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I just typed a sodding ESSAY, and the forum swallowed it. I'm disgruntled.

That's CCP's new "Intelligence Filter", for situations like these.

In order to stop people from making long forum posts which may show how poorly thought out the developer's changes are, CCP's forum now eliminates said posts with a vengeance.

I've learned to ctrl-a crtl-c a decade ago before trusting any significant chunk of text to the intertubes.

I usually do, didn't this time =/

Because CCP thinks Trauma is so much more descriptive than Scourge when it comes to explaining that the missile does Kinetic damage...

And the modules don't seem to be recieved with open arms, either. For a reason.

How about you just rename the named modules Type 1-4 (or Mk 1-4), so people don't have to remember the difference between upgraded, limited, experimental, prototype..

because frankly upgraded sounds the best out of those 4 to me, and yet it's the meta 1 version? While the initiative is great, seeing as the current module nomenclature is absurd, you might as well go all the way instead of just introducing a 'less bad' nomenclature.

I ask forgiveness if some of this has been covered already as I'm lazy and don't want to read all the posts.
Since you've gone ahead and renamed all the missiles, how about going ahead and renaming the FoF versions to match?
I also suggest putting the "Advanced" at the end of the missile classification. So the group Advanced Assault Missile becomes Assault Missile Advanced. That way when I sort on group, I get all the Assault Missiles together.

While I do appreciate that some modules are named in ways that don't necessarily make sense, and are counter intuitive, I will have to agree with the "dumbing down" criticism. EVE, for all its faults, has flavor. It's a game that is complex and rightfully so. In fact, the complexity is what draws many people to the game.

"Standardizing" names might make sense from a new player point of view, but keep in mind that you're also doing this at the expense of your current players. Retaining the names affects new players. Changing the names affect everyone.

You are also facing the risk of going too "bland" with your naming schemes. To be honest, one of the reasons for why I'm sticking to EVE rather than playing another game is the flavor and immersion. I've seen too many space games where equipment names are standardized, and the immersion falls flat. It feels mechanical and automated, and not at all like a living universe that has had years upon years of maturing.

Making this effort to ensure that newer players can easier keep track of equipment is a good thing, but doing it this way is, in my opinion, misdirected. The problem is not in the naming - which will confuse newer players regardless of the names, but instead an accessibility issue.

To understand this, look at other popular MMOs, such as WoW, SW:TOR, Rift etc. One thing they all have in common is item coloration. It doesn't matter what an item is named, you know that the gray stuff is worthless, just sell it to a vendor. The white stuff is useful as a new player, but not for much more. Green stuff, that's where you start getting the good stats, blues and you're getting there, and so on.

So, what do EVE have that compares to this?

Well, we have the "Tech level triangle". You know, the orange thing for T2, Red for T3, green for faction etc. This little triangle tells you, at a glance, how good a piece of equipment is. It's even present in list-mode of your hangars.

Instead of changing things around by standardizing names, and making EVE more bland, how about extending the meta-tags for named items as well? That'd ensure that there are visual ques for newer players, and it'd also help veteran players in quickly finding the right gear. Additionally, add another sort option to item containers, namely sort by meta-level. That makes a lot more sense than an unnecessary standardization of items that are part of EVE core gameplay.

Oh, and while you're at it, change back missile names and add damage type icons to ammo. That makes a lot more sense, and is easier for both new and old players to grasp.


+1 heavy missile of lighting, anyone?

Ok, trying for a second time.

Implants change - great, makes sense, retains flavour.

Launcher and meta-level changes, awful, in the case of the former, doesn't make more sense than current, and adds a confusing change to the name of a different module already in existance and whatnot.


Suggestions:

1. Make rockets 'light rockets'

Light Rockets, Light Rocket Launcher
Light Missiles, Light Missile Launcher

Light Missiles, Assault Light Missile Launcher

Make 'Heavy Assault Missiles' into 'Heavy Rockets'. [Big change, but a consistent one, after all, HAMs are the cruiser equivalent of rockets.

Heavy Rockets, Heavy Rocket Launcher
Heavy Missiles, Heavy Missile Launcher

Hypothetically: Heavy Missiles, Assault Heavy Missile Launcher.

Consistency added, no confusing name changes, only bringing 'assault missiles' under the 'rockets' group.
'Assault' in context of a launcher means oversized faster firing launcher, i.e. special name, special module, appropriate ammo in the name.


2. Do for modules what you've done for implants.

Dual-sheathed Reflective Plating I
becomes
Dual-sheathed Reflective Plating P-2RF

N-Type Reactive Membrane I
becomes
N-Type Reactive Membrane PE-4RA


P stands for Plating, EP stands for Energized Plating, the first number is the meta level, and the last two letters are

RF - Reflective
RA - Reactive
RP - Repulsive
CD - Conductive

PE-4RA is a energized plating, meta-level 4, of type reactive.

Nb. it's PE instead of EP because that means searching for 'PE-4' will show meta-level 4 energized plates, and exclude unenergized ones of meta-level 4. Easy searchability.

That little degree of separation between 'IT DOES THIS', and 'it's a reactive, so that's for explosive damage' is all that's needed, we're not idiots, we don't need it spelling out for us exactly, it breaks immersion.



Let's take it a step further.

Guns are categorised by size.

Medium Afocal Pulse Maser I
becomes
Medium Afocal Microwave Pulse Laser F-1PM

F for frigate, 1 for meta-level 1, PM is flavour. Want to search for frigate guns? 'Pulse Laser F-' will give you all frigate pulse lasers, and you can add a number to the end of that for a specific meta-level.

Dual Modal Heavy Laser I
becomes
Dual Modal Heavy Pulse Laser B-2HL

B for battleship, meta-level 2, flavour characters.

Dual 650mm 'Scout' Repeating Artillery I
becomes
Dual 650mm 'Scout' Autocannon B-4RA

Battleship, meta-4. Searchable, and quickly distinguishable from other meta-levels.

this is what I would like to see, not a blanket rename of all meta modules. You may as well call them 'Frigate Afterburner A', 'Frigate Afterburner B', etc

Utterly soulless.