Hello everyone, I’m Itaer. I’m running for CSM 21 this year following a great term on CSM 20. I’ve been playing Eve since 2007, and I’m focused on small gang and competitive PvP. My journey started in Caldari lowsec, and I now lead a corp living in a nullsec-static wormhole. I am very interested in the PvP interface between kspace and wormhole space and the role that small gang PvP plays in that environment. In real life I am a scientist (ask me about comets!) with experience in data science, and bringing that to my conversations with Fenris Creations (FC) has proven to be effective.
My work on CSM 20
As your representative on CSM 20, I was involved in many of the changes to the game over the last year. I’d like to highlight just a few of my contributions as a CSM member, which I’ll split into three categories: things that I supported but did not personally propose, things that I worked with directly or helped propose, and things that I personally proposed and that likely would not have made it into the game if you had not voted for me.
Things that I supported:
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The introduction of an officer nanofiber. Enough said.
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Along with several other CSM members this year, I consistently lobbied for the changes to Ansiblexes as part of a larger look at projection. As you know, our advocacy led to a significant reduction in the power of Ansiblex gates. The influence of projection and Citadels is a continuing topic among the CSM and something I will always be interested in.
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Increasing the cost of wardecs from 100m to 500m in the most recent major update, along with reducing the number of Tenebrex jammers from 3 to 1.
Things that I worked on directly:
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Balance changes to MWDs, making T2 MWDs viable again - introducing meaningful choice between restrained, enduring, compact, and T2.
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This year’s Alliance Tournament prize ships, the Penitence and Herald. I helped propose the original ideas, and have iterated on them alongside FC Bee for several months. AT ships should be powerful and exciting, and I’m super happy about these ships.
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Recon lock range nerfs - near the start of my term, the small gang community asked for the power of recons to get toned down. I was able to get this adjusted in the very first patch after the summit. More needs to be done here - if you are active in some nano discords, you have probably seen me taking feedback on some relevant proposals.
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Black Ops battleship rebalancing, in particular the restoration of the tracking bonus to the Panther. Some day I’ll show off the graphs I made so that we could come to an informed decision!
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This year’s Alliance Tournament format, including reworking preliminaries into a Swiss format and dramatically increasing the number of “Best Of” matches in the tournament. This also includes changes to the number of battleships, banning the Ceno, etc.
Things I personally proposed:
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The clone bay in Jita 4-4 and Dodixie. Starting with the CSM summit in January, where the CSM learned about the then-upcoming Jita world event, I pushed for the addition of a clone bay in 4-4. I talked to engineers and software developers to understand the requirements, researched the history of 4-4 to understand the game design implications, and presented these findings to designers. Directly because of my advocacy, we now have a clone bay in Jita 4-4!
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Angel Cartel balance pass and the new reload bonus. At the CSM summit I had several conversations with game designers about the state of Angel ships which led directly to these changes. I also pushed for these bonuses to make it onto the Angel AT ships, which I think is an important piece of consistency going forward.
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Most of the balance changes this year involved me in some way, as that is a big part of the expertise I bring to the CSM. In the major update, I was directly responsible for the buffs to railgun cruisers and had input on most other changes.
Looking forward to CSM 21
As your representative on CSM 21, I will continue my focus on meaningful ship balance and advocating for the small gang, lowsec, and wormhole communities.
As FC Okami has discussed, there have been exploratory discussions about making wormhole space feel more like a home. This is a topic I have also raised with FC this year, and one I want to continue advocating for going into CSM 21.
It’s also important to me to continue helping with improvements to the Alliance Tournament, including updating the Swiss format using the lessons we learned this year.
Those of you who have talked to me in Discord know that I am active in the community and interested in engaging with meaningful balance discussions. I am happy that many of our talks have led directly to positive changes in the game. Keep @ing me!
Being an effective CSM member has a steep learning curve. I’ve learned a ton from my first term. I’m looking forward to applying those lessons to a second term and getting even more items from the small gang community wishlist into the game. I appreciated the outpouring of support last year, and I look forward to representing the small gang community on the CSM again this year.
I’m reachable via ingame mail or on Discord @itaer if anyone would like to chat.