Jita Park Speakers Corner

Introduction:

Now at the moment, CCPs attention is on 0.0 - and rightly so. I 100% believe that this is the area of the game that most needs immediate attention for any number of good reasons. However, once the work on 0.0 is well underway (I don't say "complete" because such a process is never completed) I also believe that there is a strong argument to be made for rethinking the basis on which hi-sec is structured.

The original conception of hi-sec was that it was a safe-ish starting area for new players to find their feet in, get an idea for how the game worked and find a group to join before they headed out to the "real game" in lo-sec and null. I personally followed this path, and I think it's still valid and I would unhesitatingly recommend it to new players today.

However the idea that hi-sec is only a starting area, and can be balanced and structered as such, is glaringly wrong. And in fact it has been wrong since at least 2005. Or when level 4 combat missions were introduced to hi-sec. Or when Jita first topped 300 in local. Take your pick, but the "Just a starter area" paradigm has been dead for at least 5 or 6 years, and it's time we accepted that and looked at why, and how the conditions in hi-sec should be adapated to this evident, incontrovertible truth.

The reasons people give for playing in hi-sec are varied, but many of them are valid and I think they should be considered and taken into account.

(1) The easiest: Genuine new players. Even the most bloodthirsty pirate will surely concede that new players in a game as complex as EVE will mostly need a relatively safe area to learn the interface, practice basic gameplay concepts, talk to other new players and experienced ones who have made it their profession to help and advise and genreally learn to undock without immediately self-destructing.

(2) "Casual" players. This actually covers a wide variety of playstyles and motivations. Many EVE players have busy lives and they need, above all else, convenience in their game play. People like these depend on well-stocked trade hubs where they can buy and fully fit a ship in one place, gameplay elements that can be fully experienced in under an hour and objectives that can be completed without requiring time-consuming multiplayer co-ordination. They're not necessarily inherently risk averse (although many are), it's just that they can't afford to spend very long chasing that risk and picking their fights. The co-ordination, time and effort it takes to replace and refit a ship is a major disincentive for them to move to lo-sec or null.

(3) "Independent" players. These are the people you see saying that they don't want to go to Nullsec because they don't want to be the "slave" of some "fat cat alliance leader". Now to someone like me, in an alliance composed of and led by people I consider my friends, this objection seems nonsensical, but many people have had less satisfactory experiences. So be it; de gustibus non est disputandum and all that.

(4) "Commercial" players. These guys are often highly skilled, highly experienced players, who make vast amounts of ISK in invention, research, industry. They operate in empire because the facilities are vastly superior to lo-sec and null (free concord protection, trade hubs, superior stations, many, many more stations, asset safety etc etc). They're not necessarily ideologically comitted to being in hi-sec, it's just a vastly more profitable area to operate.

(5) "Carebears". These are players - often with significant assets and skills - who simply won't accept the risk of losing a ship to PvP at any price, regardless of other considerations. Economic, gameplay and game balance considerations are not of interest to them; the idea that other players can destroy their ship is revolting to them.


So given that only a small fraction of hi-sec players are the kind of player that hi-sec was designed for, what needs to change and for whom?

Well for genuinely new players, not that much. Actual new players are acceptably well catered for IMO. Personally, I'd be in favour of reforming the 1.0 systems to be one per faction, with one station per starting NPC corp within that faction in each system, much stronger protective rules, but with the major change being that once you leave a 1.0, you can't come back in. But I'm not sure that this is an urgent requirement.

For the carebears, I honestly have no ideas. The psychology of being emotionally invested in your ship to such an extent that you won't accept losing it for any reason is so foreign to what I believe EVE is about that I can't think of a good way to integrate that lifestyle into a fully connected, single shard PvP game with a player driven economy. Let's just hope that there aren't really as many of these guys as we fear, and that most of the people in hi-sec aren't quite so risk averse as we're led to believe.

For the (relatively) experienced, high skillpoint players who have their own good reasons to be in hi-sec, I think there is a lot that could be done. At the moment, gameplay in hi-sec is pretty much homogenous, and cripplingly limited by the concept that it's supposed to be a starter area. Once we cast aside the "hi-sec is only for new players" limitation, huge vistas of opportunity open up for high-risk reward gameplay that's suitable for experienced players who still want the easy-access, convenient lifestyle of hi-sec. There is no good reason for hi-sec gameplay to only be safe, boring, and low-level. High-sec incursions are an excellent step in the right direction, but they don't go far enough, and they don't have the "convenience" or "PvP" factor that I'd like to see added to hi-sec.

So what should we have instead?

Malcanis for CSM7

(unironically)

See now this seems highly sensible!

I'd vote for you with a cyno account, v0v

There could be no higher compliment.

I've always assumed that I'm the only member of initiativeDOT who isn't a spy. The fig-leaf of legitimacy, as it were.

great post malc, i support

One might think it would be less effort than ploughing through suicide-gank whinethread #273, but I guess maybe not.

Extremlely constructive post Malcanis - +1

All of these points hold real merit. My pet thing at the moment though - If more isk is being introduced in hisec then some kind of inflation mechanic needs to be introduced to ensure that the ships/mods don't become too obtainable and are still a challange for the newer player.

By the way - I hold no grudge at you for kicking me out of RECON because you thought I was a spy...

In a general sense I like most of this, but I think a fundamental change that's needed is that almost all new resources and ISK be generated outside the protection of the all powerful Concord. That's mining, NPC bounties, mods, salvage, drone minerals, mission payouts. High Sec then becomes a place for processing, manufacturing, and trade. With additional training areas for brand new players including the lower level missions and Rats.

Then I think most of your ideas then need to be applied to the rest of space, Low Sec has needed attention for years, Null Sec mostly needs to lose Local, WH space seems to be doing well and would do way better with a High Sec Isk faucet nerf, NPC Null Sec should be NPC back story driven Null Sec instead of player sovereignty driven.

The only class of player described by you this doesn't cater to is the player that wants to guzzle at an ISK faucet with the PvP switch off, the so called "carebears", and like you I agree it isn't a legitimate approach to playing in a game like EVE that ought to be catered to in the first place.

So in brief this is what I would do:

* High Sec gets shrunk and becomes a place that only Manufacturers, Traders, and Newbies have any motivation to remain.
- Concorded ships void insurance in High Sec

* Low Sec gets expanded to say 0.5-0.8 Sec, but here is where your graded security levels are applied.
- Security rating not only effect the speed of response but also strength, from existing Concord down to a few navy cruisers to nothing in the lowest security space..
- Standings penalties for attacking a blue player varies considerably based on system security, 0.8 severe, 0.1 very minor.
- Some stations have greatly enhanced defenses making them near safe spots for those basing out of them
- People with really bad standing to NPCs including FW people can't dock at those particular stations and will be shot at.
- Red players will have to base out of stations without enhanced security.
- Make gate camps harder, by having ships jump in a much wider spread.
- Allow warp bubbles in the lower security areas so at least the jump out can be camped
- Move all high level missions and mining here from High Sec
- Change Local intel to a new player involved Adv Scanner system

* NPC Null Sec
- Stations have greatly enhanced defenses making them near safe spots for those basing out of them
- People with really bad standing to NPCs can't dock at those particular stations and will be shot at.
- Any Faction who's low level agents aren't available in High Sec, get some level 1 agents placed in space.
- Belt and Gate Rats won't aggres players with high standings unless attacked first.
- Make gate camps harder, by having ships jump in a much wider spread.
- Change Local intel to a new player involved Adv Scanner system

* Null Sec
- Change Local intel to a new player involved Adv Scanner system
- Make gate camps harder, by having ships jump in a much wider spread.


* WH Space No change.

War Decs and plenty of other stuff need improvement as well but I've typed enough in one post.