The Future looks bright!

I’ve been actually planning this thread for a while now, but i rarely have time to commit to my EVE backlog. It’s wednesday and my trading platform is slow and rather predictable right now (standard weekly cycle, boring but nerve pleasing), so why not use the time here.

Considering recent and current changes and new features, adding dev comments i’ve seen into the mix, i can say that EVE’s future indeed looks bright!

What we will eventually see is space full of activity. We will play in a space, where the NPCs will be actual enemies and not just money farms. Where shooting an NPC has lasting negative consequences for the pilot, not much unlike ganking a fellow player. It will make the game as a whole much more believable, because there’s no sane reason for people to get away with killing literally BILLIONS of NPC humans, without them trying to fight back. From the perspective of a living, breathing universe this just doesn’t make sense.

CCP is heading towards the equivalisation of PvE and PvP. They’ve said it often enough and LifeBlood shows us a big step towards this. It’s literally the holy ■■■■■■■ grail of an open world, full loot sandbox MMO.

They are now actively attempting to shift the population towards seeing miners as important assets, who need to be defended. When you require a protecting fleet against NPCs, this same fleet will then be also there to protect against suicide gankers, or wardeccers!

Think about it! The newest NPCs fly ships with actual fittings made for the task at hand, and behave like players! They even call for reinforcements when you’re having it too easy dealing with them! They warp around and hide in open space and there are ways of finding them, too! The more CCP blurs the line between PvE and PvP, the more people will grow into a universe where danger’s simply are part of the game and where potential death is something that will indeed lurk around every damn corner!

Imagine you jump through a gate with negative standings against Angels, in a hauler, and they’ve decided to camp the ■■■■■■■ gate on the other side!

People will have to live with the consequences of the choices they make. It’s not just anymore going to be suicide gankers and lowsec pirates, who will have to suffer from standings issues. No! In the future, where PvE and PvP is equivalent, it seems that NPCs will not be treated much differently than actual players!

BUT WAIT, THERE`S MORE!

Not only will it matter who you shoot, it will also matter which empire you pick! You will, at some point, be able to even play for pirate factions, if we can extrapolate from the coming ability of supporting pirate factions in Ressource Wars! Yes, that will be a thing eventually, according to CCP Dragon, from whom I’ve taking a good part of information I’m typing down here after extrapolating it into the near future.

There will be better, new, more complex missions, too! They even hope to give us players a mission editor, so we can create our own! It might or might not be just “beta” or only available for a limited time, but tapping into the gigantic resources (time, and imagination) of the player base is the best ■■■■■■■ way of making sure that we will see high quality content coming eventually, with far more complexity than the old missions had!

But, of course, things take time. Rome wasn’t built in a day either. It is important to consider that not only is it a gigantic amount of work, but also that the population might reject sudden chances to what they are used to.

It is incredibly important not to rush changes of such magnitude into the game. Instead, CCP is doing what they are doing best: slow population control, with only radually implementing changes to acclimate the current population (with those opposing dropping out slowly, instead of all-at-once) and the new generations growing into them. For them it’s new and they don’t have negative bias. They’ll be playing under a new “Norm”, and that’s a good thing.

And this leads to the best part.

When PvE and PvE are equal, suicide ganking will become mainstream. People will be accepting it as normal, because death is death, no matter who shoots you down. People will grow into fleets, war and the need for self responsibility. From the ground up will they learn that cooperation and self responsibility are important factors and that death is inevitable. It will pave the way for changes of war declaration mechanics, aggression mechanics and maybe even the end of CONCORD, simply because they’d not be needed anymore in a fully vigilante society.

And it will mark the end of the totalitarian, solo playing, toxic carebear, because this game will absolutely not be for them. We’re already seeing them complain about the implementation of co-op PvE and how, of course, nobody wants this. Of course the solo playing people too will get their content, but it will not be as easy anymore, and it certainly will be much more dangerous.

AND THEN, AFTER ALL OF THIS, there is still NewSpace™.

I’m Yellow Parasol for EVE ONLINE; thanks for reading.

Back to you, Jeff.

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I have to admit I’m not looking forward to NPC gate campers.

We already have them, it’s called null incursions

Yeah but that’s nothing compared to having npc campers in highsec, where far more people stroll around everywhere.

btw, not looking forward to them is funny. i’v3 read they actually do this already, and shoot autopilots with bad standings. :smiley:
who would have thought? a universe marketted as dangerous actually being dangerous! :smiley:

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Nice image. Bet that’s not what happens though. Too much whining will divert the effort toward a real sandbox i fear.

that’s the thing, though. due to gradual changes, the whining will be at a minimum and the dropouts will be already replaced.

Yellow, you’ve played EVE a long time. Wth has CCP ever done in the last 14 years that gives you even the slightest confidence that the game you envisage will become reality? Sure Rome wasn’t built in a day. CCP has had 14 years. How many more you think they’ll need?

Also. Forcing people into groups never works. If miners have to fleet up just to protect themselves from NPCs while they shoot rocks this game will tank harder than Blue Apron shares.

You kill solo gameplay, you kill EVE.

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the expectations about EVE surpass the experience. I’ve played X, the first part, and i gotta say it felt more alive than many systems in EVE, which is bad for the game’s image. EVE as it is doesn’t keep up with what people would be expecting in 2017 and they’re going to correct that. They’re already at it, by making the game feel far more alive and dangerous with the new rats.

solo playing won’t die. there is enough creative space to supply all kinds of people with gameplay. i also suspect that carebears might be very happy in NewSpace, once it happens, but no idea.

solo play will stay and expand as well, simply because there’s a market for these people, but there needs to be a line drawn. other MMOs offer fake MMO experiences for solo players, but this concept never really fit into EVE. No one really plays solo, not even nomadic explorers, because they might get killed by other people. who definitely doesn’t fit into this game is the type of solo player who wants to have a safe space so he can play all alone. they’re being phased out, and the new rats and co-op PvE seem to be a step towards that.

nullsec proves that the idea of growing people into groups works, so it makes sense to expand that on highsec. just because now people believe highsec is their safe space, doesn’t mean they’re right, or that it will last. it simply won’t. the change comes in gradually, as i said, and there’s no need to fear that the game will die anytime soon because of that. the self entitled can whine all they want. They leave and we’re still here.

instead, apparently, CCP want to live up to the expectations of EVE being a cut throat game that’s actually dangerous and the rightful king of open world, full loot sandbox games. there’s a growing market for this, as more and more people are fed up being treated like idiots who need it easy.

the vast majority of gamers will likely stay in their dystopian games of happiness and heroism, and the actually good players who seek challenges and thrill will stick to EVE, because there’s simply nothing like it.

Was this answer helpful? (Y/N)

:slight_smile:

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Sorry dude but there’s very little to suggest CCP still feel this way at all. Very recent rumblings toward group play do not erase or even dilute years of decisions directed at making the game a safe space for special snowflakes. CCP are following the money, and that does not lead to a sandbox.

I really appreciate your optimism especially at this stage of the game, but I genuinely think you’re over excited and more nerfs to emergent gameplay will soon put you back in your place. Which is sad.

These changes were necessary, because as it was it was horribky unbalanced in favour for those who love shenanigans. the people of highsec simply weren’t ready. it wasn’t the vigilante society it needs to be. Once there are more people in highsec who actually “get” the game, things will change. it works in every other space as well, so i’d not be worrisd. you’re forgetting that things can and will be changed again.

from an eco omical standpoint i see nk point in catering to carebears more than they do. sure, CCP lowered the IQ requirement for playing this game significantly, and their marketing is quite insulting to people like us, but hey… people come, people play, people pay, people stay. the changes CCP makes seem to work fine for keeping out hardcore carebears who want it safe and afk.

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So no more solo and lone wolfs arround their time has gone…

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At least you’re optimistic in your insanity.

Nah i’ll still be lurking.

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no. read it again, but without the expectation to be correct. getting rid of solo play is economical nonsense. :slight_smile:

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there’s no insanity. i’m not showing any signs of repetitive behaviour expecting different results eventually. :stuck_out_tongue:

you’re a bitter vet. :grin:

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That’s exactly what you’re doing. Drinking the koolaid and expecting finally this time it really is strawberry and not turds.

Maybe. I think if i was a bitter vet I wouldn’t play the game, just post meme’s and other such rubbish. Seriously tho I think you’re entirely mistaken, but will be watching intently for a chance to be proven wrong.

no, that’s not what i’m doing.

what i’m doing is taking information, applying experiences from the past and extrapolating it into the future. the rest only exists in your head. :slight_smile: sure, there’s holes i need to fill, but most of what i said will work out as i wrote it. just wait. :slight_smile:

Don’t be an asshat we were keeping it civil.

That’s what i’m also doing. CCP have famously removed criminal gameplay and held the hands of carebears over the last few years. What experiences from the past were you extrapolating to mean CCP has done a full turn about and actually does want EvE to be dangerous?

I understand your situation, and will hopefully be able to help you out of it.

Think about it this way:

In today’s time, CCP could as well just remove suicide ganking and wardecs and i can tell you that it won’t make much of a difference for them, or most players. Many might not be happy, but what the hell.

First things first, of course would that be a rather bad idea. Suicide ganking is, from a higher perspective, a way of controlling supply of goods. Wars… well, not so much, though they can increase demand for goods, assuming people actually play during the time and don’t quit afterwards.

In any case are both actually under-represented activities. Freighter ganking likely helps destroying lots of goods, but it’s not the same. When you have a group of people destroying one ship with 1000 goods, it is not the same as if that group destroyed one thousand ships with one good each. The latter is preferrable. By far.

Anyways. This can be solved logically.

CCP introduces new rats, which actively hunt and aggress players, forcing them to cooperate with others and into being more vigilant, with the effect of causing a sense of self responsibility in the players.

You have two options:

  1. CCP does this, because they plan on further nerfing criminal activity in a vigilant society, with the eventual end goal of relying on the NPCs as “danger”, ignoring their own marketing and selling points.

  2. CCP does this, because cooperating, vigilant people are not afraid of suicide gankers and war deccers, and instead will be ready to fight back if need arises.

Pick one.
Only one.

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Put me down for option 2.

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It was a good read Mr Parasol, a good read. You made some sound observations, too.

As soon as I reached that final paragraph, you know who I thought of? Cannibal Kane. Remember him? Scourge of Highsec; a really good and successful solo PvP player. He wasn’t too keen on the New Order, of course, but I think he and his kind were good for the game.

But the future certainly does look bright, just not for those for whom it looks, well, dark.

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