CSM Campaigns

The 'Carebear' issue
There's definitely people that want to see highsec made safer, and for it to become an area where players can safely generate wealth, sometimes even totally AFK, that they can either hoard or use in fights in lowsec or nullsec. I utterly reject this idea.

These 'carebears' claim that they mind their own business. This isn't true. A multiboxer running 10 Skiffs stripping asteroid belts floods the market, undermining the ability of regular miners to generate income. A mission blitzer running Sisters missions in safety in their shiny Paladin directly harms the value of every other player's Sisters probe launchers. And an incursion farmer pumps tens of billions of ISK into the economy each month, increasing the PLEX to ISK conversion ratio and devaluing the CONCORD LPs owned by other players.

These actions are every bit as much a form of PVP as shooting someone's spaceship.

I want to see players able to set the level of risk they are comfortable with within some limits, and obtain very low rewards for putting low value assets at low risk, medium rewards for putting high value assets into low risk situations or low value assets into high risk situations, and high rewards for (sensibly) putting high value assets at high risk.

I would strongly advocate rebalancing those parts of EVE that provide high income at minimal risk. Sometimes I would advocate direct nerfs (for example, to the liquid ISK paid out for incursion sites) and other times I would favor indirect nerfs (for example, providing more Sisters level 4 mission agents in lowsec and introducing level 5 ones).

In addition I would lobby for in-game rewards for highsec miners to join player corporations of at least a few people, and actively defend themselves from any predators that come after them – or to outsource this protection work to others. Presently miners are encouraged strongly by game mechanics to remain in NPC corps or to form one player corporations; changing this will generate conflict, opportunity, destruction and excitement.

A series of changes over the last few years to highsec combat mechanics – from the increases to wardec fees in Inferno, to the replacement of 'can flipping' with the much harsher suspect flag, the banning of the 'Boomerang' strategy, removal of insurance on CONCORDOOKEN losses and the tolerance by CCP of wardec avoidance (which was once declared an exploit) have made ‘carebears’ safer and made it harder for new players to have the sorts of experiences that broke me from the “level up your Dominix until you quit EVE” path.

The thing that has kept highsec competitive gameplay alive has been the increasing organisation and seriousness of our community. It's a problem that this is necessary, as it adds a barrier to entry for rookie gankers, mission invaders and wardeccers.

The 50 million ISK minimum fee to carry out a wardec is one of the most destructive of these changes, as it forces wardeccers to band together into large alliances to reduce costs. Small groups of newbies should be able to experiment with wardeccing more cheaply, rather than having to join a larger group like CODE., Marmites or the like.



New Players

I want to ensure new players – both trial accounts and subscribers – are exposed to what makes EVE great, not just to level 2 and 3 security missions.

The first half of the ship Tiericide initiative was a mixed bag – it made new players more powerful in PVP engagements in frigates and cruisers (a positive), but it also increased cruiser build cost significantly and made it much more crippling for a new player to lose a ship. This is a significant issue – when I was a rookie, a Vexor cost 6 million ISK, or about 3 hours of running level 2 missions with low skills and little game knowledge. Now it’s 11 million, or about 5 hours, despite the mineral price index being about the same.

I want to see changes that soften the blow of losing a ship for rookies, so that rookies get into the mindset of seeing ships as consumables early in their career.

Whether elected or not, I intend to make a series of video tutorials oriented at rookies explaining things like the basics of tracking and why this makes small ships more than just a stepping stone toward larger ships; basic fitting and the various effective types of tanks; refitting ships for specific purposes; avoiding predators in highsec and lowsec; and suggestions for skill training.
I also intend to include advice on getting into predatory play as a newbie.

Most of all, I want to teach new players that they can be effective in the game *right now*. This isn’t World of Warcraft where you need to get to 2 or 3 levels below the level cap before you can even scratch a veteran player. I have known new players that have destroyed missioning battleships solo before their character has a quarter million skillpoints, and two hour old characters that have earned ransoms of a quarter billion ISK.

Here's my candidate interview with Cap Stable podcast. http://capstable.net/2015/01/21/sabriz-adoudel/


On December 8th, I hosted an informal chat with a few people about questions related to wardecs. This isn't edited but may interest some people. Everyone involved in the discussion was 100% fine with being recorded, and the participants were 3 people in the New Order community and one person that considers themselves 'neutral'.

It gets off topic after about 27 minutes but may still interest people.

https://soundcloud.com/sabriz-adoudel/wardecs



Summary:

- There should be more incentives for corporations that don't see themselves as PVP corps to actively defend against a predatory wardec.
- The price to initiate a wardec should scale with the size of the aggressor entity, not the size of the defender entity.
- Defender entities should receive incentives for inflicting damage upon their aggressors, similar to bounties.
- Defender entities need more resources on what wardecs mean, including advice on how to resist them. They have the option of laying low, moving their operations or fighting back, and those options should be explained better to them.
- We get off topic and start talking about gate and station guns, NPSI roams with newbies, newbie income streams, the cost of getting your feet wet into PVP as a newbie

I also realised that I wasn't recording when talking about unilateral surrender conditions, which I support existing in some form.


On December 20th, I hosted an 'Ask Me Anything' that attracted a couple of what I'd term 'competitive carebears' (i.e. people that generally seek to avoid starship combat but that recognise that the other carebears are their rivals, not their brethren). It can be found here: https://soundcloud.com/sabriz-adoudel/qanda

Oh cool.

I'm with ya.

may seem a bit silly but there are 2 sides to the coin of the position you put forth. I wonder if you could perhaps provide some clarification?

You spend a lot of time talking about care bears and risk versus reward. While I do tend to agree with you that the rewards of high sec are in some was disproportionately high when compared to the risk's of highsec straight up nerfs often tend to be a poor method of changing the balance, though in some cases necessary. I have seen CCP with the nerf hammer before, they often hit far to hard, and miss the true problems. It would be a bit of a shame to see the robust incursion communities die when the nerf hammer hits much like it contracted significantly before. I remember after years off null sec taking a break to run some incursions and it being a breath fresh air that reinvigorated me and many in my corp in the game due mostly to its unique mechanics and community.

You speak prominently of the issues surrounding war dec avoidance, cases of ISboxing/multiboxing and the plight of newer players and while this may be unfair your own alliance operates in some ways that is discouraging to newer pilots who operate in highsec. While granted the highsec freightor pilot who flies through udema is likely not the most intelligent individual or even particularly new the fact that he is often ganked with nothing in his cargohold suggests that maybe risk vs reward is in fact not very in balance in both directions.

Additionally along the same token, while 'carebears' are certainly guilty of wardec avoidance the same often apply to wardeccers who use a variety of mechanics to skirt the boundries of wardecs such as neutral repairs, boosts, scouts ect. I have heard that some of the wardec groups are even in agreement to not dec each other as that would introduce to much risk into their trade. Also to be considered is (correct me if im wrong) a wardec can be maintained particularly against a small entity pretty much indefinitely.

I know im takeing awhiel to get to the point, but the basis of the examples im providing is essentially how do you propose to balance both sides of the risk versus reward equation in highsec from the agressors point of view and the defenders point of view. As while I agree that isk generation in highsec is not particularly balanced neither is the PVP side.

Hope that was understandable, just found myself reading on here and decided to ask questions from the view of an outsider who does not have much involvement in highsec.

And my Gila!

Thank you for running for the CSM.

As a fellow Candidate, exploring High Sec issues, what do you think could be done to improve the lot of the War Deccing player?

Hi Sabriz,

Thanks for donning the cape of the PvP crusader.

Your manifesto was a thought-provoking read for me, and it wasn't long after I finished reading it that I realised why this and my other accounts will be supporting your candidacy for CSM 10.

EVE is about PvP. All of it. The division of the gameworld into Low, Null, WH and Highsec space is as irrelevant as it gets, because wherever you live, PvP is what the game is about. A candidate who not only realises that but also commits to preserving and extending it, gets my votes.

On a personal note, you have helped me with game mechanics and other questions I threw at you. I trust you, and your advice has never missed the mark. That James 315 included your 'Vexor Ganking' guide within his own article on ganking is proof-positive of the respect you've already garnered within our own community. Now you have the opportunity to represent the PvPers of the rest of New Eden and to bring to the CSM/CCP table your experience in other areas too (Wormhole life, for example).

I wish you success!

Finally, a candidate I feel strongly about supporting! Thank you for doing this Sabriz.


You have my Vote, my Support, and my Axe.. if we had axes.. which we don't.. but imagine we do.. and you have mine.


A vote for Sabriz Adoudel is a vote for keeping the true spirit of Eve Online alive.

o7

Is it voting season already?

You've convinced me to keep my second account subbed.

Oh this...makes me smile.