PI users have requested the ability to do it via mobile or tablet for for some time. Judging by early reactions to EVE Echoes the UI in use there is better for PI than the one in-game. Given the new EVE Portal features, ideally that would be a significant feature for the team who developed it - I think Shanghai?
This thread is at least a positive attempt at dialogue, but unfortunately it feels a bit pointless. We’ve been debating these topics for so long there could be hundreds of viable small fixes and detailed discussion attached to each topic. But we’re dealing with CCP in bludgeon-mode where a big simple answer to a whole host of associated issues is being deployed. At that point everything that has ever been discussed is being invalidated and made a ginormous waste of time for the participants. The last few years have also seen a shift towards implementing proposed changes regardless of feedback being made at the point of announcement (which is probably why Rise was told off for even soliciting feedback). Followed by morale-sapping nerfs, which isn’t a good pattern of behaviour.
It is as though players are being treated not only as the problem, or a nuisance, but as the enemy. Either that or feedback/discussion and critique is being taken as a personal insult, written off as self-serving or disregarded as lacking expertise in the subject matter.
Also we are not game developers. We can make suggestions and engage in dialogue, but it’s not unreasonable to expect to be treated in good faith. This argument being promoted by the ‘good riddance’ crowd that players are at fault is utter garbage, but it really seems to be the mentality emanating from CCP right now. Helpfully this dodges all of the questions about broken implementation, lack of a coherent roadmap and general incompetence.
We even have CSMs openly arguing about whether they are developers or not.
It’s probably best just to skip to the acceptance phase and try work out corrections to this cycle of changes rather than debate long-term goals and engage in fantasies. Especially given that 70% of developer time is reportedly being spent on the NPE and retention (what is 70% of 5? :P).
Tempting though it is to reply with a snarky answer, this sort of fits in with what I was getting at. As an example, these forums are garbage on desktop. They crash on my phone too in the longer threads. According to Steve Ronuken, there’s an app called Discourse purely for this type of forum. Aaaand in 2019 that’s the first I’ve heard of it. If it was mentioned, I missed it at the time but maybe it should have been pinned somewhere prominent on this forum. Anyhow, my point is that converting this forum to what appears to be primarily a mobile related app encourages one-line snipes, back and forth, replies, multi-replies and basically a shite experience for a desktop user. So the main forum degrades into a clone of reddit, with one-line gibberish and a load of bitchy back-and-forth between individuals whose readers really do not need to follow into that rabbit hole - and the discussion is diluted.
As with my earlier comment, in the other thread - you could blame users for this. ‘Ohhh they are all juvenile instant gratification monkeys from other games’ bleh bleh. Or you could look objectively and say ‘nobody asked for the old forum to be altered, and in doing so you catered to one specific group of users, which caused a ripple effect in the wider dialogue and engagement’.
Think about how that fits into the argument about whether players are at fault or developers over the state of the game, or forums.
Also, it wasn’t a personal insult directed at anyone on GD. Actually Olmeca is doing my tits in atm because I have to read this never-ending spew of justification, and frankly it’s not pleasant. And I don’t think it’s healthy watching someone throw themselves to the wolves like this, because - yet again, it’s not his damn job. He’s pumped out more words in the last month than all of CCP combined (including patch notes). At some point stepping in and yanking people back from public self-immolation is required.
I would suggest doing arena/tournament style PVP. Something that could be broadcast to the esports crowd and appeal to MOBA players. I loved alliance tournaments in 2008-2009 and even participated (go Notoreity!!), but currently the skills cap seems too high for a new/returning player.
Bring structured arena pvp combat to the game, and at least I’ll return
I was thinking instead a new activity where you can start a mission from a FW agent, but instead of flying your ship you instead fly as one of the soldiers of your faction, though your skills would give appropriate (limited) bonus.
Being limited to FW enlisted characters, with several levels, a LP gain tied mostly to the time spent, with a multiplier based on how well you performed.
Of course no ISK nor material gain, only LP. Doing nothing sets the multiplier to zero, shooting blues makes you lose fw standing.
The mission typically starts with a logistic titan dropping on grid to conquer a L plex, and you select the ship you want to fly from within the titan, attacking the plex with a fleet of NPC . Defenders goal is to defend the plex and/or force the titan to get off. If the titan reaches armor, then the remaining invading forces (including the titan itself) warp off, even if tackled with a hic, end of mission.
The players being part of the mission would have the names of the entities on the overview changed, so they don’t know who it is, and other players on the grid would not know if the NPC is actually controlled by a player. This way NPC-controlled could meet true eve capsuleers (with better equipement but the risk to lose their ship). Of course taking part in plex invasion would require the controller capsuleer would not know the system he is in, would not have access to local/communication, only to fleet-based channels.
The important part is
no isk investment so no isk gain, but constant and limited LP/h gain( lower than the same level of FW missions though)
players can’t know if they fight against player of NPC
A help to the FW actual invasion systems.
can be later moved for other NPC fights (eg angel vs blood)
I’m not sure this would be a ‘solution’, but it is the kind of bold, ‘get people active’ thinking that CCP needs to start working on and learning to code.
Something along these lines, turning FW into a series of in effect ‘mini events’, could provoke a lot of activity.
My issues with this specific idea would be:
CCP seems to have real trouble coding anything ‘new’. (Also fixing anything ‘old’.) The idea appears to involve several completely new mechanics. I’m not confident CCP could handle the new mechanics.
The nature/scale of the activity appears to require significant numbers of FW players from both sides available to participate. This may happen very rarely (with current FW). Although of course it could be set to trigger only when those numbers are on, or on a known schedule so that players of both sides could plan in advance to be there.
It might need a sliding scale of entities smaller than a titan so that if the numbers weren’t available, a smaller fleet/target could appear.
Along with the benefits you already mentioned, I would add:
Done right, would be completely non-bottable, non-AFKable.
How about the value of those mods that the loot fairy doesn’t let us have goes into the bounty pool of those who destroyed it and then gets paid out to those who then kill them. Make bounty hunting a real thing and give people a money incentive to get involved in PVP - people just done want to take the hit because the rewards of pvp currently are a few mods (which is much less than they would lose) and zKillboard epeen - which is nothing to do with CCP.
I didn’t spend a lot of time in sovereign null when I first started, but I can tell you that it is not fantasy. I can’t say they went 40 jumps because I didn’t follow 40 hostile battlecruisers in my Thrasher. I’d imagine they simply escorted it to high sec because that’s the direction they were going in.
Just because people used their carriers as jump freighters doesn’t mean jump freighters are the only possible viable strategy for moving large volumes through hostile space. If you just put cargo expanders on those 40 battlecruisers, I bet you’d be able to put quite a dent in that freighter’s cargo load.
