Crime & Punishment

I would be OK with a delivery box IFF (if and only if) they rewired citadels to drop their contents as loot when destroyed by players.


The bigger issue here is asset safety. Until citadels - asset safety meant NPC station. The new trend of space magic now conserves all citadel assets. So, with a risk averse foot in the door, the next step is a drop box to ensure asset safety for courier items. The next step will be what??? ships engaged in courier contracts (have plastic wrapped item in cargo) are immune to destruction?? This creep to make personal assets out of the reach of other players (through guile or honorable combat) is sucking the heart out of the game.

Asking for a drop box is exactly the same as asking CCP to uncode the unique aspect of its game that has kept it up and running for over a decade. The end game for MMOs that have complete asset safety is boredom and moving on to a new game. That's why they die.

While I agree citadels should drop their contents (and thus make a decision between expensive npc stations and destructable player stations an actual decision) these issues aren't linked. Don't bring salt to an actual solid game change.

I see your point, but I also see them as a common theme. Both are moves to make the game safe and commerce less risky. There's been an underlying current pushing to have the game protect and safeguard large isk streams for years. If your hauler/freighter gets ganked the answer is 'welcome to the sandbox' but as soon as the isk numbers start to get large - CCP just forgets the initial core values of the game and starts protecting things. I list a few things the game doesn't NEED that got put in to pander to those wanting to protect their large assets - cyno jammers, multiple timers on station (I'll just say that one is plenty as a time zone buffer and the multiple timer thing really pushed a lot of folks to log in only for 'pings of interest'), space pixies teleporting stuff, JF and the list goes on. I just don't want to see drop boxes added.

The bottom line for ALL this stuff is that game mechanics already provided an answer, but the underlying current was 'these things are too valuable and it is too time and effort consuming to protect, so change the game to make it easier and safer, so I can go on to bigger and better things.' I get that - I really do, but it just never ends. The more the game gets automated and the more things are made 'safe' the more the game isn't Eve and the more it's like all the other games (you know those ones that last a few years, folks get bored and move on).

So I'll ask everyone this. Does the game NEED a dropbox mechanic?

OR

Does the game need players to come to terms with 2 things.

1. On the hauler end - Scamming happens. Citadel couriers have a large potential to be scammed. You need to master that most rare and valued commodity in Eve to do citadel couriers - TRUST.
2. On the citadel end (and this one is the one that actually rubs my fir the wrong way) - Consequences. You can either set your market hub up in a safe secure and easy to deliver to NPC station (say Jita 4-4) and deal with NPC taxes OR you can set up your own citadel and try to create a hub where you control and realize profits from your own taxes. If this drop box is being driven by folks who just want to make zillions of iskies because they planted a risk free citadel in HS - GOFOOKYOURSELF - work for it like everyone else. By work for it - establish Chribba like trust in the hauling community - all you have to do is make it clear your citadel isn't a scamming citadel and the drop box is not needed. You want to play the game like a huge market tycoon, then act like one and build the relationships needed to succeed. Don't whine to CCP to water down the game because you're not good at it.

Do I have to type a long post just to say lol?

It doesn't need it... but it wouldn't hurt anything to add it and would also be a reasonable change.

If I'm trucking cargo from A to B... I really don't need access to put up a house at B and keep my personal stuff there. I just need to be able to drop the crap off you are paying me to deliver.

You can still shoot down the trucker. You can try to lure them to low-sec destinations. But you at least turn it into a contest where both sides have a chance to win... him trying to deliver and you trying to keep him from delivering. Right now the only way for the hauler to "win" is to not take the contract. I don't see that going away as watering anything down about the game.