These forums have been archived and are now read-only.

The new forums are live and can be found at https://forums.eveonline.com/

EVE Information Portal

 
  • Topic is locked indefinitely.
 

Dev Blog: Introducing Clone States & the Future of Access to EVE

First post First post First post
Author
Volstruis
Kybernauts
Kybernauts Clade
#881 - 2016-09-01 13:09:42 UTC  |  Edited by: Volstruis
Shaddn Arakh wrote:
Volstruis wrote:
Here's another spin.

I have paid CCP in cash for my 84 odd million SP.

Why can't I just use what I've paid for?

Just don't let me train further in Alpha state.

Under current system, you stop paying = you stop playing. Under new system, you stop paying = you can still play with t1 frigs and cruisers or at least log in to shuffle stuff in containers around and insult people in local.

So the new system is more permissive than the old one. And you're complaining? You want Eve to go more free to play than it is already going to?


I stopped playing because I don't feel like the game is worth money anymore. Telling me I can login and can't even fit a PVP condor isn't going to suddenly inspire me to play at all. If Alpha clones at least allowed reasonable PVP fits on frigs I'd be in, and plex my assets. Currently as a vet, I couldn't really give a crap about flying Herons in high sec.

Having to blow a plex like I did on 'checking out' how things are going is exactly what I could use Alpha for later. So far it isn't inspiring me to stay. Which seems to miss the point.
David Grogan
University of Caille
Gallente Federation
#882 - 2016-09-01 13:10:14 UTC
Memphis Baas wrote:


I think CCP should reduce the limitations of what alphas can do, as far as mining. Let them go crazy with exhumers, let them experience CODE and/or PVP, maybe they join the game or start a sub in order to train combat ships to fight back.



no alpha account exumers would just see a rise in botting in null sec.

Everytime you buy something that says "made in china" you are helping the rising unemployment in your own country unless you are from china, Buy locally produced goods and help create more jobs.

David Grogan
University of Caille
Gallente Federation
#883 - 2016-09-01 13:12:16 UTC
Volstruis wrote:


I stopped playing because I don't feel like the game is worth money anymore. Telling me I can login and can't even fit a PVP condor isn't going to suddenly inspire me to do so ...

Having to blow a plex like I did on 'checking out' how things are going is exactly what I could use Alpha for later. So far it isn't inspiring me to stay. Which seems to miss the point.




lol you could take up ganking for free

Everytime you buy something that says "made in china" you are helping the rising unemployment in your own country unless you are from china, Buy locally produced goods and help create more jobs.

Pah Cova
Made in Portugal S.A.
#884 - 2016-09-01 13:17:14 UTC
This will going to end ás DUST 514.
In the begining we are going to see not new players but tons of new alphas belonging to omegas ingame, then some of that omegas will become alphas too, and in the meanwhile new players are the same, they come and they go faster then they came, after 2 years the alphas will vanish or CCP decides to end up with alphas like she did with DUST 514.

The problem is not and never was F2P, new players try the game and leave faster then they came because CCP allows that and promote that.
There are ways to prevent things like that, but CCP prefer not to face the reality and keep on the wrong way over and over again.

We will see what happens, time uses to be a good advicer, but CCP is like a broken clock, at least is right twice a day....
Judaa K'Marr
Shadow Legions.
SONS of BANE
#885 - 2016-09-01 13:18:39 UTC  |  Edited by: Judaa K'Marr
Malcanis wrote:
CCP aren't calling this "f2p". Marketing this change to your friends as an "unlimited free trial" might help, because that's what it is.

Incidentally, for those who are quitting because eve is getting unlimited free trial access, what's the longest trial account term you feel is ethical? Obviously it's at least 52 days, since we've had 51 day trials before. What's the maximum you'd accept?




Except it's being marketed everywhere as free to play. Evidently CCP called it free-to-play on the press release, at least.

So essentially it's a bait and switch scheme.....
Toobo
Project Fruit House
#886 - 2016-09-01 13:23:33 UTC
I can understand that even if Alpha accounts don't pay to upgrade to Omega, it will br a good thing to have more players in space.

But I can guarantee these Alpha toons will be farmed in low/null. Players who can survive and thrive long term in hostile space in Alpha limited toons will be exceptiom rather than norms, unless they are affiliated with existing eve bets.

So great, there may be 1,000 new Alpha toons venturing into hostile spaces, what do you think the existing Snaked Garmur pilots with faction gears will do to them? Insta lock Svipuls will eat them for breakfast. They may have taste of fun in the beginning especially they get to pew pew with other Alpha toons, but realistically, they will get pwned so hard on regular basis the fun will wear off.

Cheers Love! The cavalry's here!

Zerzzes Markarian
McCloud and Markarian Trade and Logistics Corp.
#887 - 2016-09-01 13:29:10 UTC
Great Idea!

Just a few thoughts:

1) Since this is intended to attract new players, it shouldn't be allowed to login more than one Alpha at the same time (like it is now with trail accounts)

2) Make sure the Alpha skills are not extractable to avaoid skill point farms.
Zappity
New Eden Tank Testing Services
#888 - 2016-09-01 13:35:37 UTC
Grookshank wrote:
Please drop the safety idea. It is really a bad one. An army of free alts is not a high-sec problem; it is a general problem in all areas of space.

There should be a limit on only being able to log in one alpha and no alpha and omega together like on trial accounts.

I have come around to this way of thinking. Red safety gameplay is one of the unique features of eve and new players should be allowed to try it. Just limit concurrent alpha account logins.

Zappity's Adventures for a taste of lowsec and nullsec.

May'n Nome
Center for Advanced Studies
Gallente Federation
#889 - 2016-09-01 13:36:12 UTC  |  Edited by: May'n Nome
Judaa K'Marr wrote:
Malcanis wrote:
CCP aren't calling this "f2p". Marketing this change to your friends as an "unlimited free trial" might help, because that's what it is.

Incidentally, for those who are quitting because eve is getting unlimited free trial access, what's the longest trial account term you feel is ethical? Obviously it's at least 52 days, since we've had 51 day trials before. What's the maximum you'd accept?




Except it's being marketed everywhere as free to play. So evidently CCP called it free-to-play on the press release, at least.

So essentially it's a bait and switch scheme.....



Hi, you must be new to online journalism. Which would get your view and interest in a article for a Headline if you were not an EVE Player and were looking through those various publications online for gaming news?

A) "EVE introduces Clone States"
B) "EVE goes free-to-play"

"Threefold is the time's pace: the future comes not in haste, the present is gone arrow fast, eternally still remains the past."

Judaa K'Marr
Shadow Legions.
SONS of BANE
#890 - 2016-09-01 13:43:33 UTC  |  Edited by: Judaa K'Marr
May'n Nome wrote:
Judaa K'Marr wrote:
Malcanis wrote:
CCP aren't calling this "f2p". Marketing this change to your friends as an "unlimited free trial" might help, because that's what it is.

Incidentally, for those who are quitting because eve is getting unlimited free trial access, what's the longest trial account term you feel is ethical? Obviously it's at least 52 days, since we've had 51 day trials before. What's the maximum you'd accept?




Except it's being marketed everywhere as free to play. So evidently CCP called it free-to-play on the press release, at least.

So essentially it's a bait and switch scheme.....



Hi, you must be new to online journalism. Which would get your view and interest in a article for a Headline if you were not an EVE Player and were looking through those various publications online for gaming news?

A) "EVE introduces Clone States"
B) "EVE goes free-to-play"


Sure, but still goes against "CCP did not call it free to play". Otherwise they would print "eve introduces unlimited trial" headlines.

Whether the whole thing works, time will tell. Apparently though bait and switch is needed to promote eve now.

Also it blows their ammo early since, if (when) they do eventually go ~true~ free-to-play, they won't have the same media impact as now., but that's none of my business I guess.
Ms Michigan
Aviation Professionals for EVE
#891 - 2016-09-01 13:44:04 UTC
8+ year EVE vet here (consistently subscribed - no breaks except casual). I have talked to my casual EVE friends and they are all very excited about this too.

I have read ALL 44 pages here and the dev blog (Confirmed again...Alphas will NOT be able to use cloak or cyno :)

Here is my take and some of theirs:


1) I generally love/like the idea of fresh blood. I think this is an elegant EVE solution to broadening game involvement. You have full pay, PLEX to pay (for people who don't mind working or are smart enough in game) and now F2P for neither. It does seem to water down the work vets put in as you are enabling a lot of scrubs to grief or muddy the water, but I am willing to trade that for the possible new players that will add life, fun, and creativity to the game through diversity. Just like life. I am willing to subsidize some other people's free for the value they add long term (cannon fodder!) :)

2) It helps the EVE learning curve and the bulldozer of bodies that it is. It is great for socializing and keeping up on things but not giving away the keys to the kingdom....sort of....

which brings me to what I DON'T like and I WORRY ABOUT.

1) Trolling...Trolling...Trolling. Huge fleets of catalysts in hi-sec. Entosis griefing. Faction Warfare hurt some (because at some point even T1 fit frigates can take down an experienced player in a better ship. But this may work itself out in new corps.) Alts parked in wormholes and every null system wasting my time because it is FREE. Now maybe with the new SOV structures this won't be as big of a problem in null/WH's but hi-sec scrub life seems to be loving this one.

2) I would mention it being harder for CEO's to vet players with this as the abundance of trolls goes up (theft etc) but I have been spouting off about this for years on this forum (as have many others) and it is very apparent CCP doesn't care to help with this. Take it for what it is worth. I don't mind EVE being cruel and dark...in fact I like it dark...but I can't say I enjoy not being able to allow some form of trust like in RL as simple as loaning someone an asset without the worry they will launder that character irrespective of their own account and it doesn't follow them in some form. I.e. there truly is no frontier justice.

3) PLEX prices. I guess you really do not want people using PLEX. I have a feeling this is just going to drive prices past 3 billion.

4) Don't let them create corps. FORCE them to assimilate and learn from the OMEGAs!!! If you let them go create their own Alpha corps all it will do is create a separation and probably increase griefing/ lame war decs.

5) Please advertise the living $#@% out of this so we can truly get word of mouth out there about EVE. IF you are doing this, go all in. Get EVE out there.

6) The Gnosis - make that ship have a req of BC1 please.

7) Let Alpha's train other races I think... I like the lore aspect as advertised, but maybe this should be opened up to open up more of the game without them having to make another account or toon.

8) Minor - Running out of names! As cosmetic as this is, how many variations of Jean luc picard can we have?


Last thoughts....

I would love to see Alpha permadeath or limited to 10 reclones before they have to buy an Omega for at least one cycle to reset the counter back to 10. Make them like slaves in lore to our Omega. haha

Cheers and flame on
George Gouillot
MASS
Pandemic Horde
#892 - 2016-09-01 13:45:22 UTC  |  Edited by: George Gouillot
This is only the beginning.

What will follow:

- Beta clone 5,000 AUR
- racial cross skill certificate 10,000 AUR
- fly a Battlecruiser for a week? 3,000 AUR
- T2 Weapon training certificate 15,000 AUR
- summon a NPC-Titan for 1 hour 5,000 AUR (this might go too far Shocked)

Enjoy.
MrQuisno
Doomheim
#893 - 2016-09-01 13:45:32 UTC
Limiting access for free accounts only to two(2). You want to use more accounts you pay the extra fee's. You should be allowed to use both free and payed accounts at the same time.
Antei Thantonne
The Scope
Gallente Federation
#894 - 2016-09-01 13:49:12 UTC  |  Edited by: Antei Thantonne
I look forward to the influx of new players this change will bring! EVE University--along with the many other organizations in EVE dedicated to helping new players--will work hard to create positive learning experiences for these new Alpha players. There is a long-awaited change that will help us turn these Alphas into new Omegas:

Complete re-balancing the meta 1-4 modules that new Alpha players will need most.

Learning about meta modules is currently confusing for new players, partly because of the parallel systems of re-balanced and non-re-balanced modules, and partly because the names of non-re-balanced modules are much less intuitive than re-balanced ones. This makes it difficult for these players to know what to buy. The naming situation is particularly bad for small weapons, exactly the type of items that Alpha players will be most likely to buy. In addition, the market for some of these non-re-balanced weapons makes it such that the meta 4 variants are very expensive, and meta 3 variants are occasionally more expensive than Tech 2 versions. There is nothing inherently wrong with this market situation. But it does mean that, to make smart decisions, new players need to become familiar with the inconsistent system of meta naming and marketing--a system that CCP has said it is committed to simplify.

So, simplify it already.

So far, ALL of the problems I've described above have been solved in every module re-balance that CCP has executed. Naming has become more intuitive. The market for different meta items has relaxed (by and large). In spite of CCP's stated concerns about how to set stats on these re-balanced modules, none has broken the meta. I would argue that CCP has been extremely successful in its module re-balancing efforts so far, and has also learned a lot about how to do it right. Accelerate this process! I recommend that, along with the upcoming November changes, CCP finishes re-balancing Tech I meta weapons, and especially small and medium weapons that Alpha players will be most likely to buy.

But wait: Isn't that a ton of work I've just proposed? Involving thousands of stats on many hundreds of modules? How could CCP possibly justify the effort this would require, when so many more fundamental things about EVE need to be fixed?

Outsource the work of re-naming and re-statting weapons to private community committees.

Looking at the re-balance work that's been done so far, the changes look pretty straightforward. Yes, understanding the numbers requires familiarity with EVE, but not a Ph.D. in Astrophysics. I think we, the players, can do this. I recommend a CCP employee recruit a couple of reputable player volunteers to propose committees of senior players that can provide CCP with new module stats for modules that have not yet been re-balanced. Then, these committees could be charged with creating new tables of stats and module names, along with documentation of why these particular numbers are appropriate. Importantly, this would not be a public activity, and there would be no community input at this stage. The only goal would be to do the initial work of making up numbers and characteristics, so that CCP could then put it all in a DevBlog and elicit community feedback afterwards, just as they have with all the other module re-balance passes. CCP could also insert a level of anonymous peer review in the process, by having a different volunteer review and judge what each committee has come up with before it goes to CCP.

CCP would then be free to accept, reject or modify the work of any of these committees. What we are talking about is small-ball poker. The consequences of re-balancing meta 1-4 small turrets are so tiny that it would be appropriate to have community members do the grunt work. A CCP employee could even recruit a volunteer to create the framework for this whole process; the instructions could be as vague as "Hey, propose a committee of people that will eventually make a table of numbers for all meta 1-4 turrets that have Compact, Enduring, Scoped and Pinpoint variants. And keep it to yourself, okay?" And I think we could manage.
Zappity
New Eden Tank Testing Services
#895 - 2016-09-01 13:50:40 UTC
DeMichael Crimson wrote:
I can't believe I went through and read 42 pages, liked a bunch of the replies and quoted those that mirrored my own feelings about this topic which is basically NO, NO, NO.

Maybe I'm mistaken but for some reason I seem to remember years and years ago CCP saying quite a few times that this game would never be Free to Play or Pay to Win.

Within my 8+ years of playing this game, I've seen way too many good Dev's get fired and this game has been hurting for it ever since, especially in the last couple of years. Recently it seems the term 'New Content' mainly refers to graphics being redone or needless changes to UI or implementing drastic changes to game mechanics basically placing rules and restrictions on game play, etc.

Trying to portray the topic of this Dev Blog and thread as 'New Content' is an insult since it's actually an announcement about changes to subscription policy, more importantly, it totally goes against the core aspect that this game was founded on. Course the same was said years ago about introducing Micro Transactions into the game.

Anyway, despite all the objections posted in various threads about this topic, CCP will do what they want. I won't log into the game as much as I use to do but I'll definitely keep this account subbed so my character can continue training skills. I hope CCP will soon see the folly of their ways, come back to their senses and get back to releasing game expansions that produce excellent game content. That is what gains paid subscriptions. Having that content be bug free and not break any existing content is what keeps paid subscriptions.

If not, at least I'll be able to say I was there when Eve was real.


DMC

Why don't you wait for your dire prognostications to come true before quitting?

The subscription model had undoubtedly been hindering EVE's growth in recent years. The market had changed and people are much more willing to spend money for spending isk than a subscription.

Zappity's Adventures for a taste of lowsec and nullsec.

MrQuisno
Doomheim
#896 - 2016-09-01 13:53:01 UTC
George Gouillot wrote:
This is only the beginning.

What will follow:

- Beta clone 5,000 AUR
- racial cross skill certificate 10,000 AUR
- fly a Battlecruiser for a week? 3,000 AUR
- T2 Weapon training certificate 15,000 AUR
- summon a NPC-Titan for 1 hour 5,000 AUR (this might go too far Shocked)

Enjoy.



CCP wont do this as it would kill the need for pay accounts. Point of free and paid have been clearly explained. Think of it this way the cake is the paid accounts. But you want to make it less boring looking so you buy extra's to see and do a bit more.
Alessienne Ellecon
Doomheim
#897 - 2016-09-01 13:53:26 UTC
Developers, watch your eating habits. The amount of salt I've seen in this thread, the EVE Facebook fan group and r/eve are going to put your sodium levels through the roof before long.

"CONCORD are the space cops. If you attack someone in a high-security solar system, CONCORD will commit police brutality." - Encyclopedia Dramatica

If EVE is a PvP game, then Anti-Ganking is emergent gameplay.

Zappity
New Eden Tank Testing Services
#898 - 2016-09-01 14:04:49 UTC  |  Edited by: Zappity
George Gouillot wrote:
This is only the beginning.

What will follow:

- Beta clone 5,000 AUR
- racial cross skill certificate 10,000 AUR
- fly a Battlecruiser for a week? 3,000 AUR
- T2 Weapon training certificate 15,000 AUR
- summon a NPC-Titan for 1 hour 5,000 AUR (this might go too far Shocked)

Enjoy.

I think this is a likely direction. But I don't see a major problem with these except for the last one of course. I'm assuming that subsequent clone levels would unlock new skills for training and use rather than grant trained skills.

Think of it like a pre-paid mobile phone plan vs a contract. They are just paying to unlock a chunk of training up front. And it would, of course, almost certainly be more expensive.

Zappity's Adventures for a taste of lowsec and nullsec.

Gregorius Goldstein
Queens of the Drone Age
#899 - 2016-09-01 14:09:12 UTC  |  Edited by: Gregorius Goldstein
George Gouillot wrote:
This is only the beginning.

What will follow:

- Beta clone 5,000 AUR
- racial cross skill certificate 10,000 AUR
- fly a Battlecruiser for a week? 3,000 AUR
- T2 Weapon training certificate 15,000 AUR
- summon a NPC-Titan for 1 hour 5,000 AUR (this might go too far Shocked)

Enjoy.



You get a whole new kind of customers that way: All those that would never ever buy playtime. It's a psychological thing. If you pay for a month you get the feeling you "lost" money if real life calls and you don't get to play much. But if you buy a training certificate you can use it now or later whenever you want.
Gregorius Goldstein
Queens of the Drone Age
#900 - 2016-09-01 14:10:14 UTC  |  Edited by: Gregorius Goldstein
sry double post