Here are some ideas I had about improvements to the game. I was looking for the feedback forum but couldn’t find it so this might not be in the best category of the forum to post this into.
1 - PI QOL Improvement. Have a flat window where you have everything listed rather then a bunch of different windows and icons on the planet you have to select to open different windows. It gets annoying having to zoom in and out and around and around to find the right thing to click on. Just have a window with all of the items listed and you can select, it pops out another window, you make your change or restart the extractor and press enter for submit and you’re good to go. Please create a shortcut for clicking “Submit”.
2 - Scanning idea - I had posted this before but honestly I think it should be implemented. Have a shortcut key set so you can lock an axis with a button click. So for example I’m on the scanning map. I want to move along the Y axis. Instead of clicking on the up or down arrow, I could press the Y key for example and just move my mouse up and down. They have this function in some 3D modeling programs and it really is handy when using transform icons.
3 - Allow multiple rows of Chat tabs on chat windows. This way you could stack all of your chat windows and they would be more organized/easier to view. When you have to many it becomes hard to navigate between tabs. I’m talking specifically about the tabs of the windows when you collapse multiple windows together. Have it where you can expand the Title bar of the window allowing for multiple rows of window tabs.
4 - More detailed information about ship stats. For example the stat for ship locking, Scan Resolution. It has the number over it and a brief description but nothing really to put that number into perspective. Now it would be hard to get really specific due the vast differences in ships. But using a quantitative statement like "A Scanning Resolution of XX on this ship would be able to lock a Class Below Ship in XX seconds. It would be able to lock a ship in a class above in XX Seconds. Improving the in-game information about ships and combat mechanics would help a lot of new players get along with the game. There are some terrific guides on 3rd party websites about game mechanics. However this requires time for a player to research out of game. In my opinion you want your players interacting in game and not out of it. Improve combat simulators/tools to help plan out ships. Have a tool where you can punch in the amount of DPS a ship would be receiving with it’s current setup and it would feed out how much DPS the ship would take with it’s resistance. Or how long that ship could tank that DPS with it’s active reppers running. Or what happens when the ship is approaching different classes of ships at different speeds/angles.
5 - A pop up in the Market when buying items out of Station. This is because I’m bad and tend to buy in System but not in Station.
6 - Customization options for the capacitor/ship armor/shield/hull amounts and module bars. Allow them to be changed in shape or style. Being able to move the modules separately from the “Health” section. Maybe have a bar shape rather then a circle shape so it fights with your other windows. Same for the information section in the top left. Have it as a window so you can move it around and/or collapse it.
These were QOL ideas I had. Below are some game play ideas I’ve been thinking about.
1 - D-Scan. I’ve thought a lot about D-Scan and I truly think it could be incorporated into ship types/skills/modules. It’s a base function of a ship that isn’t improved or adapted in any way no matter what you do. Well this is Eve and almost everything you do should be influenced by the ship/modules/skills/implants. Honestly if you get creative with the D-Scan there can be a ton of game play changes that could be implemented. Create modules that improve D-Scan speed or resolution, even allowing top levels to pick up friendly vs hostile ship signatures. Have different signature types a ship can broadcast. Allow types of scanning that can pick up cloaked ships after doing a mini game of honing in on the signal. Things like that. Have different types of scanning modules that maybe allow regular scans of the system automatically but with small areas of scan.
2 - Warp Disruptor and counter modules. Create modules that are active inputs on both the disruptor and the warp stab. Having a popup where you have to adjust the frequency to try and disrupt the warp drive of an enemy ship. Allow the target ship to try to counter the disruption by adjusting it’s own frequency. During the game the ship would be slowly moving to warp drive speed but couldn’t do it for a period of time while the disruptor game is going.
This could balance hunters and the hunted. Instead of having a bubble with no real counter play or a disruptor that any ship can use vs warp core stabs/Interdictors nullified you would have a game that’s more active for both sides that requires skills and real time play that is more engaging.
3 - Drones/Drone boats. These items should be adjusted. In my opinion they are extremely boring due to the lack of individual control/input from the user. Most of my ideas center around a thought process of more involvement for the user improves the users engagement with the game. So either working on drones so they require more input from the user or just removing them from the game entirely and moving more to guns/lasers/mining lasers only type meta.
4 - Guns/Lasers - Creating an interface that requires players to control the guns more then they currently are. Having options for firing patterns, flight times, or speeds. This would/should be linked with collateral damage. It’s strange to me that if the gun fires and it misses nothing happens. Let’s talk about large scale fleet engagements. If a player fires a gun in a massive battle and the bullet misses and a friendly is on the other side, the friendly should be hit. Basically making it similar to how bombs work. This would require more positional monitoring and also limit some larger fleets due the chaos of having fleet mates shooting fleet mates because they are all blobbed together.
5 - Randomness - Increase the randomness of PVE encounters. Most ratting anoms are pretty static. In fact one of the funnest changes EVE had included recently was when they added the chance for a random Dread or Titan to spawn in Anoms. I believe this should be expanded on greatly. Maybe create a difficulty level ratting of a player ship that’s only visible to the game. This would be influenced by the players implants/skills/modules. So a player with a blingy pod and blingy ship would have a really high difficulty level. Then depending on that rating, you could increase the damage of rats, increase remote repping of rats, if a Dread spawns, it would have higher damage based off that Difficulty rating.
6 - Mining - This one is a pipe dream but would be amazing to see. Right now mining is boring. It encourages AFK playing which isn’t really satisfying for a player. Now I’m speaking outside of blackout and Cyno changes. I’m talking about the action of warping to an anom, finding a rock, targeting said rock, and engaging mining lasers or drones. Pretty boring.
My idea would create an entirely new meta to mining. No more Spod rocks or Bistot rocks. Each and every rock would be randomly generated. Each rock would have different minerals and again would be random based on whatever criteria would fit the games need. The miner would need to warp in to the anom, and engage a general scan to find rocks they might want to mine. Then when the right rock is picked, the player would engage a “Deep Surface” scan showing the different sides of the rock that has the different minerals or maybe junk ore like basic rock materials. They would then target the rock area with the right mineral they’re looking for and engage the lasers. They would have to constantly adjust the mining laser to ensure they’re getting the right minerals for their needs. The interface that I’m picturing would look similar to a Planet scan you do for PI and the adjustment and targeting of the extractors for the resources you want.
But you can have fun with it. Maybe incorporate mining laser instability at lower levels requiring more attention to the laser’s power usage or it’ll overheat and become damaged. Increase the mining yield but also increasing the chance of failure in extracting the minerals so the trade offs are there. Maybe have gas clouds that can explode in a rock if you don’t watch the levels of gas forming and adjusting your mining lasers accordingly. Things like that.
7 - This one I’ve thought about a ton. I loved Rorq mining. I hated the changes CCP made to it since May and argued against them since. However it doesn’t seem like CCP is changing their mind so I thought I might offer some different options.
Instead of a Rorq with powerful excavators you could have mining exhumers with different capabilities of the Rorq to improve the fleet comp. Have one in the fleet with boosts. One in the fleet with higher Defense capabilities for fighting off rats. Have one in the fleet that can setup a compression array on grid allowing for compression. Maybe swap down to a basic tier Exhumer instead of the Hulk/Mac/Skiff. You have an exhumer. Then you have hull upgrades outside of modules. You could fit the boost array to one or you could fit the larger ore hold to another or the compression array. Limit it to encourage fleets to form. You would all still be mining but using each other to increase the yield of the fleet as a whole. I always heard how the Rorq used to not mine and was only a support ship. However that sort of game play for that player sitting in the Rorq not doing anything other then engaging boosts and sitting on grid is boring and not really rewarding for that Rorq pilot. My idea would resolve the whole overpowered issue of the Rorq and still provide better mining options for players.
I hated when I mined in a skiff because my life was a sum total of warp to a rock mine for a bit warp off and warp back. You would watch D-Scan and your cargo hold and that’s about it.
My idea with the mining base change and the mining ship change would allow new levels of game play for the sub cap miner.
8 - This would lead into the next topic which is decreasing the amount of time for a task while increasing the difficulty and risk of the task. This is more of a design concept then a particular idea. However this idea if executed right could help to limit botting effectiveness while increasing player enjoyment and decreasing player burnout.
The core concept has to be a basic task, ratting, mission running, mining, scanning would be more involved at the player level requiring actual player skill along with character skills/ship investment/knowledge. By having an increase in the difficulty for the said task but decreasing the time for that task to be completed makes it vastly more enjoyable but limits the overwhelming tedium of EVE.
So for an example Ratting in a WH. It can be very challenging for the first 5 minutes of the site. You have to setup the cap chain, setup the repping, make sure people are listening and staying on the FC. But after that a repetition sets in place and it becomes boring. When you pop that drifter and you don’t know who he’s going to hit and/or how hard it’s amazingly fun. However once they’re locked down and the reps are going out it’s boring. It’s just sit back and let the automated processes work.
Now with my system you would expand that difficulty of the first few minutes by adjusting rats behaviors, giving them different attacks/abilities that you have to work to counter act. You would then decrease the amount of time on grid. So it’s fun and heart pounding and not afk boring.
But you ask how can this help limit botting. By limiting the time on grid but increasing the difficulty/randomness of any PVE encounter it would become harder for a botter to develop a botting script capable of adjusting for all of the different events that might occur during the encounter. Having different screens needing to be opened, having different actions needing to take place depending on that particular event, the botter would have to have a perfect script running constantly or they’re going to be destroyed pretty quickly.
