I really enjoy running the sites but CCP has a problem. The problem is with the overall time pressure on completing the site or CCP’s lack of common sense . I must have chucked away billions due to the usual internet based connectivity “challenges”, many of which happen at random and leave you scrambling to sign in to try to retrieve an already irretrievable situation.
So where exactly do we stand on Abyssal sites? Do they need tweaking or do CCP need to use more common sense and move away from the robotic replies of “server logs said no…” It’s clear to see “server logs said no” is enforced as and when they want but in the case of running Abyssals it is getting harder to come back to the game when loses occur not to pilot error.
Yes, the timer was a stupid design. CCP probably had two things in mind:
they wanted to create a little more ‘performance under pressure’ vibe (the minimal effect)
they were probably clueless enough to think that their new content was sooo cool that people would be willing to throw their ships away on a chance at running this wonderful new content. Then the losses from Abyss would help add to the ‘destroyed’ side of the economy which is woefully lacking because they don’t know how to set PvP up properly either.
Of course it never occurred to them that EVE often has connection issues and that people have RL interruptions, thus making for unhappy Abyss divers when they get DC’d or interrupted. It also means that all kinds of players who might have engaged with Abyssal content simply refuse to do so, because the timer-or-lose-everything gamble is a crappy bet for a lot of players.
CCP could make the timers long enough to allow for a DC or interruption, or they could make the timer simply eject you, or they could fiddle with various other options to make Abyss running more interesting and accessible.
But being CCP, they will most likely either ignore the issue until they get truly desperate for more player logins, or they will find a way to make the current situation worse while releasing a dev blog that talks about the “wonderful new opportunity for our valued players!”.
The problem with the DC issue becomes someone running them runs into a problem and just pulls the plug to say they DCed and it wasnt their fault. The other thing is the timer encourages people to not over tank and slowly chew away at the NPCs like almost all other content does. As for real life interuptions your on your own, if i dont have the time to commit i dont do it, and outside of my house catching fire or someone breaking my door down i dont have interuptions that cant wait a few minutes.
Get a better internet connection. In all of my years playing EVE, at my height multiboxing up to 5 accounts, pretty much all DC issues I’ve ever had were my ISP issues.
online MMO’s all have struggles with RL issues. I’d like to run invasions/incursions more often. However RL doesn’t often allow me the multi hour time blocks necessary to really make these fleet experiences worthwhile. That is not the games fault.
The problem with the DC issue becomes someone running them runs into a problem and just pulls the plug to say they DCed and it wasnt their fault.
And that is where the logs should clearly show the player was in trouble. Part of me also feels CCP have a surveillance type system that when the Devs are reviewing cases they are able to watch what actually happened.
The other thing is the timer encourages people to not over tank and slowly chew away at the NPCs like almost all other content does.
I think that’s what the first response was getting at - the time pressure is an “lose-everything gamble” that is a big deterrent.
As for real life interuptions your on your own, if i dont have the time to commit i dont do it, and outside of my house catching fire or someone breaking my door down i dont have interuptions that cant wait a few minutes.
Many times I had time to kill and thought i’d run a few sites and had unplanned interruptions however, again, the “lose-everything gamble” isn’t helping players to really enjoy playing the game.
I think that’s my biggest grumble with CCP at this minute, they are doing nothing to create an enjoyable experience from playing the actually game to the interaction with CCP support staff.
online MMO’s all have struggles with RL issues. I’d like to run invasions/incursions more often. However RL doesn’t often allow me the multi hour time blocks necessary to really make these fleet experiences worthwhile. That is not the games fault.
I wondered how long it take for this old chestnut to be used… But, it is the games fault that they fail to take into account who their customers are, if they did we would not be twiddling thumbs trying to enjoy a game that keeps ignoring today’s gaming mechanics and psychology.
There are tons of PVE options in EVE. Missions, exploration, abyssal sites, anom running, invasions, incursions, and even more. They all have their pros and cons. They all have requirements that fit into different play styles. Some are better suited to having more time or only a little time. Some are better suited to people who have high end computers or more of a potato. Some are more forgiving for those with less than stable connections.
If you don’t have the time or stability dont run abyssal sites. If you don’t like the lose it all pressure don’t run abyssal sites.
Any online MMO has an issue that there is no “saving” it is part of the nature of the game.
I honestly fail to see how CCP constantly ADDING things to do in the game is somehow bad. It isn’t like they took away missions to add abyssal sites. They gave you MORE choice. Now not everyong is going to like or enjoy every new option. But it doesn’t mean that is bad if they keep giving us MORE options.
Abyssals are the only PvE I do any more. The combination of variable difficulties and a timer makes it worthwhile.
I dual box hawks in t3 darks. Every so often I loose 1 or 2. But hey they are 60mil each, so one run pays for a replacement. I’ve also pulled a number of weapon specialisation skill books out at half a bill each. That always adds a bit of excitement as it’s a lot too loose, and you have to get out before the timer runs out.
Td,lr the timer is what makes abyssal space interesting.
My short but very effective reply to this is - For better gaming experiences the devs need to live in the world of reality and reality must take precedence. Creating anything short of this will deepen the disillusioned player base that has seen the game spiral downwards for the best part of 24 months now. Do you realise your reply is counter productive to tell someone “well go do that instead” rather than focus on the actually problem of creating a game that takes into account the realms of reality?
I do find these forums a good read at times and it’s funny to see when someone has a difference of opinion there knee jerk reaction is to write a disrespectful comment. But hey ho - come back when you can think of a reply that might actually contribute to trying to improve the game.
Now that is really moving the discussion forward. It doesn’t even make sense.
Over the years CCP has kept adding content. Now not all content is going to be something EVERYONE likes. You cannot please everyone.
There is tons of choice in EVE.
When I just have a little time sometimes I’ll just explore a few systems. Exploration seems to be a popular activity.
If I have a little more time but might get bothered IRL, I might run some conduits, or some missions. Emerging conduits are definitely popular. Missions are kind of old and stale but plenty of people still run them.
If I know I will have the time to commit and I feel like the challenge I can run an abyssal site. Abyssal sites seem pretty popular
If I know I can block off a couple hours I’ll join up with an incursion or invasion fleet. Both of these have their fans.
It seems to me that CCP realizes the reality is that lots of players like different kind of content. They seem to be doing a nice job of adding variety of PVE content.
Also, pointing out the obvious is not being disrespectful.
How many more times do I have to say content in Eve, CCP adding content and the variety of content isn’t the issue - read that three times if you must if it means you get it.
Do you get it now? Content isn’t the issue.
Abyssals; a piece of content unlike other forms of PVE that has no flexibility to take into account peoples random events is what I am talking about. Stop talking about other pieces of content, stop telling me to go do something else, stop telling me there are other forms of content for me to do to enjoy the game.
I WANT TO RUN ABYSSALS BECAUSE I ENJOY THE CONTENT - do you get it now? What I don’t enjoy is the lack of support from the game when you lose everything through no fault of your own.
Don’t even compare PUBG to this game it’s not even remotely comparable.
Most of Eve’s content isn’t time bound by 20 minutes, and the policy CCP has to support other forms of PVE is based on content being something that can be completed without a short time based mechanism. That’s why I’m saying CCP do a bad job at making abyssals more enjoyable.
I point out the variety of content to illustrate that CCP keeps ADDING content. So you have more choices of things to do. This fact is important. Read it twice if you must. Only because it has been in all of my replies yet you seem to gloss over or miss why it is important.
I am sure they did. They decided to make content that had potentially higher rewards, but with higher risk. And it seems many players like this content for that exact reason.
Some players may be in a stage of life where interruptions happen more frequently. Unfortunately this reality may mean abyssal sites are not the best content for them. Luckily there is lots of choice.
Disconnects are a reality of online games. As an example I have had disconnects while playing PUBG, and got killed as a result. Is it that PUBG made a bad game because I might get disconnected occasionally and die? Did they fail in the reality that some people lose connection? Maybe they should have made the game so the entire server pauses whenever someone DC’s so they have a chance to reconnect
So every piece of new content should cater to players with a high instance of disconnects, get interrupted sometimes? I am certainly glad CCP doesn’t utilize this in all of their decisions.
Im sorry you are hurt that abyssals don’t fit well into your reality. It does not make them bad content. Given how many get run I’d say they are quite good content.
The primary issue isn’t actually “get a better connection, accept the risk, stop being a wimp, I don’t have RL interruptions therefore you shouldn’t either” type nonsense. Far too many of the “everything is fine it’s the players who are the problem” apologists are simply looking for someone to argue against in forums because they can’t get any decent action happening in the game.
The actual issue is that CCP needs to design content that appeals to more players, because the game is bleeding players at a rate that means EVE will be a ghost town in maintenance mode within 5 years.
Burying your head in the sand with “yeah but this content is just fine for .005% of the potential player base” comments simply leads to the same kind of disconnect from financial reality that CCP suffers from. Evaluating EVE game mechanics in isolation and declaring “Yep there’s 500 players that like this” is stupid when you look at the player population trends over the past 10 years.
CCP has released fail after fail with new content, new NPCs, new events and changed mechanics for years now. The proof is in the pudding: selling the company, losing personnel, declining player base, ever more desperate cash grabs.
Abyssals can work okay for some players, most of the time. That’s just not good enough. CCP needs interesting content that reliably engages the majority of players and attracts new ones. Tired half-efforts that appeal to ever-smaller niches don’t cut it.
The DC issue can happen anywhere during key moments that can cause loss in Eve. So that is not an issue for CCP to deal with unless you want to open a ticket and let them take a look.
The timed event is questionable. It does pose a challenge and I like that. I dont think we should lose everything down to our implants. Lose the ship and be ported out with implants intact should be the very worst outcome.
I am in no way implying EVE doesn’t have issues, especially with player retention. I generally try to stick to the OP topic at hand otherwise threads balloon out of control.
So to take it back to that, I simply don’t agree with the OP’s premise. He may enjoy abyssal content. But just because he has DC issues or RL interruption issues does not make abyssal content “bad” or poorly designed.
I like that CCP has tried new things. I like that they are willing to add content that “ups the stakes”. Maybe as you say on its own it isn’t “good enough”. But it doesn’t make the content bad.
now if they removed other content so we had no other choice than to run abyssals, yes that would be bad.
I think I started out by asking if abyssals needed tweeting or if ccp needed to use more common sense when it comes to creating a better abyssal experience.
Oh boo hoo, there’s a PvE thing that actually has a slight degree of risk and difficulty instead of being more inane zero-risk farming nonsense. I have sympathy for the connection issue because hardware/ISP problems are not a game mechanic, but people need to STFU and stop whining about the fact that it requires a time or effort commitment and has a chance of loss.
