Pandora’s Box:
Titan’s they were the unsealing of Pandora’s box. Many times CCP has said they wish they could unmake them. They have caused dev’s as much as players much angst over the years. We tend to look at the downsides of titans alot but seldom the upsides. In my mind the greatest upside of titans is they offered the ultimate goal to so many players. Titans rest on the top of the ship tree unchallenged in their demand for respect and attention. Acquiring , building , protecting , saving , flying and fighting with these things have consumed 1000’s of hours of players time.
However in 2020 so many players have acquired them. They are no longer as special, no longer rare. Instead of being the special rare thing they are common in every veteran group. A decent portion of the community has reached this goal. Many players , myself included, find it to be normal and common to have multiple titans multiple supercapitals. They no longer hold the prestige that they once did as the ultimate goal. The goal has been in large part been reached by the veteran community. We the players are left without a goal without a new height to reach.
So as we know there is no getting Pandora back into her box. To this I say ok then let us embrace Pandora instead. Give us veterans the next evolution and kick the problem of Pandora down the road for another decade. When that time period comes along kick it again until we are all flying around full on Halo infinity wheels 50 years from now. “Insert Hull Class name here” is the next evolution of warfare in the 2300 century. Made to suppress and destroy capitals , supercarriers and titan in devastating efficiency. Blah blah blah (i’m not a dev you all work out its stats and features). In short CCP we ( veterans) need a new goal. We need a new boogeyman and we need a new challenge. A new higher mountain to climb. As has been illustrated well enough there is no putting Pandora back in her box.
Fight Generators:
Player Operated Starbases use to generate a lot of fights. CCP had a few honest motivations for moving away from POS. First POS code as we have been told many times was not very conducive to iteration. To get somewhere better CCP had to start anew. Secondly CCP wanted to change resource acquisition from a top down system to a bottom up system. It all sounded great. I was convinced this would lead to more small gang content . To some extent it did but more importantly it killed a massive fight generator. Poking an alliances money moons was a great way to illicit a fight or cause them economic harm.
So I suggest a middle ground. 50% of all ore extracted from a moon by a refinery moon drill is transferred into storage inside the refinery. This ore can only be accessed on a single day per month. The structure owner when they anchor the structure set the day of the month (1st -28th) that ore can be removed from the structure. So this is a compromise of what CCP wanted in the elimination of top down income. If or when the structure is killed any and all ore within storage drops. Boom , we have a fight generator back.
Next damage caps are just not fun they are just not healthy and they outright make structure shoots painful. One of the greatest things about POS was Stront timing was an art. Furthermore there was counterplay via “pos kiting”. This just no longer exists. There is no counterplay with new structures. I would strongly suggest we change structures back to some sort of stront timing mechanic with a linear damage cap. Some way to kite the timer if the effort was put forth would be really nice too. Furthermore a refinery anchored at moons should not have it’s anchor time influenced by the sovereignty index. We need moons to once again generate fights.
Break EVE(regularly):
So I play a few other games when I’m not playing EVE. I play League of Legends and I play Path of Exile. These 2 games are not the same as EVE, not even the same genre. However they do things which keep they’re mostly static games fresh and exciting. A few times a year RIOT games releases a major balance patch where an a champion type is intentionally made stronger than others. They shift the meta on a regular basis to keep the game fresh and as a decade long player in LOL you can definitely feel these changes it makes the game that is very static in layout and objectives feel fresh and different.
I play Path of Exiles as well and 4-5 times a year they introduce these patches called “Challenge Leagues” Whereby the very static game that Path of Exiles is has new items spells and mechanics introduced shifting the meta on what is good and bad. So you might like to play a Axe wielding tank and he might be the most overpowered thing in the game one league and weak af the next. But it causes you to branch out and try new things. It makes the game that is virtually the same feel new and different.
CCP imho could take a page out of both of these above games book. What I am asking and I think players would enthusiastically embrace is change EVE up a few times a year. We tend to go through these multi-year metas that become very very boring. Right now it is Muninn’s online before that it was Ishtars and etc etc. I would be excited if CCP just changed numbers in the database 2-3-4 times a year. So you might end up with T3 Cruisers being op for a quarter. The next quarter maybe rail guns are op. Perhaps the next quarter battleships are all the rage. Shift the meta regularly it will pay dividends in player excitement. Right now there is a poor Amariann pilot sulking in Amarr dreaming of the day when his Apocalypse is wanted on the battlefield. Would you CCP deny this poor child his dream of laser light shows in space? For only a few balance patches a year you can help save our poor Amarrian pilot.
Next let’s talk about introducing new ships and modules. CCP tends to bring out new ships and they are usually undertuned and require multiple passes to make them relevant. Case in point the Triglavian Dread. That thing’s stats were nearly gutted before it made it to tranquility. Again looking at another approach to go about this. When RIOT introduces a new champion they overtune it and it creates hype and excitement and then being astute in the ways of the hebrew they make sure to have multiple skins ready for purchase with that new champion on day 1. So I really suggest when you introduce new ships you bring them in overtuned and then over time detune them into a balanced state. This will help create buzz and hype for EVE Online as players excitedly talk about this new thing their favorite game is introducing.
The main point here is dramatic changes on regular intervals could be good and healthy for EVE. Maybe your brush stroke might be too wide or too narrow on a given patch but no big deal the meta will shift again in only a few months. I once as a CSM was in a meeting where Hilmar posed a question “ How do we keep eve exciting when players figure out the way to the top of the mountain (EVE) so easily”. My response was to change the paths regularly and often.
Manny
