Daveydweeb
Ars ex Discordia
GoonSwarm
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Posted - 2008.06.09 06:09:00 -
[1]
There are several current problems with Starbase logistics from the perspective of anyone who regularly needs to set up new POSs. The two most significant of these are, simply:
- That the process of anchoring, onlining a control tower and its modules can - and regularly does - take a minimum of five to eight hours to complete. This time commitment can not be reduced.
- That, with the exception of the first hour, the entire process requires constant user interaction with the game in order to progress. This can not be avoided.
It's worth mentioning that there exist a number of laughable design flaws and bugs in the management and anchoring interfaces - but fixing those is a matter for bug reports, not the CSM. Instead, I want to focus on these two broader gameplay issues with a reference to the way these flaws make them so much more unbearable.
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Issue 1
The problems with setting up new Starbases begin when the player starts anchoring POS modules, after the tower itself has been anchored and onlined. Each module has its own anchoring and onlining timers before it can become useful: guns and electronic warfare mods take five minutes to anchor and a further five to online, while Cynosural System Jammers take a half-hour to online. Unfortunately, the actual process of setting up these mods is entirely manual, and breaks down like this:
- The module to be anchored is launched for the player's corporation from their cargohold.
- The player either right-clicks on the module in space and selects "anchor", or opens the POS management interface, selects the desired module and presses the "anchor" button". A green box appears around the module in space, which a set of silver arrows that can be dragged along each axis.
- The player then moves the green box to the desired location on the grid, then right-clicks any of the arrows to select "anchor here".
- After the anchoring timer, the player either right-clicks the module from within ~5km and select "put online", and presses the corresponding button in the management interface.
I've italicised the broken parts. Since a typical 0.0 deathstar will include anywhere from 20 - 40 modules in need of anchoring, the simple process of setting up a control tower can require six or more hours of constant, tedious player interaction. Add to this that the arrows themselves are tiny and difficult to position (only a few hundred metres long), which can make simply positioning each module a tedious and - in the case of players that suffer from RSI, such as myself - physically painful process.
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Issue 2
There exists no way to hasten or streamline to the process of anchoring and onlining POS modules. If you want to set up a full 0.0 deathstar, you must return your attention to the game every five minutes, adding up to six or more hours of unavoidable tedium that actively detracts from gameplay. If we accept that the element of risk introduced by making it take long enough to set up a POS for a hostile force to react, the game desperately needs a way to reduce the level and duraction of player interaction required.
I should say that the option exists to pre-position all the mods at a tower so that the player need not deal as much with CCP's ridiculous placement interface - but this requires leaving them unanchored and floating in space, vulnerable to theft and destruction. The risk associated with attempting to step around the inadequacies of EVE's interface are totally unreasonable. The game desperately needs, at the very least, a method to pre-position modules so that the player can simply position every module and then find something fun to do for the next eight hours.
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The original "Features and Ideas" forum thread I posted on this issue can be found here. |