Dear CCP,
New Eden needs your help.
Eve has always been a game with near limitless potential. It’s had the biggest fights, the most newsworthy events and some of the most intricate mechanics and stories in gaming history. However, all of these have only been made possible because Eve had a solid foundation upon which we, the players, could build on.
The PvE was repetitive, but it was reliable. The industry was complex enough to be challenging, and robust enough to take effort yet still be achievable by your average players.
Players logged in, made a little isk and then spent it on blowing other people up, or they might log in, mine some resources and provide the tools to be sold to the PvPers. The cycle of Eve was mostly uninterrupted, war or patches would throw it for a bit but it would recover.
The introduction of skill injectors and mining Rorquals accelerated this process, bringing it to a new level of production and destruction. When people think of the Rorqual Era they will tell you of how Goonswarm became the game’s super power, or that carebears were making too much ISK. Suddenly, Super Capitals or Titans were a possibility for players who never would have been able to afford one before.
What people usually fail to remember was the fights and explosions generated by these Rorquals. Tackling 24 mining Capital Ships was a common occurrence and led to fights that most of us can only dream of now. Yes - Titan proliferation was an issue, and yes Rorquals needed to be nerfed, but it is important to remember how many fights they generated.
What this eventually led to, however, sparked the crisis we now find ourselves in. When CCP swings the nerf bat, you tend to do a full 360 spin just to be sure you hit the ball, but you end up swinging the object to the opposite end of the spectrum.
Blackout, “Scarcity breeds conflict”, a range of industry changes aimed to completely halt the production of Capitals. All a polar opposite to what the game had been previously. Everything was made difficult or tedious and none of it was fun.
Scarcity breeds caution. Prosperity is not a minimum wage. We are not citizens of a country that lacks the money to emigrate for a better life. We are not forced to abide by bad decisions or gameplay. If Eve becomes undesirable then we will log off and play another game, as unfortunately you have found out.
The potential of Eve is still there, but the stable foundation that potential has been built on was stripped away. You need to put it back. Make the day to day game play lucrative again. Give individual players a reason to undock. Give Alliances a reason to fight. Let people build Battleships, Dreadnaughts, Super Capitals and Titans without being forced to sell a kidney and get a PhD in Engineering.
Below, I will outline some steps I believe will get Eve back in shape. It’s been a rough few years, so let’s start with some Easy Wins.
BRM - Bounty Risk Modifier
Increase the minimum of the BRM to 100%. Eve no longer has the player base to maintain the balance of destruction needed to keep BRMs at a reasonable level.
Logging in to see a system below 100% instantly makes players feel like they are being punished. Most will log off and do something else while a few will continue to grind the systems down to 50%.
Increasing the minimum BRM to 100% will remove the feeling of being punished, as a result more people will be in space, which means more targets in space for roaming gangs and more ISK in the ESS for people to steal.
With one database change you can instantly improve several playstyles from PvE to PvP. This is the single biggest bang for buck you are going to get, please don’t ignore it.
Resource Distribution - Ore Types
Move Ore resources back to pre “prosperity” locations. Give Null Sec back all the ore types you took away. They don’t need to be insane quantities, but they need to be available for your average player to access.
The best way to get miners back in space again is to give people purpose. If we know we can build Battleships, Carriers, or Titans just by investing time into mining our local resources, then we’ll do it.
If your average players have to Venture to High Sec for the most basic of minerals, they won’t even bother trying.
However in the interest of balance, introduce some of the Null Sec ores to Low Sec. This would turn Low Sec into the middle ground between High Sec and Null Sec, offering a diversity for players and access for High Sec players looking to Venture out into more dangerous areas in search of rarer materials.
The idea here is to buff areas of space and get people flying in it again, to open up potential paths for newer players. You already nerfed the rorqual, at least give us our minerals back. Let us feel like this is worth our time, give us a purpose to undock and we will. More people in open space, regardless of the activity or playstyle, is beneficial to the Eve ecosystem.
Angel Capitals
Finish the Faction Capital lines. Put the BPCs in the LP stores and let players build Angel Caps. While you’re at it, a full set of Sansha Capitals as well please. We know some work has already been done on this by your art team, it would benefit the game to be finished.
Passive Income for Corporations and Alliances.
One of the single biggest trigger points for spontaneous and massive fights has been passive R64 POS towers. Alliances whelped far, far more than the moons were worth in the name of holding lucrative passive income streams.
Current moons are “okay”, the mechanic is “meh” but is too far gone now to change. Instead, you need to find another way to implement passive incomes that people will fight over.
One idea is Reserve Banks. The ISK is player activity generated but massively under utilised by a Key mechanic that is closed off to most of the player base. However, leave the keys mechanics in as a way for individuals to steal a portion of the income.
You could introduce a new Upwell structure of which only 1 could be deployed per Alliance. This structure would link to all other systems in a single region held by that Alliance. ISK in the linked Reserve Banks would slowly funnel back to this structure, and then to the Alliance Wallet.
Remember, Reserve Banks are player generated funds so the more people making money in space, the better. However, tie the mechanic into the IHUB or TCU ownership. The Alliance would need to hold consecutive systems linking back to your Upwell Structure for the ISK to flow back to, or their income gets cut off until the link is re-established. If there is a bottle neck system in a region, and your TCU or IHUB is destroyed, the income flow from the reserve banks beyond that point is halted.
This would create a lucrative hybrid passive income for Alliances, with limitations on a single Region. It would create strategic points of attack in an Alliance region with the purpose of disrupting their passive income.
This is one idea of many that could be implemented, however anything done to remove the manual grind from Alliances will free up more time and resources for us to shoot each other. If you think passive income is not required, just look at the vast rental empires and see how much passive income they generate.
The bottom line is that you need to give a reason for your day to day players to undock and do something, anything. Making basic ratting and mining lucrative in Null Sec will do that, and with more players in space, you get more targets in space. One of the biggest periods of destruction in Eve was when people were murdering 20 mining Rorquals per day, or killing the Titans and Supers defending them.
Okay, those were the Easy Wins that should only take a minimum amount of Dev time but provide you some solid positive changes. Next, we have the more difficult.
Price increase
The price increase at the start of the year. Revert it.
You lost an unbelievable amount of good will and public opinion when you increased it. I understand costs have increased but you had an already wary and faltering player base. Instead of offering more “things” for money, you smiled at us and took a bat to our heads.
Offer additional perks instead. For 100 PLEX per month you can upgrade your account and unlock an additional 5 jump clone slots. Lucrative but not OP. What, only 50 PLEX to increase my hangar size from 1,000 items to 3,000 items? Yes please. Don’t be greedy. Keep it small and consistent and players will be interested.
There are a bunch of things you could do for a relatively small amount of money that people would definitely invest in. No, I’m not talking about golden ammo, just general day to day “perks” that people would use.
Hangars
Shared player hangers that are based on ACL, Account 2FA and linked emails. The quality of life this would bring to every single player is insane. However, only make it eligible to those who have linked accounts and active 2FA on all of them.
Instead of increasing the price, you need to increase the players and the services they are willing to pay for.
Alliance Wide Bonuses
You introduced system effects with system storms and the Triglavian invasion. Surely it would not be a massive leap to introduce Alliance wide bonuses while being in your space. 10% increased damage vs NPCs, 10% mining speed, 10% erectness when reading your Alliance’s Mildly Erotic Adventures in New Eden. There are a bunch of things you could do, pick a few and try it out. Allow Alliances to pay ISK for those bonuses every month, we want the best for our pilots, we will pay for it.
Buff the players and we will buff your balance sheet.
Ship Balance
Meta balances. You need an active team that will specifically look at ship and module balance to keep the meta from stagnating. It doesn’t need to be an amazingly fresh meta every few months, it just needs to not let a specific HAC meta dominate uncontested for years. The battleship changes were fantastic, keep it up.
Structures and Sov
I understand given recent changes, and changes coming to FW that you are already looking at these things.
If I could get one message across to you it’s that you need to get back to the basics of shooting, and player repairing. These auto repair timers completely remove the need to get people in space. If you want to win a structure timer you simply threaten to outform the enemy by so much that they don’t bother trying to contest the timer. If the defender has to physically move and repair the shields or armour themselves it opens up a lot of potential fight opportunities. This is how we did it in the old days, it worked.
Why should you listen to me?
I started playing Eve Online in 2004 when I was 15. My playtime while in school was intermittent at best, but when I finished in 2007 I truly got immersed in Eve Online.
I ran missions in Taru for the better part of 8 months, High Sec, before eventually stepping up as my Corporation’s only Fleet Commander during several War Decs.
Wanting more excitement I moved to low sec where we ended up fighting the owners of Fountain, Pandemic Legion. Here I learned from some of the best PvPers of the time, helping to show me the true potential of Eve, while I showed them how to run missions for those dank implants.
After some time in low sec I bounced through Null Sec Alliances. I was a line member, being screamed at by the old guard FCs that “SHIPS DONT ■■■■■■■ MATTER, ONLY POS MATTER” before being whelped on a POS tower grid with the old sov system.
I was a renter, renting a system in Catch from The Initiative., JWZ2-V, inviting my High Sec friends to come and experience null sec. I’ve slowly worked my way up the Alliance ladder, from Renter to Line Member to a Fleet Commander and eventually Alliance Leader. Along with others, I run the fourth largest Alliance in the game.
In my time I’ve done it all. Wormholes, High Sec, Low Sec, Null Sec, Faction Warfare, Abyssal Space, Mining, Industry. I’ve FCed small roams, hunting fleets, BLOPs drops, carrier whelps, dread brawls, massive sub capital set pieces involving thousands, even massive Titan battles such as B-R, X47 and M2-. I swung my Titan harder than a CCP nerf bat.
I was wrongly banned for selling a Molok. Thankfully the ban was lifted.
I found my soul mate when she joined my Alliance. We met in Iceland at fanfest in 2014, she still understands when I need to just “go” and deal with something in New Eden.
To say Eve Online has been a major influence in my life is an understatement.
I’ve done it all. My story, while unique to me, is only one of hundreds of thousands of stories that Eve Players could tell you. I and others like me, have lived and breathed Eve for a long time. We know what makes the game fun, we know what does and doesn’t work, because we have lived it all. So please listen.
Final Thoughts:
Players are not unreasonable. Most of us are not screaming for someone’s job because something changed. The CCP Devs we talk to at fanfest, or on forums, or at events are very passionate about the game, as passionate as the players. We respect the hell out of that.
You do not have to continue following a path you set out on 3 years ago for fear of what people will think. Unfortunately you made a mistake, something we all do. Scarcity did not breed conflict. “Prosperity” was actually “Austerity”. But hey, you tried something, it didn’t work and it is still not working. How you move forward from that now is what defines you.
You are CCP, you created Eve Online, one of the greatest games in online gaming history. Have a bit of faith and leave this path that’s clearly leading you to the cliff edge. Venture into the forest and see what happens.
Dare to be bold, Pilot.
