This has been a very interesting week, has it not? Let us look back over what has been going on.
Phoebe has been released with bugs. I advise reading the patch notes to see what has been fixed each day. Currently, it is been reported that jump cloning is clearing jump fatigue. If this happens you should bug report it. The new multi-sell windows are amazing but deemed too small. The size was increased. There were also a few items that managed to miss out on the invention changes. They were picked up and patched. Blueprints not working in some instances were also reported and corrected. Pretty much, if something weird happens file a bug report. Posting on the problems thread is also useful. Both would be the optimal decision. There is also a general feedback thread that has already helped to get things changed such as a larger number entry box for the multisell feature.
On my list is escalations. They are taking people out of low sec and running them up into high sec. There was one that I knew of that would occasionally do this before Phoebe. It was a 4/10. Now I have report of escalation after escalation running people out of low sec and up onto 1.0 systems.
I’ve been reading feedback and talking to people this last week. I’m trying to stay on top of answering and commenting on forum posts. I am surprised that things like jump fatigue are shocking some people who are heavy users of jump mechanics for instance. Still, I hand them the developers blogs and hope that they take a moment to catch up. The evenings have been filled with great conversations, interesting insights and thoughts, and reactions.
The release pace is not slowing down. In fact, I believe that I am fortunate to live in these times because I do not have to sit on information as long as previous CSM members have had to.
A new type of exploration site has cropped up. There is a dev post related to this but no dev blog as of yet. For those interested in PvE, know that this area is not being ignored even as the general movement towards Sov and POS revamps move forward.
The second o7 show aired on Thursday. It is packed with details and developer interviews. It also shares two big pieces of news:
No jump clone costs or skill point loses with new clones. This has caused mostly happiness and some disappointment. This is a subject that has been on the table since the start of the CSM. I know a lot of high skill point frigate pilots who are very happy about this change. For them, it means more fights and more time in space. Some feel it is CCP unfettering them from a death tax. Other’s have said that it is CCP making Eve risk free. I say that this is only one part of a mulitstep process to make the entire game play mechanics around clones more interesting and engaging. However, it was decided that this bad part could be removed now:
To quote CCP Rise on Reddit:
For those who like stats. CCP Foxfour dropped the fact that clone upgrades account for 4% of the ISK sunk out of the game. There have been a lot of discussion about the ISK sink of clones and should it be removed? CCP is well on top of the economics of Eve and the ISK sinks and faucets.
New space. I like to call it T-Space. The o7 show drops some information about this new system that is enormous with NPC stations and no local. It is accessed by wormholes from k-space and from w-space. I’m torn on this topic. Is this a fifth space or is it a second half of wormhole space? One way or another it is different space with different mechanics and potential. I fear that it will simply be known as the land of bubbles, but I’m hopeful that it will develop its own culture and denizens.
The UI is being revamped. I’d suggest a visit to SiSi or just look at the pictures on blogs, forums, and reddit. I like the new UI more than I thought. I’m not in love with some of the icons but that does not make them bad. I do like the current colored icons with the current UI. They have character. However, with the two UI side by side I don’t hate the new one and quite like many of its bells and whistles. My first bit of feedback was about the blur and transparency levels. I’ve also had discussion with someone who needs absolutely no transparency due to eye issues. All of this is being taken back to the UI team and they are all issues that need to be resolved before release. Unlike many things that can be fixed and tweaked later such as button sizes or how much something glows or flickers, elements that provide any mild form of readability issues need to be handled before launch.
Something I asked for:
Right before Phoebe’s release I was doing last minute movements of my own. I asked if we could get a time lapse of the cynos going up leading to Phoebe. I figured that it would be beautiful. The same request was echoed on Reddit. CCP Masterplan put that all together and released the raw data for people to create what they wanted to see. For some reason, this upset some people who feel that CCP and the CSM have better things to do. I take blame for asking for it and I’m quite pleased with the results. Fuzzy Steve put together a lovely map and changed the colors to cyan for me as well.
Why did I want this? Well, back when I saw the MoMA exhibit I fell in love with time lapse imagery and Eve's star map. That is one reason I have pushed for the release of that display to a broader populace. There has been some movement with having that happen. Basically, it is visually gorgeous and gives a representation of movement in a game as large as Eve. It shows activity and created a rhythmic pulse of daily life in the game.
Outreach:
Next weekend is one of my monthly open Q&A’s with Sugar Kyle and whatever other CSM members I can drag along . 1500 and 2200 should be the times. These are informal chats and part of my attempt to be available across multiple types of communication. I’ve also taken to dropping into Seamus Donohue’s weekly game mechanic sessions as well. It’s a great way to listen to the concerns, confusions, and curiosities of newer players seeking knowledge.
Phoebe has been released with bugs. I advise reading the patch notes to see what has been fixed each day. Currently, it is been reported that jump cloning is clearing jump fatigue. If this happens you should bug report it. The new multi-sell windows are amazing but deemed too small. The size was increased. There were also a few items that managed to miss out on the invention changes. They were picked up and patched. Blueprints not working in some instances were also reported and corrected. Pretty much, if something weird happens file a bug report. Posting on the problems thread is also useful. Both would be the optimal decision. There is also a general feedback thread that has already helped to get things changed such as a larger number entry box for the multisell feature.
On my list is escalations. They are taking people out of low sec and running them up into high sec. There was one that I knew of that would occasionally do this before Phoebe. It was a 4/10. Now I have report of escalation after escalation running people out of low sec and up onto 1.0 systems.
I’ve been reading feedback and talking to people this last week. I’m trying to stay on top of answering and commenting on forum posts. I am surprised that things like jump fatigue are shocking some people who are heavy users of jump mechanics for instance. Still, I hand them the developers blogs and hope that they take a moment to catch up. The evenings have been filled with great conversations, interesting insights and thoughts, and reactions.
The release pace is not slowing down. In fact, I believe that I am fortunate to live in these times because I do not have to sit on information as long as previous CSM members have had to.
A new type of exploration site has cropped up. There is a dev post related to this but no dev blog as of yet. For those interested in PvE, know that this area is not being ignored even as the general movement towards Sov and POS revamps move forward.
The second o7 show aired on Thursday. It is packed with details and developer interviews. It also shares two big pieces of news:
No jump clone costs or skill point loses with new clones. This has caused mostly happiness and some disappointment. This is a subject that has been on the table since the start of the CSM. I know a lot of high skill point frigate pilots who are very happy about this change. For them, it means more fights and more time in space. Some feel it is CCP unfettering them from a death tax. Other’s have said that it is CCP making Eve risk free. I say that this is only one part of a mulitstep process to make the entire game play mechanics around clones more interesting and engaging. However, it was decided that this bad part could be removed now:
To quote CCP Rise on Reddit:
While EVE is about consequences for your actions, we believe the current medical clone system does not offer any real choices. It is simply a tax on your character based on your risk level and your character age.
It isn't interesting currently, it's acting as a disincentive for gameplay we want people to engage in, and it's very frustrating when you forget to pay the tax and lose training time.This is some of that forward movement. To remove what is going to just go and then build upon it. There has been a lot of discussion about interesting choices vs mechanics that force people into steps that no one will ever opt out of. What if pods were something that could have interesting abilities while clones carried implant sets as they normally did? You’d build your fit from the pod and clone up to the ship and fittings. What if pods had the chance of escaping in null and wormholes? Would you put an expensive set of implants in your head and take that risk? This is a great time to share what you want from your pods. Hope and dream now. Think big. Think interesting. Get up, stretch, and see what is outside of the box that we have been in. This, I hope, is also our first step towards decoupling implant clones and pods.
Clones are a very important part of EVE and we would very much want a good system built around them but we don't want that to prevent us from getting a bad system out of the way as soon as we can.
For those who like stats. CCP Foxfour dropped the fact that clone upgrades account for 4% of the ISK sunk out of the game. There have been a lot of discussion about the ISK sink of clones and should it be removed? CCP is well on top of the economics of Eve and the ISK sinks and faucets.
New space. I like to call it T-Space. The o7 show drops some information about this new system that is enormous with NPC stations and no local. It is accessed by wormholes from k-space and from w-space. I’m torn on this topic. Is this a fifth space or is it a second half of wormhole space? One way or another it is different space with different mechanics and potential. I fear that it will simply be known as the land of bubbles, but I’m hopeful that it will develop its own culture and denizens.
The UI is being revamped. I’d suggest a visit to SiSi or just look at the pictures on blogs, forums, and reddit. I like the new UI more than I thought. I’m not in love with some of the icons but that does not make them bad. I do like the current colored icons with the current UI. They have character. However, with the two UI side by side I don’t hate the new one and quite like many of its bells and whistles. My first bit of feedback was about the blur and transparency levels. I’ve also had discussion with someone who needs absolutely no transparency due to eye issues. All of this is being taken back to the UI team and they are all issues that need to be resolved before release. Unlike many things that can be fixed and tweaked later such as button sizes or how much something glows or flickers, elements that provide any mild form of readability issues need to be handled before launch.
Something I asked for:
Right before Phoebe’s release I was doing last minute movements of my own. I asked if we could get a time lapse of the cynos going up leading to Phoebe. I figured that it would be beautiful. The same request was echoed on Reddit. CCP Masterplan put that all together and released the raw data for people to create what they wanted to see. For some reason, this upset some people who feel that CCP and the CSM have better things to do. I take blame for asking for it and I’m quite pleased with the results. Fuzzy Steve put together a lovely map and changed the colors to cyan for me as well.
Why did I want this? Well, back when I saw the MoMA exhibit I fell in love with time lapse imagery and Eve's star map. That is one reason I have pushed for the release of that display to a broader populace. There has been some movement with having that happen. Basically, it is visually gorgeous and gives a representation of movement in a game as large as Eve. It shows activity and created a rhythmic pulse of daily life in the game.
Outreach:
Next weekend is one of my monthly open Q&A’s with Sugar Kyle and whatever other CSM members I can drag along . 1500 and 2200 should be the times. These are informal chats and part of my attempt to be available across multiple types of communication. I’ve also taken to dropping into Seamus Donohue’s weekly game mechanic sessions as well. It’s a great way to listen to the concerns, confusions, and curiosities of newer players seeking knowledge.
I am curious, does CCP plan to ever add PvE to HIGH SECURITY space? And I mean stuff like exploration sites whose rewards were a bit better than mining in a Venture as a new player (high security ghost sites, I am farting in your general direction), totally new PvE or just expanding the pool for the old missions system (Burner missions are not enough).
ReplyDeleteSo far, each time CCP says "exploration content" they mean "low/null/WH content", and it's growing tiresome... albeit it's safer for my wallet, it saves me to subscribe again. :P
It would be good, IMHO, that high security space contained places worth flying a multi-billion exploration BS, for the right reward and the usual risk of flying such specialyzed ships in high, or maybe other high sec risks: FAI, losing security status and standing by needing to kill some Empire Faction ships in order to get the reward.
Seriously? Are you saying players should be able to make what? As musch as misison in Losec? in Nullsec? in Anoikis? No... Hisec = lowest returns on effort, Lowsec = midline returns, Nullsec = highend returns and Negsec = Highest returns.
DeleteRisk = or vs Reward take yer pick. This is working as intended. Wanna risk a Multibillon ISK BS? Go right ahead... wanna potentially make enough in a site or series of sites to AFFORD to LOSE a Multibillon ISK BS? Then fly it where the Risk is equal to the potential Reward... but that is not, and never ever should be Hisec.
@TurAmarth
DeleteAnd that argument might actually hold some weight if CCP reintroduces actual risk to the nullsec empires. Some of the recent changes are a move in that direction, but there is still much to do before many null players will face true risk for their inflated rewards.
Yes. Revamping and expanding missions and HS PvE has been waiting for the content tools.
ReplyDeleteWhat is your concept of HS content worth a blinged BS?
The conservative approach would be to use that content to double on the actual content, which is often used as a casual friendly income source; thus reward per time of play should be in par to the current content. In my old times, a mission runner could expect to average around 30 million ISK per hour, maybe 40, doing Lvl 4 missions in high security with a faction BS.
DeleteSo, a "good new content" would be one that averaged like that; either 1 chance in 4 hours to hit jackpot and get 120 million worth of rewards, 1 chance in 2 hours of 60 million, and so. Ideally, there should be a serious chance to succeed in less than one hour, which with slow ships as BS means that spawns should be a bit more frequent to compensate for the reduced number of systems a BS could effectively scan.
That, for reward. As for risk, obviously if the rewards were high, some people would just farm they all day long - but then, maybe running one of such contents should have consequences too. I said above about losing standing and security status for being forced to kill faction NPCs, so farmers eventually would run into trouble or be forced to run Level 4s to pacify the angry empires/factions.
But also, as for a first in EVE, maybe should let NPC "remember" the player and his actions for a while.
So say you crashed on Guristas earlier today, next time you jump on them within X cooldown time (24 hours?), they will be on alert and will call in reinforcements just to blow you to smitherens (say, call in a Burner, or two...) For extra fun, don't let the pilot know who's party is he going to crash... it would be nice if NPCs did something else than wait and die for the n-th time. Afer 500,000 times, even the Damsel shoud learn to not get in distress!
That, as I said, is a conservative take on the issue.
Ideally, my dreams come true, would be that what a player does in PvE affected other players... but that would be a different matter.
Onions,
DeleteUnderneath your grumpiness there are often good ideas lurking about and it's pleasing when someone (in this case Sugar) teases some of those ideas out of you. If I may burrow about in your off the cuff spitballing for a moment, one theme you seem to be exploring is that PvE (and most especially ‘combat’ PvE) needs to be much more dynamic. If nothing else, Guritas should remember that you’ve been kicking their sorry asses recently and respond indignantly. While slipping in a burner is certainly a muscular response, it doesn’t feel very sandboxy. Sure, you and the Guristas have a score to settle but with the exception of possible affects in the Capsuleer market, that score has no observable affect on the universe.
With that observation in mind, I tend to think that increasing the sandboxyness of PvE (and most especially ‘combat’ PvE) needs to be a crucial component of making that type of PvE more dynamic rather than a different matter entirely.
In this sense a serious rethinking of PvE (and most especially ‘combat’ PvE) needs to be undertaken where such PvE becomes an appealing avenue to sandbox engagement rather than a temporary NPC job one can undertake for a little ISK as it currently is.
I don't know if you took the time to read the minutes about Content Tools and Team Bananastand but you should, Onions as bot sessions deal with PvE and its potentual future.
DeleteI know you are often angry but thank you for taking the time to flesh out what you want. The expierences from high sec mission runners and what they'd like to have to continue to engage them in the game is valuable. Thank you.
As I stated, my dreams-come-true vision of PvE would be that it could affect other players, thus being on par with PvP... actually becoming a different venue of PvP, more based on the pen than the sword, to say so.
DeleteIn my vision, capsuleers wouldn't just flee from the Empires and be free in a new land (an idea certainly appealing to people whose cultural background is exactly that), rather some of them would bite back and corrupt the Empires in their favor (which is appealing to people with different cultural background).
Maybe I just read too many Chronicles... but I think that EVE would be better if a signature from the right NPC was as fearsome as a wardec from an uberalliance. For he right price, of course, in terms of time, effort and player organization...
Sugar,
ReplyDeleteA question, a comment, a gentle ribbing.
Gentle ribbing concerning cyno eruption:
“For some reason, this upset some people who feel that CCP and the CSM have better things to do.” Yah, what’s a matter with you? Y’all are acting like we inhabit a single shard, persistent universe with historically important moments worth documenting in gorgeous cyan.
A question concerning new release cycle:
“The release pace is not slowing down. In fact, I believe that I am fortunate to live in these times because I do not have to sit on information as long as previous CSM members have had to.” In addition to making your CSM life easier, do you suspect it improves CCPs situation as well in the sense that CCP is now able to reveal more detail to the CSM as the damage produced by a possible leak is reduced since one is talking only a few weeks either way? What I’m trying to get at here is that I suspect the new release schedule enables much greater helpful and timely player input.
A comment concerning medical clones:
As a game mechanic, the old medical clone upgrade ‘option’ always struck me odd. Following ship vs ship combat loss CCP then hands you a second, ‘Simon Says’ game with your endangered pod/clone. Playing that game goes something like this, “Was your clone updated? No? Hah hah! You didn’t say ‘Simon Says’.” CCP then draws back and sucker punches you with a skill point loss. I suppose the mini-game has a certain masochistic appeal but I’ve always chosen to ISK/Button Click my way around it. I always say ‘Simon Says’.
Actually, another comment concerning medical clones:
In Phoebe the Pod Pop Express is nerfed. In the near future the cost of a popped pod is to be reduced. Hmmm. Reduce the benefit then reduce the expense. Connected? Perhaps.
Once I can get that MoMA display out to the public Dire...
DeleteI think its nice not to sit on things. I've been sitting on the power projection changes since the summer for instance. BUt the from the discussion to the impilmention not being a six month process keeps everyone fresh and on their feet and the enviorment more dynamic to use a buzzword.
I think medicle clones are one of those things that made sense when they were implimented. It was not until 2007 or so (I'd have to check my own history posts) that we had people with over 50m skill points.
The game is aging and the mechanics are aging but like children who grow up we don't like pink dresses with flowers and some may wish to have a beer when they come home instead of a glass of milk. Eve has to regonize its players are growing up and adjust itself to its population.
This sounds amazing now that I just said it and I think i will see if I can devote a blog post to it... thanks Dire <3
Oh yeah, Pod express and clone costs are only connected becuase they are conencted not so much becuase "oh without pod express its okay to do tis now." We are looking at things as individuals as well as a whole when making decisions and I think thats good.
DeleteI heard a comment on the patchspansion cycle over on Ancient Gaming Noob...
DeleteAn undocumented new :thing: in EVE Online... "Feature Fatigue" LOL!
I made an overly strong statment earlier. I have not been sitting on the changes to power projection that we had but the knowledge that it would be changing and Soon (tm). I'm tossing this in here before a pot gets churned that does not ened to be due to sloppy responses on my part.
DeleteI'll take the opportunity here to share a thought on the release cycle.
DeleteLooking at the releases from a distance, I'm glad that this cycle seems to have increased CCP's ability to change things in need of change and to experiment with new possibilities. However, as a player in the thick of it, the lack of stability in the game has been very annoying.
It used to be that after an expansion, there would be a period of time in which you adjusted to the new changes, bugs were found and fixed, and eventually everything settled into place. We could then enjoy a few months playing in a stable environment without having to worry about when the rules would change or if we would have the rug pulled out from under us next week.
Now it seems that change is a constant. Every few weeks, ships or modules will work differently than they did before, requiring new tactics to be created and learned. There are always more bugs to be fixed or worked around. There are piles of patch notes and dev blogs and forum announcements to read through instead of just flying in space. There is no time to just enjoy the game as it is anymore, because it never stays the same and we have to spend so much time learning and relearning how to play, and frankly that gets tiring.
The six-week release cycle may be good for the devs, but I question whether it is good for the players and the viability of the game. I for one am feeling burnt out on just trying to keep up, and I can only assume that there are others who feel the same way.
"Feature Fatigue" indeed!
Well, you got the one guy needing no transparency, and you got me that needs full transparency because the blur effect gives me space seasickness. Fortunately, you can just turn off post-processing and eliminate the blur (Please don't change that CCP!)
ReplyDeleteThe ability to turn off the blur should stay. I thought I'd hate it but I like it but I know not everyone is me. The UI is not a one size fits all situation and these cases and usage needs are incredably important right now.
DeleteI'd like it a lot more if they left the old system in and let us turn the new one off like they did with the notifications. (That widget needs some transparency or can we just dock it to the eve bar somewhere? It clashes or intereferes with pretty much everything on my screen)
DeleteThey are not going to leave the entire old UI in. That was given a firm no. That means I work to get people the features implemented that they would like to have.
DeleteA few selected comments…
ReplyDelete- I am surprised that things like jump fatigue are shocking some people who are heavy users of jump mechanics for instance.
I’m not… the number of players involved in the metagame may be higher than in say, WoW… but it is not the majority IMHO and experience… A coprmate last night was shocked by the Compass… had NO IDEA what the hell it was… and I’m a close friend and he knows my blog etc… some just don’t read stuff… and I believe that’s (1) hilarious and (2) stooped and… (3) they deserve what they get.
- Clones… Some feel it is CCP unfettering them from a death tax. Other’s have said that it is CCP making Eve risk free.
CCP Rise from Reddit: …acting as a disincentive for gameplay we want people to engage in, and it's very frustrating when you forget to pay the tax and lose training time.
Risk = Loss, Loss = Disincentive, therefore, Risk = Disincentive. And in EVE, Loss is Real. Really think about it… wanna reduce and or remove disincentives? Then you must nerf Risk. Tell me another way… if you can.
CCP had better keep an eye on their desire to keep EVE different. Cause if I’m right… and I am… the only way to remove disincentives… is to reduce or remove risk. And then we head down the ugly path to WoWinSpace. And, this it is ONLY a disincentive to those who are risk adverse and wanna bling dey heads.
Hisec mission pubbies bling dey Raven’s… and nullsec pvpbears bling dey heads… and I don’t hear ANY talk talk about removing the disincentives to misson pubbies getting ganked in dey bling fit mission boats… And why not? Missionbears scream and cry as much as nullbears about “unfair” loss… if we nerf one for safety’s sake, then that opens the doors for “BUT, but you did it or them! Why not ME?!?!?”
Thera: New space. I like to call it T-Space. … Is this a fifth space or is it a second half of wormhole space?
Fozzie said this is a 5th space.
It will be truly New Space in EVE… a blend of some of the features of Empire IN Anoikis.
Thera will be tied very deeply into the Lore and the current Empire/Anoikis storyline…
Thera will be NEGATIVE SEC… -1.0, IE Wormhole space (not nullsuck)…
Thera will be ONLY accessible via holes…
Thera will have Sleeper Sites…
Thera will have NO LOCAL…
Thera will have NO CONCORD….
But Thera will have NEW weather (sun type effects)…
New Sun type…
Newbula…
Thera will be the Largest System ever in EVE…
And Thera will have Landmark Sites, New ‘ANOIKIS’ Landmarks sites all over…
And lastly, Thera will be, per CCP Fozzie, ONE of a ‘collection’ of New Systems to be brought forth in Anoikis.
Yup… New Space… a 5th space in EVE… you really oughtta consider jumping the crazy marble Sugar… come play in my ‘verse!! =]
Ahhh… ya just gotta give the love to CCP for this one!
The UI is being revamped.
I hope CCP is learning to give us OPTIONS with the new stuff… IE the ability to tone it down or even off. For instance… many are all a gag a over the split SScan/Probe screens… I could care less. First thing I did was dock both back together as tabs… I have a system, and my system works for me and it done not include covering MOAR of my game with MOAR separate screens… But, hving this as an OPTON for others is exactly how it should be.
Sugar, please, Please, PLEASE take a good hard look at many of the past and recent additions and changes… How many players, after testing and trying new stuff, asked for a way to opt out? For a way to reduce, alter or disable the impact of a particular ‘new thing’?? This may be the single best thing CCP can learn to give us… OPTIONS for all new and changed features and abilities.
Take a lesson from Microsoft… change, for the sake of change, is not ALWAYS good or even what the customer wants. I am (like so many here) a career IT Tech… and I have made a lot of money resetting Win8 to look and act like Win7… please really think about it.
And …time lapse of the cynos going up leading to Phoebe.
Just Beautiful…. =]
Well, that’s all from me for now… o7
Lord this is way to much to answer when I should be at work so I'll take some points.
DeleteMy job, in my mind, isn't to tell people that they get what they get. It is to try to educate them and reach out to them. I want them to not be shocked and crazy and rage quiting when a moment of attention would have solved it.
I am baffled about your opinion that people only want to save their blinged out heads and that they are avoiding risk and everything else. Quite simply, I disagree. The pilots that are most heavily effected by these mechanics are the ones that eat it like a bitter pill every time it happens becuase they'll take the hit to their gameplay. But every single bite makes them more and more bitter over something that is not adding anything but to those who want to rant and scream about risk and reward and how Eve is hard so you better eat your damn bitter pill and like it if you want to play this game. What a cold and valueless thing to put people through.
Everything is taken as a whole and an individual. Pod costs do not align with mission runners wanting to be ganked. Becuase the two are both unhappy does not make the two things equal or comparable to balancing. That is not a good argument.
I don't care that Fozzie calls t-space new space. I very much know what t-space is. It is in many ways and it is also not in some ways. Due to the heavy use of wormhole mechanics it leans towards being another half of wormhole space just as sov null and npc null are different worlds but both null sec. FW and non FW low sec are incredably different places but they are both low sec. So, I'm curiousi and I will see how it pans out. As long as it is full of bubbles I will not be living there.
Opting out: Please notice Tur that you can opt out of many of the new features CCP has implimented. You can turn off your compass, turn off your bookmarks, turn off the notifications. You can say no to these new features and this is absoutly one of the first things that I ask and something CCP has been building in along with optional in game beta testing. This is stuff that is improving and continues to improve. This is why at this time I am pushing for saving functionality of the old UI instead of just making people adapt. It is not something that we will always get our way in. The new industry interface for instance. But, we are getting this in many new features coming in.
TurAmarth,
DeleteI delight in your stand against the WoWification of Eve. It’s a good gig.
That said, I think a careful examination of the medical clone mechanic is in order. Currently, to use language similar to yours, there are three layers to the risk = reward dynamic:
Layer 1) Bling your boat. Reward? Your boat’s a powerful beast. Risk? Losing the boat is gonna prove expensive and possibly ALOD humiliating.
Layer 2) Bling your brain. Reward? Implant augmenting your brain makes you a powerful beast of a pilot. Risk? Losing that brain is gonna prove expensive and possibly ALOD humiliating.
Layer 3) Skill up. Reward? Played well, a high skill pilot walks as a God among lesser beings. Risk? Die unprepared and precious skills will be lost. But . . .
The current medical clone mechanic allows you to entirely evade skill point loss. Just a little bookkeeping and some throwaway ISKies and your skills remain 100% entirely protected. When it comes to skills, the game currently enables all reward at no risk.
TuraMarth, if one is to be consistent with risk = reward one should despise the current mechanic. Medical clones short circuit risk = reward. Therefore, there should be no medical clones. You die, you lose skill points. No ‘Simon Says’ workarounds.
So TuraMarth, are you a purist? Is risk = reward to be the only measure of engaging game play or, perhaps, might there be other ways to play in the sandbox?
Seems to me CCP has already judiciously concluded that skill point loss may well be one disincentive too far and sought to mitigate it. With skill point loss mitigation already in the game, it doesn’t strike me as blasphemous for CCP to review the mechanic and conclude that skill point loss shouldn’t be in the game at all.
I'm seeing the removal of medical clone grades as being the result of years of work on the npc side of improving the clones. This was probably a breakthrough discovery from the inferno drug that enables them to basically xerox perfect clones for capsuleers, no matter their experience level. Could even say they've been testing them out with the Dust Mercs (They don't have sp loss do they?).
DeleteDire,
DeleteYou are completely wrong on the current pod mechanics being completely risk free. (Okay, well, not completely wrong. I exaggerate for effect). I'm guessing you have never forgotten to upgrade your clone after dying. I have known many a pilot to forget, especially in the heat of a fight. Or they have forgotten because they get podded so rarely they have forgotten all about the podding mechanics. I also know pilots who could not afford to upgrade their clones because of the cost.
Sugar,
Most incredibly blinged out mission runners I know (which is only anecdotal) are incredibly risk averse. And why shouldn't they be? EvE teaches us to be risk averse. Just like RL does :) Truth be told, most peoploe in RL are risk averse, so why wouldn't they be in a game that mirrors much of RL?
As for the attention gap, yeah, I honestly don't know what else can be done. Horse, leading, water, and all that. My own experience has been that I enjoy the game more the less engaged I am in the meta and/or the online community. In fact, I really should be reading your blog, or Tur's, or anyone else's for that matter, because it only serves to start the bitter buildup again. I just can't help myself :)
But it is telling that I find the EvE community in general so toxic that it's a thing best avoided. I'm not alone. The friend who got me to try EvE 6 years ago and then got me to try it again and stay 3 years ago avoids the forums and the blogs like the plague. He checks dev blogs, he checks the features forum, but that's about it. He said he was more engaged when he first started playing, but found the constant negativity, the scandal mongering, etc, killed the game for him.
So he unplugged. And his enjoyment of the game skyrocketed.
Back to player education. Tur and I were discussing this the other night, and we had a simultaneous epiphany. With the advent of the new fast development cycle, the way players relate to the game has changed and many (most) of us don't seem to fully realize it. Oh, we might realize it intellectually, but not at our emotional core.
In the Before Times, the game changed every 6 months. We devoured the changes, digested them, and burped out our adaptation within a month. And then we carried on gaming with a set of rules that were stable for the next 4-5 months. In the New Now, we barely have time to start thinking of the new changes and identify potential problems before we're on to the next new change. And that, I suspect, has most of us off-balance. I don't think most of the player base was really ready for the new pace of change, and when people don't have time to adapt to change, they get grumpy(er).
The game needs Jesus features and it needs bug fixing. I'm hopeful we'll see the return of Jesus features. In fact, I'd argue we are seeing that, it's just no one notices because of the 6-week cycle delivering a feature in bits and bobs. Perhaps you could suggest to CCP that they put out a summary blog every 4-6 months of what they've given us so that we can be forced/gently reminded to recognize the new content? A lot of the comments I hear from people are along the lines of "There's nothing new. Yeah, they give us a new ship here and there, one or two new bits now and then, but nothing major anymore."
CCP now needs to have a permanent, updated and maintained, single-source, non-forum method of accessing dev blogs. It should be formatted so that the blog sequence is obvious and easy to digest at a glance. In other words, not their fiction portal.
Sugar, I'm going to have to call you on this comment:
Delete"You can turn off your compass"
We may be able to turn off objects displayed in the compass, but we most definitely cannot turn off the compass itself, and some of us find this very annoying. When your eyes are scanning the screen for useful information, having something moving around at the bottom of the screen is a distraction, as it keeps pulling your view down to an area where nothing is actually happening, and away from where they should be focused. We would also like the ability to display objects (such as bookmarks) in space without needing to have them displayed on the compass simultaneously - being able to turn off the compass ring would help this.
Of course, it would also be nice if we could have these things displayed in space but be able to turn off that thrice-blighted scan sweep animation!
I'm not surprised at that. One of my corpmates says the same thing. He doesn't like the ring that is left.
DeleteI recently came to the conclusion that the "single-shard universe" is a lie. After consulting 2 news sites, 6 players blogs, a couple forums, dev blogs and patch notes - I am now ready to play Eve. Wait - do I have any time left the actual game?
ReplyDeleteI believe Fozzie coined the term "Super User". The world is full of ordinary people.
I have says when the bitterness gets to high and reading outside of the game is depressing. Then I log on and play.
DeleteI argued for about 15 minutes against the monochrome icons in the new UI at one of the CSM8 summits, partially the fact that they're monochrome and mostly the fact that 8(!) of them are variations on "square white box with a few grey lines in it."
ReplyDeleteAs you can see, that argument went absolutely nowhere... :-/
Sometimes you just can't save CCP from their own stupidity, I suppose.
DeleteIt's just too bad that we're the ones who have to suffer for it! How many times have we seen them get weeks of test server feedback telling them something was a bad idea, then they go live with it anyway only to receive thundering disapproval.
Sometimes CCP seems very open to feedback, but when they get fixated on an idea, no amount of opinion, evidence, or logical argument will dissuade them from their own destruction.
If they are going to go with monochrome, they could at least make it a single color for each type of item. IE: Cyan for financials, red for pvp-related, etc...
DeleteOne way to prevent bubble camping of the station in t-space is to make the station aggro any and all bubbles within 200 kilometres. Why would the inhabitants want their trade routes and livelihood camped? The would man the station guns if that was a thing.
ReplyDeleteSigh. Now I suppose I should edit my Pod&Planet fiction to not use "T-space" for the future space we'll get to via player-made gates. :)
ReplyDeleteQuick CSM question. Is there going to be any discussion on limiting obviously distasteful names in Eve? Or do we have to report them on a case-by-case instance?
ReplyDeleteWe did discuss this and learned a lot about it. It is case by case reporting still.
DeleteIt's also apparently a GM by GM basis, as I have reported names that were clearly in violation of these standards, and the characters persisted in my region of space for weeks after the ticket was closed, but when I filed a second ticket, the names were altered the next day.
DeleteIt sure would be nice to get some consistent application of the rules!