Saint Michaels Soul

Council Of Stellar Management CSM Campaigns
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Saint Michaels Soul for CSM 13

Hey capsuleers, I’m running for CSM and in the time honoured tradition I’m giving you a quick introduction to me, myself and I.

My History
TL/DR - I’m a low sec faction warfare scrub and diplo for GalMil.

I started playing at the end of 2012 after being invited to the beta of an interesting sounding Playstation shooter Dust 514. Although Dust and I didn’t gel, it motivated me to read up on Eve and the permissive environment and stories hooked me. On my first day in New Eden I was introduced to my first corp (PCG Enterprises, then the offical corp of PC Gamer magazine) and ended up in a 20 strong fleet, having literally no idea what I was doing but blown away by the camaraderie and knowledge that these players had.

A year or so later I was installed as the CEO and had taken us out to Low Sec and then onto NPC Null in syndicate, where we began to focus on moon capture, reactions and PVP (badly). Eventually we moved into WHs and did a very convincing job of piling up ISK until the announcement of the Phoebe Jump changes, which gave me and some friends the motivation to move to Sov Null and join up with the romantic little new boys of Null, PFR, where I was put into my first Diplo role (mainly dealing with TEST….yep).

Forward winding to the collapse of PFR, I joined up with some old friends from the Syndicate days (Coreli Corp) and flew with Mercenary Coalition through World War Bee. However my sights had always been set on smaller gang fights and the way of -10 and just over a year and a half ago I moved to Low Sec Faction warfare with Villore Accords where I’ve found another great bunch of people and a playstyle that emphasises fun over objectives.

Along the way, I’ve flown in two ATs (which everyone should do at least once), whelped a giant pile of different things, had the odd great kill and FC’ed whenever someone more competent didn’t want to. You can generally find me dying to gate guns in Black Rise/Placid (or cryptically hotdropping in Cloud Ring atm, long live Galmilistan!) or losing something inappropriate to obvious bait.

Why the CSM?
TL/DR - Low sec needs love
Low Sec hasn’t had a representative on the CSM since Sugar Kyle retired. I’d like to help communicate the frustrations and worries of low sec denizens to CCP which are currently going unheard. I’m not going to put down a list of potential design changes that I’d champion (I’m not a games designer, I’m not a CCP employee and that’s not what the CSM is for) but I would like to help CCP work through some of the issues surrounding Citadel proliferation and it’s affects on the Low Sec ecology, most especially that of Faction Warfare goal motivation. I’m obviously not the first to highlight the elephant in the room and having raised this at the fanfest round tables previously I’d like to help those conversations along, keep LS in focus and provide a mouthpiece for the many thousands of players who live there. Do I expect lots of Low Sec dev time next year? Of course not, can I try and keep Low Sec in mind for some of the bigger decisions that CCP make in 2018? I believe so.

About me
TL/DR - Been gaming and programming since 1979, love an eve meet and hats.
Easily identifiable due to a penchant for a Trilby or Fedora, I’m on the older side for a modern gamer (most definitely the wrong side of 40), am a computer scientist by day, space nerd by night (Sure, it’s not quite crime fighter…) and try and get to as many eve meets as possible; This year I’ve attended Eve London, Manchester, Fanfest and Evesterdam - meeting other players and chatting about shared experiences is perhaps the single most important factor in what makes Eve great, we’re all creating our stories but what use is a story without someone to listen?

An active Tweetfleet member and a minute by minute Slack addict, I’ll be focussing on the forums and direct player chats to garner feedback. I’m not a huge Reddit poster but like everyone else I’m on there regularly to see which way the wind is blowing and to get my daily recommended allowance of salt.

How I’d approach the CSM
TL/DR - Be persistent about keeping LS on the agenda, listen and communicate clearly and be available.
Taking positivity into my interactions with CCP and players would be an important part of my representation - You don’t get anywhere by putting people’s backs up and throwing your toys out of the pram. That having been said I can be as tenacious as anyone and will continually beat the “LOW SEC LOW SEC” drum on the players behalf. I most definitely don’t have a horse in the greater eve politics race, positive in some ways, negative in terms of actually getting votes!
Due to changes in personal circumstances I’m in a great position in terms of free time in 2018 and would be able to dedicate significant time to the CSM. I understand about the sacrifice required in terms of my general game playing time and am prepared for that.

Other pertinent information
TL/DR – Fun stuff
I am so Eve famous I was in the Fanfest opening ceremony this year:
image

Some quotes from people I’ve asked about running for the CSM on a low sec platform:
Steve Ronuken:
“You should”

Rixx Javix:
“Obviously I want a LS/FW person on the CSM. My wife won’t let me run lol”

Sniggwaffe:
“Lowsec is dead. CSM can’t do ■■■■ so we don’t care at all what happens.”

Julianus Soter:
“Requesting you don’t burn yourself out with it.”

Jin’Taan:
…at Eve Manchester - “I’m not going to run again in 2018 but you should run”
…at Evesterdam - “I’m going to run again in 2018”

If you have questions, please get in touch (or post here) and I’ll do my best to answer: In game mail (Saint Michaels Soul), Twitter DM (@SaintMichaelsSo) or email (saintmickeve@gmail.com). I’m also more than happy to stink up your comms if you’d like to chat directly

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Well, you have at least two of the most important qualifications that I am looking for in a CSM candidate: You apparently want to communicate with people outside of null sec and are not a member of a null sec alliance. Only Jin 'Taan has put forth the effort to keep a constant dialogue open with all aspects of the EVE community. For the most part, the rest of the CSM reside in an echo chamber of their alliance chat channels and mumble/ts.

I wish you luck in motivating those in LS and HS to get out and vote, whether for you or any other candidate. Better start a YouTube channel if you want a chance of making it. :wink:

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Jin is a great chap. Also might start a related youtube channel muses. Cheers

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The difference 2 weeks and a lot of drugs can do to you, eh?

But yeah, I think SMS is a great chap and I look forwards to hearing more about his platforms and ideas for communication in the upcoming election!

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Cheers Jin! :slight_smile:

My primary focus will be pushing balance and motivation points. There are some that are specific to FW (Eg. Rebalancing pirate VS FW participant penalties within plexes, citadels/system capture, faction standing repair) and some that are more “Low sec in general” (Promotion of lifestyle, pushing the lore/RP narrative, extending the opportunities system, Seeing LS as a small gang/solo PvP learning zone, industry in LS).

I’m really looking forward to chatting to some of the non-pirate/pvp groups, as my focus has definitely been on the “Log in -> Go Pew” style of play (with a bit of trucking and industry on the side) for the past year or so.

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As long as you get Minmatar Militia LP Store faction missiles (literally half our ships can use missiles) I’m pretty happy…

Also the RP part of FW needs more love, more apparel swag, we want matching pants for those sterling uniforms and boots too… that way we can make uniform picture propaganda etc…

I think the only way to make citadels useful is to bonus them. that’s the only real way I see them working, if you have the system stable then boost them to nullsec level boost.

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Communicating the need to balance the Amarr/Minmatar zone is definitely on the list. There are problems there, one small part of which is indeed the LP stores. I’d personally like to see the territory slightly revised to bring it more in line with the Caldari/Gallente zone which is relatively vibrant.

Point taken on the vanity items (uniforms, hats, medals?), anything to increase immersion that doesn’t sound like it would take intensive development time is something I’ll champion.

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No proposals regarding the high sec population? (Other than the common "oblige them to go out HS because only we know how to play EVE since we are the pvp champions)

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@Nunosh :slight_smile:

I’m not suggesting that anyone change their playstyle, or indeed that progression runs from HS -> LS -> Null. Some people don’t like PvP and any attempt to shoe-horn them in that direction will end up costing eve players.

I’m personally not a pvp champion (yep I’ve done a couple of ATs), although I do find that part of eve the most thrilling.

I do think the Wardec mechanic needs some work, along with the mining mechnic, but as I no longer live in HS I’d be presumtuous to dicate what I thought the players wanted.

What sort of things are a problem for you at the moment?

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Go on…

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As I’ve stated I’m not a games designer, however there’s no doubting that the current mechanics lead to encounter avoidance (dropping/flipping corps) and even people stopping playing to avoid confrontation (primarily in HS) and that’s not a fun outcome for either party. Lots of people have talked about this for years now and I don’t think we’re much nearer a satisfying solution to the problem.

What in an ideal world would I like to see? Perhaps a solution with objectives (not only limited to PvP ones) could lead to a more balanced “war” that would encourage participation and undocking.

On the other side of the coin, two common complaints are that the cost of wardecs is too low and the fact that a corp isn’t “penalised” for having hundreds on the go. I’d probably agree that the cost of wardecs does need looking at again, taking into account ISK inflation. Personally I don’t think penalising anyone for having more wardecs makes any sense at all though - The HS pirate lifestyle is something that’s precious and unique to the Eve ecosystem, where risk should always be present.

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Why do you think that war isn’t balanced right now, and why do you think having objectives would make it more balanced?

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Perhaps balance isn’t quite the right phrase; I’m musing about how to avoid the “optimal” solution for many players being avoiding the wardec entirely.

If there were agency style opportunities for both corps on a daily basis to augment the existing PvP (perhaps leading to wardec scoreboards?) would that encourage non pvp focussed corps to undock and participate in a way that suits their skills?

That all having been said, forming up your own fleet and making a nuisance of yourself and hopefully getting some fights with the wardeccing corp was always where the fun was for me.

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Catch me for a face to face over a pint or three At Eve NT London on Feb 10 - Eve London Meet

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What ideas do you have to unfuck FW and put some life back into it?

We really do need a FW rep.

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Hi Quinlan.

My primary list for FW concerns (some of which are personal and some of which are collated from the various people I’ve chatted to). In very rough order of how important I feel they are:

  1. Address citadel anchoring and vulnerability in warzone system (both for neutrals and for FW characters).
  2. look at the tier system specifically in respect of the farmer motivation and motivation for the “losing” side - This feels worse in Amarr/Min space than in the cal/gal zone
  3. Look at balance between the LP stores. Yes there are RP reasons for the imbalance but the playing field needs levelling. It’s too easy to tank the pricing for certain factions, wheras (for example) the Gal LP store relatively strong.
  4. Re-vamping the FW mission system. The mission system across eve needs some love and FW is no exception. The problem was “solved” years ago and it’s now an isk printing licence with minimal risk
  5. Attacking neutrals in FW plexes doesn’t result in a security status standing loss (not a personal issue of mine but one other pilots complain about). Could be looked at by judicious use of suspect timers when in plexes or another method.
  6. 4 way FW. This one has been bought up by many people (including CCP employees) as something they’d like to see. So would we :slight_smile:
  7. Mobile warzone. Personally I’d like to see the warzone contract and expand based on activity, perhaps affecting the sec status of surround systems or potentially even opening up new LS systems for capture/defence activity.
  8. FW Lore Events. Live events can be hit or miss and people vary hugely on their buy-in to RP/Lore activity but it can’t be denied that they are immersive and add considerable flavour to the game.
  9. More character clothing suitable for the various militaries, ideally varied by rank

Edit: Plus the standings stuff. Christ, I can’t believe I missed that.

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The changes in the next patch makes the citadel stuff not really an issue anymore.

One big problem that has yet to be solved with FW is the fact that Victory Points doesn’t scale with plex size, so a novice gives the same contest amount as a large etc.

Also what ideas do you have to deal with the silly amount of stabbed farmers/bots.

Regarding the 4 way FW system you talked about, I don’t think it’s a very good idea, how exactly would you like to see it work and what benefits can you see it having on the current FW situation.

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I agree the citadel changes are a step in the right direction. I’m not sure they solve every issue we’ve seen. That having been said, I did promise Jin that I would shut up on that topic until we’ve seen the effects of the pass :slight_smile:

Victory points scaling with plex size is an interesting topic and I can see both sides of the argument. Personally I love the idea a few competent alphas being able to hold off the effects of a less competent force who simply happen to have bigger ships BUT the time taken to capture the plex should probably be factored into the victory points. I don’t think this would be a bad step and almost certainly should be tested if it’s a small development change.

Four way FW was a way down the list as it feels like it would be a very development intensive change (system capture mechanics and the space itself would need to be updated) but personally like the idea of having (theoretically!) more targets to shoot at and a more diverse set of systems to potentially capture. Having a dynamic that could lead to 3 factions ganging up against one dominant power would also give more spice to extended capture pushes too.

Stabbed farmers are a thing and although they are annoying for anyone that wants to fight, we do have tools to deal with them (Eg. MNI). Do I find them game-breaking or similar? No. It’s an odd way to play eve from my perspective as it doesn’t feel particularly profitable and definitely isn’t fun. If that’s the way that someone wants to play, it’s odd but they’ve got the right to their playstyle.

Bots are a completely different issue. We’ve all run into bots across the warzone and they are seriously annoying (although I’ve noticed some don’t react until they start being locked and they return to the same plexes which makes some more catchable than others). Realistically though I think this one might be on the players to help fix and police - I’m not sure how mechanics can change to prevent bots that wouldn’t have a detrimental affect on other players. Genuine question: Do you think there are mechanics that would help here? People have discussed a warp disruption effect in plexes but I’m pretty sure that this would put a huge proportion of players going anywhere near them and would break the risk/reward balance completely.

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I’ve always been a supporter of having plexes capture slower scaling with the amount of warp stabs you have on your ship, as this completely rids the warzones of the stabbed botting meta (not sure what its like on gal/cal warzone but its a major issue over here in amarr/min)

Victory points scaling with plexes is something that should have been in from the start, it makes no sense for a novice to be able to contest a system the same amount as a large, in less than half the time. I think it would actually speed up the FW gameplay and make more people interested in FW beings it would be less of a grindfest.

Also how do you feel about faction standing requirements? I’ve had plenty of recruits not want to join corp simply because they either have bad amarr standings or dont wanna ruin minmatar standings, my solution to this was make it so instead of making it so you need good faction standings, make the standings required corp based, so for example in amarr you wouldnt need positive amarr standings, you would need positive 24th IC standings. This is alot easier to grind up, especially for those with like -4 amarr standings.

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Re: Faction standings, we personally ran into seriously issues during the run up to the last AT as we invited in a corp to alliance specifically for the AT and it tanked our standings enough that we were having serious difficulties keeping the alliance in FW - I don’t want to have to run the sisters arc with three characters again for quite a while (and that’s about the only “quick” option vailable)! I see the need to have some kind of standing mechanic to deal with faction awoxers so your suggestion of moving it to a corp that you can actually grind for makes a heck of a lot of sense. It’s on the list.