I'm thinking about coming back - how's things?

Communications Center General Discussion
#1

Howdy.

I got an email inviting me to come back to Eve and spend ~ $43 USD for 1.6 million skillpoints. Back in the 2014 - 2018ish days, I was bagging roughly 2 million SP / month. And my sub was, what, about $11 / month if you bought 12 mos at a time?

Have the new owners of CCP overhauled the Skill Point system / rate-of-SP-gain so much that 1.6 million SP is super hard to come by? 'Cuz like, for less than $10 and waiting a few weeks, I could get 2 million SP. How do I view this email as anything but a terrible, ridiculous offer?

Regardless, my youngest kid is a BIT older. Thinking about coming back for a couple of months - run some missions, see if L4 blitzing is still a solid source of income, hop into Eve U. and answer some question, etc.

Is my Golem w/ maxed skills still an L4 smash-everything ship?

Also, one of the reasons I left was that I had grown really fond of the Cerebral Accelerator events (Well, most of them, where parts and materials were easy to come by, as well as it being easy to find sites). From what little I’ve heard / read, it sounds like ways to get more SP faster-than-training these days are a bit more… gimicky? Have they resurrected special holiday events that include SP accelerators? Are SKINS still constantly being introduced? (I used to try and collect them, but then the allure kind of wore off - more and more just kept coming out - it was ridiculous.)

Anyways - assume I played in 2007, 2010, and 2014-2018/19-ish. What’s same ole’, what’s new and exciting?

Hope all of you I knew well are safe and healthy!

  • TL
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#2

1.62M SP is the amount you’d get with base attributes and +5 implants after a 30 day subscription.

Yeah, they also got a buff recently.

No.

#3

I would wait a couple months until the scarcity phase ends in the game. It is incredibly difficult to keep pace with price increases in assets due to the considerably less access to minerals for most players.

The impact of scarcity is a drop in concurrent players, a drop in skill injector prices and PLEX (greater supply than demand) indicating fewer folks are playing. Once scarcity ends (hoping CCP honors its word on that), things will stabilize, prices will reach an equilibrium that allows for affordability for newer Eve players and those without fortunes under their belts. Eve is an amazing game, but if you’re not super well off coming back, I’d wait so your isk gets you more per purchase than it can now. Prices are ridiculous now even for T1 assets.

In case you aren’t familiar with Scarcity, it is CCP’s attempt to limit access to minerals across the galaxy because of stagflation. You need people in hi-sec, low-sec, and null-sec now in order to gain access to all mineral types (or wormhole space I suppose). Minerals have been pulled off moon goo for quite some time, NPC rats mine out low sec systems and have for awhile, leaving minerals…scarce. Like really scarce. This doesn’t impact the wealthiest Eve players, but players living metaphorically paycheck to paycheck are having a very tough time of it right now.

#4

Sounds like Scarcity is hard on the lower-income / newer folks. Honestly, my last year or so of Eve was just for relaxation. I’d run L4s in my Golem (for fun) or follow Anize’s blitzing guide (for $$). I’d hit the events hard if cerebral accels. were involved. But outside of that, I had racked up a reasonable net worth over many years- $25-$30B I want to say, and I always tried to keep a few hundred mil in the wallet, if not 1bil. But I remember my early days grinding level 1/2/3 missions just for some kind of income. Boy was I excited when I discovered destroyers and salvaging. :slight_smile:

Sounds like CCP continues to pay attention and do what they can to make the game enjoyable and accessible for all ages and playstyles. That’s good, even if their degree of success varies.

Thanks for the info - I’ll probably read up on Scarcity now - it’s got me interested.

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#5

You have to tilt your head back and squint really hard - then it becomes an unreadable blur instead.

But yes, it appears that terrible offers are CCP’s stock in trade these days. It’s been about 2 years since they’ve offered anything decent by my reckoning.

For some reason, CCP seems to think their game is getting cooler and more desirable, rather than fading into obscurity. And of course they’ve been putting a lot of effort into driving players away as well, so perhaps it’s only natural they’re looking to gouge the few remaining whales.

And do please note the story of the guy who came in here some time back, rage-quitting because he had logged in for the first time in 4 years and was flying his blinged-out Golem back from low low sec assuming he was eenveenceeble… and got blown away by the first group that spotted him. Do your homework and fly safe.

#6

Lol. Marauders in low-sec is something I’ll never do solo. I get nervous just running any random L4 in high-sec my Golem when it’s been 2 years since I’ve last logged in. There’s a rhythm, a flow, pulsing the shield boost, knowing what groups aggro when… here’s hoping I land Angel Extrav. without declining too many. :slight_smile:

Hah - a Golem invincible in PVP / lowsec… I can’t even…

#7

I disagree.

It’s a great time to come back if you are an adaptable player that can figure out how to make money at a time when other players struggle. Plex prices are extremely low, and speculation opportunities abound. Thus, you can make some serious bank if you are willing to step outside your comfort zone and pursue new strats and opportunities. Oh, and do note that I was most certainly not rich before this. Wealth generation was never one of my goals before 2020, and most of my money went into things like skill extractors, MPCT’s, and cerebral accelerators. So, I started 2020 with a handful of high SP toons, a fair amount of player knowledge, and a desire not to let the unique opportunities of resource scarcity to pass me by. Thus, to any one who is getting frustrated because resource scarcity is ■■■■■■■ with their financial goals, my advice to you is to stop getting mad that old strats keep getting deprecated, and start asking yourself, “how can I use these changes to my advantage?” I haven’t been able to benefit from every change CCP has implemented, but I credit this attitude as the reason why I’ve been able to benefit from so many.

Second, nothing is stopping anyone from having fun during resource scarcity. I mean, if you’re laser focused on getting into a Titan right now, you’re probably not going to be happy. But if you’re looking for things like PvP and community, you can still find that in abundance. Just live within your means, whatever those may be.

Finally, we don’t have to speculate on whether or not player numbers are down because we can just look at Eve Offline. It doesn’t tell us everything, but it does show no significant drop in concurrent player numbers. In fact, 2020 was most definitely a better year for Eve than 2019, and resource scarcity started very late in 2019. Moreover, things might actually be better than Eve Offline would indicate, because resource scarcity has likely reduced the amount of multiboxing going on. Thus, the numbers might reflect more unique players and fewer alts.

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#8

Except you’re not taking into account that the world wide Covid crisis made most people stay at home.

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#9

Where did you even had the Marauder docked? Because some high sec systems were turned into Wormhole space called Pochven with strange connections mechanics and you have to get standings with Trigs to do anything there in space or in station, like fitting, or repairing, or even docking.

First thing you will have to do if you have been farming in Caldari space, relaxing doing lvl4’s, would be to go to Pochven and fix your trig standings so they dont gank you at gate in high sec when you are missioning. CCP made it so everyone returning or new to the game have to care for their new content…

#10

Highsec feels broken due to many favourite systems had fallen into that Pochven

Had not had a reason to undock since Nov 2020

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#11

Pochven isn’t a wormhole. It is a ■■■■hole.

#12

Things are great. It’s ChAoS 2.0.

#13

You miss the fall of niarja

#14

Next stop: Google “What systems converted to Pochven”

#15

No, I didn’t. And I’m not sure why you brought it up other than to piss on the parade or have an argument over whether or not CCP is screwing everything up.

Jenna: There has been a drop in concurrent players.
Shipwreck: Um, no there hasn’t. Moreover, we now probably have more unique players than usual.
DMC: Yeah, but you forgot about Covid lockdowns.

#16

So here’s a question. Do Trig / Drifters / Sleepers / whatever actively harass players in high-sec k-space now, unprovoked? Back in 2018, I’d see a group of sleeper frigs on a gate here or there, and I’d leave them alone. They’d leave me alone. Occasionally they’d warp somewhere else.

I hang out in the Lanngisi (sic) / Hek area missioning - I’m docked somewhere in either Hek or one of the systems in the isolated constellation that contains Lanngisi. Hoping if I do return it’ll be mostly life as I used to remember, albeit everything is more expensive sounds like.

Silly question - I’m sure it has to do with Scarcity, but what / how exactly did market forces drive the cost of PLEX way down? Sounds like a great investment opportunity.

What effect has this had on high-sec LP values for a faction like SoE? Way up? Way down? Just curious.

Thanks all!

#17

Oh sorry - one other question. Someone said above in this thread that Golems got a buff - I couldn’t find it. Was there some kind of Torp / Cruise buff instead that they were referring to? Could anyone kindly point this legally-blind guy to some links? (Searching the web is harder than most for me.)

TY!

#18

ALL marauders got rate of fire increase in bastion which equals double the damage they used to do. So you totally wreck all level four missions. Its brilliant.

#19
#20

That’s insane. I remember that since I had maxed pretty much every skill relevant to the Golem, I was killing almost every BS in 3 volleys or less out to 65km in bastion… within 5 hits out to ~90 km.

I can’t imagine what double rate-of-fire would look like… dear lord.