mechtech
Ice Liberation Army
443
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Posted - 2013.06.20 00:18:00 -
[1] - Quote
Eve has gotten way better recently in that regard, but it will never be like the early days because the playerbase is so much larger. The game will always be figured out and powergamed because of this.
Around Incarna the state of Eve was so bad that I mentally checked out, stopped skill training, etc. Here's what has improved since then:
Bots: Bots were terrible. Courier magnate bots, mission bots, trade bots, mining bots, ratting bots, salvage bots. It really has improved. The bot war has never been better at any time in Eve's history.
Mineral prices: dirt cheap trit, worthless high ends from botted drone regions, POSs with negligible upkeep, absolutely throwaway ships because of low build cost. That's basically behind us.
Ship prices: The increase in ship prices in Tieracide is something I never thought CCP would actually do. Having 250m isk BSs (once the stocks dry up) is an amazing change for the game and it is going to improve the game so so much from my perspective. There are so many interesting ship classes, and the slow progression through them is an important part of the first 6 months of any new player. CCP could double all ship prices yet again and still improve the experience of the game. I remember saving up for weeks for a single assault frig and T2 guns, and it was awesome to have a small frig that felt "high end" and powerful. People may moan at first but the game always benefits from price hikes... there's so much content to fill in the gaps.
NPC AI: The PVE in Eve is still MMO PVE... but it's actually fairly high level and difficult. Eve has improved since release in this regard.
Wormholes: Wormholes are expansive, mysterious, dangerous, isolated... awesome.
The only things I really miss from release are:
Travel times: Warp to 15, lack of jump clones, etc was a pain, but it made the game much more immersive and expansive. CCP made the right move and made the game more enjoyable, but the game has lost something with the removal of travel tedium. Jump bridges/freighters on the other hand are clearly something I wouldn't mind biting the dust. Freighter escorts and supply lines are a feature that a space opera type game simply shouldn't be without. Have it AI piloted, I don't care, but Eve lost a lot with the removal of real logistics.
Danger: Eve used to be spikier. Warp to 15 made the game so much more dangerous. There were borderline exploit flavor of the month fits that would toast you. Bugs could kill you. The list goes on. Eve was frustratingly deadly, much like a Roguelike. That unfair difficulty has mostly been eliminated from the game. Again, Eve is better off overall but some good aspects were lost. It could be gained back by making structured features like Incursions actually dangerous, and FW actually a threat to empires.
Expensive T2: This is specific, but T2 is so cheap that it's not even 5 minutes of play to replace a ship fit. I think the cost/effectiveness curve for equipment is off now. 1m isk gets you equipment that makes 5-10 modules under it obsolete, and then it takes 100s of millions for marginal improvements after that. I think T2 should be 4x more expensive. People would moan, but in the end the meta mods might actually get used by established players. |