While it's not without controversy, I feel like I have to point out that the ESS is a pretty perfect example of both necessary sides of farms & fields - not merely giving smaller groups or even solo pilots tools to disrupt their foes, but giving the 'farmers' tools with which to cultivate their living space (which then, of course, those small groups or solo pilots can come along and steal or break!)

If it were up to me and there were no limitations simply requiring boosts to be on grid would be my solution. Facing reality, we'd have to get outside of the box, such as having the effectiveness of links increase with the amount of ships that are in a certain radius, starting from a very low amount and rising to a ceiling - just as an example.

Good luck Psianh.

You certainly have a focus that my group of guys are very interested in.

I'd be interested in the null candidates opinions of perhaps lowering the hit points of station services to say POCO level hp to give the smaller gangs some a realistic way to skirmish

I generally agree and found it even nice to have the booster on grid occasionally since I finally got around training his gunnery skills.
But how would you deal with Orcs, Rorquals and mining links?

I understand why people would want to keep their Orcas (hull cost: 600M) and Rorquals (hull cost 2B) away from danger, and that's a legitimate concern. I'm not informed enough on mining procedures to speculate on what kind of effect we'd see on the market if we had less mining links active.

Regardless, on grid boosting impacting the way people would use their mining links is a bridge I'd love to cross. My gut reaction is that if we're going to force people to put very expensive ships at risk for the mining link advantage, we'd simply have to give them a fair compensation for their risk. I'm sure there are many people who would scoff at the idea of placing their 2B ISK ship in danger, but that's what EVE is, at its core - increasing risk for increasing reward. This mindset can be applied to nearly every aspect of EVE.

It will be hard to balance those advantages. Having an Orca on grid in HS is notably less risky than anywhere else.

Maybe you know, but since you mentioned that you are not well informed on mining... The Rorqual actually has to be in deployed mode to apply his full boosts. That means Heavy Water consumption and 5 minutes of immobility. With ore sites showing up on the system scanner this makes them an incredibly easy and expensive target - and that would propably mean they'd need a _considerable_ boost.

Hey, I found a better question to ask :)

What feature over the past year do you see as the biggest failure, and either:
1) how would you change it to achieve similar objectives while avoiding the pitfalls in the present solution?
or
2) why is the problem it addresses not a problem or not worth solving?

Psianh has beautiful flowing brown locks...not to be outdone by his amazing grizzly neck beard.


Vote Psianh for obvious reasons.

I know your platform is small and medium gang warfare, this is a tangent question to that. The farms and fields inititive is something talked a lot about. How do you see that playing out? (My worry is CCP will alow the grunts in 0.0 to be more vulnerable, without giving any real rewards...like the ESS).

The solo/small gang groups definitely need a voice and some CCP love. While these groups are far from being "dead", there is far less of this going on the there use to be, especially in Null sec wars.

While the big battles make the headlines, the smaller scale battles are where the true fun is. It is great to see that this is a high priority for you and you will be receiving my vote because of it.

-Ty

We all heard about how there was a big influx of new players and returning players after the biggest battle in internet spaceship history and since your stance is to help foster more solo/small and medium gang pvp. I think in order to get CCP to really spend a lot of the, much needed, time focusing on the smaller scale stuff. They first must feel confident that it will attract and retain player subscriptions.

I was wondering what you think could be done to both attract new subscribers and reduce the churn rate that EVE experiences?

Good evening Mr Auvyander,

The moment I learned that another member of Noir. Mercenary Group was aspiring toward election this year my interest was piqued.

Over the last few years the CSM came into its own - became more influential with CCP - as though the Council found its feet at long last. This could be partially credited to the astonishing efforts of both CSM7 member Alekseyev Karrde and CSM8 member Ali Aras. We could say that Noir. Mercenary Group members have an established history of supporting the CSM to the best of their ability, a history well worth being proud of.

Do you feel that history is something you are going to have to live up to, something you are going to have to continue... and are you at all intimidated by the height of the bar your colleagues have set before you? Mind you, the CSM is not a competition, but do you feel you can contribute to the team as much as your Noir. colleagues did, and are? From the outside looking in they appear to be shining examples and repeating their performance would be a staggering feat, no?

The primary element of the CSM and the election process I have been focused on is outward communication - from the CSM to the player base - a responsibility frequently made more difficult by the workload itself, non-disclosure agreements and a range of other obstacles. How do you plan on committing to your responsibility of outward communication should you be elected? I note that you're a blogger and even record interviews and conversations which you post there. Do you expect your mercenary-oriented blog will shift in focus to include your CSM perspective and output?

Thank you in advance for your time.

In your podcast with capstable half the interview was your resume IRL. What assurances to the community can you give that you will actually represent the community instead of using your position to get a job?

My previous experience is an important aspect of why I feel confident I can represent the community effectively. It's especially relevant when I'm asked specific questions about my past work.

I guess the best assurance that I'm running for CSM to help make the game better by representing the EVE's players to CCP is the fact that if I were trying to use my "position to get a job" I'll need to do a damn fine job of the first before the second were a possibility.

I bring that up because in said podcast you had no issues presenting yourself and your resume. Then on actual gameplay questions like power projection and player disruptions you chocked and stumbled on your words. It is not uncommon of CSM members using their positions to do so.