CSM Campaigns

A)Speed creep and/or the kitey meta.

Brawling fights are hard to get these days, and it is something that many people really miss. People also are really tired of everything being so damn fast, as it really limits what you can undock as fleets, and how high the bar is for tackle. Fleet and gang fights tend to be less visceral and bloody; kiting fleets can pick their fights extremely well and disengage just as easily generally. This leads to an environment that is more conductive to ganks then actual fights. Even large fleets abhor brawling right now. If you are solo, especially in hostile places, yeah, kiting is fine; you need to not get caught to stand a reasonable chance of living, but it's pretty sad when stand up hundred plus man fleets are so kitey – the idea of two sides fully committed and brawling it out to the bitter end is very appealing, but doesn't really happen enough.

I would absolutely hate to be a newbie tackler right now; even my overheated frigate can barely keep pace with what's out there, and almost every cruiser that sees use has absurd application. How fun is it to be totally useless? Things really need to slow down. The current speed creep, combined with the server responsiveness and ticks, just makes for a frustrating game that is less tactical and strains to accommodate the speeds involved; you can't even lock some things in the time they are passing through your threat range. When nothing has to commit to the field/grid, fights are inhibited. Other gangs can just run or selectively disengage easily – the opportunity cost for being on grid is so low; forcing a fight becomes a chore.

I take a look at the most commonly used ships, and they really look like either one of the culprits of this, or something designed to deal with it. Even faction webs look like they have gotten more expensive in response to dealing with this. Some of the recent changes may be tilting this back towards a balance of kite and brawling, but it still needs work. Obviously there should be ways for skilled players to completely dance around the blob and win, and you definitely need to be very careful so the balance does not swing too far the other way, disenfranchising kiting/speed entirely. I do realize how hard it is to operate in certain areas, and that scram range fighting is a death sentence due to cynos in heavily defended sov - I would love to see more kiting gangs causing havoc in sov space.


I)Exploration as a profession has died thanks to escalations/saturation.

So this is something that needs to be addressed for many reasons. Many people enjoyed exploration and used it to fund whatever endeavours they personally found interesting enough to pay good ISK for. There as at least a faint sense of adventure and the random loot drops to make it a more interesting income source than the other options, which are horribly monotonous. The new sleeper sites were definitely a good step in the right direction, but also intrinsically had the problem of how to pay out successful players - blue loot works but is uninteresting and just dumps more liquid into the economy, and not many of the polarized weapons actually see much use. Low sec DEDs have not suffered as much as nullsec ones, but both need to be brought up to the point where the average time spent to get a drop exceeds what you could get via missions or straight up anomaly ratting. DEDs, when/if they are profitable, are a great model example of a limited resource in space that encourages small gang activity, as opposed to anomalies (dock up or move to another system) or FW plexes/missions (move to another mission or system). The game would do better overall with more cases where 'cheese' is put somewhere accessible to many players, and there is potential to fight over it. Cheese however, has to be limited to be worth fighting for.

These are what I consider to be known or major factors devaluing the exploration loot:

1)Oversupply due to increased escalation rate, 2.5 to a 5% is a doubling of the escalation rate!

2)Oversupply due to ship meta. Low Sec DEDs haven't fared as badly, because cruiser loot has a healthy demand due to everyone being in cruisers and lower. Battleships on the other hand, are still in a terrible spot - you know there's something wrong on the ship meta end when people don't want to fly Machs or Vindis.

3)Oversupply due to Sov mechanics. I am not entirely sure how much of a factor this is overall, but I'm sure a person with the right statistics to actually make a model of could give me the effect size of Karmafleet on Rattlesnake prices.

4)Oversupply due to saturation. The few weeks after Odyssey released were a great time to be a newbie; all you needed was a week or so of skills to be able to make hundreds of millions off blue salvage. Even more, the newbie that took risks and went to dangerous space was rewarded handsomely compared to the ones that did not. Prices slowly tanked and have gone down ever since as more and more people wanted to get in on this 'gold rush' of extremely valuable salvage clouds.

Basically, this activity has been systematically wiped out over the past 6-12 months, or at least put in the gutter. Players want it restored, refined, and upgraded. It was one of the 'fun' ways to make money for some, except now it really doesn't pay like it used to. Either an expansion of the loot tables to include missing deadspace mods, which would only be available in scanned down sites as opposed to escalated ones, or another more novel solution is required to restore this profession to the game, making it once again profitable and worth the time, danger, and opportunity cost. It is a major flaw in game design, especially apparent when explaining to people about the various ways to make ISK, that one of the most common ways to earn bread and butter income is to be mostly AFK - this neither challenges nor excites players.

J)Suburbanization of lowsec.

I can't find exactly the right word for this, but I'll stick to suburbanization. Here's what I mean: since FozzieSov, you have had lots of previously successful sov entities moving or breaking up into lowsec groups. The why is easy: lowsec is more content rich, much less of a logistical hassle, both in moving stuff and day to day operation, and has comparable or better income streams. This ties into other things I want to talk about, specifically about the entry bars to sov as they are, but it also tells a lot about what players actually want, and what Sov actually offers them. Again, if you can think of a better word, I'm totally game.

Lowsec has a ton going for it, especially for players who want to shoot at each other. I am actually curious on numbers of capital losses in WH/Null vs Lowsec, as it's pretty obvious where players are choosing to fight, some would say where game mechanics have forced them to fight. Essentially, you have deep null where people go to PvE in peace, and lowsec, which is a crowded content thunderdome. I don't like this at all, as distance combined with the phoebe changes has basically left entire regions all but impervious to attack, essentially condemning them as purely PvE areas - they are for a particular purpose, which again is bad for a sandbox. One of the goals of FozzieSov was to regionalize conflict - well it happened, but basically people collectively raised their hands and said lowsec is that region. So we get a concentration and the same sort of politics and alliance structures in lowsec as we used to see in null.

Sov has become territory you fill with newbies, renters, or newbie renters just to hold and maintain, protected by distance as much as anything, whereas Lowsec has become the pvp zone. I really do not like having this partitioning of space where places are pseudo purposed for one particular activity. Distances have to be shrunk a little bit to prevent this isolation and essentially zoning, and the bar for sov-holding is obviously way too high for a large majority of experienced players. Even if more carrots are added to sov as more of these changes get implemented, what is likely to happen is people just sticking alts in the big null alliances, and keeping their main characters doing whatever - this is already happening. It shouldn't be that surprising though - people putting their PvE characters in pseudo PvE alliances holding PvE regions just has so much synergy to it. I suppose some of this belongs under the income heading, but this partitioning of space mitigates so much risk as to be one factor in part of the economic woes we have now.

Holding sov now is more about PvE than PvP, so again, you are going to attract vastly different crowds. Lowsec will continue to grow and more and more ex-sov players will probably consider moving to the suburbs as their once proud hubs of pvp are transformed into glorified high sec. There's maybe a few sov regions which are actually functioning as models of AegisSov, but these are far and few in between, and their success could largely be pinned on proximity to either low or NPC null.

Still looking for a better term for this phenomena.

H)Jump ranges and jump Fatigue.

Jump fatigue fixed one thing, and broke several others – these need fixes. The collateral damage is simply far too great. EvE has literally gone from being a place where 100 man super fleets are omni-present within 15 minutes, to a place where it is better to self destruct capitals rather than move them. Surely there is a goldilocks zone where things are reasonable, and we should aim to get there sooner than later.

1)Black ops.

So I am completely unsatisfied with the current jump fatigue on black ops jumps and bridges. They are one of the few tools available to actually fight a much larger entity and at least garnish some token victories, or out harass large, bloated empires. One drop is like ~2 hours of fatigue if you jump back....and let's be realistic, any competent defender will make you do so. Considering the extreme isolation that null affords, much of it multiple jumps away from any NPC systems to stage from, blops really needs its fangs back – the threat of a blops drop needs to be something that can be projected any place, at any time. Guerrilla tactics are some of the only realistic ways to generate content between entities of grossly asymmetrical size, yet both the range and the frequency of jumps really kills good blops play. Capitals aren't not supposed to be infinitely manoeuvrable, but blops are supposed to be extremely manoeuvrable, so I don't get why the hammer was pretty much thrown at both. I can understand not wanting to risk feeding projection more, but the defining aspect of the ship class was basically collateral damage when trying to reign in capital projection. What it did was make some regions totally inaccessible to blops, and make the play style about waiting...in a game about waiting.

Black ops ships themselves, I really do not find poorly balanced, but they could use the promised rebalance tweaks. They definitely do not not need TII resists – manoeuvrability, damage, tank; pick two and you have a well balanced specialized ship, and they have extreme damage and manoeuvrability. Giving them straight TII resists would make them hilariously overpowered. More scan resolution and sensor strength added to the base hull, slightly better fitting, or an overheating bonus for a set duration after jumping...anything to make them better at ambush tactics, but they are not meant to be toe-to-toe champions of slugfests, that is what marauders are for. You want them fast and high damage, but impractical for other roles.

Either the jump/bridge range needs to be extended, or the fatigue needs to be lessened to allow realistic use of mids/safes to hit areas that are farther away.


2)Moving
Yes, it was important to make carrier apex forces not infinitely motile, but moving to new areas is currently....terrible. The ratio of work to content is just becoming excruciating, causing many to just give up. You sort of know there's something wrong when it is just better to mass-self destruct a capital fleet and buy another one, rather than try and move it. The same applies to moving sub-caps to new locations. In an age when you are trying to make sov empires vibrant, malleable, and shifting, it is hilariously bad in my appraisal to make the act of moving to new space to miserable and taxing. Sticking your sov-aspirants with yet another bar to entry, yet another reason not to try and live in sov null, is not conductive to building or showcasing the play style. Space is literally just too big now, much better of an idea to just shack up in lowsec where most things will be accessible.


3)Local capital over-dominance, hyper-localization, invent your own buzzword.
This one is pretty easy. In a world where capitals are bound to at most a ~10ly radius, contesting local capital power, particularly in deep null, is basically impossible. This hurts people looking for capital content, makes their use in deep null extremely hard to punish, and makes local capital bullies hard to deal with in certain areas. Basically, movement is so restricted that meaningful interaction is greatly inhibited. Yeah, a spate of big fights happened in quick succession when the all seeing eye of super blobs was blinded, which is good, but other areas are on the other end of the spectrum. Pretty much the only places where dropping capitals is risky is in and around Lowsec where the population and system density is high enough. I suppose some of this is pending the capital re balance, but generally if a ship is undocked, it should be vulnerable, and I just don't feel this is the case with the size of the map vs the range of capitals. Capitals need a tad more projection – not too much, just enough to let groups play sheriff on other groups capital usage.

4)More NPC null pockets are needed. One of the reasons for this is to allow actual capital movement between regions and make more places accessible to move through or move to. Generally NPC pockets lead to much more interesting times for local sov-holders; with how big the universe is now, and with the recent WH nerf, actually getting at people and providing a healthy amount of risk is a bit of a challenge logistically, whereas these would really help. I do think the jump ranges and times are way too strict, but a few well placed systems could really accelerate movement my making more direct travel paths.

Elect a player to speak for players, much like voting for a citizen, to represent citizens.

If you vote at ALL for a bloc candidate of any sort, you get what you vote for. I do not stand for any one particular playstyle, nor would I advocate solely on one play style's behalf, nor am I beholden to any interests. There's a damn good chance whatever your thing is in this game, be it ganking in HiSec or roaming FW space, i've done it - a lot. Just like you, I am a player, not a bloc sponsored and endorsed mouthpiece, and I want the GAME to be better, not my gaming of New Eden to be more efficient.

Vic Jefferson, the hero we deserve!

Elect someone who wants the game better for everyone... not just his group. Vote Vic!

C)Income availability.

This is one of the single biggest messes in the game right now. Not even kidding! This really goes back to what I was harking to last year, so I'll just do a crude repost to frame it, as nothing has really changed. If anything, it has gotten much worse.



...and I pretty much stand by this entirely. Income is pigeon holed too narrowly into activities that require alts, know how, large SP pools, or cow-towing to an all powerful hand of Sov (Point F). Level 4s in HS create a minimal amount of player content, Incursions create almost zero player content and severely tilt the equilibrium of risk/reward. FW is a game of alts where the goal is to unlock PvE missions - this is bad. Sov Anomalies create some content, so they are lower on the list, but this requires people either have alts in a large coalition, or crimp their play style to be inflected by sov. L5s require excessive know-how and local dominance.

Basically...put income where players actually want to live, and make it appropriate for the risks for that security band. Some NPC null has really good income streams, but its locked behind standings (ALTS) and know how; people CRAVE living in NPC null, let people play the way they want to.

Another point this raises is that one of the reasons sov is a failed enterprise is because...well sov is only functioning when it is a safe place to farm, and if anything is safe in this game, it has failed first principles. People go to make cash in sov as it is so absurdly safe; that is what sov is FOR these days, and anything that is purposed for a reason in a sandbox is just....needs revision. It doesn't promote any actual conflict as conflict on those scales and distances is a tenuous proposition in a post-phoebe world, with the whole lack of motivation wrapped up in there as well.

Look at TISHU or OSS. Or any other small, fun alliance in the game. They create a ton of content for as little support as they have, most members have alts to make their ISK for them some where else, as there certainly isn't any money to be made in Syndicate. However, Syndicate is the only type of region that has enough entities close enough to each other to meaningfully shoot at each other; happens in lowsec too, but sov null is just too vast to ever really see much consistent conflict. What I'm saying is it's dumb to hand over all the keys to new players, and new player retention (Read: income, stable, reliable, accessible, Point F) in the form of anomalies to sov holders and sov empires when by and large, there are so many play styles that would appeal and retain players in non-sov regions, if only there were a way for it to be viable to live there.

Vic Jefferson, a true candidate for the people of EvE!

E)Wardecs, HiSec content creation in general.

So ill try doing this one a few bits at a time, as it can be a sensitive issue, so the complete version of this point may take a few iterations, but you are free and encouraged to ask questions.

To begin, I do not in any way wish to further curtail what is left of high sec criminal mechanics, the current set of very limited high sec mechanics goes a long way to explain the why and the how of ganking. Briefly, you've taken away every other way to generate content in Hi, so of course, the antagonist minded players will learn to utilize what they have left to the fullest extent. I used to run a ganking corporation and have done a fair bit of it - it is part of the game, and you should be able to gank someone; the onus of defence lays on every pilot that does not want to be ganked. This is how it should be.

If you want to see more interesting behaviour and better emergent gameplay, expand, not shrink, what people are allowed to do in Hi Sec. It currently has about as much depth as an Atari 2600 game.

I fully believe that Wardecs need to have their cost structure inverted; a three man corp that wants to war-dec a major alliance, who should bave the resources, know how, and pilots to be able to defend itself, should basically be free. Conversely, the large WarDec corp that just finds the latest new player start up to crush it under its heel, that should be the expensive type of war to run. If Phoebe was designed to let small entities affect sov, then why not let small entities actually affect player organizations much larger than themselves in hi?

That being said, you have to ask why Uedama , etc, are so violent; why are the most violent systems in the game in Hi Sec? Well obviously their geography explains most of it, yes, but it really comes down to, where are the kids supposed to play? Null Sec is so absurdly safe, so remote, and so easily to defend that most antagonist minded players can quickly see that the higher Isk killed per hour, or more feathers ruffled per hour, etc, are available in Hi Sec, and that basically, why bother trying to make content anywhere else when its so much better in Hi Sec? Uedama, you can literally just undock a catalyst or talos and receive killmail, as opposed to null or low where targets are so rare and so skittish. Basically that antagonists have been in large part pigeon holed into one form of antagonism by the Hi Sec rules, and one place, namely high sec, by the population density and the target availability. That is just not good overall.

The mass exodus to null didn't happen in Phoebe or with AegisSov; this is explored in other posts as to why and how. However, even if it did, it still wouldn't change Hi Sec as being king for naughty players; null and low mechanics just make it so incredibly easy to stay safe that many have just stopped bothering with those areas. Why hunt for a wild caught Hulk when you can just snag a factory farmed one in Hi Sec? You'd have a healthier game when the best place for most antagonist content generation was not restricted to a few systems in Hi Sec - put some tools back in low and null so antagonists actually have a reason to be out there, give them options. Part of this means, yes, making other areas actually worth living in so there are people to antagonize, and another part of this means actually letting the antagonists have a chance at being naughty.

Oh, and if you think you are reading too much in this thread, and there's too much text, remember you are supposed to be electing a communicator. Look at the other threads, and make your own calls there people. Slogans and vague themes alone do not a candidate make. While I am doing my best to remain brief, rest assured I would not be daunted to actually write significantly more on any given topic. As a player of the game, I am interested in player opinions of things, and would both love to hear from you, and, in an official capacity, love to elaborate those opinions to people who need to hear them. Yes, I do not have a big reddit presence, etc, but I am at least a little active on the EvE-O forums.

K)GrrGoons

So last year I ran, not endorsed by mind you, but ran as a member of goonswarm. I have come to see the error of my ways. However, I do believe there is nothing quite so honest as a reformed goon. Some of you may think this is horsefeatherrs, but I was the #16 top Imperium killer in October according to Gevlon, for what that's worth, and apparently #35 in December. Not bad for a small time operator! I don't just SAY grr goons, ladies and gentlemen, grr goons is a way of life for me!

Anyway, if you are looking for someone who is unapologetically grr goons to balance out all the candidates that are owned by them (or will be owned by them 30 minutes after the results are announced ) , look no further. I fully admit that I drank the Kool Aid, and you should too; for every blue they put on the map, for every conflict they prevent from happening, New Eden is a more mundane place, and for what? New Eden is supposed to be a veritable maelstrom of conflict; large scale organized stagnation does the cluster no good. No matter what mechanics are implemented in game to try and spur conflict, one thing remains crystal clear; goons do not actually like conflict and they will do anything possible to fight changes politically or militarily.