I had so much fun with blackout and I am upset to see it going away so soon, it really didn’t feel like 66 days but it was probably a step too far too quickly for many who are not used to risk. It highlighted a few issues that should be dealt with before blackout should happen again. First is intel via the map, things like pirate ships destroyed, people docked and gate jumps should go to remove that free intel. The there’s the killboards, a delay of at least an hour on CCPs end would do wonders in dealing with intel issues.
Then there’s the issue with cloaking. AFK cloaking died with blackout but there is the issues of cloaky boys being very hard to counter so that will have to have some sort of “nerf”. Perhaps cov ops cloaks requiring fuel when warping cloaked, some sort of active module for pinging a cloaked ship that makes use of the 1st person camera similar to sonar. Something so you can realistically counter a cloaked ship but not enough to render cloaking useless.
There’s also the need to change the way pve works. I think we need to dump this idea of blazing though a huge swarm of ships in anoms and move more towards the way trig sites work, with one or a small few of ships with capabilities on par with the ships we fly and set up in such a way to be truly random to allow for more pvp focused ships to be used so you aren’t quite as helpless if caught.
Blackout has been the most fun I have had in years, allowing me to actually hunt and evade people while also not knowing what is around the corner. I really hope this isn’t abandoned.
Eve survived with local from 2003-2019, not sure removing it did any good (it didnt - not that I minded it) - but those bleating about it returning are generally risk free leet pvpers who cant…
The real issue, is how game mechanics have allowed Null Sec groups to make their territories relatively safe, but then that has taken a long time, and involved a lot of people and resources to do… so maybe they deserve it after all, and those complaining just need to adapt (note, some have).
If your 50 man corp is bitching about not being able to kill miners in a 40k alliance, maybe you are the problem…
Re: Botting data. You are failing!
Bots just got better as a result of blackout.
We’re seeing (post patch for warp to grid) that bots know when we enter system.
they’re probably sniffing the unencrypted network traffic.
we watch them enter warp (in Catch even) AS we load grid after a gate jump.
That’s when we know or 99% believe that the gate does NOT have a set of eyes on it.
Encrypt the network traffic. Take basic steps to keep memory secure.
I know the botters have more resources than CCP to fight back at them… but you’ve gotta fight with the software end of things!
For a long time in multiple threads on the forums about local I argued that it would be catastrophic for most players in nullsec with my focus mainly on subcaps. While Eve is of course a group game in many areas, ISK generation does tend to be more of a solo past time.
Cyno’s were always too powerful and I am glad to see you move on that, however BLOP’s cyno’s are just too much without local.
At the base level the system of local had a balance and that balance was destroyed by some of these automation tools. But I was always looking at it as being a normal joe in system reacting to someone hostile coming in system or being in system and moving, or playing at a higher level. As I had operated in a contested system in NPC nullsec with people actively hunting me I knew that while it is fun when actively hunted, it is not fun to act as if you were when you had no idea if anyone was there. WH’s of course have hole control and no cyno’s.
I regret in some ways not to see how the really good alliances such as the Goons would have developed their activities to deal with this, it looked like they were doing that. It would have reduced the sheer size of some entities to a core group. But it was just too hard for the majority of players. For me it was not a case of not being able to based on certain conditions like removal of other intel so I could operate under the radar, but more of a case of definitely not wanting to.
I am aware of some people having a lot of fun with tis and the fog of war aspect, which is why looking into observational arrays that can be destroyed is certainly the way to make it more interesting. I hope that you were doing this to work back your metrics on this idea.
It was a brave thing to try, and you never said it was permanent. However if you are going to adjust local in some way then do observational arrays and be careful about any delay in local reporting. I saw one guy suggest that you only report after someone has de-cloaked, but that will kill any activity in systems which are not very large.
At the end of the day having to be in a ceptor to get on top of someone to hold tackle makes it interesting for the prey and a challenge for the hunter. So with that in mind do everything you can to remove the ease of these local reporting intel bots, it is so important that you do that.
And cyno’s are too powerful so please do not go back on that and think about BLOP’s cynos too.
Thank you CCP! Blackout + Blops fleets were obviously way overpowered.
I don’t think anyone liked to do stuff where there could be 200 bombers sitting right nexto you at all times and there was no way of telling they were and as soon you did something they could uncloak, tackle you without delay and blow you up instantly.
And they were able to move around multiple regions with mids and wormholes across the entire universe.
There was no strategy involved. Blackout was simply overpowered in combination with cloaky fleets.
before the blackout i was local is fine, after the blackout started i went local is to OP but the blackout as it was, was to OP there needs to be a balance.
i’m still in favoiur of no free intel be that
local
maps in and out of game with player data
killmails
what i want now is active intel tools inc away to hunt cloaky ships
