Mmm. Why do I have to read my own post… no, just give me more thoughts on a subject most people don’t like, but that still needs to be said. Of course games evolve, and change is sometimes necessary. But the direction CCP has taken comes at a very real cost for the players who built their home in high‑sec (even after 2017). The shift toward a null‑sec‑centric, microtransaction‑driven design may benefit certain playstyles, but it has left an entire segment of the community, The very players who helped make EVE what it became. Feeling sidelined and pushed aside. That’s where the real issue lies: one group has been elevated while another has been quietly trampled, expected to adapt or leave. In my view, that’s a fundamental mistake. The strength of EVE was always that every playstyle mattered, and every region had a purpose. Fragmenting that balance instead of keeping the community together has taken the game down a path that may be difficult, if not impossible, to reverse. But… that’s the future. Are we at the brink of no return…
It’s not about blaming developers or pretending anyone is being ‘forced’ anywhere. That’s not what I’m saying. What I’m pointing out is the long‑term design direction of the game. a corporate‑level shift from a broad, player‑driven sandbox to a more guided, monetized structure. That shift naturally benefits some playstyles more than others. High‑sec players weren’t ‘forced’ out, but the systems that supported their style have been reduced or deprioritized over time, while null‑sec and FW have been expanded and incentivized. That’s not a conspiracy or dev‑blame. It’s simply how the design has evolved. And it’s fair to discuss the impact of that evolution on the players who built their home in high‑sec.
I reject your ‘forced by devs’ frame … it takes the discussion away from the actual point.
All youre doing is dooming and glooming. Do you really expect a game to not evolve at all?
You just said you were being forcibly moved. Youre the one that made that point clear.
I’m not trying to argue or convince anyone. I’ve simply shared how the game feels to me now, after returning and comparing it to what it once was. Some players enjoy the current direction, others don’t , and that’s fine. For me personally, the conclusion is clear: the game has moved in a direction that no longer fits the way I used to play. My subscription will run out soon, and that will be my natural exit point. No hard feelings, no drama. just a different path.
Can I have your stuff?
Okay, I want to start with saying you’ve clearly made an attempt to clean up your ai usage, so I want to thank and reward you for that.
You make a couple of claims that I want to break down simply to try to get a better understanding.
You believe Null-Sec players are favored over other regions.
I typically take these kind of arguments about null sec two ways, you either feel high sec doesn’t have the appropriate resources pertaining to the risk involved, or null-sec players have vastly less risk than intended, given their rewards are some of the highest in the game.
While I agree at least a little bit that the game is somewhat null-centric, there is a constant balancing act of making activities rewarding, scalable to a degree while not being too abusable.
So when you say that like faction warfare has been prioritized, its true, but out of need. It used to be pretty empty to be honest. Some people did it, but the rewards didn’t offset the risk involved, and pvp took place in other places and other ways. The updates to FW just brought it up to code in my opinion.
100 million isk per hour is a pretty generally accepted baseline, it can be achieved by low sp players in FW in high sec, if you were left alone, but it comes with risk.
So I would then ask, why do you a high sec player feel left behind? What activities don’t get the rewards you think they deserve?
Because in my opinion, high sec has plenty of rewards for the risk, whether its in level 4s, escalations, or ice, or faction warfare. You can always hit that baseline if you are working hard. However stuff that’s easy like mining, is a product of the economy, there is low to no risk, unless you afk and Aiko gets you, and I don’t think that’s deserving of the baseline everyone is getting with a medium amount of risk.
If you just feel bored in high sec, and don’t want to like corp up, or at least not with a null block, and I sympathize, you should probably consider j-space.
Thanks for taking the time to write such a thoughtful reply. I appreciate the tone
To answer your questions: I don’t feel ‘left behind’ because of rewards or ISK per hour. although the balance is out of sink in a way (i feel like a dog getting leftovers suddenly (T1) )
For me it’s also more about the overall direction of the game and how it feels compared to the EVE I used to enjoy.
Some players thrive in the current design, others don’t
For me personally, the conclusion is simply that the game has moved in a direction that no longer fits the way I like to play.
So I’m not trying to debate the numbers or the balance; I’m just sharing where I ended up after returning.
the biggest bottleneck i encounter is that :
The amount of effort required to catch up after six years away is almost, well impossible. You return with a massive weird skill gap,
A completely changed high‑sec environment, and a game flow that no longer matches what you were used to.
And all of that hits you at once… – while you really just wanted to play the way you used to.-- and that is certainly not going to happen,
- The combination of skill‑backlog is huge and you have to figger it out yourself ,
- a transformed high‑sec, where industry for example is just not the same anymore.
- a different gameplay rhythm, it seems that high sec is not dangerous , but you can lose still ships… and if you are not aware, that a lot is multiplayer stuff already is present ..well you end up shot to pieces by 20 very hard hitting vessels..If you get my drift ,(perhaps you try it out yourself, its an amusing scenario )
- the repair ( of the game)and also limited time to do this all at once , creates a wall , I simply can’t climb anymore. That’s the bottleneck I’m running into. as a solo returner, it is just to much all at once. … it feels like a game of no return …
Only Battleships (slightly) and capitals have changed. You couldn’t make Caps in HS anyways, so effectively only Battleships have changed, but the added stuff is also found in HS. So I’m not sure what you are talking about here.
I am not sure what he is talking about in the entire topic. 
This seems to be the nub of your issue, but you have failed to explain the way you like to play and thus it is hard to give meaningful advice on how you might find similar gameplay in the modern game.
I have next to no experience of it, but it would seem to me that solo play is the hard part of EvE, and can’t really understand why people would want to play this game without being in a corp in an alliance.
Perhaps you could join EvE Uni, as they have their fingers in all the pies, and you could try out various playstyles in various security statuses and see if there’s still something to enjoy in EvE.
Barring rigs, there has never been any time in Eve when you have ever been able to make anything except T1 using the resources found in high sec.
I like dying when I’m caught unaware, I’ve never died while afk and not thought “Well this is my fault.” I’ve been playing since 2012, and with huge gaps of play missing sometimes 4 or 5 years, then on a year then off etc. My sp efficiency has probably been one of the worst in the game, for the amount of sp the character has, and yet, I’ve never run up against this issue you are talking about, where I couldn’t return to a play style. And while there have been changes to some things, the only thing I remember going away was event stuff. I used to make a killing of the trig emerging conduits, and like I think they are still in the game in some places, idk I just don’t see them everywhere.
But someone hit the nail on the head, no matter how much any of us ask, you will not tell us, what is gone or what you liked to do that you can no longer do.
I can share mine, escalations, I feel like they haven’t really changed in 10 + years, I’ve been able to park a Praxis, or a Tengu, come back 2 or 3 years later, and use the same ship to do the same site. Just like I can grab an exhummer still alive from 2012, and warp to a belt and mine with it.
So you also talk about being behind in skill points, but you aren’t behind, and I doubt any of the activities you used to do, can now not be done with your current skills. So if something changed, it was probably only an efficiency change.
I can see a reality where you had maybe an activity you liked that other people didn’t do, and that it worked and sold well for you, but as the community got aware, your market maybe became saturated, but thats just eve and ccp fixing those imbalances naturally. If veldspar was suddenly worth idk 9000 isk per unit, everyone and their dog would be in the high sec belts, and well, would instantly tank the value.
So please fill us in on what actually changed.
I’m just gonna say it so everyone can have a laugh at my expense, my character is from 2012, and has 90 million sp, and I don’t feel behind, but everyone here will tell you, clearly I didn’t keep up with it. It is what it is, and maybe thats a lot of skill points to you, but that would just mean, that you never really got started if that makes sense.
My other account just hit 79k sp’s and ive been here since 2008. Talk about taking huge breaks, right?
I really dont know what this “skill gap” comment is all about. The op is literally the only person in this entire community that are worried about something as trivial as a skill gap. shakes head
All the other points the op has made are just the same four thats he/she has repeated over and over and over. None of it makes any sense. If you stop playing….of course youre going to be behind other people that stayed. Theres no natural law that will stop that. You come back to the game and you continue where you left off…thats it. Who cares where everybody else is in their progression.
Bottlenecked? DaFuk?
Its clear to me that the op has focused way too much time on other people that stayed and their progression instead of their own. They use this as an excuse to put blame on the game “not going in the right direction.” There is nothing that will help the op overcome this. Its either spend a wad of cash to get back up to where he/she thinks they should be…or quit. shrug
I get it that your experience is different,
For me personally, the combination of returning after six years, the changed high‑sec environment, and the shift in gameplay flow just doesn’t match the way I used to enjoy EVE.
It’s not about SP or comparing myself to others,
it’s simply that the game no longer fits the playstyle I came back for.
And on top of all that, there’s also the cost factor.
Back in the day I ran three accounts for around 10 euros each. Now it’s closer to 20 euros per month per account, and that adds up fast also. (High‑sec players are usually pure paying customers, because the income level in high‑sec doesn’t really support plexing an account )
So not only is the gameplay flow different, but the financial side has doubled as well.(3x)
For me that combination, the changed game, the skill backlog, the high‑sec shift, and the increased cost .
just makes it too much to pick up again as a returning solo player.
That’s all there is to it.
Can you please stop repeating nonsense? At this point it isn’t about “different experiences” or “opinions” any more, it’s just nonsense.
Absolutely NOBODY who runs 3 accounts would do 1-month-subs. Thats beyond stupid. And as other people have already explained to you the real costs of EVE are around 10€ per month for medium term subscriptions and even below that, at rates between 6.5-8.5€ per month for long-term subscriptions.
All those “oh but I don’t want to sub for longer because… my CPU could go up in flames / aliens could abduct me / a meteor could strike my house” yadda yadda is plain bullcrap. Play Alpha until you can make the decision you want to stay or not. And if you want to stay, then sub for 6 months at least to get a reasonable discount. Combine that with some offer that comes along multiple times a year and EVE is absolutely cheap.
And last but not least, in HS hasn’t changed that much in the last years. You can still do industry, even solo, absolutely no problem. You can make more money easier than ever before in almost complete safety. You can mine, you can build, you can invent. There is absolutely no problem to build yourself your own little industry-empire with a handful of altchars and play completely solo. I have done that for years.
So basically every point you make is just not true. You just feel better to repeat that nonsense so you have an excuse not to do the effort to actually learn what has changed and do some adaptations.
Fly safe.
There is no way you pay 20 per account now for three accounts, unless you choose to spend way more than needed.
Even if for some reason you do not wish to buy more than one month at a time (even if you’re as invested in the game as to have three Omega accounts!), you could get discount for having multiple Omega accounts.
Pretending that EVE is 20 a month for anything but a single month of Omega for a single account is either dishonest or stupid.
And if you’re running multiple Omega accounts it’s even easier to get discount for shorter periods of time as you can benefit from larger PLEX pack bulk discount than a player who buys those for a single account.
After all buying a pack of 1500 PLEX for one month on three characters is cheaper than three times a 500 PLEX pack due to bulk discount.
I admit it indeed adds up quick to pay a subscription for three accounts, but that’s no different than in the past, and more importantly entirely your choice.
now you are moving the goal post about cost…
No more run around. If you keep doing this I’ll make it my only goal in eve to make you quit this game.
What do you want?
What do you want to change?
What do you want to go back to the way it was before?
You make the claim something changed, what changed?
Only list the activities, with no extra fluff, tell me what activities your 3 accounts used to do.
And also to give you another reason to react, here is something I want to add. You can ask yourself why so many high‑SP players stay in highsec instead of moving to low or null. A recently closed thread reminded me of this: High skill point players are not progressing out of highsec
A Reason High‑SP Players Stay in High-sec
Over the years I’ve noticed something that many players misunderstand. People often ask:
Why are so many high‑skill, long‑term players still in high=sec doing relic sites, mining veldspar, or running level 1–3 content?”
The answer is simple:
Solo gameplay is no longer compatible with low-sec or null-sec.
I say this from personal experience. I lived in nullsec as a solo miner flying a Rorqual. I wasn’t a spy, I wasn’t causing trouble, I was just playing the game my own way. And yet, after a few months, I was removed purely because I was solo and therefore considered a “risk.” Not because of anything I did, but because of the political structure of null.
This is the core issue:
- Nullsec is controlled by player politics, not game mechanics.
- Solo players are seen as unpredictable or suspicious.
- Survival in null depends on group structures, intel networks, and coalition rules.
- If you don’t fit into that system, you get pushed out.
So where do solo players go?
Highsec.
Because it’s the only space where an individual can exist without being forced into a political hierarchy.
This is why high‑SP players stay in highsec:
not because they are afraid
not because they lack ambition
not because they don’t understand risk/reward
but because the game’s structure leaves them no other viable option
CCP often talks about “nudging players out of the nest,” but the reality is that lowsec and nullsec are no longer designed for solo play. They are designed for groups, coalitions, and political structures.
This isn’t a player problem. It’s a structural one.
If solo players are pushed out of null, and low-sec is too unstable for those players , then highsec becomes the only home left.