Player Features and Ideas Discussion

You betcha.


See original article.

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I saw it, and presumed that sardonic use of SovWarz Online™ would key you into just why an overemphasis on sov is a bad idea.

It's hilariously misguided to try and tell people who they are, or how to play, in a sandbox game. There is no way to win the game, no one that is best at it. Perhaps it's easier to rank people at a certain aspect of it, sure. Making it entirely about sov just disenfranchises some of the most loyal players around who have their own ways and definitions of having fun with the game. How many Low/NPC null/WH enthusiasts would be happy if their playstyle was either nerfed into the ground or eliminated from the game? Sov is not for everyone, and when the game ceases to enable and support multiple play styles, it becomes a tawdry, linear, stagnant universe, rather than the somewhat dynamic place it is today.

Nullsec may drive the news cycles, but, as has been alluded to in other threads, subscriber or new player spikes aren't really all that impressive in the long run - sure Asakai may have gotten people to try the game, but does it hook them for good? Most people that joined because of a big battle usually end up quite disillusioned or disenfranchised with the game - those fights don't happen that often, and being able to participate meaningfully in one takes a huge time commitment. They get lost on the way because of the way null used to work more or less - fun, memorable experiences weren't had on a regular enough basis to stay with the game. Sure in some cases they burned out on L4s in Hisec, but this too is an issue of content accessibility and good advertising - what they see isn't close to what the average outcome is. The idea is to let people find what it is they want to do in the game, as fast as possible, and find people that are like-minded. Trying to shoehorn everyone into null is just going to make lots of people quit.

Another issue with the news cycle is numbers, and the sov null emphasis. There's lots of interesting stories and battles that happen every day in New Eden, but don't get coverage either because of the numbers involved, or not happening in Sov Null. Basically reporting in EvE has been hilariously dumbed down to prattling out dry lists of numbers and ISK lost rather than weaving a rich narrative. The big blocks are so impersonal that it is hard for some to give a toss about the outcome of a fight or a war. Now, the small stuff that happens everyday, the type that keeps lots of us hooked, never sees the surface, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Personal conflicts where individual players or corps have stakes in it, that's what makes it interesting to lots of us - no one cares about stories happening between largely impersonal actors and entities.

Sure you can point to large spikes in sub numbers after a big fight, as that is easy to quantify. You just don't have any data on how much good smaller conflicts and interesting happenings do for the game, and how many stable subs they add or support. Its a terrible idea to just throw everyone new at Brave, Pandemic Horde, or Karmafleet - sure they help some people find their way, but....again EvE is not SovWarz Online.

Now, let's be honest here. Why would someone want to put time, effort, sweat, into getting into sov when you are just doing to dumpster them with the accumulated years of SP, pilots, and most importantly organizational skills? You are rabidly pushing sov as the only place to go, but then you make it a point to make it an in viable playstyle. Look what you did in Fountain, you just want kills to come to you. Normally I wouldn't invoke someone's corp or alliance against their arguments, but I suspect when you advocate for all this null centric things for the health of the game, that you are speaking with a forked tongue.

That being said, the Barleguet year was great for Brave, and I suspect they will find lots of fun in Aunsou. Lowsec needs to remain a viable playstyle, and a viable place for alliances to live, prosper, and generate content, because null is too rough for all but the largest and best organized.

Who is creating these new null events? Are you suggesting population density alone will lead to greater conflict? And isn't that conclusion at odd with the current reality of greater alliance and coalition cooperation creating superwars followed by prolonged stagnation save boredom and prodding by CCP? Given that this is the pattern created thus far, how will adding more bodies, new or old, solve this?

Just something to think about: Your loathing of High sec is exactly what keeps people in High sec. Attitudes like yours, which demand change to areas of space they do not like and no change to areas they AFK or die of boredom in and, most importantly, refuse to change their attitude towards the game and changed society and community structures, will continue to keep people out of Null. It is not the game's, least of all the High sec's fault that people do not want to go to Null sec, it is the player's failure and the player's alone.

I agree with some of the things but not with the overall proposal.

For example replace everything in your post that refers to nullsec with lowsec and we have a deal

I also find it funny that he titled this thread "fixing" eve

Why exactly would I allow myself to be forced back to Null?

Two years was more than enough, no it would be far better to leave EvE altogether than have how and where I play dictated to me.

Not supported.

isnt that what every highsec carebear does? actually everyone does it.

Was going to tell OP how stupid he was but then I saw he is BL.

If you are going to troll try to do it with a character who isn't in alliance known for being trolls.

If only there were more solid mechanics pushes and drivers like I proposed, to create more Brave Newbies organizations; a perfect example of quick-ramping new players into EvE as-marketed meeting reality.

As much as I loved to dry-hump Boonies, their idea and concept is one of the best things to take place in EvE in a long time. What they did is like a faint beacon of light, just waiting for CCP to clue in and say "how do we keep reproducing that", "how do we support them and new groups like them mechanics wise?", "how do we critical-mass constant generation of 'Brave Newbies" like organizations in hisec, that will tear off into losec and null?"...

You make hisec smaller. You remove ISK generation from hisec. You remove content from hisec and make it a content wasteland, a 'ready room' for the 'real' EvE that is outside it. You implement better ship-replacement insurance, so newbros don't learn risk-aversion when they do lose a 'good' ship.

You do SOMETHING, and ignore the status-quo'ers who don't want to see their cheese moved.

Someone once told me that in the beginning EvE was only nullsec, and the other 'secs' didn't even exist. Imagine that.

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