Novan Leon
Deep Core Mining Inc.
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Posted - 2009.08.07 15:05:00 -
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Question for CCP: was the Local channel ever intended to be used the way it is?
I believe CCP is reluctant to remove local for the following reasons:
- Removing local makes it much harder for players to meet and socialize with other nearby players. I know many situations where unrelated groups of carebears would work together in a system to mine, rat or explore in a low-sec system. These kinds of spontaneous interactions (outside of a corp) would be impossible without local.
- It's virtually impossible for non-PVP players to avoid or survive a PVP encounter without fitting a ship dedicated to that purpose (warp stabilizers, cloak). Local gives non-PVPers an effective way of avoiding unwanted PVP encounters.
- Removing local outright would be a huge change to the status quo, and CCP may not believe there's enough of a demand from players to warrant such a change.
While I disagree with the original poster that 0.0 is 100% safe (it's not), as a bonafide carebear, I'd also like to see local removed as well. Using local to avoid PVP encounters has always felt "cheap", and there are times when I would've liked to avoid detection by pirates but have been unable because of local.
I would make the following changes:
- Local should be optional. A player should be able to monitor local without "joining" local. If a player opts to join local, then he/she will become visible and can chat with others. Default settings would join the player to local automatically, with the ability to turn this off if he/she wishes.
- Probes should be changed so while it's still easy to detect ships in the system, it's more difficult to get a 100% lock. This would give diligent players the chance to detect the presence of other players while still making them work for it.
- At some point, ALL NPC rats AI should be updated to behave more like real players, just like the Sleepers. ALL NPC rats should be affected by EWar. This would turn every ratting ship into a decent PVP ship, making the PVP more challenging for the attacker and giving the defender a fighting chance.
The above changes would have following effect:
- Pirates would have to thoroughly explore each system to find targets instead of just hopping from system to system while scanning local. This would encourage the use of probes to identify the presence of other ships. A less than 100% could be used narrow down the target ship's location to a specific asteroid belt but a 100% lock would require much more time and effort to obtain. A simple warp-to-0 might not suffice for the wary ratter though, so the 100% lock might be beneficial.
- Ratters and miners would need to change their strategy in order to avoid pirates and PVP players. This would include maintaining a safe distance from warp-to-0, pre-aligning, equipping a cloak (which is necessary in 0.0 due to current gatecamping mechanics), and using probes to identify the presence of hostile vessels.
- Due to the new NPC AI and combat mechanics, a decent ratting ship should be a relatively decent PVP ship, giving ratters a better chance of surviving a PVP encounter and perhaps forcing pirates to be a little more cautious.
While the above suggestions are all well and good, this still doesn't address the social "issue". Without local, how can we help to keep EVE a very social experience? How can we allow and encourage spontaneous encounters between players while in space?
Concerning CCP's possible reluctance to change the status quo, I'd like to make the following suggestion. Have a "local free for 30 days" event, where local is removed, and see how it goes. Observe how it affects the game balance and get feedback from the players. No harm, no foul.
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