The fact that people need to understand is that not every live event needs to be about killing people. Live events are not designed for people to be able to simply show up, gank the actors and grab a few shiny killmails and some loot. If people want to view live events like that, then they're going to be sorely disappointed.

See, but what if, after internal discussions, making ~100% sure TTIs get to Pator was part the ruleset.

It's like the treasure below the dragon. The dragon is there to make sure you die when you are foolish enough to try to get the gold. And there are enough DMs that want to make sure you die trying, no matter what crazy idea you come up with.

Thanks for the compliment! :D


Well, and as you could see during the live event, those QA Shield Extenders were part of the EVE mechanics (as evidence by there ingame existence). Yes, they were extremely overpowered. So are some NPCs in PnP. E.g. angelic creatures, greater demons or such. If the players had managed to get enough alpha to break the QA Shield Extenders, the Devs would indeed have been in the position you describe.

Finally I'd like to point out that, as I wrote in my first post in here, that I would indeed have appreciate more ways to interact with the delegates than via locale. But I do understand why the event was planned this way and enjoyed witnessing it.

I really should go to bed, but! Someone is wrong on the internet (alledgedly)!


Right, but that sword wasn't given to a player character. It was wielded by an NPC via a Dev.
The same way you are now mixing up PCs and NPCs, you ignored my comment on extremly powerful NPCs. Those can have stats that make them for all intends and purposes invulnerable. And players can't acquire these stats. Meanie!

Which doesn't change anything for the argument.
It's mostly the fact that they now realized alternatives they weren't aware of before.

I personally btw disagree with the reimbursement and I _think_ so does Falcon. It was always made pretty clear by him and other Devs that you risk your ship in live events and that your actions have consequences. I have lost ships myself this way.
In my opinion it's not CCPs turn to reimburse losses due to the inability to properly use and react on the results of a ship scanner.
But, it is indeed a grey zone, so I'm also not mad they reimbursed the losses and see where the decision came from.

Having player actions that de facto auto-fail isn't railroading, since there are quite probably any number of other, more reasonable actions the PCs could have taken instead. They just chose to do something really dumb with a negligible chance of success. On the other hand, allowing a player action, having it succeed, and then having that success actually have zero impact on the progress of events is pretty much the definition railroading.

If CCP wants unkillable NPCs, that's actually not a big, since players aren't entitled to have every choice be viable. But they really should provide some methods of interaction, and make sure those methods are reasonably apparent.

Not to mention, the whole live event as executed is kind of goofy, since relying on the efforts of random bystanders for VIP protection is pretty dumb. Especially since even allowing someone in a position to attack a VIP generally means security screwed up somewhere. But then people would be whining about CONCORD blowing up their ship for violating

After reading through here, I agree with some of the points said. Yes, players should be allowed to kill actors (the Amarr militia would have jumped at this opportunity, IMO), but on the other hand these actors should also be significantly harder to kill than players

These NPCs were simply far too valuable to the storyline.

They HAD to survive, otherwise the impact on the storyline would be unmanageable, for the relatively small storyline and events team to do things with. I.e. rewriting the Minmatar Republic from having a tribal council to having Shakor being supreme dictator.

Other NPCs, that are not so absolutely central to the storyline, could be involved in future events, where their survival or otherwise can then affect how the storyline progresses.


Also, there is the larger question about what relevance the NPC factions have at all, and how players should affect things.

You can shoot any number of things belonging to the Caldari State, and the only penalty are a few ships following you around in highsec. You can still dock, trade, and use other station facilities in Caldari stations. So what relevance does the Caldari State have at all ?

The ships were piloted by NPC capsuleers. The ships were also carrying other officials as passengers, according to the news stories. Those people would not have been cloned, so shooting down the ship would have had an impact.

(but would it kill you to be less gratingly unpleasant when pointing that out?)

Well, this is the yang to that ying.

RIP to all the good posts that got Blapped by moderation. I'm glad this thing is still going strong at 16 pages. Justice will be served.