Local Comms Blackout - Discussion Thread - Part Deux!

[Litsea_Reticulata]

@Arrendis

Except, of course, that it takes less than 30s per account to connect and collect, and you don’t even need to get past character select. You wouldn’t see the numbers as a smooth trend, they’d be spiky AF.

Drops of rain can be felt individually, yet they still fall upon a roof and into the gutter with a noticeable stream.

[Maria_Dragoon]

@Litsea_Reticulata

Drops of rain can be felt individually, yet they still fall upon a roof and into the gutter with a noticeable stream.

Data isn’t rain.

[RuleoftheBone]

Howdy…been a while.

2006-2012 break 2015-2016 break 2019-??

Hearing about the null-blackout was enough to sub both my original (and only) accounts. A drop in the ocean to be sure…but I felt like supporting CCP with my wallet once again as this change has been needed for years.

My preference has been for WH-space since their introduction so a lack of local is more of boon as now more of space rewards my brand of space-submarine fun (btw if you have not played Objects in Space…try it for a total Minmatar Sanford n Son junkyard in space vibe).

CCP should extend the same no-local mechanism to low-sec totally leveling the playing field outside of “safe-ish” hisec empire. Boost the rewards in null/low a smidgen (or make them unique) and move on to sorting out other issues (ahem…caps).

Being out for a while lends perspective.

Initially on hearing about the skill injectors and alpha clones I laughed over monetization and pay-to-win. Funnily enough…back in the old days some of my favorite targets were farmed L4 missions in losec and fleets of rubbish pilots in blinged Ravens we would slaughter/ransom as it was apparent they were paying farmers RL currency for in-game items/ships…never mind the character market. Now? Same as then-shortcuts generally make squishy profitable ganks for everyone.

Overall the game looks good graphically (although the map remains terrible), probing is easier than ever, W-space remains fun, and this no-local change got an old-school dual re-sub (money in CCP’s pocket) happy to play again.

Seems fairly win to me.

<3 Bone

p.s. Yes it’s really me. Bone/JJ only hibernate. Never sold. All original ganksta of EvE.

p.p.s. For my first kill on return I blew myself up in hisec yesterday .

p.p.p.s. Hi @CCP_Falcon and others still playing. Pewpewpew yarrrrrr n stuff

[Ikki_Phoenix]

CCP has enough of data due to this 1 week of debacle. They simply need to recognize they have made a mistake, apologize for the drama, restore local as is and go work on something else

[Mark_Marconi]

Amazing, years later and the same discussions continue.
The Null players who always pretend that Null is hard in massive blobs, now look like scared children now risk vs reward is better.

The figures look like nothing has changed but unless you know how many people are playing paid memberships you don’t have anything to go by.

Me for one I hope the blackout stays as it will actually revitalise mining and manufacturing and actually bring in new players and bring old players back. The whole you must pvp if you don’t live in Null bit is what killed this game.

Glad it seems to be rising from the dead.

[Ikki_Phoenix]

I dont think it is specifically the subscriptions numbers that I would be looking at knowing that many of us subscribe for long periods (3 month, 6 month and such). I would be more interested in the Plex sales stats.

[Ikki_Phoenix]

Are you using the new map or the old map? In settings, you have the option to activate a new version of the map

[Zhalyd_Lyehin]

Which you absolutely should not do if you want to gain any useful information from the map. The new map does a hideously terrible job at conveying information in a concise and comprehensible manner. It lacks distinction between different data increments, it blurrs information into a mess to appeal to the eyecandy lovers and it lacks the usability of the old map

Nice side by side comparison about the usefulness of the old map and the uselessness of the new map:

[Litsea_Reticulata]

@DeMichael_Crimson

There’s just too many different variables that can affect the stats listed in Eve Offline to accurately say if player count is up or down due to changes made in the game.

Yet I am sure both sides of the aisle will use all kinds of metrics to justify their viewpoint.

@Arrendis

They’ve never even said they were considering that. This isn’t a Beta Test. A beta is a test of how coded systems respond under wider (but still not full-load) usage. This is a behavioral study. CCP isn’t testing ‘no local’, CCP is testing us .

Its annoying that CCP has decided to do the free SP event during this test. It could be argued that the necessary ‘clean’ data to cover the 3 week period that you say is a minimum won’t start until the event is over, which realistically puts this as a month long blackout. That’s 1/12th of a year to collect testing data and potentially allowing one group to benefit massively while others do not.

Look at what happened to the MER when the rorqual changes were first introduced, Delve was able to get maximum utilisation out of the changes. It seems a near certainty that this advantage would have led to more advantage and more advantage again with multiple ‘balance’ passes simply ineffective as the mining fleets scaled in number.

@Abu_Tarynnia

yes, at least if you seriously develop software, with documentation (which I doubt ccp has had until sellout) and professional testing (which ccp certainly doesn’t have, at least I cannot even see a remote kind of QA).

Software development also covers the idea that testing shouldn’t intrinsically alter the environment, nor is it good testing to ‘tune’ tests or environments so things look better than what they will be come production.

[Ikki_Phoenix]

Huh, not exactly sure how you see the blackout revitalise mining…and bring new players in…

[Scoots_Choco]

@Ikki_Phoenix

not exactly sure how you see the blackout revitalise mining…and bring new players in…

In my alliance, we’ve seen a drastic increase in the number of players joining on comms and joining standing fleets to stay safe. Players who would otherwise try to be mining on their own are coming into and talking on fleet chat, asking for ways to stay safe and be alert against hostiles. These people, who prior to the blackout had their hands held due to the sense of security that Local provided them, are now engaging with other members of the alliance.

A lot of new and new(er) players who are trying to get situation in nullsec are now communicating more often with their alliance members to stay safe. In turn, they’re found that hanging out on comms or hanging on Discord/fleet chat is a pretty cool way to meet other people that they would normally had shied away from.

[RuleoftheBone]

The new map is terrible.
Fortunately after some poking around I got it switched off.
Ditto probe map.
Ditto overview…thank you S-R and Shawashawa (sic).

Scary how quick mental/muscle memory of the overall shabby UI came back. Glorious explosion graphics though

[Litsea_Reticulata]

@Maria_Dragoon

Data isn’t rain.

People log on, they get their free SP on one account, they close the client. They fire up the next account, all the way to their main. They leave it logged in and go sit on the couch and watch TV or whatever. PCU is up, but people doing stuff in space hasn’t gone up.

@Scoots_Choco

In my alliance, we’ve seen a drastic increase in the number of players joining on comms and joining standing fleets to stay safe. Players who would otherwise try to be mining on their own are coming into and talking on fleet chat, asking for ways to stay safe and be alert against hostiles. These people, who prior to the blackout had their hands held due to the sense of security that Local provided them, are now engaging with other members of the alliance.

That might be one of the few benefits of this blackout, its forced people to get into comms regularly instead of just for fleets and to whine about when their SRP will get paid out.

[Black_Ambulance]

@Marcus_Gideon

I hope it lasts forever. And maybe they’ll employ some of the Citadel mechanics they have in the DB to let residents bring it back. But overall, Intel should be gathered in person, not given automatically by the game.

that will mean rip dotlan ?

[Ramona_McCandless]

Wow you dont like ratters and miners very much if they are beneath…

@Veronika_Skye

sad low lives with small dicks that need to feel big.

in your estimation

[Savotien_Valpurgis]

Show us where our bad guns touched your hulk/VNI/Orca/Rork/super ?

[Veronika_Skye]

lol Savotien Valpurgis, keep pounding your chest because you killed a venture with 5 loki’s or a VNI with 10 bombers.
That’s some ELITE pvp… do you feel big now

[Savotien_Valpurgis]

Ouch, need a free hug ?

You seem in destress… Was your last VNI ?

Damn, that lol kill

Bustard | Veronika Skye | Killmail

Can’t you do mwd trick ? you just have to put a cloacking device =D

[Veronika_Skye]

lol, 4 year old lost mail… epic
I haven’t lost anything because like a lot of others I’ve only being playing with free empire alpha accounts since this blackout crap started

[Arrendis]

@Ms_Steak

We can say that it is about the same trend as any other year - the summer dip in active players numbers is quite consistent.

We can say that about the general summer trend, yes. We cannot draw any meaningful conclusions about the Blackout v non-Blackout.

@Lennardt_Thiesant

Hello, i think “Blackout” its a good thing, to clear up the nullsec from the big allianz

What made you think that was the purpose behind the Blackout?

@John_Marley

CCP is awfully quiet on the blackout, how about releasing some stats on it?

Maybe once it’s gone on long enough to have meaningful information, they will.

@Jaax_Jaaxia

Has it been announced as to how long the blackout will last?

Not that I’ve seen.

@Ramona_McCandless

But if you think they worked to be where they are, I think you need to think about how it works.

If you think we didn’t, you’re insane.

@Litsea_Reticulata

Drops of rain can be felt individually, yet they still fall upon a roof and into the gutter with a noticeable stream.

If you’re really trying to draw an equivalence between the number of players getting SP rewards at login and the billions of raindrops in even a light rain, you are way too optimistic about the SP numbers.

@Ikki_Phoenix

CCP has enough of data due to this 1 week of debacle.

Repeating yourself doesn’t make it true. We’re 2k above last week and Jul 1, 2k behind Jul 8. Not really seeing a ‘debacle’ in this.

@Litsea_Reticulata

That’s 1/12th of a year to collect testing data and potentially allowing one group to benefit massively while others do not.

It’s also 1/1200th of a century!! ZOMG! Seriously, I don’t know which one group you see potentially benefiting massively from this, unless you’re talking about one group adapting better than others. But that was already going to happen, and brings us back to my general statement about larger, better organized groups and the trend of human history, doesn’t it?

@Litsea_Reticulata

Look at what happened to the MER when the rorqual changes were first introduced, Delve was able to get maximum utilisation out of the changes. It seems a near certainty that this advantage would have led to more advantage and more advantage again with multiple ‘balance’ passes simply ineffective as the mining fleets scaled in number.

Sure, but there’s another big factor to keep in mind here: Many of the big players in null actively refused to take advantage of that change. Not ‘weren’t able to’, but ‘actively refused’. In fact, they mocked us for doing it. Even as we told them what we were doing and why. We made no secret of ‘we’re going to industrialize the bejeezus outta Delve and build a massive supercapital fleet’.

We also told CCP we’d do it, before the Rorq changes went in, but that’s another issue.

You can’t try to balance a game around ‘ok, so this will clearly be the optimal path, but some people will refuse to do it and then be butthurt that others don’t’. Minecraft doesn’t say ‘ok, some people won’t use anything but dirt to build, so screw it, let’s remove all the stone’.

You can’t fix stupid.

@Litsea_Reticulata

People log on, they get their free SP on one account, they close the client. They fire up the next account, all the way to their main. They leave it logged in and go sit on the couch and watch TV or whatever. PCU is up, but people doing stuff in space hasn’t gone up.

That would have PCU up… by one. And why would they leave their main logged in when they could just close that client, too, and play something else?