Bugsy VanHalen
Society of lost Souls
653
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Posted - 2013.05.30 15:05:00 -
[1] - Quote
For the most part I like the changes to the scanning system, However for an experienced explorer it really feels like it has been dumbed down.
I have very good scaning skills on my main exploration toon, all scanning related skills to 4 with key ones to 5. I trained these skills to this level as the sites I was most interested in were gravametric sites, which where among the hardest to find. Now they can be found without even using probes.
I understand the efforts to make exploration more accessible to new players, but what about the veteran explorers? This is a massive reduction is skill requirements and the advantages training these skills to high levels and investing in faction equipment are now pretty much gone. I tested on SiSi with two setups, One in a bonused ship with faction launchers and probes, and again in an unbonused ship with meta 0 launcher and probes, I noticed no difference. On TQ there is a very noticeable difference.
Will we see in the near future sites added to challenge the veteran explorers rather than everything accessible with minimal skills. The majority of EVE players are veterans with only a small influx of new players. EVE is a complex game and this will never change. Dumbing down the game to this extent to bring in more new players may result in more veteran players leaving than new player arriving. I have no objection to adjusting content to be accessible to new players, I believe it is a great idea. But not at the cost of dumbing down content for experienced players. There are players in this game still active that have been here since beta, They do not what to play a game designed for noobs. Even myself having played since early 2009 find this annoying.
I fully support making the low level exploration sites easy to find and more accessible for new players, but at least give us harder sites for continued progression as your skills increase. As it stands now I have almost 2 months worth of training into scanning skills that I no longer need to find even the most difficult sites. If you are going to make these features more accessible to new players you have to do it in a way that does not screw over the veteran players. The EVE player base will only satay strong if you put as much effort into player retention as you do into attracting new players. Bringing in 100,000 new accounts will be of no benefit if 120,000 veteran accounts are cancelled.
How many of the 500,000 currently active accounts in EVE are mutiboxing accounts? I have for accounts, most of my friends in game have multiple accounts, some as many as 10. If mutiboxing is made to be a PITA, which it is with the new launcher, and the advantages of running multiple accounts are lost you will loose far more value in alt accounts than you will ever gain in new accounts.
The coming changes in Odyssey will make null sec mining no longer Viable for me. I will not join one of the massive blocks of null sec just to get access to space that is safe enough to mine in, I will just stop mining. And now exploring will be pointless as sites are so easy to find there will not be enough to go around and my income from them will drop significantly. I have gotten bored with mining and manufacturing in high sec, yet I can not move to null without joining a coalition that will dictate to me how to play, and what to do when I am logged in.
The big attraction of EVE for me is the sand box. I make my own gameplay, and play the way I want. These changes have made my chosen gameplay no longer viable, instead you promote ganking, and make ganking even easier than it is now. Ganking is the most common activity in every PVP MMO I have ever played, It does not need help, it will continue strong even if you try to curb it. If you encourage ganking, the gankers will eventually drive all the non-gankers from the game. What will happen to EVE when there is nobody left in the game but gankers? The same that happens to every other MMO, the gankers will move on to a new game and the game and there will be nobody left. It happened in Diablo, It happened in SWG, It happened in AOC, please do not let it happen in EVE. |