EVE General Discussion

You beat me to it.

Also I wake up every morning and brush my teeth and "Say hello to a strange" in the bathroom mirror. I hate that guy.

My impression is these changes are a first step along the way.

They're keeping SOMETHINGS consistent which fall short of the "Ice as Oil" concept.

#1 location of Ice is staying consistent
#2 Deposits of ice in those locations are changing somewhat however, (not in one location constantly, but in various exploration sites around the system)

I'm going to strike your list of Oil Resources and my perspective on them :

- Located in deposits varying in size/value that vary according to geological processes.
>> They aren't changing system, but the number of available ICE rocks spawning with ice are significantly reduced, and are changing locations in a system. I don't know how many ice sites there are, but my impression is there are a few types and they probably have a few different size Ice rocks.

- Distributed (according to geological processes) in a variety of places around the world.
>> This may change very easily in the future, at this point. CCP could decide with a flip of a few switches to make them open in many more systems in a much more "random" pattern. This would make hustling for ice a much different profession.

- New deposits have to be discovered and then exploited.
Really, my comment for this is wrapped into Points #1 and #2.


- Widely used
Ice is used in a lot of POS' all over the place. And for Jump Freighting. I agree to some degree that the distribution of ice consumption could be moved around. POS' could use less fuel, and capital ships could be forced to use more fuel for transportation. This would make it a lot more dependent for logistics. I don't know if this is a good move anyways at the moment. Maybe the manufacturing of ships can be adjusted to use ICE as part of the "fusion/fission" drives that they use. An Antimatter reactor unit without any "atomic" matter? CCP could add that easily, and then it becomes a much more demand based resource in a way.

- Essential for international shipping of people, goods and resources. (Importantly food.)
If oil ran out they would just make super-barges running on nuclear power plants. ;p scary thought, but there wouldn't be another choice really. I think this argument isn't very strong indication of comparison.


- Deposits are finite.
This would be an interesting decision on CCP's part. But, then again, ICE is water. EVEs cultures have a tendency of a "**** and pillage" the universe philosophy because the EVE universe is so stupidly rich in resources. They pillage technology, etc, etc. Almost no serious technology of EVE has ever been attributed to much more than just "ya, we stole this from a dead culture". Only exception may be the MicroJumpDrive, but even that used some ridiculous super drug to make it possible.

So, I think this is a transition phase. Adjusting a few of these factors would be fascinating.

Your point about "Not all fuel is the same cost" applies to ICE.

Not all ICE is going to be mined in High Sec of the same value. Null Sec ICE is going to be more expensive to gather, given costs of ship losses, etc.

I think you bring up good points for thought, I also think that it's good for CCP to see these ideas and how they can bring it one step closer to being a geo-political resource moving forward. If ICE shifted in the various regions much like T2 has been proposed it should do... you'd see an interesting dynamic appear as certain regions became more "Ice Rich" and might indicate more of a war to take, or stealth missions to steal that vital fuel from our oppositions.

In other words... Ice Pirates!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087451/

*SHUDDER* Which means Space Herpes...