I‘d rather just have the grace period of a longer cycle that existed for years.
1 Like
I have to say that this is first time in a long while when I actually like the new update.
I like the new sounds and notification when warping to belts and anomalies. Makes it easier to multibox belt ratting haha.
Since I don’t mine I am not sure what the changes to mining were exactly, I only noticed a sound when cycle is complete. Which might be annoying long-term but since I only mine to do dailies I don’t mind that.
New alpha-usable mining ships will help keep new players in game too.
And new map is finally usable. I still prefer dotlan, because the systems are more readable thee (system name inside a rectangle and lighter color scheme makes it much easier to read) but it is a step in right direction and it has some interesting new features as to see where are all corporation members. Cool.
Just one suggestion: unless the player is signed for faction warfare, open the map by default in Geography mode.
1 Like
It was likely being abused, that’s how this kind of changes make their way
I’ve got the survey in my mail yesterday with questions regarding the expansion. Some of the questions were about Phased Fields, as the prime feature. Two simple, regular survey questions revealed a big problem with feature design in this game:
- Have you interacted with Phased Fields?
- How was your experience with Phased Fields?
Expansion after expansion features and ships are added into the game that the vast majority of the players will interact with for the first time within months if not years, if they interact with it at all. The most recent examples are Sarathiel and Phased Fields. Babaroga can get into that category as well. Phased Fields are so rare that maybe a fraction of a percent of players had a chance to interact with it since its release, and it will stay in single digit percentage in the next year possibly even way longer with the current spawn rate.
What you have to understand is what is required for a player to have any experience with a Phased Field:
- It has to spawn in a region that your alliance is controlling. Ninja-mining these in hostile or neutral space is out of the question, since they are so rare that the players who control the space will flock to it immediately. Due to social dynamics in this game, if it spawns in “blue” space it’s completely out of your reach (in many cases).
- It has to be available in the time slot that you can play in. And that’s only if you are able to play each day. Miss a day or two and you might miss the spawn in your area that will come back maybe next month, or longer.
- You have to have ships and equipment prepared already just for a specific feature that is extremely rarely available, and those assets needs to be in the relative proximity of the completely random spawn.
- You have to drop all plans for your gaming session and decide to interact with a rare feature that you are realistically not expecting to happen. The worst part is that this feature clashes even with mining, especially moon mining where you have the time, the location and the equipment already in place.
- You have to be interested in and have skills for mining in the first place. Not all players do.
Failing any of these points shaves off a percentage of players that are able or willing to interact with it and prolongs the time to the first interaction.
So, the answers to simple survey questions are, for the vast majority of players:
-
Have you interacted with Phased Fields?
- No.
-
How was your experience with Phased Fields?
- I will tell you in a year or so, when I have my first chance of interacting with it.
One thing that is done well is presentation and knowledge sharing. Adding it to the Agency, adding a series of introduction missions and the knowledge base tab will make sure that the feature will be seen by players when we move on to different expansions and place something else in focus.
5 Likes
There were probably more people in the SiSi mass test of it than there have been in these sites since release. Not that the mass test actually tested the sites in any way, as the mining part was only allowed to last maybe 10 minutes, and the mechanics part of it (phasing it in) was entirely handled by CCP and not tested by players.
Realistically, “interacting with this feature” is not an individual player experience anyway. Due to the setup and planning needed for it the individual player will “interact” with it merely on the level of a corp fleet ping. And that also means doesn’t even matter that it’s mining. It means sitting where FC tells you - next to the single rock… - and pressing F1. And then waiting for a few hours even without TiDi.
2 Likes
Precisely. A mining expansion without actually adding active gameplay to mining is a thoroughly silly idea.
The only expansion feature I’ve really interacted with is the 2D map, which I have some complaints about but generally find a massive improvement. So if my experience was representative of the wider playerbase, the expansion’s minor feature is going to be the one they care about, while the mining stuff just added a largely redundant bigger venture and a new type of mining site for nullsec players to sit AFK in. I predict most players are never going to interact with a phased field.
4 Likes
What I like:
- the new Pioneer ship. These are cheap enough to venture outside of high sec and make some dank isk mining dark ochre. It can tank and kill low sec rats pretty well, and is agile enough to escape quite easily from gankers. Very positive feeling towards this one.
- the new 2D map is a significant improvement over the 3D map.
- the new ore sites in the FW HQ systems is a nice addition. It makes these systems more alive and helps local industry.
- the new survey system is pretty good, although I’d prefer to see m3 left rather than units left, since mining lasers measure their output in m3.
What I don’t like, or have ignored:
- the Oddyseus. I think i’s too expensive. I was looking forward to playing with one, but I can’t justify putting that much ISK on the line when I can fly 3-4 blingy T3 cruisers, or 8-10 prospects with faction gas scoops for the same price.
- the new prismatic ore sites. I’ve never seen one, and don’t think I ever will.
- crits are okay, but not something I’ve really noticed.
Just curious.. Where is the “Freelancing” skillbook seeded?
Patch notes says it’s released
None available in jita, none in dodixie. Is it some obscure station 65 jumps out into nullsec again?
And why remove the slash commands?
I already miss the ability to open overview settings and tinker with it while docked
/open_overview_settings
Now we need some other way to do that! Grrrw!
2 Likes
There is hotkey, apparantly. Slash commands are cooler tho. Sadge
ganking nerf, it was abused for smartbombing by gankers
Since you can’t really smartbomb in highsec it wasn’t used by gankers for smartbombing.
Don’t you tell…
I am wondering the same. However, it seems I am able to buy the skill in Opportunities under Freelance Jobs. Is this the only way to buy it? When I go to buy it this way, it “Inject”s the skill. Does this mean it is a soul tied skill?
(T)Hank(s)
Just my opinions from what I have seen so far.
I like:
- Outrider command destroyer – I think this could be used by solo miners who sometimes form impromptu fleets with others they meet while out mining, and if they don’t meet anyone then it could still mine alone fairly effectively. Much better than flying around Low-sec in a Porpoise at least.
I have mixed feelings about:
- Kernite/Omber in High-sec space – I think this will mean miners have even less incentive to venture into Low-sec space, adding to the issues caused by metanox moon drills, but it could at least be tweaked later by reducing the spawn rate.
- The built-in scanner on mining ships – None of the information is very useful, and the added screen clutter is annoying, but at least everything important still works if I just don’t press the button.
I dislike:
- New Asteroid/ore names – It is a small loss, but small things add up eventually.
- Mining mutaplasmids – Too powerful by far, and while the drop rate could be tweaked later or future mutapasmids nerfed, the overpowered modules that players have already created with them will remain.
- Too many changes at once, too many of them involving loosening of economic constraints – I worry that the EVE economy might enter a second Rorqual era, followed inevitably by another round of scarcity to fix the problems that result.
2 Likes
News flash: Miners aren’t going to take sitting duck mining ships into low sec, period. Continuing to nerf high sec income for the sake of “forcing” or “incentivizing” people to go into a hot drop shooting gallery armed only with a slingshot will just incentivize them into other games.
4 Likes
I mine in both high- and low-sec space, I go to low to get Isogen, Nocxium, Ice products for making fuel blocks, and to do reactions. If I could do all that in High-sec then I probably would never have started going into Low at all.
I meet a lot of other solo and small groups of miners in Low, many of them based in High sec space like me, but not as many now as there were before the Metanox moon drills took over most moon mining.
Now that I can get Isogen right on my doorstep in High with a barge it is probably inevitable that I will spend a bit less time in Low with an expedition frigate. I imagine there will be others that do the same, the end result being fewer people doing stuff in Low. And so it goes.
Low sec is the bastard child of EVE. Always has been, probably always will be. There’s simply no incentive to operate there. Why keep my head on a swivel in low sec when I can make billions in the relative safety of high sec, or the relative safety of a null umbrella…
5 Likes
Because I’d rather be taken down by a regular player than be ganked. That’s a personal preference.
When will new rigs be added to the game?
When someone suggests some good ones