Player Features and Ideas Discussion

I must have missed something, as I never noticed any wormhole dweller express envy towards null having local.

Local will never be delayed or removed as Bots rely on local and CCP rely on bots to pay there weekly staff wages. Asking to remove local is like asking a CCP employee to swim the channel when he is barely managing to keep himself from drowning in a puddle.

Yes local is dumb and yes supporting IS boxer and botting is dumb long term but all CCP has been doing for the last 3 years is treading water and trying to survive on a weekly basis. Removing the lifeline that is botting and ISboxer would see eve die in days. Stop whining and go get yourself a bot.

Local has been around as long as I can remember, and my first character was made sometime in the first year.


However, I am all for replacing local with a /who chat command that lists all pilots in the chat log rather than the visible display we have now. No instant standings, just links to profiles so you have to check.

That would come with intelligent and sensible tools for information though, like an actual persistant scanner, proximity warnings, and customizable alerts for specific pilots, ships, ship types, etc.

These are quasi-sentient ai driven ships.... A bit of automation on repetitious tasks is reasonable.

I would specify that presence in the chat roster be voluntary.
If you choose to opt out of being seen in it, you cannot poll it for a current member list either.

As for intel tools, I would most definitely recommend that it be possible to convert effort into intel on all levels.
As such, it should be possible between ECM and cloaks to apply effort to disrupt intel.

A cloak would conceal an object, while an ECM device would be very obvious while blinding sensors to everything else under specific conditions.

We're in space. Hunting for targets should be more involved and rewarding than just poking your head in a room and glancing at a list.

An example where the residents are satisfied with the mechanic's absence has value, especially to a discussion about another area where the residents are not all happy about the same mechanic being present.

We perversely keep seeing fragments of ideas thrown out which would adapt the game to fit the mechanic, rather than try to make the game continuity flow along it's original path more smoothly.

I would suggest this is EVE, the space ship game, and not EVE, the chat channel with occasional space ships present as backdrops.

The amusing thing is that those opposed to local overlook the effort it already takes to make it the effective tool it is. Removing it in favor of a system that does the same thing after some upgrades won't satisfy them, because it prevents them from having total control over the initiative in combat, and thus those who don't wish to fight can get to safety. Most of them are only interested in killing targets that are not fit for combat, so they don't like that.

Highsec is a perfect example of exactly how useless local is with no effort spent on making it effective. Without the efforts of clearing and holding space, you have nothing. It's why people point out that high sec is in some ways more dangerous than null---it would be very expensive to lock down gates in high sec the same way you can in null because of concord.

I am all for removing local and replacing it with a set of tools that would be far more sensible, and ultimately useful. Persistent scanners and proximity alerts would change the way the game is played in wormholes as well, or at least make them less annoying with clicking the thrice bedamned Dscan constantly.

Certainly there should be more skill and fitting required, as well as a random element to hiding or hunting a ship. No ship should ever be 100% hidden, nor should a ship be 100% guaranteed to find another within a given time frame.

No, I don't think it's too much of a blanket statement at all.

If local vanished tomorrow, and was replaced shortly after the downtime the next day by brand new SOV structures and ship scanners that had the same net effect, those that complain about local would simply change the header on their letters of complaint.

At no time is it reasonable to say that the intel of someone being within warp range of your ship (in system) should require a button to be pressed to update a list every 5 seconds. That's what D-Scan is. There has not been a more ******** game mechanic ever introduced in the age of computers than this. When this system was implemented in real life it performed it's sweeps and gave notice on contacts automatically on the first day. No radar tech had to sit there and press a button every 5 seconds.

How much intel is given by that contact should be determined by skill and equipment. That's what the operator does, he reads what the equipment is telling him. This is highly developed tech on a spaceship, not a hamster wheel.

The fact is that a basic level of intel should be available as a default at all times without the need to bleed for it. Local currently provides that function. Perhaps it should not do so as completely as it does, but some mechanism should be in place that gives at least a count of ships in system.

I don't think the local list itself should be the tool, but a tool that does the same should exist. I can accept stealth tech that defeats it up to a point, but only up to a point, and that tech should be detectable by others putting forth the effort to find them, down to the point of random chance deciding the point between those of equal or maxxed skills--- you can sneak, but only to a point and only so long if you have active seekers.

Define effort.

I hear a lot of stuff about local being free, but I have my doubts that any system that was actually useful that does not involve self mutilation would suffice.

Fact is, local is entirely reasonable with the tech level involved. We use no-fly lists and cross referencing databases now. The only thing local is doing wrong is assuming either a faultless scanning system or that you are broadcasting a legit IFF code into the system. You should not be able to hide your presence within a solar system, though your name and ship type might should require someone to come take a look or at least send some probes.

Nullsec had local because even though concord isnt there and all, they still watch what goes on and thus a local exist and has existed long before wormhole space ever did. Dont like having a delayed local in W-space? than leave it.

A reasonable response...

Except what is a reasonable amount of effort? Is it training the proper skill (a one time investment of time, but hardly insurmountable)?, Is it proper fitting of the ship (now superglued into every PvE ship, or at least on one dedicated ship in a PvE fleet)? Some combination of the two? Maybe with SOV structures too?

Because if it involves the constant pressing of a button that should be automated to do what local does now, that system is unreasonable and will not fly. If it's anything less, people will cry that it's too powerful because cloaks are no longer immune to aggression, solo hunters will face more than helpless ships, and systems will be cleared of their afk camping cyno alts within hours of placing them.