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CSM9 - Day 197

CCP Seagull continues to release dev blogs bundling up what is coming in the next release. This week was not limited to just her dev blog. Several blogs where released for Rhea as well as topics discussed.

I’ll again point to the fact that the UI changes are live on Sisi. There are some known bugs such as the fact that the right click menu can be invisible on lower video settings. CCP is not going to maintain the old UI in line with the new UI. While they have started beta testing and giving players the ability to opt out of features, this is not going to be one of them. There is a transparency slider in the works. The testing is also being based around the minimum specified graphics card abilities. What is not popular is the limitations to the color schemes. The ones listed are pretty for those who care for them. However, a broad pallet of UI themes are used by people for many reasons and removing that bit of personalization takes away from a player's experience. This is anger making for some and they have expressed their frustration.

Speaking about graphics, the new PBR (Physically Based Rendering) is incredible. Amarr is gold again or at least the gold parts are. Currently, the Minmatar textures are missing from the test server. Some of them are startling enough of a change to look like new skins.

The first dev blog for the week was about new sleeper sites and polarized weapons. They were once ‘blighted’. I’m pleased with the name progression. There is another aspect of these sites. They can pod you so I feel that its best to make sure people pay a little bit of attention to them.

CCP Fozzie released the detailed dev blog about Thera. It can also be directly reached on the test server through a special move channel. Many words have been said about Thera. What has come to me in my CSM capabilities is a general dissatisfaction on the focus on armor frigates in the small ship shattered systems. It seems a missed opportunity for some new type of small ship play. I agree. I love my shield frigates.

When I saw that CCP was adding keyboard flight control I felt a bit faint. This is a topic dear to my heart. It is not that I have been on the WASD bandwagon. I have complained for quite some time now that how to pilot in space was not explained anywhere in the tutorial. While it still is not, being able to use the basic movement keys is good. I hope that they opt in new accounts to the beta test to see how they handle it. I expect that they will naturally use the keyboard to control their ship and we will wind up with an interesting generational gap in the future. Yesterday it went live on Sisi. I have tried them out myself and they feel very good even with the tick. I had amazing control of my interceptor as I wove through the station. You will have to choose your keybinding. I chose WASD but for those that have any of those keys for other uses, they can choose another set. This video done by Nonoce from a Reddit thread shows off manual flying nicely.

There are other goodies in the coming soon. CCP is freeing up six million trial account names. If you have a beloved trial account name that you stare at fondly and point out the creation date, you may want to subscribe it. This is the first time CCP is doing a name purge like this.

Rhea launches in three weeks but Phoebe is just past us. I’ve noticed a vast change across low sec. Everything is changing. Behaviors are changing. Ships that would never have been undocked in a Phoebe world are heading into battle. Local groups are clashing with other local groups and the face of low sec is changing. I don’t think that is for the bad but I’m hovering over it anxiously and watching and listening. Capital bouncing has come up in discussion. I see it as a problem.

Another side effect of Phoebe is that exploration sites are escalating into high sec. This did not make me happy. Watching those delicious sites run off into the land of faction police was rather unhappy making. This has been addressed and should be corrected in one of next weeks patches.

I do not have any updates on module, recon, or Rorqual rebalancing passes. Sorry!

Outside of that, there has been a lot of conversation with CCP over different things. Skype has been busy. A few forum posts have gone up. Various concepts are being discussed. Meetings have happened. The productivity is high. People are more sold now on the release schedule. Now there are complaints that there is to much change, to fast.

I’m starting discussions about war decs. What they are. What we want them to be. How they work and all of that fun stuff. I want to hear opinions and thoughts about it. I’ve received a lot of feedback that war decs should be more objective based. What objectives and how that functions while covering the spread of things war decs do? It does not feel as if it addresses enough things to me. Why am I doing this? War decs are a topic that people often bring to me. I speak to everyone from the player in high sec who is deced to those who work as mercenaries and enjoy trade hub camping. I’d like to see what we come up with.

Yesterday I had my Open Q&A. Corbexx and Asay came along for the first session and then Corbexx again for the second. I also got Sion to drop by for about ten minutes and answer a few questions about null sec that came up about twenty minutes into the session. The evening session went well. As happens each time they are vastly different from each other in flow, feel, and questions. One topic was the reluctance to post on the forums due to the environment. I do understand that but I also do appreciate those who close their eyes and post anyway. It is still read, even with the negativity around it. There was an interesting suggestion to allow parallel threads for when people want to escape the main thread but still wish to be constructive. Currently, the forum rules cause these threads to be shut down. This also led into a discussion on how to reach out to a wider Eve audience for helpful programs such as Eve Uni's classes which are open to the public.

It has been suggested that I run these talks on weekdays because people have to many commitments on the weekends. I have no idea how that will work out for people's schedules. I have an abnormal work schedule and always have. I have no idea what is convenient and picked the weekend because it is a relatively neutral time. I’m aiming to have my next one the weekend of December 15th.

A wormhole subreddit has also opened. Good luck to them.

Comments

  1. "War decs. What they are. What we want them to be."

    Alliances and corporations should have the option to put up a war bounty pool. This pool would be payed out relative to kill value multiplied by a factor the alliance or corp can choose.

    So If I were to kill a wartarget my corp or alliance should be able to pay me

    killvalue * some factor out of that pool.

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  2. As I already stated, what's wrong with wardecs is that agression moves only in one direction: the agressor messes with defender's gameplay, but the defender can't mess with agressor's gameplay.

    WHY?

    I want the choice to make life miserable to anyone who wardecs me, and that must cost me as much as he spends in wardeccing me. He wardecs me for paltry 50 million, thus I crawl in station or drop to NPC corporation. OR, maybe I just make every NPC in Empire space blow him upon sight for a bounty worth 20% of the destroyed items, plus 50 million ISK to turn the tables on him. If his reward for wardeccing me is not worth the risk of being harrassed by NPC in high security space, how is that my fault? Why should I stop playing because he's a jerk? Let me be a jerk too!

    Wardecs serve a goal, or so CCP claims: they're needed to destroy POSes, Well then, let's wardec POSes and ONLY POSes! Any other wardec must risk being turned on the agressor so NPC hunt his sorry ass out of Empire until the wardec expires -I've heard that lowsec is fun this season and PvPrs can have all the PvP they want there.

    (Let's say that for wardec x1 he gets temporary -10.0 status; for wardec x2 he gets automatically red flagged upon undock; for wardec x3 plus 20% NPC bounty he is actively chased by NPCs around gates and stations... the system can be trimmed, but the intent should be clear: war should be serious and potentially game-wrecking even if you're engaging peaceful miners).

    As they stand now, wardecs are mainly a tool to drive out of game players who are not in it for the PvP. I somehow doub that cCP is in a position to dismiss every nonPvPr, specially when already are more ways to PvP than just explode things.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ...turned on the agressor so NPC hunt his sorry ass out of Empire...

      AO that sounds a little bit like the start of a 'safe' hisec agenda... tsk tsk.

      That does not balance things... it just forces PvP out of hisec. I agree wardecs need to change, and I agree the defenders need moar options, but we do not need options that stop PvP from happening... we must give balance to the Defender against the Aggressor.

      These options must come from a place that fulfills this criteria... the main Assumption that the Defenders are:

      (a) noobs (inexperienced and low skilled players who will not be able to successfully fight against older higher experienced and skilled players...)

      (b) non-PvPers (players who are not interested in PvP, and for those who will troll, yes players in EVE have that right...)

      (c) poor (players either noobs or vets who are simply not rich enough to afford Mercs [Mercs worth paying that is, I know, we were and we were expensive...] players, like most, who are simply too busy PLAYING the game and putting their ISK into ships and such...)

      Changes that can successfully fulfill those conditions AND can give some balance to the Defender against the Aggressor are the options that will best work to balance War Decs in Hisec.

      Delete
    2. No, TA. You can PvP all you want... but wardeccing for free kills and lulz may backfire. It's no longer "mark corp, drop 50 million, wait for targets and lulz".

      The solution for a), b) and c) in your points it's NPC assistance. NPC are cheap, are easily accessible and get the job done if you're not up to PvP. What can be discussed is the nature and effectiveness of such NPC assistance for noobs / space poor / carebears

      I understand that blowing POS with 0.1% of all wardecs is important, so that should remain; but I also am serious when I mean that wardecs should be dangerous to wardeccers, just in case they wardecced the wrong noobs / space poor / carebears for trolling.

      Two years after the new wardec system, the optimal strategy with a unwanted wardec still is to drop corp or not play. Old system was shit and new system is shit too because they give no choices to non-PvP and oppose no deterrents to troll PvPrs like Marmite.

      (Also I want to point out: there's two ways to get rid of competition. You can arson his restaurant, or send in public health inspectors... I am aware that CCP is head-in-ass about making all NPC and RP content meaningless, but it would be cool that an Amarran citizen with a POS in Minmatarr territory faced certain... "legal loopholes"... that made his activity a bit riskier than at homeland)

      Delete
    3. (I never know whether to call you "Angry" or "Onion"... both TBH sound a bit weird for a name to me... like yer some pissed off guy who make people cry...) =\

      I find Your NPC Option interesting, but kinda weird... I believe the PvP community would be extremely vocal and negative if this was seriously considered... I do gotta admit though, there is a certain balance, a certain Yin & Yangness to it...

      A corp of PvP players (Aggressors) War Dec a corp of PvE players (Defenders). The Aggressors are forcing, or at least trying to force, the Defenders into PvP... so the Defenders hire NPCs as mercs, and those NPCs, with the toughest AI in the game, "force" the Aggressors into PvE... only not for ISK (no bounties on an NPC Merc), but for their own defense. And it would have to be an aggressive NPC defense that cannot be 'gamed' or 'formulated'...

      The NPC Mercs would have to fly decently fit PvP ships. Player ships with webs and long and short points etc., and they would have to fly good PvP tactics, even have a very real potential of winning against the Aggressors... mebbe even up to Podding them.

      Yes, very interesting... I will have to mull over that one. But DAMN would that make the grieferbears cry a lake of tears now wouldn't it?

      My personal take on War Decs is that we should be looking at RL for examples and methodolgies... (as it my take on everything in EVE...) as I wrote up in Lebensraum I give my thoughts on War Decs and one possible way of looking at them...

      we would go to War for some worthwhile Reason, IE Wars with Goals... same as IRL. CCP wants us fighting a Forever War, but aside from Faction War (which is fairly dry as 'winning' has no real effect in the long term) they have given us no 'reason's' for us to fight other than that we 'can'... but WHY should we?

      Those who love PvP for it's own sake are seen as assholes or griefers by those who have no love for fighting just for the sake of fighting, especially in a game where Loss is Real. No, whether it's a game or RL, we need a REASON to go to War... something tangible, something worthwhile... other than for the lulz.

      The basis FOR War Decs must be rational... or it's all just griefing.

      Delete
    4. My noob corp was wardecced a few times. We lost some ships, and the lone semi-bitter vet advised us to log for the week. Some did, but I and one or two others did not.

      We did not go fight the war targets.

      We ran from them. Scattered to the four winds, no two players in the same general area. And then we continued to mine and run missions. Yes, we didn't have access to the trade hubs for a week, but we also didn't allow the wardeccers to win by us docking up.

      It was annoying to have to move my mining ships, haulers, and mission ships, but it was also the most exciting week of mining and missioning I'd ever had.

      That said, the one thing I truly worry about is the ability of large entities to keep smaller ones under constant wardec. As with most of the early mechanics, CCP thought isk would be a limiting factor, and at the time, that was true. So while after some thought, I'm not in favour of peacedeccing, etc, something clearly has to be looked at in terms of the costs of wardeccing, etc.

      Perhaps war decs should be limited to factions instead of EvE-wide? Force the wardeccers to decide if they want the wardec active in just Caldari space, or Caldari and Amarr, etc? And have the costs reflect that. Coupled with that, maybe consider having war decs deliver a standings hit to with the faction(s) the wardec is active in. Having that kind of disorder can't be good for business/peace, order, and good government/spreading the word of God/interrupting the in-fighting between the Matari tribes. What would ORE or the Sisters think of someone who wardecced all the time?

      Just some thoughts

      Delete
    5. TurAmarth:

      Just call me Onions, as in "Mr. Onions, who is Angry" :P

      I am aware that the idea of NPC kicking PvPr asses would raise a shitstorm and would drown CCP in a tidal wave of PvPbear tears.

      But as you say, it's a Ying-Yang thing to me. Wardecs are like reward-reward-reward-reward for the PvP agressor and risk-risk-risk-risk for the PvE victim. That is only accceptable if CCP states that EVE is all about PvP and everyone not willing to PvP can take their money elsewhere the sooner the better.

      Put simply, PvP must be more than exploding and avoiding exploding. PvP have been enjoying a privilege for years, and it's time that privilege ends. Wanna fight? Well then do it, but maybe the fight will not come in your terms. Maybe you'll have to fight NPCs and maybe they'll wax your ass if you're not ready for their PvE... for a change!

      Anyway, as wardecs stand, they're just tools for the lolz. They're fought for fun and I don't see them as a "realistic" tool. Real wars are fought to stop the war, and that means that the defeated side should be disabled from warring for a meaningful time... losing a war and engaging into another next week is not realistic, and in that sense, the only "realistic" wars in EVE are nullsec wars -which naturally lead to a super winner super owning everybody, and that stops the wars altogether as IRL.

      As someone stated, the problem with capsuleers in EVE is that they behave like guys playing a videogame. And that can never be "realistic" without stop being a videogame.

      Delete
    6. I actually love the idea of using NPCs as counters. If the PVP group is trying to force PVP on a PVE corp, the PVE corp should be able to counter by trying to force the PVP group to shoot rats.

      It has a pleasant symmetry to it.

      Delete
  3. "I do not have any updates on module, recon, or Rorqual rebalancing passes. Sorry!"

    As one of those prompting you for info, thanks for the reply. I both see and take great pleasure in the very careful wording. 'You have no update' doesn't necessarily mean things have stalled nor does it mean you're unaware of things happening, it simply means *you* have no update at this time. Soooo diplomatic. Makes me smile.

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  4. Hi Sugar,

    Just pointing out that hi sec sites often escalate into low. While I can't say the aggravating factors are exactly the same...

    H

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes. And low sec sites escalate to null.

      But high sec heading to low does not have faction police issues. Since they spawn and follow you into the site, the site becomes uncompletable due to hard coded game mechanics.

      Delete
    2. I know that Sugar. Just suggesting that if you're looking at changing the parameters of one area of space, perhaps it's also worth considering changing the others to apply equally.

      Certainly not arguing the merits of why it should or shouldn't be changed. Encounter exactly the same issue if I take a WH into hi sec space where my status makes me overly interesting to the faction police there...

      Delete
    3. I'm struggling to understand what you mean.

      Delete
    4. Sorry Sugar, can be somewhat obscure at times. If you're looking to change escalations for one set of space, is it not also worth considering changing them for all relevant space... i.e high sec escalations stay in high sec, low in low, null in null. It was just a thought.

      Delete
    5. The low sec ones will still escalate to null sec. They will not escalate to high sec. I don't want to keep them in low. I want to keep them out of high.

      Delete
    6. What would happen if you could post something like kill rights, except for escalation sites? "Here, I can't get this, because the Amarr hate my guts, so if you agree to split the take you'll get the link."

      The hard part is how to 'split the take'. Maybe it would just have to be a pays-your-money-takes-your-chances thing, where you buy the escalation into high sec for so many ISK hoping that you'll score?

      It seems like a straightforward enhancement of the new PVE tracking that CCP is doing.

      Delete
  5. "What is not popular is the limitations to the color schemes."

    Definitely a concern, but far from the only thing unpopular about the new UI.

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    Replies
    1. There is a lot that is unpopular. A lot of that also has people who like it. The responses are very, very split.

      Delete
    2. Yes, there are a lot of aesthetics that have proponents and detractors, but there's also a lot about it that just doesn't work. There have been some efforts to improve these, but so far any fixes have been half hearted at best (a transparency slider that does not go 100% opaque, toning down window corners that look like brackets but not removing them, etc.). I sincerely doubt that this new UI will be in a functional state that does not make playing the game a worse experience on time for Rhea, but knowing CCP they will push it out anyway regardless of what condition it is in. They will use the "we can fix it later" approach; meanwhile we will be stuck with an interface that causes more problems without actually solving anything. It is change for the sake of change, a cosmetic shift a the expense of performance. Many CCP devs have often shown a mentality of favoring form over function, and this is just one more example to illustrate that destructive mindset's prevalence in the CCP offices.

      If the UI team were genuinely trying to make the game experience better, then they would push this change until it was working properly. Unfortunately, I feel that this change is primarily an attempt to justify jobs rather than address any meaningful issues, and so once again it will launch, and we will be the ones to suffer for it.

      Delete
    3. Plus, it's more than a little disingenuous of them to claim that they want to move away from something that looks like an operating system, and then deliver "Windows 8 in space." It's comments like that that make me doubt their sincerity and intentions.

      Delete
    4. @Sugar

      I don't think I've seen anyone say that they like the blur effect, and many of those who like the new icon scheme have said that a lot of the individual icons don't really match their function. Clearly there is more than just one issue that is met with near-unanimous disapproval.

      Delete
    5. And I have see. People who love the blur (I'm one) and like the icons and find the current ones terrible.

      Those who disapprove of a feature do not disapprove partially but many of the features I see liked as much as disliked.

      I disagree not because those distastes are not there but because it's quite split. At the same time we've asked for things like no blur and transparency changes with feedback in the thread that these functions will be retained. I have not seen any promises or movement to retain functionally to current colors.

      Not every chance or update is on Sisi yet. There has been a lot of back and forth in the feedback threads and changes incoming.

      Delete
  6. I would like to be able to join a defenders war as an individual. My corp is a mixed bag of PvPers and Miners, so I don't want to have to drag everyone along with my decision. I also don't want to create my own one man corp to play the hero.

    If you could ally as an individual instead of a corporation I think you would find more defenders getting help. If you could add this to your discussions I'd appreciate it!

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    Replies
    1. So would I. I disucssed this earlier this year and had some agreement and some disagreement. I do believe that if someone wants to take a vacation to do something such as help a friend it should not involve the entire corp nor should it mean dropping the corp.

      Delete

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