I am a whaler. I go after expensive assets that don’t want to fight back.
See the video below to get to know me better. Here is the discussion topic for the video.
TLDR
- I run to ensure more explosions.
- I am the right person because:
- I have a wider range of background to represent many underrepresented playstyles of Eve (whalers, NPSI, wormholers, lowseccers, and more)
- As a content creator I have lots of contributions to the community.
- I have the most elaborate and helpful ideas about the main problems of Eve, and how to solve them.
Personal Endorsements / Friendly Entities
- BjornBee
- Chance Ravinne / WingspanTT / WDS
- Chessur
- Fulcrum / Army of Mango / RNK
- Gobbins / Pandemic Horde
- Gulnar / Flightleader
- Jebi Vjetar
- Johnny UK / Mar5hy / Bombers Bar
- Riotrick / SLYCE
- Suitonia, Tikktokk Tokkzikk / V0lta
- TIfida / Andres M. Afanador / Inner Hell
Background
Besides whaling, I have following activities in my background.
- Wormhole evictions (defense or offense).
- Wormhole life (in a C2 null/C5 static).
- NPSI Fleet commanding (for Bombers Bar)
- Factional Warfare (mainly to farm missions, a system which I know to be broken).
- Lowsec roams.
External Sources:
Some of the out of game content I offered to the community so far.
- The Olmeca Style Client Stacking [ISboxer/EvE-O Preview Alternative]
- Streams of Excavator booshing
- ISKMaking for the Freefolk: Season 1 - Faction Warfare Missions
- Olmeca Gold vs. Bombers Bar: A Space Drama
- Bombers Bar - The Rorqual Weekend
- Bombers Bar Proudly Presents: The Bridge Bombing
Why I am running
My purpose of running for CSM can be summarized in two words: More explosions.
From wormholes to nullsec, lowsec and hisec, all my proposals will be toward game mechanics which catalyze more player interaction and fights. I have been arguing for many ways to catalyze content for over 3 years now. And finally CCP/CSM are beginning to see the issues as we are. This makes me a really good candidate particularly for CSM 14. I believe, as a whaler, I have a unique background that puts me in a position to understand this game’s ecosystem problems better, and offer solutions to systematically increase player interaction from major wars to small fights.
There are two main reasons why people play Eve.
One is asset acquisition. Getting into bigger and better ships, and building bigger and stronger empires. This playstyle is often based on PvE and grind at an individual level, and it is based on metagaming skills at an empire level.
The other is lifetime stories. PvP shakes. The immense depth of experience Eve has to offer. And these stories often initiate with player interaction of different kinds, if not with direct PvP and fights. I believe this aspect is Eve’s strongest suite and the reason it kept going for over 15 years.
In recent years CCP has invalidated the second type of player for the sake of pleasing the first type. Probably due to the revenue stream Rorqual multiboxers and people farming for capitals has provided for them, in terms of extractor and PLEX consumption and in terms of keeping the online count high. Most game mechanics that shape the Eve ecosystem are based on that decision. Particularly, farming in nullsec has become safer over time. One of the things that make me a worthy candidate is that I collect relevant data before making these claims. Here you can see the rates in which mining income converts to content and killmails (it is easier to collect mining data, as mining ships are easier discern). You can easily notice the downward trend. This means mining has become safer and safer over the years. Particularly in regions with strong supercap umbrellas.
The problem is that asset acquisition and PvE playstyle in Eve has an expiration date. CCP can’t keep adding bigger and better ships to the game, like other MMOs can add the next epic item set. They can’t keep adding different PvE experience like other MMOs can add more raids and dungeons. So when asset acquirers have all the titan, super, FAX alts, and ships they want, they stop logging in. For a sustainable Eve, they need reasons to play with these assets, and lose them often, and farm them back. Which means that we need wars and explosions.
The current stagnation of Eve, I believe, is due to invalidation of lifestyles of people playing for lifetime stories, and expiration of asset acquirers’ playstyle.
I am running to advocate a reversal in CCP’s late direction, offer my know-how in that reversal, and balance the scales a little bit.
Why I am the right person
- You now know my goals. I believe am a candidate with most highly elaborated ideas about what the problems of Eve are, and about how to solve them (see below section).
- CCP wants to make Eve a bit more dangerous. I argued that stance since 4 years. I possess better background to help them do that compared to most other candidates.
- My background includes many playstyles. From FW to Wormholes, from lowsec to nullsec, from PvE to PvP, I have been doing many activities. My background enables me to particularly represent
- Wormholers
- Those who do PvE, PvP, and evictions (offense or defense).
- NPSI
- As a long time NPSI FC in Bombers Bar and Spectre.
- Nullseccers
- Those who roam in nullsec.
- Those who live in NPC nullsec.
- Those who engage in sov warfare.
- Lowseccers and FW
- I started my Eve career in lowsec.
- I know the shortcomings of the FW system pretty well.
- Wormholers
Ecosystem Problems of Eve
Below are three layers of Eve-related problems that I believe should be a priority for CCP.
- Direct Game Mechanics
- Nullsec Anomalies (respawn times, bottability):
- They allow far too condense nullsec regions. They allow for easy botting.
- Supercap Umbrella Mechanics:
- They are the #1 blocker of daily content in Eve.
- Citadels/structures (timers, asset safety, fatigue-free jump gates)
- Currently they block both daily content and major wars.
- Indirect Game Issues
- Capital proliferation.
- Subcap playstyles invalidates as a result.
- Lack of content (daily content and major wars).
- PLEX inflation.
- People leave the game as a result.
- Metagame Issues
- The way CSM is elected.
- Overrepresentation of asset-acquirer interests in the game.
- The ways CCP/CSM makes game mechanic change decisions.
Solutions and Proposals
My ideas are maybe more revolutionary than most other CSMs. And perhaps even too much for CCP’s taste. Perhaps there are some of them which are too much for your own taste. But I believe Eve needs serious changes to reverse the late decay. And I am open to renegotiate and refine these ideas with dialogue, as long as you are constructive.
I also recognize the fact that CSM is ultimately a focus group. People seldom get their own specific ideas inside the game. But voters still deserve to know what I think the ways to fix Eve’s main problems are. And CSM candidates should be elected with their ideas showcased.
So what am I bringing to the table? See below.
Anomaly Rework:
I argued for adaptive anomaly respawns which would mean farm that spawns in every nullsec system would be dependent on total farm done in the entire nullsec. This system guarantees mega empires of Eve to spread out a little bit, and it still guarantees there to be space for small alliances.
Read the details and the discussion here and here.
Mobile Cyno Inhibition Rework:
This is the single best way to empower people to operate under huge supercap umbrellas. I argue for greater range for the mobile cyno inhibitor, and a new single target module on Black Ops Battleships to shut down active cynoes.
Read the details and the discussion here.
Capital Changes
Price often justifies the powers of a ship in Eve (e.g. AT ships). But thanks to capital proliferation, price is far less of a factor in deciding to skill in, buy, and use a capital ship. Thus, a new balance is required. As we can’t take ships back from players, we need make them weaker vs. subcapitals in order to introduce a new balance. CCP already started doing this with HAW titan and fighter application changes. Below is the next few steps I recommend…
- Fighters: Carriers and supers have received insane net damage and (targeting/ongrid) speed buffs during the transition from drones to fighters during the citadel patch. See an example for yourself. Nobody was asking for stronger capitals back then, and nobody is asking for it now. Fighter net damage and speed should be taken back to pre-citadel times.
- Gate bosoning: This is one of the biggest tools umbrella regions have to prevent offensive fleets roaming around. People have enough titans to completely prevent gating from certain regional pipes. This leads to huge denial of content and people unwilling to roam in these regions. Gate bosoning should be disallowed.
- Fighter jamming: This was one of the top ways to counter fighters. CCP has taken this from players during jamming changes. Fighters should be an exception to the new jamming rule, and should be unable to target their jammers.
Anaoikis / J-Space / Wormhole Space
Wormhole space is one of the rare places where there are actual diminishing returns to growing larger, n+1 doesn’t always prevail, and selective recruiting is still valuable. It is the space closest to my ideals for Eve. This doesn’t however mean everything is perfect. Actually, due to long periods of underrepresenation, wormholer worries often are less of a priority for CCP. I am not a “real” wormholer candidate, but I do live in wormhole space on and off, I know what these worries are, and I’ll make sure to represent them. Specifically;
- The balance between capital farming and mjd battleship farming meta needs to change to favor more capital farming.
- To accomplish the above, we need scrams/scramming towers in wormhole anomalies.
- Wormholes should be made more lucrative again. Getting rid of ship respawns was a good change in terms of motivating farming in the static, but the drifter boss is too much of a income nerf in terms of isk/ehp. Given that items (particularly PLEX) in the game keep inflating due to ISK being pumped in the game by nullsec, it’s only fair wormholes get incremental frequent buffs in ISK/hr.
- A whole load of bugs in wormhole space need to be addressed.
- There needs to be at least one person to prevent the “collateral damage”. I’m willing to do this in case no “real” wormholer gets elected.
New Wormholes with Nullsec Statics
Eve playerbase has shrunk enough that we should start looking into new ways to bring people together and ensure explosions. One way to do that is bringing wormholers with nullseccers together, which has proven to be good content during the HK eviction. Due to proliferation the forces wormholers can project into nullsec became much weaker. There needs to be new ways to balance this issue.
The milder version of this proposal involves introducing nullsec statics to all/many C6 wormholes.
The more radical version involves new C7 wormholes with about 25 million max stable mass (1.5 m max jump max). This means multiple dreads and carriers can go in and out. The wormhole-to-wormhole connections of these wormholes doesn’t need to have this level of mass. And they don’t need to have farm inside them (better if they don’t, really). I would even be fine with shattered wormholes of these type.
Asset Safety Rework
Asset safety needs to change to foster content. But most asset safety proposals are frowned upon due to not caring about players going afk. My proposal is middle ground. It changes nothing for line members of corporations. But it encourages people attacking structures in all spaces.
What I propose is a mobile structure. Let’s call it “Safety Tax Hacker”. If the hacking process completes successfully in 5 days, and a citadel dies next to it, it reverts the 15% asset safety tax (the existing tax which is already taken from linemembers) to the corporation that owns it. This change is inspired by how asset safety works in wormholes. In wormholes, you need to maintain grid superiority (by controlling entrances) 24 hours for an entire week to conduct a successful eviction and earn the assets. Even nullseccers enjoyed this mechanic (e.g. HK eviction by Init). This change would bring a similarly healthy incentive for people to attack citadels all over Eve. Here are some further details worked out to implement this change right:
- After the initial 15 minutes anchoring, it has the damage cap of an Astrahus (this prevents it from being instantly blapped - and gives some reaction time for those who defend it). But it has no timers, so one can kill it in 30 minutes.
- After the anchoring, it inhibits cynoes up to 300 km (this prevents constant cynoing-in and suiciding of dreadnaughts to kill it).
- It can only be anchored between 300-500 km from its target citadel (this prevents the cyno inhibition effect from being used to defend the citadel or other things).
- Only one can be anchored every 1500 km (only one can be used against a citadel).
- Hacking takes 5 days, which means 5 days of constant grid superiority is needed for the module to online.
More NPC Stations in Nullsec
One of the ways to increase connectivity and decrease safety in nullsec is introducing new NPC pockets and stations for people who’d want to use them as a base of operations. I believe most nullsec regions should have NPC stations within 7 lightyears.
New Local Delayed Ship Class
Local is argued to be one of the most important guarantors of safety in New Eden. There are many people asking for a complete removal. And there are some who would want to see it tied to infrastructure. The issue with the first proposal is that it’s more drastic even for my own taste. The issue with the second proposal is that, in places that local is a problem, people already have infrastructure. And in empty places with no infrastructure, people actually need to know whether they share the system with someone else.
So here is the compromise: A new ship that is local delayed. Here are the specifics:
- Upsides: Covert cloaky. 0 recalibration. 150 seconds local delayed. Agile. Fast warping. Good ongrid speed. This ship would be a +1 scout hunter.
- Downsides: 0 damage. Has tank similar to recon ship. No probing or ewar bonus. Can’t light covert cynoes. Can’t take black ops bridges. No use at all as a mainline fleet ship.
I believe this ship would be ultimate solution to making local a little less safe. And it would be the ultimate solution against botting.
Reward Increase In Nullsec
Most of the above proposals involved increase of risk in nullsec. Should some of them come true, I would also argue an increase in reward. Nullsec is supposed to be a high risk and high reward environment in Eve design. Currently it is less risky then hisec. CSM’s intuitions past 4 years have been reducing risk in nullsec, which caused overfarming, to which CCP responded by reducing reward (yield/bounties/isk per hr). I argue the opposite. We should increase risk in nullsec (see above proposals), and we should increase the reward adequately so nullsec inhabitants are still motivated to farm in the risky environment, and are not a loss in terms of isk/hr. Note that I am not arguing for increased reward in itself, but only in combination with increased risk.
Bombing
Bombing is one of the rare anti n+1 mechanics in the game. While people at the receiving end might think they didn’t deserve dying suddenly, conducting a bombing run takes great skill and prowess. Bombing has sadly fallen out of meta due to capital proliferation and we need to bring it back.Thus I am open to possible versions and combinations of below ideas.
- Bigger stealth bombers: Cruiser size bombers with XL Torpedoes.
- Focused damage bombs: Single target anti-capital damage bombs.
- Ewar bombs: Webbing, painting, weapon disrupting bombs.
CSM Elections Overhaul
I am running for CSM, but I think the way we elect CSM is a joke. In no country an election with 10% turnout would be considered a democracy. In many of them, the most twisted and radical groups would be elected if the turnout was that low. In such countries, organization and kinship would have a much greater advantage compared to having the best ideas. It’s the reason why we have 6 representatives from an alliance that makes no more than 10% of the entire game’s population. Here is how I think CCP should change CSM elections.
- SP farmers have so many votes to sell. Ban buying votes. Better yet, there needs to be 1 vote per real person on the account.
- Ingame voting and campaigning platforms are needed. This is why lots of people are left out.
- Most radical of all, a complete overhaul of the CSM system. In this new system, 5-10 most important playstyles get a focus group selected and renewed each year by CCP/CSM. Each focus group elects one CSM to ensure a CSM body with diverse backgrounds. Here are the details.
The “Jackpot’ Sense of Exploration
There used to be a sense of excitement and reward for a person with an educated eye go out in null/lowsec in an exploration ship and literally discover what’s out there. Now (apart from ghost sites) it’s a standard a few hundred million per hour activity with no variation or possibility of “jackpot”. This change is hurting one of the highly valuable playstyles in Eve.
- Pirate POS BPs used to be worth a lot. Citadels replaced POS’es. Nothing replaced those valuable blueprints.
- Escalating drone region data sites used to be worth a lot with Augmented Drone blueprints. Excavators nullified that profit.
- Offline POSes used to be a great source of pinata stories. Now they are gone.
- We need mechanics that gives explorers excitement and leads to “loot pinata” stories.
CCP Decision-making Overhaul
Overall, I think CCP should learn to look at ecosystemic matters of Eve more holistically, and should be more friendly to special case rules. I won’t bore you with details, but here is a long article about it.
My Stance On Other Important Issues
- Ansiblex Jump Gates: These are too far in favor of the nullsec locals. Either you shouldn’t be able to jump when pointed and you should accumulate fatigue, or the gates should work for everyone. CCP’s insistence on making them work like real gates but only for locals was extremely invasive to the risk/reward balance in nullsec.
- ECM Drones: I agree with many on that they need further balance. Their best use is a GTFO chance, rather than means to kill the opponent.
- Jamming Ships: Need huge rework (/cries in Widow/).
- Perfect Intel: I agree that recent Agency changes that show signatures in space don’t fit the spirit of exploration. We need to rethink many other forms of instant intel as well.
- Faction Warfare: Docking mechanics need to be tied back to sov. People shouldn’t be able to farm missions without contributing to war effort.
- Underrepserented Playstyles: NPE, FW, UI, Wormholes need love.
- Community: Need the Thunderdome, the AT and community team back.
- AFK camping: It is an ingenious but currently good mechanic. I’d be OK with its removal but only if the issues with nullsec safety are addressed first.
