I’ve returned to the game after about 15 years and it’s basically a graveyard - there are only ever around 20-30k concurrent online players. This sorely needs to be fixed, because CCP are gonna need the revenue now they’re up for sale.
The problem seems to be gaining new players and player retention - as has always somewhat been the case in this game. I love the game, I love blowing people up and I’m probably part of the problem - but I would like to see more players and longer surviving players.
Here are the issues as I see them and some suggestions;
Buff low sec, seriously. Do it. Make people actually want/need to go there. I know null will moan, because it’s “unsafe” and they like to krab away in their fortresses. People need to go to low, there needs to be something to bring them that is needed/required and to cause conflict. Put a valuable resource in low, have people want to collect it, fight over it, etc. More resources = more conflict.
Limit hotdrops in low - when using a cyno to low, make it like a wormhole with a mass limit or size limit. I know that causes issues for null navigation, so more thought is needed on that.
Fix ganking in high - it’s just killing the game. There’s zero risk to ganking and the ganks more than cover the cost + sec status reclaim via tags. Just stop gankers entering the system. Some ganks are just dumb and new players getting all their assets destroyed makes them quit.
Add more minerals to high - null used to export a lot from high, no issue to do that again.
The new player tutorial is much better now, but possibly give them a few more handrails to stop them dying and when they do die, point out why.
Give genuine new players (hash of their contact/payment details, etc) 100% insurance refund for the first X weeks… or give them a “refund balance” of 500m for X weeks. Really let them go ham and welp ships so they don’t actually care about it and don’t quit.
Stop forcing/funneling people into null - everything points to being pushed in that direction and a lot of people don’t want that. Encourage them, sure, but don’t make the rest of the game barren by comparison in order to channel people into null.
I know, I know. This isn’t very HTFU, but that time has long since passed. It doesn’t matter, ISK isn’t the primary currency it’s just a time-game/engagement metric.
The point is this game needs new players and needs to retain them - not only for content, but to expand and for revenue. I know it’s supposed to be a harsh game and it has been for 20 years. Now it doesn’t have that luxuary because it’s needs bodies in ships - or it’s gonna die.
I’d really like to see high, low and WH’s teeming with life again but you can jump many low systems without any content, chains of WH’s without any content.
tldr; Make things nicer for new players so they stick around longer.
You know why EVE never dies?
Because the devs are really great at doing everything except THAT.
You can rage at EVE. You can insult the devs. You can create ten million alt accounts and talk about how this time it’s really going to die. But you can never say that it’s a game for everyone. And that’s why it will always have a playerbase.
This is only a rumor with one source and not confirmed.
You realize that this is one of the more active areas atm with PVP right, and is one of the more profitable areas for the average player. Low sec players do NOT want cyno nerfs.
There is evidence to the contrary. Ganking is also an item sink which helps keeps inflation down.
They still do…
Players are the ones funneling others to null, CCP has been funneling towards low
CCP has been improving this, yes it’s not the high of when Wormholes were added, but it is doing better in recent history.
This whole post reeks of someone who just hasn’t looked at the current state of the game and the community as a whole and is very insular in their views.
Ganking in general is not the problem in Highsec. The other things that the OP cited. Shows that the player has not really noticed the expansions or the fact that unlike even a year ago. The Devs are making a lot more effort to pay attention to what is happening in the game.
Is it optimum? Not really, but it is still an effort. One that I hope continues and improves as time goes on. At the same time the OP seems to think that what was 15 years ago. Should still be happening. Eve is not static and nothing is the same as it was even a year ago.
PA might be selling, but it has been neither confirmed nor denied. Most likely PA is only floating the idea to see if there is a bite or not.
At the same time the game population is pretty good in a post covid world. Not great or even anything to jump up and down about. Still it is good. Yes CCP is working on how to attract retain new players in a game. That is as complexe and uncompromising as this hyper capitalist PVP sandbox is. It is not going to be an easy task and I do not envy them as they thread that needle.
All the same welcome back. Sorry the place is not as you left it. If you stay. You might find that even with the changes. That the game can still be entertaining and fun.
You are likely going to have to put a quote up for who says they are for sale, the announcements from last month has been treated as rumors by CCP.
However no one will want to buy CCP. Eve Onlne has value. CCP has negative the total of Eve’s value and then millions of loss more per quarter on top.
There are many valuable resources in low. And recently high sec LP stores were damaged to push people into having to get some items from low, not sure if it was restored after protests or if it was kept in.
Facts are:
There are many very valuable things in low, there has been for many years.
There has been several things added to low over the last 10 years at least.
Players aren’t migrating to low in any large numbers.
This sums up to: Low sec game play just sucks for the majority of players. Leave it at that and don’t force people out of the game by trying to force them to be unwilling targets for some minority.
Forcing people to do things, just makes many quit instead. So yeah like with low, accept null just sucks for the majority and stop trying to force players around.
Just look at any magic MMO that has tried force raids (EverQuest and World of Warcraft as named examples). EverQuest lost so many players they had to close nearly half the servers over 1 expansion. When WoW went back on giving raid gear without really raiding(1) they also completely reverted their climbing player counts (Expansion 1 = raid = WoW died, Expansion 2 raid gear withotu raids = revivial, Expansion 3 raids = WoW back to dead, and soon having to start make free accounts up to level 20 they could count as active accounts to pretend still having players).
Eve Online is also a great example itself. From 500k subscribed accounts to a dead F2P game just to keep player counts up. Revenue halved when you consider inflation, despite 25% price increases to combat the RL inflation.
(1) (WotLK had daily missions give real raid gear, not the heroic stuff, but the entry level raid gear that wannabee raiders were wearing - the next expansion (Cataclysm) took away these daily / weekly mechanics of obtaining real raidgear, and made Raid Finder that gave nerfed version of the real raidgear - as well as heavily stupidified certain aspects of the game).
So basically they have to 180 their entire design direction lol. (not saying I disagree with your thoughts).
From an outsider looking in ALL they do is nerf and make life more complex for players who want to play their game. All the while, they foster stagnation in the areas that brought many of us in, in the first place.
Each change in the name of their own arbitrary balance goals which seem to follow a hidden agenda elusive to many of us who had genuine affection for the game.
Lowsec…go through a gate and get immediately pounced on by someone with 30,000 solo kills
This lack of any gradation is the problem. I would scrap the highsec and lowsec definitions entirely and just introduce a more gradual graded system of lowering security.
I was expecting this level of aggression, rebuttal, etc - I’m not going to say I’m 100% right or my ideas and reasons are correct.
What I will say is that the game needs more players - how do CCP make that happen?
We all know concurrent/peak player logins also contain a lot of alts and multiboxers so the figures are skewed.
Instead of just shutting down everything I raised and responding with the old tired memes and replies (I realise this “eve is dying” irony meme too), it would actually be nice to have some constructive ideas about attracting and retaining new players. I realise some of the stuff I said is literally throwing mud at a wall and seeing what sticks, but c’mon, humour me and share your thoughts about new players and player retention.
