Gustav Mannfred for CSM 20 - A Vote for Proving Grounds/Old Arena & More

Council Of Stellar Management CSM Campaigns
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So its that time of the year again, why not start it with a video showcasing the Proving Grounds?

This Video shows some PVP Action in the Proving Grounds.

But hold on, Proving Grounds are not the only part of my CSM campaign, more later!

My EVE Story:

My EVE story is quite long, I started playing in 2009 and back then I did mostly PVE stuff like Ratting and Mission Running. I also dipped into some PVP back then through duells in Jita. In 2015, I joined a Nullsec Alliance (Goonswarm through their renting program in Pure Blind) for the first time. In that time I experienced a lot of what it feels to live in Nullsec, from Intel checks to being the first to scan the daily 6/10 in Home system and so on. But I did not stay too long in Goonswarm. Later I left that Alliance and then I was back in Hisec doing Missions. 2015 was also the year I started my Youtube Channel that you can find here. Started off with many PVE and occasional PVP Videos.

In 2016, I lived in Providence under their NRDS regime. I did a lot of PVE there, mainly the High DED sites. I had a lot of fun in that time. I also built my Youtube channel further on that time, doing the first PVP Videos and more PVE Videos, including a Timelapse of me doing C3 Wormhole sites in a Legion that got over 20k views back then. I lived in Providence until early 2018 when Pandemic Legion invaded it. Then I moved back to Hisec again.

2018 was the year the Abyss came to EVE. While many call me “the king of the abyss”, I was not a first mover when the Abyss came out. Instead I tried out Level 5 Missions back then, making another timelapse video that got over 40k views. 2018 was also a turning point in my EVE career. It was while watching the EVE Vegas Keynote when CCP announced the addition of the old arena in the Abyss. This got me really hooked. In November 2018 it got released. Just after Xmas in that year, I stepped the first time into that Arena and it was such a great feeling. The Old Arena gave me so many good memories and very tense fights.

The story continued in 2019 like that. In April 2019, I did my first stream on Twitch (here) of the old arena. It did not take long until I reached Affiliate and then the Streaming business started to grow. In Fall 2019 I went back to Nullsec, joining Dreddit from TEST alliance. I did that to stay away from Hisec and all the Streamsnipers & Gankers. Because in the old Arena I was often flying 10B+ Ikitursas and Cerbs etc. I would say that the time from September 2019 to June 2020 was probably the best time I had in EVE. I spent hours experimenting different fittings for the old Arena while also enjoying Null life through all the lucrative Sansha sites. (and ofc getting epic fights in the old arena and growing my YT/Twitch channel).

2020 Came, the first half of the year was very good for me, doing more Abyssal PVP, streaming and stuff, and during COVID activity in the old arena increased leading to more epic fights, and the surgical strike patch opened the room for new metas in the old arena. But then on June 29, while watching Torvald Uruz stream, the joy was suddenly over. CCP released a news item and a DEV Blog. The News item first was ok’ish, it did not mention what was really going to happen. But then he presented the DEV Blog that showed the Proving Grounds - and telling that the old arena would go away. It was a really sad evening, I simply could not believe that this could ever happen. It was also with just a 2 week notice until the old arena went away and the proving grounds got introduced. It was also in that year that I discovered the CSM and it was also the first time I brought something up to them. I fought really hard against the removeal of the old Arena, but sadly I did not succeed.

Then the 2nd half of 2020 until Spring 2021 was kind of my lowest point in my EVE career. I was very close at quitting EVE, after the old Arena was gone. I did not play much then apart from testing the T6 OMNI Cerb on SISI and doing some Abyssals here and there. But the situation improved in April 2021, when I got accepted into the Partnership program. Then everything went upwards again. In July 2021 I did my first big giveaway event to celebrate 1 year request to bring back the old arena (and that event still happens every Summer nowadays). In Summer 2021 I really got into the Proving Grounds (which I initially mostly ignored as they replaced the old arena I loved so). Later in 2021 and then in 2022, I continued to build on my Streams and YT and always mentioning the old arena here and there.

In 2023, this continued, but sadly now also not with PG anymore. Instead I focused on the Frigate Multioxing Abyssals and made my first guides on that. In 2024, I started to professionalize my YT channel where I did the first commented guides and in 2025, I slowly get the content creation towards a point where part time and on the long term even full time could be viable.

My Areas of Expertise:

As I play for quite some time, I have expertise in many areas of the game, mostly PVE, but also some PVP focused. I have a lot of expertice in the Abyss and Proving Grounds, but also did FW and other stuff too.

To simplify it, I think its enough to say where I have the least expertise, and that would be anything related to Industry and Mining. I know how to use a blueprint or how to activate a Mining laser, and thats it.

What sets me apart from other candidates is that I am currently not in a Nullbloc and that I have over 16 years of experience in the game, also, I am an EVE Partner and long term content creator.

Why I am running for CSM:

Because I want to be somehow involved in the development process and be able to give some solid feedback on various things. I want to help make this game a better place for everybody.

What can players expect from me?

I try my best to bring up whatever concerns you, be it bugs or some broken game mechanics or unbalanced ships that need some love (or the nerf hammer). Communication between the community and CCP (as long as it falls within the NDA) is a key part.

But wait, its not just about Proving Grounds:

There are many other things that should be done in EVE, such as, but not limited to:

  • Bringing seasonal events back: The Hunt and Guardians Gala should return, they were fun and enjoyable events for a large part of the community. What about just take them and add lore/storyline parts to it like it is done with Crimson Harvest this year?
  • More Module balance (make faction & officer actually worth using): Why does the Pithum A-Type Multispectrum Hardner and the Thon’s modified one have the exact same stats? Also, more mutaplasmids for more types of modules would also be great, like mining upgrades and core probe launchers etc.
  • More ship balances: There are many ships that need some love, for example the Cynabal and Ashimmu that are not too great. A lot has been done here in the past, like in the Legion major update.
  • Improving quality of Customer Support: Sometimes, their responses are quite harsh, especially for ship reimbursement. It would be nice to know at least why it got rejected so that you can better understand.
  • More love to Hisec: You can do a lot there, but there are things that could be improved or fixed. An example is the escalation system from anomalies. In Minmatar space everything seems to escalate to a 5/10, in Gallente space only 3/10. There are several sites that you cannot get via escalation, for example the Serpentis Phi Outpost. Also, all the named sites like forsaken hideaway do not escalate at all, making them not really worth to run. Also Datasites in Hisec could need some love, the loot that you get there is not really worth it most of the time, maybe make it so that they have a small chance to drop pirate faction modules and implants.
  • Battlecruisers and Destroyers for all Pirate factions, and improving the existing ones, and also making the Mekrubal and Mamba a bit cheaper.
  • Take a general look at building cost and how you can acquire building materials for all types of ships. A lot has been done regarding mining and mineral availability, like increasing ore in Nullsec mining sites and increasing pyerite from Scordite. But there needs to be a littlebit more to be done, for example add back Kernite to Hisec and bring back regular Asteorid belts in Nullsec. Also mining in Lowsec and Wormhole needs a look.
  • QoL changes and bugfixes in the Abyss: It would be for example nice to see the invulnerability timer when entering a new room or some sort of protection from Disconnects (that is a common reason why ppl decide to not do high tier abyssals).
  • And more, such as QoL changes and Bugfixes etc. An example is the bug where clouds in the Abyss stop rendering when using certain weapon or ship types after some runs.

Contact
Twitch: Twitch
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@GustavMannfred
Discord (CSM DIscussion channel): Polarized Wormhole Exploration (If link does not work, try using Edge or Firefox)

Lets finish this thread with some Arena Forum Posts:

(Yeah the last two Threads are active for over 5 years now!)

Hmm and how about some old arena content?

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CSM Interview with Loru: https://youtu.be/VjJ88BhOIGc?si=40laRhdqPmNjKsV6
Own CSM Campaign Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HP8KRXp4X7c
CSM Interview on CCPTV: Twitch
EVERookies interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_H9QFihBD6k

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Good Luck Gustav, strong candidate.

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Jawoll ! :slight_smile:

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Best of luck Gustav! Eve needs a return of the Proving Grounds!

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I 100% agree on that :slight_smile:

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Good luck, like your content and dedication!

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I have updated the thread:

Added some more changes that would be great, like Dessy/BC for all Pirates etc.
Just expanding my platform a bit beyond bringing PG back. (What if PG would come back shortly after I get elected?)

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With such a persistent push for the comeback of the Proving Grounds, what are your expectations of the negative effects it’s instanced PvP may have on the game?

EVE is a game with a strong ‘lively open world’ aspect.

I love that about this game, it’s one of the few MMOs left where location and travel are still a big aspect of the gameplay, where players frequent their own parts of space and you will recognise ‘locals’ - other players who live in an area whether they are competing for the same exploration sites, camp that gate you often take or roam through your area in search of PvP.

Once people can fulfill their PvP needs by queueing up from anywhere in the game to be teleported to an instanced area, do you not think that this may undermine this strong open world aspect of EVE?

  • That it may make the EVE universe less alive with fewer roaming players in search of PvP?
  • That it makes EVE emptier by putting players in their own instance?
  • That locations matter significantly less?
  • That EVE PvP turns into a lobby waiting game, like other MMOs that went this route?

Don’t get me wrong, I too can see the attraction and convenience of instanced lobby-based PvP. But it is not without major downsides.

What are your suggestions to minimize these negative consequences of reintroducing instanced PvP?

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The Proving Grounds were limited time events, that happened every 2 weekends from DT on Friday to DT on Monday (usually). This means that it was mostly not like just a waiting game like other MMO.
To access the Proving Grounds you needed a Filament, the queueing itself happens in space, you need to warp to a safespot. While you queue up everyone can combat scan you down.

The Proving Ground events took place in a time when there were fewer players logged in today (2021 and 2022), with FW reworked and many other changes happening to PVP in 2023 onwards, I don’t think that it will have such a big impact.

You can still combat probe the trace, you come out with what you came in.

It must also be kept in mind that there are players out there that might only have like 1-2h on an evening to play, and if you just spend that roaming around to either get hotdropped byl 20 BLOPS or just find nothing, well then…

This was never the case, there is no such a thing in EVE like a lobby where you wait. You queue up on a safespot, usually in Jita.

Also, Proving Ground events highly stimulated the market, which pushed demand for certain ships and modules, making them lucrative opportunities for market PVP. For example during Destroyer 1v1 arenas, prices for the Transverse bulkhead rigs spiked, which benefit anyone building those. And in events with meta 4 limits, prices for meta 4 guns spiked, which benefits mission runners and ratters in null that gather them.

You can read all about Proving Grounds here: Proving of Kybernauts for Glorification in the Flow Unfolds | EVE Online

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So it’s only a waiting game every other entire weekend?

Sounds like a significant amount of time to me, especially for players who have time to play mainly in the weekend.

If FW rework created a lot more PvP opportunities, wouldn’t it be healthier for the game to invest more in stimulating fights there instead of queued up from Jita in a personal instance?

This is true.

But unlike PvE filaments where deaths are rare, waiting on these traces will be a complete waste of time for over 50% of the traces as only one player gets out alive from these PvP engagements at most. The other dies and their trace has nothing.

This means ‘waiting on the trace’ is not a good way to connect these PvP instances to the real universe like it is for PvE instances.

Queuing up on a safespot is what I mean with ‘a lobby game’.

It’s like queuing up for a battleground or dungeon in World of Warcraft - people don’t even leave the capital cities or populate the open world, they simply queue up for their instanced content from a safe spot.

The opposite of a lobby game is a game with an open world where people venture out into the world to find content.

EVE currently is a good open world game, but proving grounds are a danger to that.

I agree that proving grounds highly stimulate the market.

However I again don’t see only advantages, but also a big disadvantage: it’s not players who decide that the entire weekend people will be flying ‘destroyers’ or ‘battlecruisers’ and that the demand for those ships is high.

With proving grounds it is CCP who decides the market demand for that weekend.

I love EVE’s player-based economy. Proving grounds manages to undermine even that. Instead of a player-driven economy we will see regular and large economic interference entirely out of player hands.

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While some counterarguments are true, lets not forget that

  • Proving Ground Streams often attracted more viewers than regular EVE streams, MUCH more. Sometimes in the thousands. Those streams and short-but-action-packed Youtube Videos are a strong marketing instrument for advertising, something that EVE totally lacks at the moment.

  • As long as PGs have low entry barriers (meaning: no implants, no drugs allowed) to enable even poor players participation without the need to replace implants or roll multiple times for perfect booster rolls, it is a good way for people to train in a controlled environment and with the chance to at least come out cost-efficient when winning a few times.
    A controlled training environment is absolutely missing in EVE, because newer players will often need hundreds of engagments before fully understanding a ships usage. And doing that with “regular PvP” costs them weeks and months playing an even worse “waiting game”- means roaming around and nothing happens.

  • Many Gamers love tournament like challenges. The EVE Alliance Tournaments are proof of that, people are training for months and investing billions only to participate. Having tournament-like content available for regular players in the game (which is right now completely missing) could attract new players, that first come just for competing with others and then learn to love the sandbox and stay and become good additions to the regular playerbase. It is content to advertise with.

In my opinion PG and other tournament like content can make EVE a more attractive game for a wider player base, overall increasing the amount of real people (not alt-accounts) that actually play the game, tell others about it and maybe become future content creators.

Yes, there are some drawbacks, but I believe they can be adressed by design changed or their impact would be pretty low to non noticable.

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Is this a thing? I thought everything was optimized for Chrome.

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Ccp swift admitted hes a fan of the proving grounds and wants them back. Just this current trajectory that EVE is on, the PGs dont work.

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I agree on all of that.

Most PG were already restricted, mostly meta 5 for 1v1, and FFA and 2v2 usually had meta 4 or even meta 0 limits, meaning that the entry barrier was super low for these. I remember some Frig FFA with meta 0 that basically day 1 characters could do decent.

I don’t know if that is still the case these days, but ppl used to tell me when I posted that link on stream that it said that the link is invaild, but if they used either Firefox or Edge, then it worked fine.

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Hello Gustav Mannfred, first of all good luck with your campaign :flexed_biceps: …and may the best will win ofc :sports_medal:
(I will great every candidate this way :nerd_face: )

Hope you find time to share your thoughts on below topics and game ideas.

1. EVE Vanguard
Have you had an occasion to try it during Operation Nemesis or earlier? What was your impression if any?

What do you think about bidirectional connection planned with EVE Online? Do you see it has a potential to attract more players towards New Eden? And do you think Capsuleers will benefit from it?
2. Information & ISK itemization
How about being able to take a notes from your notepad and put it as an item into container or ship cargo? Same with an amount of ISK? Just like you can do with PLEX.

More details https://forums.eveonline.com/t/information-itemization-put-notes-into-cargo-containers

Would you pitch CCP to consider implementing it?
3. Production Plans
Basically the idea behind this is to bundle all the BPOs (BPCs), required to produce some final product, say, an assembled Drake fully fitted according to some saved fit ready for duty, into a single BPO-like item, and internally arranged into an intricate production workflow. Complete with logistics tasks, if necessary, using delivery corp projects. It could use BPMN diagram editor to arrange.

When installed into industrial job slot it will churn out those Drakes, provided there are required materials in linked containers or pause until they are become available again.

More details https://forums.eveonline.com/t/feature-request-production-plans

Would you pitch CCP to consider implementing it? Or at least expand ESI to allow 3rd party developers to do it?
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I had the opportunity to try Nemesis, it looked good. However, CSM is not for Vanguard or Frontier, only EVE Online.

The bidirectional connection could have potential to attract more players to new Eden. Wether capsuleers benefit from that, we have to see once it gets to a final release state.

I think that would make things very complex. Also, why should it be possible to put ISK as item into cargo when you can just send it to anyone directly?
Regarding notes, what would be cool is to have ACL Notes so that you can share notes with other capsuleers.

That sounds very complex, and as fittings are often already saved in corp/alliance fittings, I don’t think that there is a benefit of being able to assemble all ships & modules and give out fully fitted ships, as fitting it is just one click in the fitting window when the fitting is loaded aleady.

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Putting ISK as an item makes it “offline” and anonymous and saves you one click if you would like to handout “welcome packages” to new corpmates or prepare “reward crates”.

“Production plans” are meant for complex production automation and saving clicks.
You could use it to prepare those “welcome packages” or “reward crates”.
…or “DIY kits”: https://forums.eveonline.com/t/diy-stc-station-container-x10-diy-assembly-kits

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Always keep in mind that adding convenience removes complexity, cooperation and challenge (to do a certain amount of tasks within a given timeframe for example).

In your example: Being able to produce and fit “welcome packages” and “fitted ships” with just a few clicks, remove the ability stand out for well organized corps over lazy corps. If it does cost only a few clicks, everyone will do it. A CEO can do it all for himself. He doesn’t need to share responsibilities, share workload, organize cooperation within the corp. It concentrates all the process in his own hands.
And that isn’t nessessarily good for the game.

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yh, it is, it prevents burnout, and helps keep players in game. Production plan would still need raw mats and components, just the same as regular manual production. Corp members would still have responsibilities in providing it. The plan could even help organise the logistics with automatic setup of corp projects. All in a single BPO-like item.

Having this could be a corp’s highly guarded treasure. Best to discuss it in the thread i linked. We derail the campaign :slight_smile: