Bill Dingha Cynabal (aka Machagon) for CSM 19 - Yes, that Corvette to Cynabal guy

Council Of Stellar Management CSM Campaigns
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Hello. I’m Bill Dingha Cynabal (aka Machagon) and I’m a candidate for CSM 19.

Who?

You may know me as the Corvette to Cynabal guy. I’ve spent the last year playing EVE in an Ironman challenge mode of my own devising and documenting the journey on youtube.

My story in New Eden didn’t begin as Bill Dingha Cynabal, though. I first started playing EVE in 2009 as Machagon (Machagon | Character | zKillboard). Over the last fifteen years, I’ve been constantly discovering new ways to love this game. I’ve engaged with almost every type of content available, but I’ve always been most at home cruising around low-sec in a faction frigate looking for fights.

I don’t paint myself as an expert at anything, but I have played the hell out of this game, I understand the importance and fragility of balance, and I have good instincts for what incentivizes fun behaviour and what doesn’t.

What kind of candidate are you?

I’m a Low Sec candidate. I’ve spent time in every part of New Eden, but for the vast majority of my time in this game, I’ve called low sec (or NPC null) my home. I strongly believe that the mechanics in low sec create the environment for some of the most fun and engaging gameplay in all of gaming. The new focus by CCP on reinvigorating low sec over the last couple of years has been extremely promising and has had some huge successes (and also a few failures). As a low sec resident, I’m highly motivated to ensure that this area of space continues to be developed in a way that encourages players to spend time here, rather than simply pass through.

I’m an Independent candidate. Over my years in this game, I’ve slid in and out of a number of corporations and communities, but I have never joined a null bloc or tied myself to a larger political entity. The two largest groups I have ever been a part of are Ushra’Khan and Noir. And, while I still count many from both those groups as good friends, I have no ongoing affiliation with either and I am certainly not beholden to their interests. If you’re looking for a candidate who is truly unbiased in New Eden’s political arena, you’d be hard-pressed to find a long-time player as unfettered as me.

I’m a Solo PVP candidate. PVP is without a doubt what’s kept me playing this game for more than 15 years. I’ve never found another game that has the PVP depth of EVE online. And, while I have been an FC and a line member in large fleets and epic battles, I’ve always been most drawn to the fast and dirty strategic complexity of small fights in small ships. I have spent thousands of hours roaming low and null in a lone frigate, destroyer, or cruiser, taking any reasonable fight I can get. I’ve flown pretty much every small ship in the game into battle, in fits I designed myself. I am intimately familiar with the current balance issues, and have carefully considered ideas on the small tweaks that might help. Most of all, I want to change the conversation about solo PVP as the elite purview of try-hards. In FW space especially, you can be getting solo wins very early in your EVE career, and there’s no better feeling.

I’m a Pirate candidate. I’m currently enlisted with the Angel Cartel but, more than that, I think of piracy as a PVP philosophy. I don’t think PVP needs an objective or a reason. The endorphin rush of scramming an unsuspecting miner or explorer is reason enough. And when I slide into an FW plex, I’m not looking to win a victory for a greater cause. I’m just looking for a fight.

I am a Single Account candidate. For almost the entire time I’ve been playing this game, I’ve been playing it with just one Omega account. I have two accounts today only because my YouTube series requires it. I never fly them at the same time. I have no problem at all with the reality that EVE is a multibox game for many players, but I think it’s essential that the experience of the single-account player be a primary consideration in development and balance.

I’m an EVE-is-a-game candidate. I love that this is a world with huge player groups that take things very seriously. I love that this is a world where loss is real and politics is everywhere. But, at it’s core, for me. It has always been a game. I log in to have fun. And I don’t measure my fun in ISK or influence. I measure it in whether the activities I’m engaged in are enjoyable on their own merits. I really do play this game as a game and the thing I care about most is that every player always have the option to just log in and immediately do something fun.

What are your blindspots?

As I said above, I’ve never been a member of a null bloc. I’ve spent a fair bit of time in sov null, but always as a nomadic hunter or scavenger. Likewise, though I’ve flown around Pochven plenty, I’ve never made it my home. For that matter, my recent experience in High Sec is relatively limited (although I did spent a couple of months running almost every high sec COSMOS mission not that long ago). Finally, I’ve never run an Abyssal site above T2 and I’ve never done Incursions.

If you really need a candidate with a deep understanding of those specific things, I’m afraid it’s not me. But, if I’m elected and any of those things become the issue of the day, I promise to listen quietly and diligently until I understand, and then offer my thoughts humbly.

Why are you qualified for the CSM?

I mean, maybe I’m not. I’m not best-in-the-world at any part of this game (though I’m all-time top 5 in Vigil Fleet Issue kills). But I care about this game a ton, and I care about the people playing it.

If you’ve seen my Corvette to Cynabal videos then you have a very good idea of the way I think about this game and the limits of my knowledge. What I offer is a positive attitude, a love of sharing, and a genuine eagerness to learn.

Over the years, I’ve helped a great many new players find their way into this game, and I’ve authored a number of guides and explainers:

How to Become a Scan Probe Legend in 3 Minutes Flat

How 2 Second Align Ships Get Caught

How to 100% a Standard Sleeper Cache in a T1 Frigate

But, most of all, I think my single strongest qualification for the CSM is the fact that I have spent the last year playing this game the wrong way. My Corvette to Cynabal Bootstrap Challenge has led me to engage with almost every part of the game from high-sec belt ratting to ice mining to gas huffing to low sec DED sites to pirate epic arcs to faction warfare to planetary industry to ninja moon mining to sleeper PVE to reactions to data and relic sites to the abyss to solo bubble camping.

And every bit of content I’ve engaged with along the way, I’ve been flying T1 ships with cheap fits and low skillpoints. I’m not sure there’s any other candidate who has such broad and recent experience with what playing this game is like for someone with minimal ISK and SP.

Why are you running and what do you hope to accomplish?

I think this is the best video game in the world. And I want it to keep getting better. But, most of all, I simply want it to keep existing.

If New Eden is still going to be here for us twenty years down the road, it is absolutely essential that the game keep attracting new players, that it give those new players reason and to stay, and that it keep the older players motivation to keep logging in. EVE is brutal, merciless, and difficult. And that is what makes it great. But it also needs to be fun, approachable, and rewarding.

I think the single most critical tool for keeping EVE alive into the future is open communication between the developers and the playerbase. For all the limitations and failings of the CSM model, it is an absolutely incredible institution and opportunity.

I don’t hold any illusions about what the CSM can accomplish. The CSM does not direct the use of developer time, nor does it draw out the roadmap. And so I’m not going to make any bold promises about what my election would mean for the future of the game.

But, at the same time, good feedback from engaged players DOES MAKE A DIFFERENCE. Three years ago, I authored a series of profanely-titled Reddit posts detailing hundreds of long-standing bugs in the Career Agent system, and making an impassioned case for why fixing them should be a top priority for the health of the game.

In the comments, of course, everyone first agreed with me and then mocked me for putting so much energy into something that would obviously fall on deaf ears. But I persisted.

And, lo, with the Uprising expansion, CCP actually addressed almost every issue I had highlighted, and specifically acknowledged that my posts had been instrumental in making it happen: The New Player Experience is Way ■■■■■■■ Better : Eve

So, yeah, I’ve always believed that open feedback and good-faith dialogue has the power to actually make EVE better. I’ve seen it happen. I want to take part in the CSM because I want to keep pursuing changes and bugfixes like this that unambiguously make the game better for all players.

Okay, but say you actually COULD direct the use of developer time?

I’d want to see T3 frigates, new epic arcs, mobile personal starbases, metenox moon siphons, a PI overhaul, more dynamic FW rewards, and the end of Velator supremacy.

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missed opportunity to corvette to CSM challenge.

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@Bill_Dingha_Cynabal Do you support hiring (EVE Vanguard) Warclone Mercenaries as an attack/defense vector in Capsuleer conflicts? Like attacking/defending Planetary Infrastructure, Skyhooks/POCOs and Upwell Structures?

As a CSM would you try and pitch for CCP to make stack multi-split (splitting a stack of items into multiple stacks of same size in one go instead of just one split at a time) happen?

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O7 Bill Dingha Cynabal (aka Machagon),

Last year I asked eight questions and then compiled the answers into a huge mega-thread. It was massive. With the exception of MILINT_ARC_Trooper, no one had a thread bigger than mine, to be fair MILINT_ARC_Troopers’ thread was so weighty and knowledgable it teetered on the edge of collapsing into its’ own core.

That catalogue of replies is now a time-capsule and encapsulated within are the hopes and disappointments that CSM 18 candidates considered worth speaking about during the year of EVE’s 20th anniversary.

The responses gave voters en masse an opportunity to test and compare each hopeful CSM 18 candidates commitment to their claims of being community oriented, knowledgable, responsive and representative of player values. Given that the CSM does not directly control any aspect of EVE’s development and that the successful candidates are those that can identify existing and future consequences, co-operate with other CSM members, and communicate issues -from a player perspective- to CCP staff one-to-one, I’ve formulated a set of questions designed to seperate the compressed ORE from the Long-Limb Roes in this years election race.

Year-on-year the Independent Representatives, Solo players with single accounts, Worm Holers, Triangle People, Semi-nomadic Role-Playing Sandbox Explorers, and Salvagers, have been organising and gaining traction against the self-secure Null-Bloc Empire Candidates and their vast hordes of leather-skinned, evil, flying-monkeys. More-and-more players are choosing to vote in members they believe can positively impact CCP’s approach to the game regardless of their in-game affiliations.

Exposure matters, who are you, what is your clue?
As was the process last year I will post each candidates reply in a super thread, first-in first-served.

This years questions:

  1. What ONE identifiable consequence requires CCP’s attention?

  2. What PROVABLE evidence can you supply to support your belief in this situation?

  3. What practical, and balanced change can be made to support a solution if any?

  4. What support do your observations have from other CSM candidates?

  5. How will you present your findings to CCP?

If you have already identified and spoken about a problem in your CSM candidacy bio at the top of this thread feel free to copy pasta that response where applicable. I’ll copy paste directly from your response to this post. Choose your goblet…. wisely.

Let the games begin, and may the odds ever be in your favour.

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If I’m perfectly honest, I’m not really coming into my CSM candidacy with a single flagship issue. I think there’s a lot of room for improvements and fixes to this game, but I don’t have a bee in my bonnet. To answer the question though, I think there’s a major unintended consequence unfolding with Metenox Moon Drills. A lot of people are happy with the return of passive moon mining, and I understand that completely. But Metenoxes are far less interactable than Athanors, and so space gets less interesting when Athanors disappear. And Athanors are disappearing fast, at least in low sec.

I’m not going to pretend to have compiled a meticulous spreadsheet. But last week I did an assay of 30 low-sec systems in Placid and Solitude. In these 30 systems combined, there were 5 Athanors pulling in moon chunks. A similar tour about a month before Equinox turned up in excess of 20 active Athanors. I’ll ask CCP for the actual data on low-sec Athanors with moon drills before and after Equinox.

The intent of the design appears to have been for Metenoxes to primarily go on moons that wouldn’t have been good candidates for Athanors anyhow. The lower overall yield of the Metenox was almost certainly meant to make it an appealing option only on moons that weren’t worth it to actively mine. This is not how it has played out. One obvious solution is to leave Metenoxes as they are now, and buff Athanor mining slightly via one of several dials (asteroid count, asteroid size, tractor beam speed, moon ore volume, etc) until a better balance is achieved. Any such buff will, of course, drive down the price of moon minerals somewhat as the supply of them increases, so care would need to be taken.

Another approach that should be implemented simultaneously with the Athanor buff (or even instead of it) is introducing interactive gameplay related to Metenoxes for people who aren’t interested in bashing the whole structure. Either a heist mechanic, or a return of the siphon mechanic.

I have not talked to any other candidate about this idea. I gotta be honest, I don’t really hobnob and rub elbows with Alliance leaders and a lot of the other people who are likely to run to CSM. I’m just a dude zipping around in a Corvette trying to build a Cynabal. But I love brainstorming and I have zero ego about my ideas. If I’m elected and I present this idea and the other CSM members support it, great. If I present it and the other CSM members immediately point out why it’s a dumb and bad idea, that’s great too. We’ll come up with a better one.

In complete sentences. Maybe with a chart or two. In my real life, I’m a journalist. It may not come across in my forum and reddit posts, but one thing I do know how to do is lay out an argument clearly. Remember, I was able to facilitate dozens of bugfixes and small improvements to the Career Agents without even being on the CSM. Just by detailing everything that needed to be done in a clear and approachable way.

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I don’t play Vanguard and have no intention of playing it in the future, so I confess that I’m not in a good position to have an informed opinion about how it could best be integrated with EVE Online. That said, I do think it provides a good opportunity to expand the EVE Universe and make planets feel more alive than they currently do.

Having lived through the Dust 514 era, however, I tend towards extreme caution regarding the shape of that integration. I also think that the realist view at this point should be confident of EVE Online’s survival on a five to ten year time horizon, but somewhat skeptical of EVE Vanguard’s survival on that same timeline. While CCP continues to work on building Vanguard into something that will last, I strongly believe they should also be baking in a contingency that minimizes the damage to EVE Online if Vanguard fails.

It’s important that players who participate only in EVE Online not feel like there are vital game mechanics that are out of their control, and that they not be incentivized to pour a bunch of time and energy into new mechanics that might be obsoleted if Vanguard fails to thrive. Building a connection between these two games while also allowing the games to independently feel complete will require a very soft touch.

As for the specific hooks for interaction between the two games, I am certain that CCP already has a detailed roadmap for phase one, considering a major content update is scheduled for November. Honestly, I expect the CSM’s role in this regard to be more about damage control and advocating caution rather than proposing new ideas for interaction. I feel well equipped to be the voice of prudence on this.

As for stack multisplit, yes, absolutely. That’s a good idea for a simple quality of life feature and I will bring it up and advocate for implementing it, if it can be done relatively easily.

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I know that the CSM’s ability to drive actual development is limited, and I’m really running as an enthusiasm candidate. I’m hoping you’ll support me because you’ve gotten to know me and think I’ll be a good, reasonable, and unbiased voice in the room when changes are being discussed. When it come right down to it, I think wise CSM voting is more about character, depth of experience and philosophy than it is about specific in-game issues. Whoever you vote for is going to be your avatar in whatever discussion ends up happening, and you need to trust them to put their personal axgrinds aside and talk about what’s on the table.

Still, I should list a few very specific things I will advocate for. So here they are, in no particular order:

  • The Planetary Interaction interface is long past due for an overhaul. Right now it’s the worst of both worlds as a “passive” activity that requires a shitload of babysitting, repeating the same clicks over and over.
  • Put USEFUL information in the character profile preview in the launcher. No one needs to know their security status and their corporation before they choose to log it. What about something like the system the character is in and how many unread eve-mails they have?
  • Metenox moon drills need to be interactable in ways other than bashing the whole damn structure. They need either a heist mechanic or the return of the old siphon mechanic.
  • In fact, I think that Athanor moon mining may also need a small buff now that Metenoxes are a thing
  • The recent Skyhook vulnerability changes make zero sense. If things are going to be interactable, let us actually interact with them.
  • Faction Warfare AWOXing needs to be not so much punished as deincentivized. I support flagging people as Criminal when they AWOX and making it so that Criminal players can’t capture plexes or collect LP.
  • NPC Null Sec needs new content! (Dare I say Isogen in the belts to start? But also, like, actual NEW content…)
  • Bring back Proving Grounds, although make them somewhat less frequent than they were before. Each Proving Grounds should feel like a big event.
  • And, when Proving Grounds come back, make a single item called a “Proving Grounds Filament” that will always work for whatever the current Proving Grounds is. There’s no need to make filaments expire and make people keep tracking down new filaments for new events.
  • New Level 2-ish epic arcs and other lore-centric content that is hooked in to the end of the current Tutorial → Career Agent → SoE arc pipeline. Ideally including story hooks that send people to low sec or even to WH space and Pochven.
  • Turret/Launcher tiericide
  • Reign in the Hookbill slightly. Buff the Firetail slightly. (So VERY slightly in both cases). Reign in the Exeq Navy.
  • FW Scout ADV-1 complexes
  • A serious conversation about how Pirate FW sites can be reworked to disincentivize fleets of multiboxed Algoses (possibly reducing small Pirate plexes from 5-max to 2-max)
  • Add a way for unenlisted people to participate in Insurgencies on the Empire side without enlisting in FW (particularly for defending High Sec)
  • Fix the useless in-game Insurgency map
  • Remove Learning Implants and Attribute remaps and just let everyone train as though they had perfect attributes and +5s at all times
  • Actually, don’t REMOVE Learning Implants, turn them into a new class of Genolution-esque general purpose implants with a sliding scale of +1% to +5% bonuses. Let these serve as an accessible half-way step to pirate sets.
  • Structure HP buff to all T1 haulers
  • New deployable structures that bridge the gap between mobile depot and POS/Astrahus
  • Remove the goddamn civilian warp disruptor from the game (or make it actually disrupt warp, but give it like a 10km range)
  • And, finally, let’s rebalance the Corvettes and end Velator Supremacy (give all corvettes 2 drones, better align speeds, and an ore bay to boot)
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Finally! Here’s the interview video! Thanks so much for coming to speak with me and I look forward to talking to you more in the future!

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Turret/Launcher tiericide

Could you explain this? What exactly do you mean by this?

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You are not in the list, I would vote for you if you were there… oh its Machagon

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The joy of being known by more than one name.

m

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+1 vouch. Great platform and really enjoyed your interviews.