I want to start this campaign post by making something clear, the CSM are not developers. I think people have a misconception on what the CSM is. The CSM is a representative voice for the players. CCP only solicits CSM’s feedback on different playstyle perspectives, current mechanics, and potential changes. For the CSM to be most effective in being a value-add to the game and the community, they need to have experience in one or several areas of the game and be well-connected within the community. They need to be able to ask other community members about pain points with game mechanics or gameplay styles that they may not be experiencing or understanding fully without breaking NDA. The goal is to be a conduit of the entire player base and that is what I strive to achieve should I be elected.
About me:
My name is Seddow, I am the CEO of Outback Steakhouse of Pancakes and I am part of the alliance leadership in Deepwater Hooligans. Previously I was the Alliance Executor of Dreadbomb, and a member of the Legacy Coalition leadership team. I have coordinated and led fights with thousands of pilots over multiple fleets all across New Eden. I have dealt with alliance and coalition level logistics, managing thousands of players, including dealing with krab drama, market pvp, recruitment and cultural issues. In Dreadbomb, I built a successful alliance from the ground up and understand the struggles of the small corps to medium sized alliances. I think most, if not all, alliance leadership in the game knows me from continued coordination, backroom joking, and talks about how to improve the game. I have a wide breadth of connections and gathered experience in every part of known space, including being heavily involved in Pochven with my current alliance (I will admit wormholes are not something I have much experience in). I have played this game for 10 years and never quit, no game has ever captured me like EVE has and I strive for it to be a game I can play for another 10 years.
My Thought Blurb on todays game:
I am a massive proponent of creating a healthier game ecosystem by incentivizing putting ships in space more frequently. It presents opportunities for players to make money, shoot each other, and interact with the rest of the playerbase.
As a friend and I discussed recently, I think EVE currently has three types of major group play styles in the game today. Empire Builder - They will fight with a numbers advantage to settle a region of space They will build a home for players to come and live. Placing lots of infrastructure and constructing a large community.
Raider/Roamer - Won’t capture space, but will hunt and disrupt space. Won’t really focus on destroying hostile infrastructure and no set timers, can be active as desired.
Mercenary/Conqueror - Will burn down space in mid-to-large scale fleet combat while having escalation strength over opponents, but not necessarily the numbers advantage. Focus on being mobile in number and staging out of Lowsec or NPC Nullsec. The space acquired through fighting is exploited for resources until they are beaten back by numbers advantage while not using the space in the true Empire Builder fashion.
Of course these playstyles are not set in stone and can mingle between each other/mix, but that’s the beauty of this game - it is a sandbox you can be as good or as bad as you want in whatever you want.
EVE has some of its best moments when these playstyles are balanced somewhat evenly. The initial release of Skyhooks leaned heavily in the raiders favor, but the most recent patch swung the balance of skyhooks too strongly for the Empire Builder. Recognising the balance between the content avenue of ‘Grand Theft Infrastructure’ which was amazing for the raider/roamer playstyle, but forced the empire builder into self-stealing out of their own Skyhooks instead of defending them, and the current state where it is not worth the time or risk for the raider. We need more opportunities that are balanced in a way where pilots are incentivized to put ships at risk to take or protect each other’s income.
When CCP first announced the workforce changes and it looked like not every system in a constellation could support jammers, I was ecstatic. Forcing strategic assets to be planned, and space to be meaningful with impactful decisions that balanced security and income was a fantastic idea. Unfortunately, as the changes got released we started looking at them closer and having discussion with null block leaders it became apparent that the changes weren’t drastic enough. One of the results of this is that projection is still way too strong as it encourages major groups to effectively control vast swaths of completely empty space purely to provide passage. This has strangled the map with these passages that could instead be the home for smaller groups. The remaining vestiges of Fozzie Sov are still too oppressive to attack, combined with undefended structures and their timer structure all combine to stagnate the map, and leave much of nullsec an uninhabited ghost town. Projection is needed to effectively empire build, but this projection must be balanced to encourage and allow smaller groups to grow.
In the lowsec area (my current residence), the space continues to be the land of no laws. True lowsec group fights focus heavily on brawling and escalation. Capitals get used more than in nullsec (they need more nullsec opportunity) and giving passive moons back created a path for these groups to fight each other. There needs to be more items to fight over in lowsec, from the large dreadbrawls to the 5-15 man faction warfare gang and the solo gamer. Faction warfare has become something that is heavily farmed instead of consistently fought over. There are also current awoxing mechanic issues that need fixing. Pirate Faction Warfare and Zarzakh also need some adjustments to be worthwhile for pilots where making lasting investment in these areas is worth it. More large-scale fights would happen in this area of space if the game economy was in a better spot (more below).
In the Pochven area, the region has changed a lot from what it was three years ago. People have min/maxed the region, and there is not much creativity left. I am a fan of a shakeup that causes people to get out and adjust again. The region has amazing potential and it has shown that by being one of, if not the most destructive region on the MER repeatedly. The Flashpoints do need a pay cut, but for the region to attract pilots post-changes the pay cut cannot be anything too drastic. I am also a fan of making the Flashpoint spawn different racial NPCs instead of just Amarr, each with different types of EWAR and weapon systems. This would make the sites never be the same and you have to be able to adjust depending on which NPC rat it spawns.
The post-scarcity economy is starting to revert to a healthy place but we aren’t there yet. Supers and titans still cost too much money to warrant their use case, so they either need a buff or cost reduction (no one is really building them as far as I can tell). Titan EHP is too low and fax are too weak in todays meta in regards to capital on capital warfare. Navy dreads need a slight cost reduction. Carriers with their new conduit ability are in a good spot financially in my opinion, but they need a damage and application buff. Battleships are still slightly the expensive side and could be in a healthy spot for some pricing reduction. In terms of ISK injection I am a big fan of the group PvE sites CCP experimented with near Zarzakh. I think they were healthy and a good way to get pilots to play with other pilots and put gankable ships out in space, they do need to get spread out more. CRAB beacons need some adjustments to continue putting huntable heavy targets out in space. More capital npc sites need to spawn for this reason as well.
Couple other ideas I would like to see and would advocate for:
- Allow HICS to fit Cynos
- NSA buff to make carriers worth using in combat, not just for conduiting
- Make ships exempt from fleet warp not take conduit jumps
- Make probe scans persist after closing client
- Expand on Edencom and Triglavian ships.
- Allow interdiction nullifier modules to be activated while cloaked
- No taking Ansiblex while pointed
- Widen the metenox timer some to allow cross timezone fighting (this is delicate)
- Fax buff or special rigs to help them be useful again in capital fights
- Adjust filaments to work in squads of a large fleet instead of needing to make a new fleet, while also adjusting the strength of filaments
If you made it all the way to the bottom, thank you for taking the time and I hope that I was able to paint a picture for my vision of EVE. My strength is my connections and experience in this game that I believe that makes me qualified to be a voice to CCP.
My discord is open to all who want to yap - Seddow
Addedums as I talk to more people:
- Insurance right now is not in a healthy/good spot. Especially for capitals. I’m not saying it should completely replace your ship but it should give more then 15% of the value back. Increasing it to a more reasonable/sustainable value would entice more groups to use dreads - specifically T1 ones - in ways which entice fighting and heavy asset commitment. I would love to know CCP’s reasoning for reducing it so drastically in the first place - I imagine something todo with scarcity.