Come on, don’t pretend to be stupid. Of course most of the people who left won’t come back, but the reasons they left are still in the game (and became even worse) and still make people leave or don’t even come to the game / stay after they tried it for some time. A bad mechanic is a bad mechanic and changing it to make the game more attractive for a wider array of potential customers is a good thing. It is not like the current players couldn’t adapt easily, as no one wants to nerf their toys into complete uselessness.
I can give you a simple example: Marauders are one of my favorite and most flown ship type. Still I agree that they are simply too strong in comparison to other ships and should be tuned down a bit. Would I leave the game in anger if they just reduced the mobilty a bit, reduced the MJD bonus, took away some percentage of range/application/damage/scanresolution or change some details of the bastion mode? No, of course not, that woud be stupid. They would STILL be very very good (if not still the best solition for most scenarios), just not as completely OP as currently. And to be honest, only an idiot would quit after such reasonable changes. Since I live in a WH, basically everyone here uses marauders and no one would quit if they would be tuned down reasonably to bring them back in line.
You act like 10.000 people will unsub if CCP just remotely dares to touch their most beloved toy, but in all honesty I don’t believe that for a second. And no one even claimed that there can’t be slight buffs as well, just not in a form that directly affects mobility/projection in combat.
Or ample evidence that people unsubbed because of a nerf to ansiblexes? Hasn’t happened, so what evidence is it you’re thinking of?
Are you perhaps talking about other game changes that made people unsub? Are you implying that ‘scarcity’, ‘blackout’ or ‘rorqual nerfs’ are equivalent to a nerf to ansiblexes?
Personally I think the effect of a nerf to ansiblexes on the playerbase is much smaller than you are suggesting, and that far fewer people would leave the game if ansiblexes were nerfed with for example blue timer. But that’s all speculation, since we don’t have evidence.
People have left over complete nonsense-solutions that nobody asked for, enforced by CCP with a hammer for whatever reason. People are not leaving in masses over adjustments that just make sense and the game an overall better place.
Did many thousand Abyssalrunners left the game since the latest changes where you cannot do them next to Jita any more but have to use a 0.6/0.5 system to not become suspect whe nexiting a high-tier trace, thus being a lot more easy to find by possible gankers as such systems are actually quite limited and easy to scan? I don’t think so. People have adapted and an overwhelming majority has even accepted that this change was overdue,
How many Gankers have left the game over the latest changes that made flashys not able to dock in a ship in HighSec any more and don’t benefit from tether? They cried bloody murder but after all nothing bad has happened, ganking is strong as ever, profitable as ever and the found solution is just so much better than then nonsens we had before.
Same would happen if you reasonably adjust power projection or ships or weapon systems that currently are clearly too strong. And yes, every change will cost some players who simply don’t want or can adapt, but thats just natural. If it makes the game more balanced out to attract new players or allow those currently under huge disadvantages to flourish more and advertise for the game within their own communities, thats a big win.