Third Time's the Charm - Brisc Rubal for CSM 16

Brisc_Rubal · April 18, 2021, 3:58am

Here we go again, Brisc for CSM 16!

Who is Brisc Rubal?

Brisc Rubal is a veteran EVE Online player, nullsec PvPer, EVE media personality and CSM member. He first came to EVE Online in 2006, and has been all around New Eden.

He’s been a high sec mission runner. He’s done some time on the Tama gate camp and lived off a couch in low sec. For much of his active career he’s been an active subcap and supercapital pilot in nullsec, currently serving as an F1 monkey in the Initiative, and he’s even managed to sneak an alt into KarmaFleet, where he is, as Merkelchen likes to say, the “only director in the Corporation who isn’t actually in the Corporation.”

He serves as co-host of Imperium News Network’s “The Meta Show,” the most watched EVE Online talk show, and joins fellow CSM members Innominate and Merkelchen almost nightly on Merkelchen’s RampageInc EVE stream. He also streams EVE on his own Twitch channel, and creates videos, usually for the Meta Show, on his YouTube channel. He was elected to CSM 13 and CSM 15.

Despite being space famous, he is still not an FC, not an alliance leader (although he’s frequently accused of running INIT), not a corporation CEO nor a diplomat. He’s still addicted to this game, plays almost every day, and there’s plenty of proof in the form of empty beer bottles, dead structures in Catch, and ASMR-laced twitch streams.

In real life, Brisc Rubal is the online persona of Brian Schoeneman, a veteran lawyer and politician in the United States. In his day job, he represents America’s largest seafaring union in the halls of Congress and the White House. He’s run for office twice, testified before the U.S. Congress multiple times, served as chief elections administrator in the largest county in the Commonwealth of Virginia (with over 1 million residents), served as Special Assistant and Senior Speechwriter for a U.S. cabinet secretary, got verified on Twitter, taken a nap smack dab in centerfield at Oriole Park at Camden Yards, and Rachel Maddow even apologized for making fun of him on TV.

My EVE Online Story

My EVE Online story begins, oddly enough, in Star Wars: Galaxies. One of my college friends and I had been planning on playing SWG since it was announced, and when it was launched in 2003 we hit the ground running. We built a solid guild from the ground up, and I joined SOE’s version of the CSM, their “Player Correspondent Program,” and was the longest serving member until the game shut down.

After SOE decided to ignore their Correspondents and destroy the game that my buddy and I loved, we looked around for a new game to play that could scratch that itch. I started playing World of Warcraft, and he started playing EVE Online. After a year or so, in July of 2006, he finally convinced me to try out EVE. I did.

Swing, and a miss. I was intimidated by the game – spent most of my first couple of months docked in a station training my training skills. I remember the first time I ever undocked from a station expecting to be immediately killed by other players, given the game’s reputation. In any event, it didn’t hold my attention. I would pop in to run a mission or two every month or so, and I bounced around, tried to join a corporation (I can’t even remember which one now), and just didn’t really get into it. This was me for the next ten years – every couple of months coming back and playing by myself, running missions, training my account, salivating over someday getting to fly a Raven, but not really enjoying myself. I never made it past lowsec.

It wasn’t until 2016 that I finally got back into the game permanently. A real-life political buddy of mine was highly active in the game, and he’d joined up with a group up in Tenal. He wanted me to join, so I resubbed and decided to move up there. I had nothing more than an Osprey Navy Issue (which I immediately lost to a PL gate camp in lowsec) and my skills. I finally made it up to Tenal and got into EVE Online proper. What made it different this time? I had friends to play with. I had a corporation that helped me figure things out. I finally got to PvP where I had a reasonable chance at winning. All of that combined to get me, after ten years, finally addicted to EVE Online. The longest I have gone without logging in since was the two weeks I was banned in 2019.

After joining my first nullsec corp, I spent the next six months relearning the game, unprogramming all the high sec stuff I had learned over the years and getting into nullsec PvP. I was flying with DRONE WALKERS at the time, and in January of 2017, I joined STK-Scientific, which was, at the time, one of the core corporations in DW, with the Alliance executor being a member. I was recruited to join them because I was, in the words of our current CEO, “the only guy who was willing to actually PvP and defend his space.” As part of STK and DW, we participated in all of the major wars during the first half of 2017, including the Battle of M-O, and we stayed in WALKA until we were stabbed in the back by CO2. After being evicted from Tenal by Adversity, we ended up on TEST’s couch in Catch, and were finally given space in Feythabolis. I lost my first ratting carrier to Inner Hell down there. CO2 decided they wanted the space and we were told by WALKA to move back to Catch. Live in Catch? ■■■■ no. So STK left DW and went back to the Initiative, joining Initiative Mercenaries. After two months, we made the jump from IM to INIT proper and I’ve been there ever since.

It was around that time that my STK brothers started harassing me to run for CSM. I told them no over and over, and they finally wore me down. I decided to run, ran a professional campaign, with website, TV commercial, paid advertising, appearances on many EVE related Twitch streams and podcasts including Open Comms, Talking in Stations, Declarations of War, and Mindclash, and memes galore. I was invited to join the Open Comms team, which I did until I left the show in early 2021.

Thanks to all of you, I was elected to CSM 13. While on CSM 13, I maintained a reputation as being one of the most approachable and active CSM members. I held a number of town halls and forums, I was active in over 20 EVE discords, continued my appearances on a variety of EVE media, single-handedly did the CSM roundtable at EVE Vegas in 2018, and attended both CSM summits in Iceland. I made it a point to post on Reddit and the EVE-O forums, and I went out of my way to represent the players to CCP. I reached out to underserved communities, including Wormholers, Faction Warfare and Lowsec pilots, and High Sec mission runners (of which I remain). During that time, I continued to play the game daily, managed to lose a Titan, helped evict Hard Knocks from Rage, made some funny videos and avoided all positions of responsibility within my corporation and alliance.

All of this came crashing down in April 2019, when I was accused of violating the NDA and was permanently banned, alongside INIT’s two lead FCs, Pandoralica and Dark Shines. After working with CCP, we were able to clear our names and I was reinstated, NO COLLUSION, TOTAL EXONERATION, two weeks later. Given that I have never hidden who I am, the impact on my personal life from the false accusations was significant, and I chose to step down from the CSM and not run for a second term in 2019.

I spent that 2019 killing people in EVE. After I left the CSM 13, I went out on fleets almost every day, ratted and mined (usually under duress), participated in almost every Saturday Night Swarm with KarmaFleet (unless there was a UFC PPV on), attended EVE Vegas 2019 and EVE London 2019, lost a Widow to Pinecones in Syndicate, joined the Meta Show as co-host, and did my best to remain an ambassador of the game to the rest of the gaming community.

But, as is often the case, when you’ve been in the game and you’re suddenly watching it from the sidelines, the desire to get back in can become overwhelming. I also felt like there was still some feeling in the community that while I had been exonerated by CCP, that I had somehow bullied the company or otherwise was guilty of what I was charged with, and I knew that one of the only ways to shut up those critics would be to run for CSM again and serve a full term. So, while I enjoyed my break, I knew that I had to at least give it one more chance. So after some soul searching and the blessing of MrsBrisc, I decided to run for CSM 15.

Thanks to the help of players across New Eden, I got elected to CSM 15 by an even larger margin than my CSM 13 victory, and I hit the ground running. As one of the returning veterans, I quickly worked to help get the new guys up to speed and prepare them for the new reality of CSM-via-videoconference. I established myself as the unofficial note taker for the CSM, documenting almost every single meeting held, and providing transparency in semi-monthly updates to players about what was happening internally on the CSM. I attended more than 90% of the 50 meetings held during CSM 15. I worked hard to be everywhere that players were, responding to questions via EVE Mail, Discord, Reddit, the official forums and on a variety of EVE Media. At the same time, I kept playing the game every day, hosted marathon livestreams of multiple Keepstar fights in NPC Delve (while playing) as well as anchoring a 14 hour breaking news stream for the first battle of M2-XFE (while losing a Titan - one of the first five to die on the Imperium side), and also anchored INN coverage for the second battle as well.

Throughout CSM 15, I worked hard to bring player concerns to the developers and succeeded in a number of major efforts, including advocating quality of life fixes like adding jump gates to the auto-navigation feature, among other changes that were very well received by the player base. Finally, I did my best to demonstrate to players that the CSM is more than just a group of famous players getting a free trip to Iceland, especially since there was no trip this year. This year was pure hard work, and I made sure to put in my fair share. The results speak for themselves.

And, of course, I got CCP to fix the Red Dot.

My Areas of Expertise

I am primarily a null-sec PvPer. I’ve spent the bulk of the last four years in PvP alliances. As a result, I’m well versed in subcap PvP, large group PvP, capital PvP (including Titans and supercarriers), and the attendant politics that go into that area of space. Because of the work we’ve done in and around wormholes, I’ve learned a lot about them, although I would hesitate to call myself an expert (except to troll the small knot of humorless wormholers who are some of my biggest fans) in that area. I continue to run missions in high sec, I have a structure that I maintain in high sec so I’m familiar with structure and some logistics aspects of the game, and despite my ardent attempt to not learn anything about mining, I know far too much about it thanks to the krabs in my corp.

My other areas of expertise are outside of the game, but complimentary to it. As an EVE media personality, I know how to run a Twitch talk show, and I’m one of the more professional podcast/talk show hosts in the StreamFleet community. As a real life lobbyist, former public official and attorney, all of my daily professional skills are exactly the kinds of skills needed to be successful on the CSM – how to build relationships, work collaboratively, function in a group professional setting, and use the art of persuasion to maximize positive results for my constituents.

I also believe that my past experience with CCP, both on the CSM, in the EVE media sphere, as well as having been accused, banned, and exonerated by the company gives me a unique perspective on the game and the company from other CSM candidates. One thing that players can count on is that, thanks to my experiences, I am nobody’s sycophant, and I will speak truth to power on their behalf.

What Can Players Expect from a Third Brisc Rubal Term?

They can expect what I’ve promised and delivered to them in my first and second terms – I will work hard, every day, on behalf of all of the players of EVE Online. Whether you’re Alpha or Omega, come from Highsec or Nullsec, play in Wormholes or Faction Warfare, I will be there to listen and advocate for you and for what is in the best interests of the entire game. I will never put what is in my own personal benefit ahead of the game, nor will I put what’s in the interests of my coalition, alliance or corporation ahead of what’s good for the game.

Finally, I will not be here to be a mouthpiece for CCP, either. My mantra has always been “tough but fair,” and I will continue to do that if re-elected. I have said, from the beginning, that the role of CSM member is to share player views with CCP, not the other way around, and I am committed to that style of representation. CCP must do their own communications – my role is to represent you, not them.

I intend to continue delivering what I have delivered on my two previous terms on the CSM – a true player representative who is approachable, listens, advocates, and works every day for the betterment of EVE Online.

We fixed the Red Dot together in 2021 – what can we get done this year?

Brisc_Rubal · April 18, 2021, 4:04am

Brisc’s List

During CSM 13, when Brisc was doing outreach to players about their concerns and issues they’d like to see brought to CCP, he would frequently tell them “I’ll put it on my list,” or “that’s on my list.” Brisc’s List grew as the year went on.

After being elected to CSM 15, Brisc’s List has been a convenient place to review all of the requests from players he’s received, and to keep track of those that have been addressed and those that remain to be done. These aren’t necessarily all good ideas, and Brisc doesn’t always agree with all of them, but he believes that players with ideas deserve to have their representatives present those ideas. That’s what Brisc does, and he continues to work hard to get these issues reviewed by CCP. Some have been resolved, many remain.

Brisc will continue to update his list and work on these ideas throughout CSM 16. Not a day goes by when Brisc isn’t working on something on this list with CCP.

CSM 16 Big Ideas

These will be the primary points that Brisc will be advocating if re-elected to CSM 16.

CSM 16 Big Idea #1 – End Scarcity Now

It has been more than a year since CCP launched the scarcity era. We have all watched as the mining and ratting has dried up, fewer and fewer big targets were out in space and many of our friends who enjoyed the era of plenty decided they had better things to do. It’s time to end scarcity and get back to having fun in EVE. Here’s what Brisc wants to see as an end to scarcity.

Gib Rock Plz

There is nothing more frustrating than wanting to log in to play EVE, head out in space to mine or rat, and finding there’s literally nothing to do because other players got their first. Scarcity has reduced the amount of content for a lot of players, and that means less to do. Less to do means fewer players in space, meaning fewer targets for hunters and potential opportunities for PvP, and an overall worse experience for everybody.

CCP needs to find creative ways to increase the amount of things to mine – whether that’s the creation of new mining sites, new mechanics that provide mining opportunities in places they haven’t existed before, and an overhaul of the mining ship lines so that they do what they’re designed to do without becoming overpowered like the 2017-2018 era Rorqual was.

~~Roll back the asteroid belt removal or create new spawning mechanics for NPC sotiyos and Officer rats~~

The recent (April 2021) removal of asteroid belts has caused significant consternation around New Eden, especially as players who were used to doing the kind of content that surrounded belts and belt rats – like Officer spawns – found that gameplay completely removed from their regions. It’s important that CCP either rollback this change or create new mechanics for things like NPC Sotiyos and Officer rat spawning so that this gameplay isn’t permanently removed from the game. COMPLETED!

Create more dynamic resource generation

The dynamic bounty system and the ESS changes have demonstrated that a universe that changes based on what the players are doing in every system is not only possible, it’s fun and engaging gameplay. It would be great if the same thing applied to mining and other forms of resource generation. More dynamic systems that expand or contract based on player engagement will help to be a natural check to big groups overfarming their space, and will help encourage smaller groups to find territory that is being underutilized, especially in NPC nullsec and lowsec, to make their own.

Create anomalies that are designed specifically for carrier/dreadnought/supercarrier/titan ratting

All of the changes to Rorquals and supercapitals to reduce their effectiveness in ratting and mining has been successful in doing so. The downside to that, unfortunately, is these big ships have far less to do and that means they are far less common in space than they used to be. Hunting for big game – titans, supers and Rorqs – used to be one of the most fun kinds of content for Wormholers, lowsec and nullsec players. Now, those ships are only used in ultra safe scenarios like uncontested structure bashing, or mega big bloc fights like we saw in M2. That needs to change. As part of ending scarcity, CCP should develop specific ratting and mining scenarios that are designed around supercapitals, capitals and Rorquals, from Titans on down, that provide those ships with a reason to be in space and off-tether. Obviously, this will require careful balance, because these sites need to be risk/reward balanced appropriately, especially after the industry changes that have made all these ships far more valuable.

CSM 16 Big Idea #2 – A Renewed Focus on Content

EVE is cyclical. This means that every couple of years, players will change their tune on what it is they want. In recent years, players demanded loud and long for new content, and they got it. Then they wanted balance changes, and they got it. Then they were back to demanding new content. And so forth. After the major changes to fundamental systems like industry and resource gathering and the end of the Triglavian Invasion, players are again asking for more content. Whether you’re in highsec, lowsec, nullsec, wormholes or Pochven, you are probably looking around for new things to do. CCP should work on creating that content – both in terms of PvE experiences and PvP experiences.

Develop and finalize a Lowsec/Faction Warfare Plan

Put simply, it’s Lowsec and Faction Warfare’s turn. They have sat patiently by while every other area of the game has gotten attention, and they are still stuck with an entire sector of space that is suffering an identity crisis, and a content system that largely doesn’t work, hasn’t been meaningfully looked at in years, and has often been taken over by bots and farmers. What was once a vibrant and exciting community, with opportunities for role play and lore emersion, small gang and solo PvP, and lucrative mission running has largely turned into a Fallout-esque wasteland.

CCP should commit to doing a full review and development plan for lowsec and faction warfare, determine what exactly they want lowsec to be, how to make faction warfare fun, engaging and dynamic, and use what they have learned from a variety of new systems, like the Triglavian Invasion, to create meaningful and permanent player-driven content in that space.

~~Fix Pochven to make it easier to move around~~ COMPLETED!

*Pochven is one of the best kept secrets in EVE Online. The players who are there are enjoying their time in the game, and they are finding new ways to live and work in this weird region, cut off from the rest of New Eden. That being said, one of the absolute hardest parts about dealing with Pochven are the extremely high, extremely grindy standings requirements to use things like gates, stations and station services. This is probably the biggest barrier to entry and has given those who have made their entire gameplay exist around Pochven an advantage while limited access to the region to the average player. It’s critical that CCP review and adjust the standing requirements in Pochven to make it easier to get into and move around in.*

Review wormholes and ensure their wealth generation is brought in line with the rest of the game

Wormholes are often the forgotten part of EVE – and for some wormholers, they would prefer that they remain forgotten. As often as CCP makes changes in wormhole space they believe will be good, they end up screwing up the ecosystem and messing with the things that make wormhole space unique. That being said, while the rest of New Eden has gone through scarcity, our friends in wormholes have largely avoided the nerf bat. As noted as recently as the March MER, wormhole wealth generation is still considerable, and blue loot still represents a major isk faucet that hasn’t been touched. CCP should review wealth generation in wormholes and make sure that it is in line with the rest of the game. If they determine that wealth generation in wormholes is not up to par with the rest of the game, they should buff WH space to ensure that players living there have earnings that accurately reflect the risk/reward of living in wormhole space.

New missions and sites for all areas of space

One of the biggest requests that players in highsec have had over the years is new missions. While we’ve seen a handful of new missions added to the game over the last few years, this remains a top request. In addition, while there has been the addition of Abyssal Deadspace, there hasn’t been a lot of attention paid to in-space content. CCP should focus some resources on building new missions, making them dynamic and spawnable in various areas of space, and creating new kinds of anomalies or other in-space PvE opportunities that are lucrative enough to get players running them and attractive enough targets for hunters to hunt the people doing so.

BRISC’S LIST AS OF April 2021

~~THREE WORDS: RED DOT TOGGLE~~ WE ■■■■■■■ DID IT! COMPLETED!
Get rid of the delivery hanger or otherwise allow players to block receipt of delivered items
~~Ansiblex Jump Gates you have access to should be included in in-game “set destination’ routes to systems~~ COMPLETED!
~~Tech 2 salvage drones~~ COMPLETED!
~~Nullification on shuttles~~ COMPLETED!
Tech 2 Reactive Armor Hardeners
Merge the ICU and IHUB, there’s no need for both
“Drone Chooses Independent Target” option under drone aggression
~~Drug/Probes bay for the Monitor~~ COMPLETED!
~~Target painters working on structures~~ COMPLETED!
A reason for anybody to fly a Griffin Navy Issue
Let Rorquals compress moon goo
Let me click on somebody from my watch list and have it show up in the “selected items” box
~~Fix the fleet mechanics so FCs can choose where players who join the fleet go~~ – COMPLETED!
Optimize/Rework Corp and Alliance settings
~~Patch Notes as a separate Dev Blog so we can see them as they’re updated FOR THE LOVE OF GOD and get them out before the day of the release~~ COMPLETED!
Better starting overview and window layout for new players.
Fix the lock/unlock mechanic for BPOs and BPCs so that votes to lock/unlock are recognized, the interface is no longer buggy and slow and make it user friendly.
Links/Boosts should apply to tethered ships
Logi on killmails. Oh, this is kind of funny, actually. From CSM 1
GMs should not be reimbursing PvP losses without a legitimate server side malfunction
Cloaky camping – any solution that works to address this issue and get it off our plates after a decade and a half of complaints
ACL-style shareable standings lists with an edit history
~~Command ship rebalance –~~ COMPLETED!
~~Multiple clones in a single structure~~ COMPLETED!
Remove station clone swap timer/treat station clones the same way as citadels for swapping into and out of clones
Increase number of clones players are allowed to maintain (tweak isomorph skills to double clones, preferably)
Update Corp logo system to allow for greater diversity of logos
~~CCP Convict should NOT die in in every EVE Pulse video – the poor man has suffered enough~~ COMPLETED!
Adjust damage caps on structures.
I don’t know why I really have to type this, but alliance and structure skins.
Shareable standings ACL for alliances, corporations and players, or, at a minimum remove, the standings slider and allow the player to enter the number of the standing they want instead
Address the overuse of “capital” system in Aegis sov in the Providence region
More corp hangers
Allow citadels to be neuted
Allow players to incap specific weapons on citadels by targeting them specifically,
Correct issues with PI that make it difficult for those with color blindness to participate
Add an instant “potato mode” button to the graphical settings window that allows you to go to lowest graphics mode with one click. (button should either have a little potato on it or a picture of Dark Shines avatar). No more drop down menus and thinking. - COMPLETED! (Ctl-Shft-F9 Super Potato Mode!)
~~Show the actual date and time that a structure is coming out of reinforcement. Math is hard.~~ COMPLETED!
Allow players to open their personal hangers to alts via an ACL list
Allow for refining and repackaging within cans, and allow them to be reorganized from outside a station
HICs should be able to light cynos
NPC Dreadbombs
A way to tell whether you already own a skin by looking at it – either on the icon itself or in the info.
Make it so that fitting T3s isn’t “utter shite anymore.”
Remove skill point loss on T3Cs.
~~Get rid of Edencom Cyno Jammers. They’re ■■■■■■■■ for JF pilots.~~ COMPLETED!
Remove one of the utility high slots on the Barghest – it’s way to stronk against small gangs.
~~Fix the camera on the Falcon~~ COMPLETED!
Balance the power usage on command centers in PI – CPU barely breaks 50% but power grid is always maxed out. Bump up of 1k for just one more facility or extractor.
Remote station/citadel item stack and split
A “center probes on self” button in probing window
Allow the color you’ve chosen for watch lists to reflect in the fleet chat window, so that when the person you’ve assigned a color to on the watch list talks in fleet chat, their statements are highlighted in that color in the fleet chat channel.
Add a Triglavian mindlink that provides benefits for skirmish and info boost modules for use with Draugrs.
~~Allow players to remove chat channels from their list of channels.~~ COMPLETED!
Make killmarks bigger on the Ferox so Finchy’s old eyes can see them.
Add an option to the right-click menu in the ACL screen to allow easy removal of names from an ACL.
Upwell Structure Interior variation: let owners of upwell structures choose their interiors so there’s more interior diversity than there is now.
Create new ship lines that are available to pirates and players with low sec status or provide bonuses for negative sec status, and give faction ships bonuses that stack with faction mods of the same faction
Helios police skin
Reduce range of ECM ships (get into the 50-30 km range from 75 km+).
Add a tab on the access list page that shows 1) which lists you’re on and 2) has a toggle that lets you block them.
Bronze classic megathron skin
Can we just remove the impossible to read chat colors? kthx
POCO tax/access list revamp, and allow POCO recognition of alliance standings (in addition to corp as is currently allowed)
Rebalance haulers so that the Gallente don’t have far more than the other empires
Agent name (see menu “Character — >>> Interaction”) should be followed by the number of missions needed for the next storyline mission.
Allow players to upgrade citadels with NPC Agents
Every nullsec region should have at least one gate into Pochven, to make things spooky
Revenant’s fighter bay needs to be bigger – it’s the smallest of all the supers
Let Athanors do some static mining (for passive income) and let that stuff drop when they die
Allow players to create multiple wallets on their individual accounts, like corporations wallets.
Provide the “Magic 14” core ship skills through the NPE tutorial as mission rewards and accomplishments
Allow players to add a “pop up” warning notification on certain systems on their in-game navigation (i.e., when you plot a route through Tama, there’s a pop up warning before you jump in there so you can pay attention).
Be able to repair items in containers, rather than having to do it in my main item hanger.
Be able to sell items out of containers, rather than having to do it in my main item hanger.
Have a notification via the feed when any industry job is finished for character/corp
Make the “request an item” portion of creating a contract less cumbersome
An “asset safety” tab in your inventory that highlights only the assets currently in asset safety, with the cost to redeem them.
Allow repackaging of reaction formulas when a job is finished, and make it possible to stack them
Let players save PI templates they can use on multiple planets
Modules that will allow players in ships with ore holds, fleet hangers and other specialized ship bays to expand the size of those holds and bays.
Do not allow cargo scanners to scan exploration cans. ■■■■ cherry picking.
Add an additional 15 slots to the watch list (for a total of 30)
Allow carrier and supercarrier pilots to reconnect to lost fighters by pulsing the NSA.

Fountain Frank’s List of Critical Important Game Breaking Things that Absolutely Must Be Fixed Right the Hell Now

~~1. A lowsec gate to Stain~~ CAN YOU BELIEVE WE COMPLETED THIS?!
2. Player built/owned Angel caps (including Titans) and Triglavian Titans
3. An in-game novelty item “Brisc Rubal’s Expert Guide to Wormholes”
4. Marshal skin with shark teeth like a P-51 Mustang
5. Cat girl decals for ships and, of course, cat ears as a hat
6. Ship spinning Supers and Titans - WHY IS THIS NOT A THING YET?!
7. In-game chat client emojis
8. All neuts killed in Poitot should drop a “postcards from Poitot” item
9. Capital MJDs
10. Shorts, socks and sandals (and more hat choices) as in-game clothing for those of us who are allergic to pants

Mark_Havoc · April 18, 2021, 4:06am

Fantastic CSM rep and an absolutely invaluable member of the community. I’m glad to see you running again. Best of luck, you have my vote.

Necron_Erebos · April 18, 2021, 4:09am

Brisc Rubal ftw! A CSM rep who actually gets stuff done!

Chloridane · April 18, 2021, 4:10am

You mentioned me on The Meta Show, you have my vote.

looktoyourleft · April 18, 2021, 4:10am

glad to see you running again! <3 brisc

Agent_Blackbear · April 18, 2021, 4:36am

No one person has ever taken the csm as seriously Brisc has. I thank you for your dedication. As long as you’re willing I’ll vote for you.

Daoden · April 18, 2021, 5:15am

*Complete with a ticket that will take you from any WH system directly to Jita. Ship not included, implants may be lost. User is responsible for any and all unrolled frigate holes

Alexander_Talar · April 18, 2021, 5:38am

Hey Brisc, IRL I’m a consultant and have worked with different groups of people to convince them to do (and not do) different things. This allows me to initially trust that you have the capability to do the same, but given that you also have a proven track record, my vote couldn’t be easier.

In game, I’ve stayed within the starter corporation State War Academy and I have lived solo out of Black Rise faction warfare lowsec for three years now. On the starter corporation and new player experience side of things, the aggregate changes to war declarations, modifications to tutorials, and creation of new highsec academies by the nullsec empires definitely have resulted in an easier first step for most of the truly new players. It’s a very different landscape than it was years ago when I took my first foray in 2012 and my only wish is that these changes by both cpp and the players could have happened earlier.

However, these positive notes don’t continue for lowsec faction warfare. In the past year, the creation of Pochven hit Blackrise hard with the loss of both Ahtila (one of the highsec points of the once black rise septagon) and Ichoriya. This was just another card in a pile* that I’ve heard many debate over, ranging from the prevalence of supers in lowsec, the introduction of citadels into FW, the bashing of lowsec keepstars by goonswarm post WWB1, the slow and steady loss of smaller corporations as they were subsumed by larger blocs, an increased interest on zkillboard, the inability to catch at first stabbed and now insta align plex farmers, faction warfare mission running, the presumed prevalence of faction warfare botting**, the ease of injecting SP, and many many others. The group that I call myself a part of, SWARTA/SWARM, created in mid 2000s by capsuleers in the State War Academy starter corporation, has effectively died due to both fc loss and changes that a group of lower sp players were unable to adapt to. It hasn’t been just our group that has faced troubles, fedup among others went to null, HECON and others have splintered, and some have faded away.

My concern with your points on the “develop and finalize lowsec/faction warfare plan” is that there appears to be a lack of actionable content. It’s reminiscent of a group of firefighters who are looking at a burning building but have yet to even hook up a hose. We all know its burning, my concern is that it’s going to burn to the ground. I’ll need something a little bit more realistic and servicable in order to assuage my fears. If you had to make 3 concrete steps in your lowsec plan, what would they be, and why?

*I’m also more than certain that people would happily agree and disagree with what I’ve said, this has been an ongoing debate for years, and the points I added were for the sake of showing some of what has been discussed. It should be considered neither correct nor complete but rather topics of some substance.
**innocent until proven guilty

caldari state approves

Xeux · April 18, 2021, 7:00am

Does this mean that you are officially not taking credit for Ctrl+Shift+F9?

Spitfire1938 · April 18, 2021, 7:22am

You have my vote and I really hope you can get CCP to remember that FW exists.

Abyssal_Hawk · April 18, 2021, 7:45am

you have my vote! You did great in the CSM

Franklin_Knox · April 18, 2021, 10:04am

This is really a non-issue for NPC sotiyos since that issue was fixed months ago. As for officer spawns, ccp can just do the same thing they did with sotiyos and it won’t be an issue anymore. Please learn about stuff from actual experts before making claims about things.

Giddy_McFee · April 18, 2021, 10:43am

Hi @Brisc_Rubal , What is your take/opinion on some of the “broken” content in Eve, like Cosmos missions, Do you think CCP would be prepared to fix them (and maybe alter them so they can be run multiple times rather than once). You mention new missions in your list, well the COSMOS string of missions is already there and could do with a revamp. Win/Win?

What are your thoughts on the jump clone timer cool down, I know that you can bypass that from jumping in the same citadel, but what about a further general increase from the minimum 18 hours cooldown currently, I want to enjoy different aspects of eve in different areas of space and currently this sometimes restricts that.

What are your thoughts on individual players having multiple wallets (in a similar vein to corp wallets)?

Brisc_Rubal · April 18, 2021, 1:08pm

Generally speaking, I don’t like to play developer - my experience has been that the most effective we can be on the CSM is to advocate for resources and attention being given to a problem, and then allow CCP to step in and do what they do. That being said, if I could do three concrete steps, what I’d like to see is:

Completely revamp how the Empires fight each other, and use the lessons of the Trig Invasion to make things dynamic - There is no reason why the borders between high sec/low sec and low sec/null sec should be as static as they are. I would like to see a system where the borders fluctuate based on player activity. As in, you could flip areas from one Empire to the other, turn high sec into low sec, vice versa, and the same with null. Even if it’s just to change a border on the map, I think that would be interesting gameplay that has an actual impact on the world.
Get rid of plexes all together - The plexing thing has been solved, and the result is rampant bots everywhere and farmers who don’t give a ■■■■ about PvP or faction warfare who are just farming LP. I’d prefer that use existing mechanics - whether it’s the trig liminality style mechnaics, sov mechanics or citadel mechanics - to replacing plexing for control over systems. There doesn’t need to be a bottable kind of gameplay in lowsec that feels anachronistic and isn’t in line with anything else in the game.
Open up FW to the entire game - Folks should be able to declare for a faction without having to create alts or join FW corps. Let individual players declare which Empire they want to fight for and let them participate in the gameplay (and open that gameplay up to include industry and exploration, not just combat) when they feel like it without having to disrupt things they’d otherwise want to do. This would, I think, create more small gangs and other groups from outside lowsec coming in and creating content for the folks who live there.

And, finally, I’m more than happy to defer to Phantomite or Gobbins, who have been working more on lowsec/FW revamp plans than I have - especially Phantomite, who has forgotten more about this stuff than I’ve ever learned.

Brisc_Rubal · April 18, 2021, 1:09pm

You know, I probably should do that. My “potato mode button” request covers that.

You’re pretty smart.

Lesican · April 18, 2021, 1:10pm

100% this

Brisc_Rubal · April 18, 2021, 1:11pm

/sigh

They have to do SOMETHING to fix the officer spawns, and my point here is to push them to do something. We had Rattati on the Meta Show yesterday and they confirmed they are working on fixing this, so hopefully I’ll have gotten this done before the end of the campaign.

I didn’t make any “claims” here - things are broken, and I want them fixed.

Brisc_Rubal · April 18, 2021, 1:19pm

I would like to see a lot of new content, especially missions, and I would roll these into that desire. I don’t expect that they’re going to “fix” the COSMOS missions - that ship has sailed a long time ago - but I do expect that we can work on getting them to create new content that replaces those missions and is both dynamic and fun. The problem with many of the older missions, including COSMOS, is they’re coded in a way that makes CCP’s current developers tear their hair out, so I think a broader fix is more likely.

I wouldn’t really mess with the current jump clone timer. There has to be a balance between the goal of giving players more freedom of movement and giving them too much freedom of movement. You want players in space in ships, not just bouncing from citadel to citadel at will. That has a lot of implications for a lot of gameplay, from nullsec sov warfare, to home defense, to industry, etc. I think the balance where it is now, with skills reducing the time slightly, but it still being long enough that you have to carefully plan how you move around and don’t burn timers unnecessarily is workable.

I do want to fix the station clone issue - stations should be treated the same as citadels so you can swap clones without burning the timer.

I haven’t really given it much thought, but I’d be interested in hearing your thoughts on this. Is this just an anti-scam thing, so you don’t need a “bank alt” where all your money is parked? What would be the desire there?

Tipa_Riot · April 18, 2021, 1:20pm

The purpose of the different size plexes is organic match making, and absolutely crucial to have small ship gameplay in lowsec. But of course this only works if there is a reason to be in plexes outside the gudfights.