Grima The Mad for CSM 18

[Grima_The_Mad]

Hello there!

I started playing Eve with a 14-day trial in 2011. I actually decided I really didn’t like the game when I first started. But I came back in early 2012, deciding to give it another go, and I’ve been stuck around it ever since.

What have I done?

When I first started I sat in belts and mined into a can using a Thrasher. I very quickly learned that this was a bad idea. Met some folks, fought in a war on the undock of Rens Brutor Tribe station. Ventured out into low sec, null, and found my favorite kind of space in Wormholes. At one point I joined a null group and then felt like it was a good time to start completely over. Which leads me to this character, my actual main now. A lot of the time I’ve been playing through the years since have been spent supporting organizations that I was part of.

A short list of the things I have done in the game:

• PVP - While I’m not particularly good at fighting other players, even when I’m with a fleet, something I enjoy doing is actively being chased by other players and trying not to get caught.

• PVE - I’ve done quite a lot of this, from scanning down anomalies everywhere from high, low, null and wormhole space, to running incursions, abyssal filaments and all sorts of missions in high and low sec.

• Industry - I’ve built many, many ships, ranging from shuttles to battleships. While I haven’t quite stepped into even constructing freighters I have learned, rather recently how engaging industry can be as strange as that sounds.

Why am I running for CSM?

That is a very good and valid question. I want to represent players from every aspect of Eve Online. I can’t promise that I will be able to positively influence things. But I’m fairly motivated to see this game stick around. I enjoy listening to people in the community speak about different things that they would love to see changed, what bothers them, and what they like. I would love to be a conduit between players and CCP, and where permitted by the NDA I would like to help assure players that things are being done, where they are.

What can players expect from me?

To somewhat reiterate from what I’ve said above, I want to be your representative to CCP. I want to engage with the community as often as possible, speaking to players as frequently as I can and learning what people think the game needs, what is going well and what they think can be improved. I am running for the first time and while I am not an expert in everything the game has to offer, I know enough about most of the game to be able to learn and understand what players are concerned about.

I will maintain constant lines of communications with anyone willing to tolerate me and reach out.

I can be yelled at many places. Mostly here and Twitter /X/ ??? - @grimathemad

I can also be reached at grimathemad@gmail.com

[Srajin]

I have one INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT question for you.

Are you -actually- Mad?

Like, Are we talking evil genius type mad? Or unhinged and a little deranged type mad?

[Grima_The_Mad]

I might be entirely unhinged at this point. College, work, work, family, now this. I think I’d have to be at this point.

[Srajin]

@Grima_The_Mad

I might be entirely unhinged at this point

Apparently “unhinged” is the theme for this CSM.

Carry on
o7

[Elinore_en_Divalone]

@Grima_The_Mad would you back any idea mentioned below as CSM member?

1. Insane idea - pay with PLEX in NES for extra dev time
2. Quafe+ is from "biomass" (...or corpse reprocessing)
3. Little things / Small QoL suggestions - Better Visibility Of Other Players’ PI Networks
4. Little things / Small QoL suggestions - 13 requests for Stack Split enhancment since Jun’18
5. Little things / Small QoL suggestions - PI KB-shortcuts for toggling between groups of structures

[Grima_The_Mad]

I have some thoughts about each of these. I will try to be thorough in my explanation here, but I’m willing to elaborate further if you’d like.

1. PLEX for Dev Time - I generally like the idea of the democratization of development, but what would be the specific value of PLEX that would count as a single accounts vote? Would it be five hundred? A thousand? I think the idea is fascinating, but I don’t know if it would work all that well. Let’s say you have a specific bug in this example, and it’s related to a graphics issue, anti aliasing causes odd artifacts on both ship preview and the fitting window. But it’s related to a specific series of lets say AMD GPU’s. That very specific and niche bug may be experienced by only a handful of players, but those players happen to be immensely wealthy and operate many accounts. If this bug were a relatively quick fix, it might not be such a big problem that one player with control over many accounts has an option to have his concern directly voiced to CCP and have attention brought to the issue. But I could also see some scenarios where someone with outsized influence could abuse it. I think there is a lot of potential in the system you have outlined. The turnover number of votes would probably be enough to dissuade most from attempting to game the system like that but I also know how obtuse. I like it but I think the idea might need more refinement and specific limitations to bug fixes or a list of ideas which CCP has mentioned in the past but haven’t come to fruition. Like the redesign for the thrasher. I would certainly be open to backing the idea if I can see a sane and effective implementation of it.

2. Quafe+ is from biomass - Soylent Green is people. I love the idea. 100% would back something like this.

3. PI network Visibility - I understand the desire to have other people’s PI networks visible. Though with how resources are distributed (at least to the best of my knowledge the resource are effectively static) it may not be entirely feasible. It might be interesting if the visibility of other facilities were usable, especially if there were some mechanic that allows us to force other players to take a more active role in defending their PI from war clones or something of that sort.

4. Stack Split Enhancements - Inventory management could absolutely do with a few additional tools. A button for stack all would be amazing, methods of splitting multiple stacks would also go a long way in prepping fits or even just dividing stacks of items. I build quite a few ships for new players, and when I’m doing them in batches keeping things organized is always kind of challenging. Having additional options for each of these in either keyboard shortcuts or new UI elements would make asset management significantly easier.

5. KB-shortcuts for toggling between groups of structures. - Depending on how this is set up in the game itself I think this would be an excellent idea. Having some way to quickly move between structure sets seems like a no-brainer. I would absolutely back this sort of idea. Harvesting resources from various points on the planet could get tedious without some fast method of quickly changing from one structure to another.

[Rhett_Schouten]

1. What’s CCP do correctly?
2. What’s CCP do incorrectly?
3. What do you wish existed in-game that doesn’t?
4. What exists in-game that you wish didn’t?
5. What exists in-game that you think ought to continue to exist?
6. What doesn’t exist in-game that you hope never comes into existence?
7. How would you improve PI?
8. How would you improve the entire corporation UI?

[Grima_The_Mad]

Apologies for the length of time it took to finish these Rhett. Took some thinking.

1. What’s CCP do correctly?
   CCP has at times been very good about listening to the player base, and properly responded to concerns raised by us. The recent “golden ammo” thing is a good example of CCP listening to player feedback. As was the creation of the CSM.

2. What’s CCP do incorrectly?
   I feel that at times CCP can be blinded by a potential avenue to make more money. This can be seen in things like the initial wave of “luxury cosmetics” for our characters that came around with Incarna. Direct sale of SP doesn’t quite sit well with me, but that’s neither here nor there in the grand scheme of things.

3. What do you wish existed in-game that doesn’t?
   Exploration missions, I think it would be fascinating to have missions geared specifically towards those of us who thoroughly enjoy the exploration game play loop. Exploration missions could be things like searching for lost ships, recovering this, that or the other thing.

4. What exists in-game that you wish didn’t?
   There aren’t many things that I feel shouldn’t exist in game. I have feelings about hyper nodes, but I feel like it’s a part of the game that provides entertainment for some people. I’m not fond of the idea of taking something away from people who enjoy it on my own personal feelings about gambling. It is an interesting tool which I could see being used in positive ways.

5. What exists in-game that you think ought to continue to exist?
   E-War, one of my favorite systems in the game is doing something that keeps others from doing harm or interfering with whatever it is that I’m doing. I don’t think that there is a huge push for its removal, but I think it’s in a relatively good place, and it adds interesting game play.

6. What doesn’t exist in-game that you hope never comes into existence?
   At the risk of sounding like a parrot to what I’m sure many of the others you’ve copy/pasted this question to, mechanics which equate to pay money for a direct advantage, pay-to-win. I’m not talking about SP extractors and injectors, I personally feel that these are akin to catch-up tools that other games have. I’m mixed on the direct sale of SP, but it is a thing now and I don’t feel that’s a hill worth even fighting on.

7. How would you improve PI?
   Updated tools. Pre-configured industry chains, sort of acting like fits, would go a long way in speeding up at least the set-up phase of PI. Also after some more thought, visibility of other players PI chains on the planet.

8. How would you improve the entire corporation UI?
   Some of the things I would like to see is a simplification of the tools, not by a reduction in function or anything like that. Something like a unified dashboard for the most important features. Some more granularity on the last online times would also be nice.

[Rhett_Schouten]

I’m looking forward to replying to your answers, here goes:

@Grima_The_Mad

What do you wish existed in-game that doesn’t?
Exploration missions, I think it would be fascinating to have missions geared specifically towards those of us who thoroughly enjoy the exploration game play loop. Exploration missions could be things like searching for lost ships, recovering this, that or the other thing.

I’d love this.

@Grima_The_Mad

What exists in-game that you wish didn’t?
There aren’t many things that I feel shouldn’t exist in game. I have feelings about hyper nodes, but I feel like it’s a part of the game that provides entertainment for some people. I’m not fond of the idea of taking something away from people who enjoy it on my own personal feelings about gambling. It is an interesting tool which I could see being used in positive ways.

I forget that the hyper nodes and citizen science even exists. And I agree leaving stuff like this in takes nothing away from the rest of the game.

@Grima_The_Mad

E-War, one of my favorite systems in the game is doing something that keeps others from doing harm or interfering with whatever it is that I’m doing.

I’m of the opinion the cap neutralising and webbing , weapons dampening etc adds a really interesting element to combat that would otherwise just be a dps race, not that it’s not a dps race in the end but before that happens you’ve got to overcome some hurdles and that’s fun.

@Grima_The_Mad

At the risk of sounding like a parro

There seems to be universal agreement on this.

Thanks @Grima_The_Mad I’d heart you but I’m all out of hearts.

[Yendor_Kashada2 (Yendor Kashada)]

Will you oppose RMT and Gambling operations being run off TOR and other means, Grima The Mad?

[Grima_The_Mad]

100% against RMT anywhere it occurs. The isk sold through rmt services may come from accounts which were stolen, through social engineering or malware compromising players login information. I’m not sure I follow in the gambling thing or why TOR has much to do with it. There are probably plenty of listings on regular surface web sites like eBay and maybe even Amazon where people try to sell ISK or even accounts.
(Edited wording)

[Yendor_Kashada2 (Yendor Kashada)]

How about the IRL gambling of Iskies and plexies?

[Yendor_Kashada2 (Yendor Kashada)]

May I ask whom you consulted – or gave you this information? (there is a bit point behind why I ask that has nothing to do with you but a issue-- that occurred in December of '22 that has relevance).

Do you do have hobbies outside the game by any chance, such as art?

[Grima_The_Mad]

Edited my response, I have no source, I was speculating and didn’t mean to come across how I did. Thanks for the catch on that. That was silly of me.

Eve is my hobby, and it’s turned into a daily thing for me. I do have studying for certifications but Eve really is about it for major hobbies.

[Grima_The_Mad]

Gambling in the way that it existed before likely wasn’t ideal. IWI Somer Blink, and any of the others I can’t remember could have easily been a method of obfuscation for RMT.

[Yendor_Kashada2 (Yendor Kashada)]

You hid something from me. Something Good…

You are a Musician. I am one too. But I think that is as far as I can get in comparisons. (I think you need to get more stereo separation in some of those tracks… unless soundcloud compresses things…)

I like you. You look smart. Good luck.