Suggestions to EVE online from an old player

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I’m an EVE player who have been AFK for few years and come back recently
After trying again and unfortunately I feel like I may leave again

The biggest problem I felt in EVE is that it is boring for those who play alone. I understand that EVE was designed as a Strong Social Game 20 years ago just like World of Warcraft. However, it is 2024 now the mainstream game design concept is relaxed and casual. And I believe that most EVE players are at the age group of 25-45. Unlike teenagers, these people have jobs and families which means they don’t have a big block of time for games but fragmented time. Join the company, wait for teammates to come online, form a fleet, careful planning and then flying to more than a dozen jumps and fight with others sounds exciting but will cost a lot of time. And time is the most valuable thing for a player like them nowadays. So they have to decide play alone, and as I saide, play alone is boring.

I recently tried to play the Abyss dungeon and it is very interesting.Its size is very suitable for players who can only play in fragmented time. But again, they can still only experience it alone. I know it has the option to allow you to play with other one or two players( two frigates or one destroyer) but it still requires you form a fleet which leads us back to the same situation I just mentioned: You can not play until you find other players.

Since the most difficult part is to find other players to play with you, how about let the game find players for you – yes, the matching system. Let’s build a matching system like Final Fantasy 14 that can find players who want to play the Abyss at this moment no matter where they are. Not just Abyss, all other challenging PVEs like Sansha Incursion can use this matching system to help players experience it easily.

Furthermore, we can use this system to match three players against another three players just like League of Legends. Throw them in a special space and let them have a limited time team death match !

These are my ideas about how to improve EVE and keep player in new Eden

Love EVE and all the best to you!

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LFR totally wasn’t the downfall of WOW.

It’s certainly going to be harder but boring, that is up to you. If you feel it’s boring and it’s an issue for you then , I dunno, put in the effort to find some friends.

Then find a group that is online in the same time slots as you, this is extremely important for the reasons you mentioned and mostly forgotten when people “choose” a group to join. Putting in effort into details like that matters.

Are you really going to risk your expensive Abyssal runner with some randoms who might or might not be clueless, or actually out there to gank you? Doing it in smaller ships generally requires teamwork which, with randoms, is bound to go wrong.

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OP, I frequently get corrected on the forums and am told repeatedly that the most noble and virtuous profession is mining AFK in high sec and that it is the best gameplay for the target gaming demographic you discuss: laid back, casual, wanting to just de-stress after a busy day at work, 25-45 years of age.

Have you tried AFK mining in high sec?

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I have not seen people stating that at all, it can only be your subconscious telling you that is what they really mean which is rather incorrect to be blunt.

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Let me be the first to introduce you to Westfahrn.

I’m also done with this digression, I’m not going to derail any further.

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But is that being told repeatedly? I don’t see it. And he is not directly saying that from what you linked. Anyway, just wondering, o7

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OP another option is to try L4 mission running in high sec. I am told most rookies and new players these days use a Golem or Vargur.

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Hi OP and welcome back. Yes, the time-consuming elements of EVE are a problem, and becoming more so as people find their lives have fewer uninterrupted hours-long “gaming session” moments.

Presumably you’re aware that you can enter the Abyssal grounds yourself just by clicking “form fleet” with yourself as the only fleet member. You need more filaments to do so but it works. Some people of course also multi-box their solo Abyss runs.

Either method makes Abyss workable ‘solo’, but doesn’t address the larger issue in your OP which is the ability to get a few people together quickly for some content. CCP added/updated a “Fleet Finder” tab in The Agency to find fleets to join. It’s been pretty much ignored for the reasons you point out - too long, too slow, and too uncertain when you look around and find that any fleets you’re potentially interested in are 40 jumps away.

This is a real problem when, as you say, the game is intended to be and supported by social/group activities.

Other games do have various “convenience travel” methods: teleport to dungeon, assemble team, enter group instance from anywhere type options. But in EVE, most content isn’t “instanced” (and probably shouldn’t be), travel and travel time is a significant mechanic built in to the game, and even grouping up has issues when scams, awoxing, and various other forms of treachery are not only allowed but glorified within EVE.

EVE does have jump clones and alts, so some people work around this by leaving a clone or an alt located where they can participate in “regular content” with a regular group, but that still confines your activites to a limited framework. And abilities to “teleport” or quickly join groupmates for regular content would be very abusable in most cases.

It’s a conundrum based in the core mechanics of EVE. Play together, but trust no one. Team up, but it takes an hour of travel and prep time just to get started. Have fun together, but yeah, spend 90% of your “fun time” doing nothing interesting, then log off.

Your best bets are to learn to be effective in some way when you’re solo, and also seek out groups that do something interesting together whenever the chance permits. Then when you log in on an alt you can check if it’s a solo day or a group day, but the basic problem will mostly always be there.

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@HaHa_Han So I am probably in a similar spot to you in terms of time available to play. I play largely “solo”, but rarely alone. I am in my own corp and largely do whatever I want when I login. What has worked for me is a mixture of things. I have one clone in FW low sec, so whenever I want I can pop in and do some small scale PvP and BS with the guys in the militia. I have a clone on Spectre Fleet so I can hop onto their NPSI fleets if they are happening.

To top it off I also live in a WH so I can do all the exploring, industry, PI, I want whenever I want to build some things. Yeah it takes some effort to get it all set up, but since it’s just on my schedule it’s not a burden, it’s enjoyable.

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Actually very valid points.
But like @Yuzima suggested the NPSI community might be perfect for you.
Fast, scheduled action with smalle to mid sized fleets where the organizers do the planning for you. Just join, undock and go for it. It’s actually fun too.

OH! And about the matchmaking. Majority of this kind of player base really wish for the proving grounds to get back for the reasons you mentioned.

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Solo content isn’t really the problem, its that 90% of the game is old and outdated and in desperate need of an update.

Also i’m not a favor of instanced garbage like abyss, or battleground style minigame grinds ala Faction Warfare, its antithetical to the nature of a sandbox.

Also I don’t know about you but I can play for 2 hour a day just fine, make some progress, and log out. Some times are slow, sometimes are fast. You can’t really expect a WOW or FFXIV style content dripfeed or else you’ll run into the same problems of those games, people are rushed through a content system to try and abuse FOMO dopamine, then reach an end point where the devs simply don’t have the time or resources to make new content faster than you can consume it, thus any content added to the game must be sandbox in nature.

And you can’t really have a matchmaking system in EVE, anyone can shoot you. Imagine they added a queue system to abyss, and you clear the final room then get ganked so you lose your ship let alone your time and rewards for running it, and to try and stop that mechanically goes against the very nature of EVE as a game.

Now finding new players is a problem in the game, I can agree with you there, but that is a problem with adding in NEW content that promotes newbros engaging with eachother and with veteran players and is an active part of newbro gameplay instead of a third party recruitment system.

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