EVE General Discussion

Once NIPs are factored in the coalition map doesn't look so healthy.

That's not to say a lot more stuff isnt happening than before, but then it could hardly have got much worse. Plenty going on in the south nowadays, but nothing of note has happened in the north for years.

My hunch is that we still have the same number of actual players logging in, but with far fewer alts. A lot of people I know have been selling characters.

Problem is about getting sometimes to places where new groups can grow.
When new group sells itself to a larger organization at the beginning it will determine how they will grow later - more "blue" better.

In order to brake this thing, CCP must do some drastic changes to eve map.

1. New gate connections needs to be made to big NPC spaces that are missing them.
- So Venal / Stain even Ore sectors. New groups needs to have possibility to move in and make basic logistics.

2. More connections to Sov space all around the eve.
- Connecting some dead end pockets to NPC space will make stuff more interesting , and bigger groups will need to more focus on systems they really want to keep.

3. All systems containing NPC build stations within sov should become NPC systems - after the "citadel" changes those stations should be left alone.
- New players will have possibility to keep their assets secure. Without this , big blocks will just wait a week for a new group to move in and then just burn it to the ground.

4. Higsec agents in NPC null space. Standings for local pirate groups is usually wasted for new guys from higsec. It is better to do higsec missions than do belts. Only noobships people get for nothing. Rest cost isk.

5. First character on account should get predefined skill scheme , so new people can actually do something, rather than wait , and wait.
When person come to a game it is looking for fun NOW , not after 2-3 months of training.

Additionally this game is making more and more expensive.
When i started to play eve battleship hull was from 60-80mil.
Every where people where using T1 battle cruiser hulls , usually drakes , that where cheaper from battleships.
You could lose 5-6 fleet ships and could close your looses easily below 100mil.

Now , T2 on a battlefield is a must.
Battleship cost 160-240mil , and meta have shifted heavily to the more expensive faction versions.

Currently loosing a ship cost you around 150mil.
How new guys can overcome this barrier without extensive farming.

I really miss times when loosing 10 ships one day could be closed within 200mil and not exceed 1bil.

Give us old battlecruisers , and brake neck of those raising prices.
Double or triple amount of minerals you get from mining so miners will not be harmed .

What you are forgetting here is that 'new guys' can make WAY more isk now than ever before.

When i started you couldn't jump in to faction warfare (it didn't exist yet) with a Stealth Bomber , Caracal or Drake and within a month have enough isk for a Plex and a Super Carrier. Hell, you couldn't even train for a battleships and tech2 guns for 3-4 months and do incursions (they didn't exist then). And you couldn't make a living in null with a cheap battlecruiser living in a system were anomalies respawned on demand (because before Dominion, there was no such thing).

When i started you were lucky to make it into a null corp for the 'pleasure' of sometimes getting to belt rat or do the odd 'naturally spawning' anomaly in null, which other than the buggy "high sec lvl 5 missions", the only way to make more than the 25-30 mil per hour a lvl 4 mission would pay if you knew what you were doing.

A friends of mine brought his work buddy into the game last year, and we guided him to train into a maelstrom. Hit fit it for incursions and got in with a couple incursion groups that didn't care that his was only a 4 month old character. He up graded from that Maelstrom to a Machariel in Three Days (he bought the mach before he could even fly it, he was still training the Gallente skills needed). It took me 3 months in 2008 to earn enough for my 1st Navy Raven playing every night lol.

Making more money means prices go up.

No it wouldn't, because people will document and publicise the exact actions and makeups of the new missions in a matter of days, just as they have done with every other mission in Eve. 3 or 4 months after introduction a majority of those returning missioners will have left again because the content has gotten stale.

You have to take into account the man hours that go into making those missions which could be better spent on fixing all of the stuff that's broken, which incidentally is exactly the course CCP have chosen to take.

Case in point, World of Warcraft. A lot of people who play WoW only play when there's new content to be consumed, then they stop playing until there's some more new content to be consumed.

I'd rather see CCP continue producing something different and turning it into a polished product than be like Blizzard constantly pumping out and charging for new content that is consumed voraciously for a short period and then rapidly becomes stale. Sure it can make a metric shitton of money but it is a self perpetuating cycle that has killed many a game and developer off.

Their game, their company, they can take any direction they please. Want more PvE? Go and play a game that concentrates on PvE rather than one which primarily concentrates on PvP where PvE is merely a means to an end.

Off the top off my head..

Key broadcasting and the like is no longer allowed, multiboxers aren't finding it as easy to make enough money to maintain multiple accounts as they could before.

Multiple character training, people no longer have to maintain multiple accounts to train multiple characters simultaneously.

Botters and the like are finding it increasingly hard to automate their money making, added to which CCP are actively hunting them down and banning them.

CCP knew that the above would result in a loss in subscribed accounts yet they went ahead anyway, they appear to be prepared to sacrifice subscribed accounts to provide better options for the majority of players without allowing the minority to game the system with unfair advantages provided by automation or key broadcasting.

I'm pretty sure they know what they're doing, they're not dumb. After all they've managed to keep Eve afloat for more than a decade, which is something of an accomplishment when you consider all of the MMOs that have been born and died during that time.

Your elephant is pink and on parade.

You yourself add a lot to this atmosphere.
Nothing good though.

You are exactly one of those wannabetoughguys.

"They" don't want more pve, EVE has plenty and most of it goes under utilized. What they want is for CCP to do for them what CCP has proven they aren't good at: they want to be told an interesting story, and be immersed in it. CCP isn't in the business of that, they are in the business of creating a backdrop in which you MAKE an interesting story that others can partake in. Other companies are WAY better at providing the kind of episodic content these types crave (I play Star Trek Online too and they have actual EPISODES, not to mention "the Foundry" that lets you create your own missions).

No, the fact that what they are looking for is available elsewhere AND the company that makes EVE has a very poor record when it comes to creating such "content" doesn't matter to them, because being realistic isn't a part of their make up.

They are literally like a Vegan who goes into a Steak House (and KNOWS it's a steak house because ti says STEAK HOUSE in huge letters outside, as if the smell of cooked beef wasn't enough of a clue) and then complains about all the dead cow being slung about the place... and why is there no Tofu options on the menu?

...Because it's a freaking STEAK HOUSE that's why. If they didn't like Steak (pvp) why in hell did they chose to walk into a Steak House (EVE Online)?

Temporary NAPs used to be ze thing, before formal alliances system, and even for a considerable period afterwards.

NAP in essence is a +10 standing to one-another, and with enough of these you have a... Coalition.

I need a nap, I'm sleepy.

PvE and PVP are not inherently separate things. Apocrypha, which is widely considered one of EVEs best expansions introduced wormholes. Wormholes and the stuff in them was essentially just new PVE and industrial content with no specific pvp mechanics associated with it. However because wormhole space is nullsec it provided new opportunities for PVP gameplay.

What I am saying is that good content should provide both PVP and PVE gameplay opportunities.