Dear Mittani,

As a newbie I'm currently at the point where I can either:
-Train skills ludicrously slower than everyone else
-Get podded with millions in learning implants every day (something which I can't afford forever)
-Not play this game except to change skills for the next six months

I don't know about you but there's no way I'm grinding my mission corp standings to +8.0 to get some jump clones for those times where I want to actually play.


Why can't we just get rid of learning implants, get +4 to all stats for free, and get remaps every month?

Oh and a bunch of new boosting implants to offset the loss of so much ''valuable content'' would be pretty cool.

If you're going to go that far, why not just take it to the logical conclusion and propose that we get rid of stats altogether?

I'm in a similar mental place; most of my pvp these days is ganking or gatecamping or World of Tanks. I don't like waiting for hours on major fleet ops to fight a fight; I'm lazy. This is a common problem for veterans, who have been playing for ages - this is also why vets end up in cap ships, because you can play a game in another window until it's cyno time, and then you either fight or die or go back to playing in another window. Less 'schlepping'.

It's extremely controversial and the CSM is divided on it, but personally I'd like to see some kind of an arena or instanced PvP setup which would allow professionals with busy lives to log in, blow some dudes up, and log off. The actual mechanics of such a device don't interest me much - it could be a gladiatorial arena with spectators who can place bets, a 'combat simulator', an arranged 4v4 team game, whatever.

The macro-level issue is what concerns me: the fact that, as a PvPer, it's very hard to get a PvP experience within a short time of logging in. Missionrunners and miners can boot up EVE and begin slaving away at their PvE in moments, PvPers not so much.

One of the reasons you see EVE's PvP population in BF3, LoL/HoN and WoT is precisely that they allow us to get PvP fixes on demand. It sure would be nice if we could get an on-demand PvP experience involving spaceships, too.

However, some are hostile to the very idea of arenas or instanced combat or even 'quick PvP'. I haven't focused on this as a 'CSM Issue' because it doesn't much matter if we get on-demand PvP or not while the Sucking Chest Wounds need to be patched. Once the game is not being driven off a cliff hopefully I can step back and push for stuff like this.

As a newbie I'm currently at the point where I can either:
-Train skills ludicrously slower than everyone else
-Get podded with millions in learning implants every day (something which I can't afford forever)
-Not play this game except to change skills for the next six months

A game is forcing me to make choices, and not just take the single minmaxed optimal path! Oh, the HORRORS!

A game is forcing me to make choices, and not just take the single minmaxed optimal path! Oh, the HORRORS!

Name me a MMO where leveling a single skill to the final level takes months. Some of you guys have an eight year headstart on new players, and unlike the dreaded WOW which keeps making leveling easier for new players, there's simply no way to catch up for us, no matter how motivated we are. That, I can deal with. But seriously, in this game learning a level 5 battleship skill actually takes longer than learning real-life multivariable calculus.

you don't *HAVE* to get L5 Battleships (unless of course you're looking to get into a dread/carrier/super).

Having L4 across the board will put you AT MOST about 15% behind someone with L5 skills across the board in the same fit.

Let's take the Megathron for example, fitted with Neutron Blasters

5% damage per level of Battleships to large hybrids.
5% damage per level of Large Hybrid Turret
3% damage per level of Surgical Strike

so, 13% less with you having 4/4. The ROF bonuses and other things will play into this too, but I'm looking just at volley damage (because seriously, I don't want to really figure out what a 4% difference in ROF does throughout the course of an engagement).

so, that's ~60 days saved right there that you maybe used to increase your tanking abilities. Maybe you're sitting with a few L5s there, whereas the other guy only has L4s (because his gunnery has the L5s). assuming you were able to get the compensation skills to 5 ... you're looking at an extra 25% bonus to passive armour hardeners (like EANM) and an extra 15% to active (like DCU II)...

I must admit I don't really like the idea of arenas. It seems kind of... WoWy. But on the other hand there's the neglected barely-living carcass of Factional Warfare that would be perfect for getting frankensteined into something that could provide some kind of decent on-demand pvp concept.

But seriously, in this game learning a level 5 battleship skill actually takes longer than learning real-life multivariable calculus.

It took you less than a month to learn advanced calculus, but your having trouble with eve?

Something sure doesn't add up here.



Edit: Fixing quotes. Why do you people nest them so retardedly far?

[quote=Abdiel Kavash][quote=Krios Ahzek] Some of you guys have an eight year headstart on new players, and unlike the dreaded WOW which keeps making leveling easier for new players, there's simply no way to catch up for us, no matter how motivated we are.

I must admit I don't really like the idea of arenas. It seems kind of... WoWy. But on the other hand there's the neglected barely-living carcass of Factional Warfare that would be perfect for getting frankensteined into something that could provide some kind of decent on-demand pvp concept.

I believe a good middle ground to this is to have more tournaments or have some sort of automated tournament. The idea would be to still have the large one every year or something like a championship tournament where the winners to get a new ship. Then have smaller ones where the winners just get something like 1Bill isk or a few faction cruiser blueprints to keep the same people from winning it over and over.

You could follow the same rules or go with a smaller setup something like a 6v6. Maybe even do a bi-monthly or ever 4 month tournament where the winner get 1 BPC from a past alliance tournament, seeing some more Imperial Apcos in game would be cool. I think the whole competitive PvP is very under looked at in Eve when it could be something big if given enough love. I mean just look at something like DOTA2 where they had a 2million dollar tournament.

Oh heck, if CCP decided it was worthwhile, they could do much better than "Arena" combat .... they could create new "Player Incursions" or "PvP Missions" and repurpose some of the faction warfare mechanics perhaps ... all kinds of options, and they wouldn't necessarily have to break the current game system that much IMO.

Far from discouraging PVP, I think it would actually encourage it by providing a bridge into PvP for carebears, but I'm not a psychologist or game designer, nor do I have behavioral statistiics at my disposal (like CCP should) to tell whether this would really be the case or not.

How about... allow players to control systems, and allow them to challenge the system's owner to take over the system? There could be a designated structure that the defending team has to protect and the attackers have to destroy in order to take control.

Oh. Wait.

Is the fix for drone regions in the works?

I figured it would be in this past patch, but still nothing.

Having watched eve progress for about 5-6 years now, I am amazed at how slowly things get done.

I remember when drones didn't use their MWD's correctly and all I had trained for was drone ships. It took them like 2 years to fix that.

Drone regions are allowing a bunch of people to mine who never trained for mining completely undermining the entire market and thus the entire character career path.

I understand eve is a PVP game, but I sincerely feel ships shooting each other gets a lot more of a look from CCP than other types of PVP. Every auction, every barter, or market interaction should be considered PVP.

I'm scratching my head while they seem to just be scratching themselves.

Given Soundwave's interest in the topic, I think there's a good chance that the drone regions will be revisited in the summer expansion. I wholly agree with you that dronespace should not be the major source of minerals, but I would also be very disappointed to see drones become $GENERIC_BOUNTY_RAT_TYPE_09

Oh gods, the stupidity of the contraband system. Boss, let me give you an example to take to the CSM:

Over the past month or so, I've been building a Caldari Research Outpost for deployment in Goonspace. We've been lacking in research slots in our area, and I wanted to give back a bit to the alliance. Now, as part of the lengthy list of materials I need to build the thing, you need plutonium, which is NPC seeded in Caldari space. No big deal, just buy some and have it shipped...

Only you can't. You can't put plutonium in a courier contract. Why? Because it's contraband! In Amarr space. It doesn't matter than the stuff wasn't going anywhere NEAR Amarr space, it was still impossible to courier the stuff. I had to schlep the stuff personally back from Empire.

If nothing else, the system should be able to adjust for where something is going. If it's not contraband in either the departure and arrival destinations, then a courier contract should be possible. Let the shipper know what the possible consequences are so they can tailor their route, but otherwise it shouldn't be a big deal.

Or they can just ditch the contraband crap completely. No skin off my nose.

Not to seem like a brown-noser, but I always liked this idea for dealing with contraband, boosters and lowsec generally.

Ever thought about pushing for it?

Dear Mittani,

As a newbie I'm currently at the point where I can either:
-Train skills ludicrously slower than everyone else
-Get podded with millions in learning implants every day (something which I can't afford forever)
-Not play this game except to change skills for the next six months

I don't know about you but there's no way I'm grinding my mission corp standings to +8.0 to get some jump clones for those times where I want to actually play.


Why can't we just get rid of learning implants, get +4 to all stats for free, and get remaps every month?

Oh and a bunch of new boosting implants to offset the loss of so much ''valuable content'' would be pretty cool.

If you're going to go that far, why not just take it to the logical conclusion and propose that we get rid of stats altogether?

Is the fix for drone regions in the works?

I figured it would be in this past patch, but still nothing.

Having watched eve progress for about 5-6 years now, I am amazed at how slowly things get done.

I remember when drones didn't use their MWD's correctly and all I had trained for was drone ships. It took them like 2 years to fix that.

Drone regions are allowing a bunch of people to mine who never trained for mining completely undermining the entire market and thus the entire character career path.

I understand eve is a PVP game, but I sincerely feel ships shooting each other gets a lot more of a look from CCP than other types of PVP. Every auction, every barter, or market interaction should be considered PVP.

I'm scratching my head while they seem to just be scratching themselves.

Mr. King of Space,

Can we get a "Never Show This Message Again" option added to the Intergalactic News dialog boxes?

While I'm sure such content strokes the loins of many a role player, there's no reason the rest of us have to see it every damn time we pass through the system. For those of us living nearby, these messages quickly become tiresome.

blessed be thy brutix,
St Ryan

Would you advocate null power blocks to participate in player events? Could you expand a bit on how you feel about player events?