CSM Campaigns

I am a complete stranger to Sugar, but she has listened to me and helped me. She is able to listen to reason or show you why she disaggrees. If you want to fix FW, present her with a solution that considers both sides. Whatever the solution is, she will not take it lightly. She has also answered my questions or helped me find the answer.

I live in a wormhole, but I'm voting for her because she cares about the game and the people in it. If you don't vote for her because you disagree with her stance on an issue, you will be making a mistake. She will help make this game better, and not just for jaguar pilots, triage pilots, JF pilots, ... Just realize how long it would take to write out all the hats she has worn in this game.

I see things got busy while I was at work. I will start here considering the direction the thread wandered during the day.



When I first decided to take the plunge to run for CSM it was because I was standing on the side lines waiting for that perfect candidate who knows all and has done all to step forward to represent the space that they lived in and loved. I expected that candidate to come forward with energy and enthusiasm, ready to weather the positives and negatives with a goal of having a representative for low sec on the CSM to whom I could discuss my complaints, hopes, and wants.

Last year that never materialized. This year, with Fanfest approaching, I had not yet heard a low sec representative step forward. I believe in going for what you want and that meant that I needed to step forward and attempt to accomplish what I think is needed.

That is why I am here. Not famous, two years into the game, and not an expert on every area. Yet here I am anyway saying, "I am here to try to make this happen." I stand here under the eye of people who have more experience than I do because I want to represent low sec and the players that reside here.

I will not have all of the answers. I have not done everything in Eve or everything in low sec. I am willing to listen, to respond, to gather it up and take it forward as my agenda. My thoughts and ideas are not the only ones out there. My solutions and fixes are not the only ones that need to be heard. It is about electing an individual with the passion and motivation to do the work to get the communities’ voices placed before CCP.

There have been many questions asked already. I will go through and answer them one by one. But as I give my thoughts I will also ask "What is your solution? What are your ideas?" I want to hear them. I want to hear not just what is disliked but ideas to fix them. They need to be voiced and discussed and gone over because they are questions, ideas, and issues that deserve to be addressed.

In this thread I see a reflection of the options, choices, and people that make up low sec. It is nice to see the passion and desire already exhibited for low sec and low sec representation. It is obvious that there is a need for a low sec representative. I never thought that it would be an easy path. It is one worth pursuing.

I realized that I’d need to go from reading and hypothesizing about Faction Warfare to going out and doing it. Thus my newly minted Faction Warfare alt who also allowed me to touch up on the current state of the Tutorials before I enrolled into the militia to get a feel for the mechanics. I will not be able to duplicate years of life in Faction Warfare. Nor am I in a corporation that will be able to drop what you would consider a large capital fleet. Yet, we do and have one that we drop (and sometimes lose). In both areas there are other people who have done these things. They are out there, as you have mentioned. They may not wish to run for the CSM but that does not mean they are not a resource for me to reach out to and learn from. One to ask questions of and receive advice from.

Thank you for taking the time to read and respond.

Now, I'm going to start working through the questions.

Sugar is a good enough candidate for me. She has a nice reputation and good influence in New Eden which is a really good start. She might not posses whole lowsec knowledge but that is what is this thread for, to suggest and discuss changes. Until the allmighty lowsec candidate steps for the candidature i ll cast my vote for Sugar.

The lowsec group can make monthly meetings on skype, TS whatever and gather all kind of experts of all areas to propose some changes. One month it could be FW, another industry, small scale PvP, caps PVP, missions exploration.

Points on which i will push the most for sure will be:

- Regions out of FW in lowsec should be distinctive by resources btw each other. Some should have great asteroids, some should be best missions hubs, some higher gas sites spawn rate, some should have really good stations (industry, lesser clone cost, science, cheaper repair costs) etc. All kind of differentiation are possible.
- FW plexes should not be doable with non fitted or half fitted ships. No more cloaked, stabbed orbiting. Lv 3 and 4 FW missions should not be doable in bombers.
- Lv 5 missions should have better rewards
- All lowgrade sets should be obtainable only trough missions in lowsec or lowsec exploration.
- Jump freighters should not jump trough cyno in and out of lowsec.
- Better rewards for lowsec incursions
- Minus security status to meter. Preferabley with some distinctive mechanics which should interact with FW.

These changes are vital for revitalizing lowsec, every single one.

Force projection is another very important thing that should be addressed. The actual mechanics don't allow any smaller group to evolve in lowsec. Smaller groups can't attack POCOs or take moons or even make a small roam in their damn space. Force projection allows stronger groups to be everywhere anytime and like that it suffocates smaller entities that could evolve in something more meaningful in lowsec.

POSs and passive income should b revisited.

Most of all, Lowsec needs to get its identity. It needs to stop to be percieved as a transition btw highsec and nullsec. In my opinion lowsec needs to be solo and small-medium scale heaven. It needs to be an ideal environment for smaller, weaker groups to get their footholds and evolve. Carebears especially industry one (those that don't want to bother with sov) should have their eyes sparkling and their body thrembling only of the mention of lowsec. It should be a neverending circle btw militia, outlaws and smaller entities in search of a better tomorrow.

What the CSM isn't:

• The Council of Stellar Management doesn’t have any power to make CCP do anything. Anyone who asks for your vote, saying that they’ll make a change if elected, is at best misguided.
• The CSM are not all elected by the large alliances out in Null-sec. They tend to get a reasonable percentage of candidates elected, but that’s due to the number of people voting.
• The CSM have to actually do work. Not just a free trip to Iceland.

What the CSM actually is:

• The CSM are a lobbying body, who have the chance to bring concerns to CCP developers.
• The CSM act as a sounding board for ideas from CCP, before the general player base get to hear about them. A first pass filter.

It's worth getting their opinion on that they'd change, so you have an idea what they think for how they'll react to what CCP brings them. But again, anyone that says 'I'll change this if elected' doesn't know what they're talking about. The best they can do is ask.

PvP does currently make ISK. Just not raw ISK injected into the game. Looting the field brings goods. I have not purchased basic modules in a long, long time. I have more than one ship almost fully fit from the losses of others. We are very wasteful in PvP. We leave drones everywhere. Grids are left unlooted after battles.

It is time for CCP reevaluate bounty payouts. They have been in the game for two expansions. It is time for them to be looked at. Similarly, there are other features asked for and wanted from the bounty system. DIrect payments for instance. Give people a reason to hunt outlaws down.

I'd like them to put in a system where anti-pirates could ally with Concord at the penalty of being in a war dec with outlaws meaning they got rewards but lost gate/station guns for it. Maybe it would be a way to bring back Concord standings. And on its reverse outlaws could work for pirate factions. After all, space is infested with pirates and Concord has been unable to keep them out.

What if the loot drop percentage from a player wreck escalated the lower the security of space went? Or if salvage from a player wreck was improved in general? We add rigs and modules to our ships to improve them from their base stats.

I do not think that injected ISK for a ship explosion and nothing else is the right path. Looting the field. Salvaging the wrecks. Collecting bounties. Those should all be part of the process. If people want to fight just to fight that is their call. That is their resources to burn and their enjoyment to have.



I do not have a solution. That would imply that I believe that I can just answer this question and solve a major balancing issue. I have, however, seen suggestions that sound interesting, such as pilots having activity standings and their LP payouts mirroring how active they are in combat to improve their LP gains from combat.

Following this idea, is there a potential to expanded this to plexes? For instance, if a farmer was never active in PvP his LP from plexing would be lower. If he were active in PvP let’s say that his plexing would be the same when he farmed. Would his farming still be distasteful if he chose to leave instead of fight in the plexes even though he fought elsewhere?



The case of the cloaky, stabbed farmer covers several areas. Stabilizers are an interesting problem. They are used outside of faction warfare. If the module is nerfed to limit them to one per ship that will have a ripple effect that expands outside of faction warfare. Stabilizers have been around for a long time but that does not mean that they are in the best spot that they can be. Everything is up for rebalance but this particular module needs to be discussed sooner rather than later.

In the discussion of stabilizers the player base is saying that the benefits of stabilizers overwhelm the negatives of stabilizers and that it is a major focus that needs to be brought CCPs doorstep. It does not matter what I think (stabilizers annoy me) it matters that this is a problem the player base is having with a game mechanic and it needs to be brought forward. Increasing their cost of use is one of the first steps as are stacking penalties.

The current ESS mechanic handles this in an interesting way with an area of effect sphere. I am not looking to introduce warp bubbles. To borrow from the area of effect::

The area that the ship plexing had to be in did not allow cloaking with a large enough roll over radius to not allow an orbit at the exact minimum edge of capturing the beacon. The removal of cloaks for the plexers will also remove cloaks for those who like to lay in wait for them. A net nerf to cloaks to stop plexers from cloaking in the site is a net nerf to recons, covops, and the new SoE ships inside of them as well.

I have been meaning to ask Sugar what she thinks of one idea about force projection.
http://marlonasky.wordpress.com/2014/02/11/cancers-of-eve-online-teleportation/

I don't think running a market needs to be any more difficult or frustrating, but what do you think about a regenerative light year pool Sugar?

Thank you. I will read through them all.

Hi, Doom

I understand that you have not heard of me. Part of this path is trying to be seen so that people can decide if I am a candidate that they wish to have on their ballet.

I don’t think you are asking for an infestation of stabbed, cloaky t1 cruisers. :)

I believe that this references back to the question of stabbed, cloaky T1 frigates in faction warfare space. I offered up some ideas to Niden about the function of the complexes that causes people to pick the stabbed, cloaky T1 frigate. While people can make an excellent income in cloaky, stabbed T1 frigates there will not be a reason for them to fly larger hulls.


Edited to add:
Bedtime for now. I will continue to work through these tomorrow.

copypasta of my post from another thread:

the solution isn't to limit what players can do [mod nerfs in plex], this is hamfisted and bad

There are two problems with FW plexing. The first is that 'running and hiding' is actually more effective and profitable than 'staying and fighting' which is what FW is all about. Anyone who claims plexes aren't supposed to facilitate PVP is wrong. If the best option is 'bore the other guy into leaving so I can keep making money' there's something wrong with the system. FW is about PVP and the game should be about having fun. Not staring at a Condor orbiting a button or watching some bear warp between safes.

The second problem is that solo plexing is always more desirable efficiency-wise than plexing with a friend. Anyone looking to hunt plexers for warzone reasons or killmails rather than 'solo goodfites' will bring two or more people. So the plexer will prefer to be solo due to mechanics and hunters will prefer bringing a friend. (Although I aware most of us have been on plexing fleets where we all jump in different plexes in the same system)

The problems are linked. Mechanically-induced solo plexing means 'running and hiding' is the better choice more often.

I don't know if CCP sees FW as newbie-friendly or something, but I sure hope those newbies are having a great time orbiting buttons for fifteen minutes, warping out and cloaking up, or watching other plexers do the same. Such entertaining gameplay is sure to impress them

So we need two solutions. The first is to make 'staying and fighting' more desirable than 'running and hiding'. I actually have no problem with people who don't want to fight... but they don't deserve more reward than people who'll defend their plex. And assuming fights have a 50/50 chance of you losing, you're worse off fighting for the plex. Besides, who in Gallente militia wants to attack and take a plex that some Caldari guy ran down to one minute? They'll have to win a fight then sit in a plex twice as long for the same reward.

Honestly? As it is, if you're looking to make LP, fighting for plexes is stupid.

So yeah, make 'staying and fighting' more desirable than 'running and hiding', keeping 'running and hiding' an option. More options is always good, as long as the best option facilitates fun gameplay. The player should be able to say to themselves "If I stay, fight and win half the time, I'll be making more LP than running all the time". I think the answer is timer rollbacks. No friendly militia in the plex, the timer runs back down to zero. Maybe if there's an enemy in the plex, the timer runs up twice as fast until it reaches halfway, then runs down at the normal pace. Maybe the timer should reset to zero? Whatever it is, cloaking or running from the complex should hurt your bottom line.

The idea for the second problem is to ensure that solo plexing is most desirable, but that plexing in a team is not completely undesirable. Obviously the solo plexer should be getting the better deal because they're less safe. And at the same time, you don't want to make blobbing a way to win the 'plexing for LP' game. I think that having more players inside should run down the timer a little faster with diminishing returns for each additional player. Two pilots could run down the timer at 1.15 timed seconds per real second, three pilots 1.25. (probably the actual number should be a little higher than that but you get the point)