Eve Online has been around for about 15 years now and it will probably be around for another 15 years, my suggestions will however make the company MORE profitable.
I have been playing eve online on and off for quite some years now and with that here is my insight.
I will write my suggestions first and then the reasons for them.
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Show more love to missions runners.
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Add level 5 agents to 0.5 and above security status systems.
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Add more agents to more corporations.
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Create level 5 transport missions
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Give storyline missions to the Interbus faction.
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Create a much larger variation in the loyalty point stores, by adding more special and unique items.
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Remove the corporate tax of 11% on npcs corps. And change it to 0%.
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Increase the rewards for missions.
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Secret bonus suggestion.
Here is my reasoning.
When it comes to video games, all video games, I speak for the silent majority of people, because when it comes to games I know what almost everyone wants.
When it comes to most people they don’t want to be bothered when they are doing something else, for example being forced to pvp when they want to pve and are not set up for pvp. A person logs in to shoot some rats but can’t do that because he must also focus that some guy might jump him, vs a guy who logged in specifically to jump others. The second guys fun is valued higher and has been so for years.
When looking at a game this game for example eve online, CCP should look at TIME invested, how much time doing X must I spend to get Y reward. One should look at TIME vs reward.
A person who is a casual player and wants to run missions at a higher level is basically discouraged to do so because to run a level 5 mission one needs a very expensive ship that will take many game hours to replace. Most casual players only play a few hours a week, so replacing such a ship would take many months of real time maybe years, so obviously a person will choose to do something else with their time AND SPEND THEIR REAL MONEY ON SOMETHING ELSE.
I believe that more ship skins would be sold and a higher demand would exist if people ”only” had to worry about npcs destroying their ships and not giving the joy of some random ganker doing it. More ship skins sold = more money for CCP. I believe more would also be sold because people would stay longer with eve instead of leaving eve.
The ”problem” with eve is that it has always bowed down to a minority of very loud players who yell ”risk vs reward” however there is little risk for 3 guys jumping a single mission runner who is fitted to fight npcs, and the pvpers are fitted to pvp.
The pvpers get to have their fun, but a mission runner can never really have fun because his fun is valued less. A mission runner wants to run missions and a pvper wants to pvp. A mission runner can never achieve his pure fun because he must constantly be on the look out for a pvpver on level 5.
Which means that after X amount of time those people who want to run missions they simply quit eve and take their money with them. And this is why I believe that even during EVES prime time most players only stayed for 5-6 months.
By adding level 5 agents in high sec space I believe that within 1 year CCP will be making more money than if it had not done so, and people will stay with the game longer.
Over the last 15 years almost all the brainpower at ccp has gone towards pvping and low security space, and very little has gone to all of those who just want to play a bit in secure space against npc have some fun and then carry on with their lives. This as I have written has worked for 15 years and will probably work for another 15, however I am quite sure that showing some love to people in high sec will increase total profits.
When it comes to adding more agents, it is my reasoning that a greater diversity among the corporations will make it harder for grifers to target specific systems
Level 5 transport missions would allow all of those who want to play casually and maybe multi task whilst playing eve, to jump around in possibly a freighter or maybe several trips in an industrial ship and at the same time pay CCP to do so because of monthly subscriptions. Again this is all for people who just want to play their game and not be bothered.
The Interbus faction has a positive standing vs the 4 major factions, however Interbus has no storyline missions.
A mission runner who wants to ”fix” his standing a bit should be able to do storyline missions for Interbus. And not have to lower his standing vs the original faction to increase vs others. This is all that risk vs reward bs that makes people simply quit and it is only this way to keep the gankers happy who are very loud. As eve is built now nad has been for many years there is no reason not to have Interbus storyline missions except to make people quit eve faster.
Increase the backstory and the reason for doing missions for a corporation add some type of reward/s for being loyal and doing many missions for a faction / corp / agent. There is some half assed reward system now, where higher standing in the 3 gives a bit more rewards. But so much more could be done, much much more.
The corporate tax of 11% is bad, because it forces people who casually play or who wants to be social to pay 11% for that and basically lose 11% of their real world time. Lots of people just want to play a bit and chat a bit in the huge npc corp chats however those people are penalized for doing so. Forcing them to become anti social and having their own corp to save the money OR have to pay the 11% tax to chat a bit and have some sense of community without joining a player owned corp.
For 15 years now it has always been more profitable to join a null sec corp, and jump from belt to belt and hunt the pirates there, then it has been of going the mission route in high sec.
This constant push for everyone to pvp and be in null sec has its obvious drawbacks. Let people play how they like without telling them this is the ”wrong” way to play. Because the people will simply quit over time.
Perhaps changing eve so that people all ”start” in 0.5 sec systems and via doing missions, killing rats, mining for factions or other things for the factions get to advance into ”safer” space and that ”safer” space would offer more rewards including better rocks, so that people can choose to be lawful or unlawful and that both options would be more equal, when it comes to time and effort invested, of course that would be a huge change to eve. Under this system the npc corporate tax could be adjusted in relationship to how much the corp and faction likes you. Also it opens up the possibility of having many npc corporations that players can join because they want to be part of that npc corp.
So to enter ”safer” space would be much more difficult than it is now, especially for human player pirates.
And even the possibility for players to increase or decrease the security status of a system, being more difficult to decrease in the core faction systems, and more difficult to increase at the fringes. Thereby claiming it for their side. Lawful vs unlawful and for different factions, this would be different than FW, something more along the line which corporation you run missions for will affect the status of the system. It would not only affect which faction ”owns” the system but also the security status of the system depending of which faction ”owns” it, and in this scenario, high security of a system would give better rewards for some factions, unlike now where lower is always better. In this scenario I would only put the openly pirate factions as ”lowerers” whilst for example doing missions for Mordus Legion or Thukker Tribe would give an increase of security status.
So the more you run missions for a corporation the more its Faction gets a ”claim” on the system. Depending if it is a pirate or non-pirate faction it would decrease / increase the security status.
So in the core areas it would be difficult for pirate factions to establish themselves, however at the fringes it would be difficult for empire factions to establish ”ownership”
So you would have a center of Empire, then a border ”sphere/circle” of contested and then outside this what you have now pirate owned which are owned by player corps / player factions.
You have spent the previous 15 years of brainpower focusing on pvp and then more pvp, now you should spend maybe 1 year focusing on people who don’t want to pvp. And remember they have money too.
My suggestions are for CCP, that being said I know that many gankers and pvpers will loudly object to everything and scream risk vs reward whilst they with 5 friends jump a single miner :). I am not interested in your opinion, only what CCP has to say, and of course there is a very small chance that CCP will even see this post and even smaller that they will comment.
