its another dumbing down of the game. No side effects so what happens to the skills everyones learnt? When you had those skills the side effects where basically nil. I dont mind ccp looking for ways to keep players in the game but how are they gooing to keep them in after a year or two once there is nothing new or nothing to challenge them.

PS. The narrow minded winging idiots like yourself really need to go back grab a tissue while sitting on mummys knee so we dont have to be the ones wiping away your constant tears

You tell'em you ugly @Ss skank.... Let those John's know who run your street corner.

its another dumbing down of the game. No side effects so what happens to the skills everyones learnt? When you had those skills the side effects where basically nil.

i think ive missed some pros but to address the only con as ive already done in several threads: unless CCP changes the supply side boosters will still be limited in use due to the cost. Also we already have things like rigs, faction fittings and faction ammo that you can choose to use - they havent become mandatory so why would boosters?

Only bitter-vets should have the pleasure of a "dumbed" down game right?

More people who have never used boosters. The fact of the matter is, standard boosters aren't that expensive. Improved and strong are. But even they are certainly not on the level of faction mods, you make a terrible point. And when demand spikes and prices go up, what'll happen? People will start running LADAR sites and boosters will thus become more readily available and prices will come down. So yes, they will become mandatory.

Also, there was nothing wrong with the old boosters. The drawbacks were perfectly reasonable, but people saw them and never used them, so they won't know. Tell me, how many of you actively and regularly used boosters? Because I've yet to see anyone other than myself that seems to have any experience with them.

Wait wait wait, you're saying because we invested time and ISK into making ourselves effective with boosters (and those skills aren't cheap) we shouldn't get an advantage over someone who has only biology 3 and just pops the first pill he finds? Yeah, makes sense. Why don't you now moan that your ship doesn't do as much DPS as anyone else's because you haven't trained the support skills? EVE is about investment of time vs. reward, and these new boosters completely **** that. No risk, no real need to invest time in the booster support skills.

Honesty you miserable twats how is removing a random dice roll "Dumbing down" the game..??....

Hey folks, it seems this thread needs some attention.


Let us explain why we are not happy with current state of boosters on Tranquility:

• Unpredictability: that is due to the side-effects being randomly applied when you consume a booster, and that often hampers the very points you are trying to boost. As examples, chance of reducing shield capacity when consuming Blue Pills, missile velocity with Crash, or armor hitpoint / capacitor penalty with Exile. The list goes on, but the important point to remember here is that unpredictable mechanics on a player produced, controlled item do little to promote the usefulness of it in the long run.


• Production complexity: boosters, as short-term consumables, are too time consuming and complex to produce. They require a combination of reactions and manufacturing, while relying on limited supply of skills, gas distributions and commodities to produce.


• Distribution inconsistency: since most of them are illegal, smuggling boosters back into high-sec is highly unreliable due to the bugged and incoherent nature of Customs NPCs.

Basically, boosters are they stand right now should be used more than in just a few niche situations. There are a lot of points to improve, but instead of trying to revamp everything quite blindly in one release, we chose to adopt a more conservative step-by-step approach and see actual consequences before moving on to the next step. That also fits well with our "thousand little things" project, which consists of many, small iterations on existing features.

The changes about to be deployed for Crucible look into their unpredictability, by making them more appealing to a broader portion of our player base. Since they are supposed to be more reliable, we tuned down their effects a bit, while revamping old skills to partly compensate for the change. We also do know this is going to cause prices issue as the production isn't changed for the time being.


To help you understand why this was done and how this fits in our general scheme, here is a glimpse of our long term vision for boosters, smuggling and contraband:

• Production changes: as stated above, iterate on booster production to make them more available, at least on their synth and standard variations. That includes, but is not limited to, gas distribution changes, modifications in the reaction and manufacturing process, remove or adjust some skills.


• Distribution iteration: have a look on how booster components (gases, pure booster reactions and commodities) are moved around, iterate on their illegality status.


• Consumption iteration: look at how boosters are consumed, possibly look into and replace unpredictable side-effects by addiction mechanics (remember, first one is free).


• Smuggling improvements: possibly remove Custom NPCs, and move the act of scanning and seizing contraband into player hands. Coupled with the points above, make smuggling of large illegal goods or more potent boosters challenging but rewarding in low/high-security space, turn booster distribution into an emergent, player controlled system that is easy to get into, but difficult to control and profit from. And finally, look into ways to promote low-security and fringes of high-security space as main sources of smuggling, contraband production and distribution.

Remember all of this remains soonGäó material and are no way fixed in stone right now. We just wanted to be a bit more transparent on why this change is happening and which goals we are attempting to reach.


Note: Alchemist and Edge implant sets are an oversight that are being looked into. Fix will most likely not make it for Crucible release, but shortly after, so we advise you to hold on to them.


Hope that helps.

Oh cry more you pathetic little winger

It isnt dumbing them down its making them more useful in more situations ...

Lets talk about what has already happened: Booster prices and the gas clouds and BPCs to build them have gone WAY up, partially on market speculation, partially because of preemptive demand by the general public.

So what's gonna happen if/when the current changes go live on the 29th in the following weeks?

Likely, booster prices will continue to rise, because there is going to be little or no change in the supply of the goods to manufacture them. Because the materials to build them will be hard to come by, if not impossible to find, the rarity of boosters will increase while demand increases, probably causing prices to spiral way out of control.

I too have read the full 6 page (with countless walls of text, some belonging to me), test server feedback thread, and I'm frankly alarmed by CCPs lack of responsiveness on this issue. Some people are cautiously optimistic about the changes, while most are downright mad for many reasons, paramount being CCPs (apparent and classic) half-assed handling of boosters in Cruicble.

It just seems like very little thought was actually put into these changes, that the changes are a back-burner idea that found it's way to the front-burner because someone thought more features and changes needed to be crammed into Crucible, irregardless of the long term effects of these poorly thought out plans.

CCP needs to address the REAL reasons why more people don't use boosters: their illegality (and the constant headaches that brings with it), and their price (along with rarity). At least one of these issues SHOULD be addressed by looking at the supply and manufacturing process, and the other by looking at mechanics of customs and their role in highsec. Neither issue calls for changes to how boosters actually function. Every frequent booster user will tell you: side effects are RARELY an issue for the well-trained booster user. Maybe there are a few boosters which could use a look at their side effects and how they impact the ships and roles that they are intended to be used within, but removing ALL side effects and mucking about with duration and effect power is very heavy-handed and short-sighted.

So yea, I'm kinda disappointed in CCPs approach to the booster changes, because it is very characteristic of the OLD CCP who made half-assed poorly thought out game changes while blindly ignoring the outrage of the player base.

Please CCP, stop the madness.