve, it can be reasonably assumed that there is not a 'cloud' server across the whole of New Eden. Due to how vulnerable that sort of thing would be to piracy. Or viruses wiping your entire database would be common.

So in order to prevent this kind of easy Virus wipe, plans for industrialists are stored on hard coded chips. These chips are known as BPO's. The manufacture of BPO's is tightly controlled by the goverments, & even the pirate organisations keep a very tight lid on the process. And none of them want capsuleers to ever have the technology as it removes a balance on capsuleers. Hence why we can't make BPO's. Only use them.
If you have a hard coded chip, you can append some additional data onto it in a softer coded area. Non flashable SSD drive as example. So once writen becomes permanent. This is your research.
Once you have a hard code chip, there also exists a duplication process, which makes a soft code chip that is only good for so many reads before the data may begin to corrupt. The larger the information, the smaller the number of reads that can be made obviously, hence why Titan BPC's are few runs than T1 small guns.

Hey presto, one possible explanation for the current system, that doesn't involve any recoding work, yet still keeps a Sci Fi explanation for it all.


If you read some histories of eve, you would see that there are encrypted transmissions broadcast trough FTL transmission systems....

To have a local copy of some information in a station would not necessary need that these information's were in a "Ultra high so much encrypted that not even you can read copy" to keep it safe, just leave at your captains quarters... this is a poor explanation...

The system I'm proposing changes almost nothing the balance of the game or the assets value... it just fix the problem that CCP is trying to fix... the industry staying in hi-sec and don't moving to the rest of the game....
... and the flying with blue pieces of paper...
Danika Princip
GoonWaffe
Goonswarm Federation
#19 - 2013-02-02 17:54:08 UTC
So the complete and total removal of even the concept of blueprint loss or theft is not a major change?
Alx Warlord
The Scope
Gallente Federation
#20 - 2013-02-03 23:27:08 UTC  |  Edited by: Alx Warlord
Danika Princip wrote:
So the complete and total removal of even the concept of blueprint loss or theft is not a major change?


Well, it is a change that would not take a long time to code... don't need fancy graphics... it is mainly a Database work...

But yes... there would be a removal of the possibility to "steal or destroy" blueprints, mainly those that NOW stays locked in stations... but the unused blueprints, and principally the unused licenses would still drop. Where the biggest trade value is.
People that sells T2 BPC today or sell capital ships BPCs would still face the same probability to get ganked tryng to move anf sell the Licenses