TalonDorm
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Posted - 2007.02.27 14:01:00 -
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I think some more thought has to be put into this one.
CCP are correct in thinking mission running needs something new. As it currently stands, missions get boring pretty quickly. They are predictable, the loot generally sucks (pulling 11 miner 1's out of a lvl 4 mission :-S) and the bounties just about cover the odd ship loss usually due to lag or ctd's. So I'm glad to hear they are putting some thought into them.
However...
You've got to look at what missions offer in Eve and what kind of players run them. Missions are often played by solo gamers and small groups of friends. They are the only viable combat based way a solo player (i.e. someone who doesn't want to join a corp) will get to fly shiny ships in eve (and that will not be done overnight). Missions offer the only challenging combat based PvE branch of the game (and no, I don't class empire belt ratting as challenging). Missions are the closest thing Eve offers to a quick fix (that is if you call 3 hours running a lvl4 extravaganza quick). From experience of trying to introduce friends to Eve I can say that they usually ran missions to earn cash, but often dropped out of playing Eve altogether when the hit lvl 4 due to real life time restrictions.
Therefore I'm not sure why your trying to move mission runners into low sec. It's not hard to understand that a lot of mission runners don't want to go into low sec. You just have to look at Motsu to see that. A lot of people who do missions simply don't want to PvP. They also can't afford to loose their t2 ships and modules which took months of grind (yes, it's a grind!) to obtain so they could solo lvl4's or work in small gangs with their friends to get some money.
The t2 lottery system saw to it that payouts on insurance for t2 ship losses are as good as redundant. PvE setups required for missions won't stand a chance against a PvP setup & there's no room for setup changes on most mission based ships to allow for a better PvP defence. Gates in and out of agent systems will become camped by tankers &/or snipers belonging to the most dominant pirate corp/alliance in the area. Solo players don't want to gang up in order to do missions, and most experienced solo players wouldn't be foolish enough to gang up with someone they didn't know anyway.
PvP combat is only one aspect of Eve and it should remain so. This is also true of gang based game play. You've made sure that the biggest rewards and opportunities in the game are only found in PvP space, so there is already an incentive to move there. However, don't assume everyone wants to play this way. If gang based pvp is where Eve is heading, then just say so and avoid future of disappointment to a lot of people. If not, then consider bringing more to missions in the AI department, role based npc's, target changing rats. Allow capital ships in empire space for high lvl missions, but limit ones they can enter (they'll still have the same restrictions in aggro counters & Concorde bashing as everyone else if they misbehave). Change the variance of the missions, make them less predictable (events, more scenarios etc). Add shorter missions for the quick fix players, get better loot and less cash. Marketable lp's, new ships like salvagers (tractor beam & salvager bonus), new equipment like decoys and mini jump drives that leave you defenceless for a while after use. Sort out gang bonuses by having a designated bonus giver (i.e. separate bonuses from leadership) & bring on faction warfare 
You've already mentioned a lot of these things in past blogs so it's nothing new & getting rid of the t2 lottery is a step in the right direction, but pushing/nudging (it's all the same) people into PvP is not a good idea and doesn't fit where missions are concerned.
Meh, just my thoughts anyway.
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