EVE General Discussion

I made updates below to clarify things that some people misconstrued
Don't Take away the risk, but make it known just how lucrative lowsec can be, and find a way in the training program, to introduce some of the lowsec PvE and PvP mechanics in a way that a new pilot can understand, give them an idea as to what they should do to be able to fly there. This will potentially increase activity in these regions, reduce their fear of the notion, and perhaps help keep new and old subscribers interested. We love the sandbox, we joined for the sandbox, but an empty sandbox, or a sandbox full of old farts is a boring one.

Let me start with saying this: CCP, I love the ambition for the coming year and I hope this keeps up. But, as a lowsec pilot that is a part of a lowsec corporation without an alliance (Intentionally I add), I do have concerns for the little-guy.

A lot of recent updates and advertisements have been focused around sovereignty mechanics. I love the ideas, but as a primarily lowsec-based pilot in a standalone lowsec corporation, they almost have no effect on us, and in a way some balance acts, though improving large fleet doctrine viability and structures, may have had a bit of an adverse effect on the viability of some hulls in solo or small gang pvp crews that want to stay that way.

I love lowsec because of the risk and limitation. You have to think about what you're doing and, in my opinion, lowsec has remained the most true to the "Sandbox" mentality. That's not the problem. The problem is that lowsec doesn't appease enough players, it isn't as "glorified" as much as sovereignty is, or even incursioning. New players will tell you all the time that lowsec space is generally on their 'avoid' list, in essence, limiting content in lowsec space. There's hardly any incentive for the new player to go to lowsec unless it's bridging two essential highsec locations, or reached on accident (Let me add, I do not think lowsec pvp is dead. I just think it needs a kick in the arse.)

I made this edit to clarify; yes it is part on the community to bring more players to lowsec as some people mentioned, however you have to remember that there are restrictions and limitations that lowsec pilots who kill in lowsec space have, that limit us from easily accessing high-sec space to go and "recruit and teach" as someone suggested below, great idea but the application for us is too risky. Some of us simply don't field alts.

To be honest the only new characters I've seen in lowsec in the past week were generally alts of established pilots. If you're telling me new pilots fly through lowsec all the time, you might want to stand back and re-evaluate your situation.

What I mean to say in general is, although I love the updates, and how CCP is spicing things up for the future of EvE for those who enjoy massive pvp and pve opportunities, I only request that the little-guy is not forgotten. We would like to see additional content that will keep players, new and old alike, interested and immersed in both flying and living in lowsec space, not discouraged to.

i think the issue is "vets" in highsec paint a bad picture of what low and null is to new players. but as said recruit the new players yourself, start a lowsec corp which is newbie friendly, give them free ships and advice, take them out to shoot stuff and they might like it.

Agreed, but that is not how lowsec works for the majority of established corporations that live there. Many Lowsec corps were designed to reap the rewards and loot of other players, and that's the reality of lowsec and what, I feel, it was designed for. I personally used to shoot new players a message with isk concerning fits, only after I've destroyed them, but "new pilots" in lowsec today are getting more rare, they are just alts and eyes for our competition.

There needs to be a 3rd party incentive other than the players in lowsec themselves, because those players are there to kill. They've established enemies in the system and are generally skeptical of someone who suddenly becomes interested in lowsec on a day 1 account - as they should be.

This post is intended to help CCP with sustaining subscribers through a developmental idea of activity - which is exactly what alliances do when they influence their ideas through CCP. The only difference is numbers. If CCP is only getting input from the majority (alliances) then all of their changes and ideas will only effect that group for the better. Many of the ship balancing acts recently have actually hurt smaller gangs balance where it improved the use of those hulls in larger fleet doctrine, in my opinion.

Well ...... if you want more players in low, recruit them and teach them. If not, you create threads about it and argument against any work you might have to commit to that leads to what you actually want.

There is no incentive beyond you delivering one. ISK does not work, has been tried. The issue with lowsec is people not knowing how to survive, combined with assholes portraying it as deathtrap to new players.

No mechanic will change that, so you either want change and put work in, or you create threads like this like a peasant who can't do things himself.

so what you are saying is you dont want to recruit new players you just want more new player in lowsec so you can shoot them?

It's never been tried. Lowsec has always been riskier than highsec with a small increase in isk, and riskier than null with a decrease in isk. There's no reason to live in lowsec, only a reason to live on the borders and fly into it. FW was the biggest attempt at getting isk into lowsec and they never bothered to fix the issues with it, so it's just farmed.

Maybe good thing could be increase of the gate connections to Null space.
- more people moving
- more places to go

This could be good for low and null space.

Lets make simple rule.
1 gate to NPC space in each region, and you can easily have multiple places to have fun.

Lowsec does need some attention once this sov phase is done, yep.

There's word that CCP will be reviewing FW later this year and some of these tweaks will affect lowsec in general. It looks like CCP are focusing on FW rather than piracy as the lowsec entry point for new players, which is a shame in some ways. It's really hard to pinpoint why, but piracy as a playstyle seems to have been in decline for years to the point it's only viable for older players who are either part of larger groups or have alts in other areas. There appear to be plenty of new player alliances focused on null or FW but none of any real size/relevance that I can find dedicated to piracy.

CZ looks to be providing some of the best coverage on lowsec btw, see Niden for FW, Gorski/Apothne for small gang and a few others writing about the larger pirate alliances. Probably also worth keeping an eye on Sugar's blog.

The new structures will be deployable in low as well as null and hopefully act as content generators/loot pinatas. Some unique to lowsec or with slightly different mechanics might work. The only thing about creating more PVE type content in lowsec is the risk it will attract massive crap-tier farming alliances and all of the whiny little manbabbies who attach themselves to those organisations. You really don't want to end up with Sov-Lite in lowsec. However the area is made attractive and unique to players is a bit of a balancing act.

From a personal point of view, have you throught about relocating your corp? There are some areas that are dead but there are plenty with a lot of activity and it is worth being reasonably close to active FW areas.

It's not a developper challenge it's a community challenge. As long as low sec pirate corp (call them whatever you want really) don't want to put in the effort of training at least some new blood, there won't be new blood sticking there.

Low-sec over hunt their prey and never do anything to make the herd get bigger. It's unsustainable and you see that by your trouble finding content.

https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=433911

Here's the thread with lots of people talking about lowsec.