The Future of the Unknown

  Many things happened at Fanfest, some more prominent than others, but only some of it was of relevance to me. I don't have a PS3 so while DUST seems like an interesting idea, it is not one that I will be taking part in nor shelling hundreds of dollars that I don't have out to do so.

  The part I cared about? Wormholes, of course! While there weren't any fun videos like the alliance panel that I could find, I did find a good thread on the EO forums that summarized what all had been discussed. So in the interest of analyzing and ranting, I thought I'd stick them here. Maybe you'll be interested too. If not...well I have candy, just come to my van.

Mmmm, wormhole candy

  Anyways, if you don't want to click the link I'll put it here.

Ok. This is my poor attempt to write what was talked about at the WH roundtable a few days back, and many beers ago.

"POSes
- Personale tabs for hangars and arrays. To help with security, helping new members to join WH corps. This was say to be a VERY important issue. Which I could not agree with more - Why I offer a beer at next years Fanfest in return for it.
- New POS. Still very much in the planning.
- Refit T3 subsystems
- Repack and stack items in POS
- That is should be possible to kill towers in all WHs - even C1s.
- Better options to store caps
- Something needs to be done about abaddoned POSes

WHs
- Maybe higher classes
- New WHs between WH regions.
- Into more wilderness WHs - where you cant live and is more hostile
- Empty WHs

Sleepers
- More random triggers
- New sites in all classes for groups
- Better possible to use more types of ships
- "Maybe" New sleepers
- "Maybe" sleeper dreadnought

And more that I cant remember"

Bad spelling and grammar aside, there's some pretty awesome stuff there. Let's break it down.

Personal Hangars
     While it would be pretty cool and I wouldn't mind it at all, this wouldn't be a huge improvement to me personally. If I do keep anything personal, which is very little, I keep it in anchored cans. So far I have had no issue with doing so..although cans disappear if you dont touch them for a month. Hmmm...maybe this would be good if I go afg.

New POS/abandoned POSes/etc
    I'll stick all POS stuff here. A new POS would be interesting provided they implemented it properly without breaking what is already in the game. An outpost for wormholes would be handy. Setting up new POSes and laying them out is beyond terrible and an overhaul is overdue in my opinion. I'll keep an eye on this.
  Storing caps is always an issue since they effectively use an entire SMA. You have multiple caps and want to store them efficiently? Trollface. So yes, this would be appreciated. I'll be a cap pilot myself one of these days.
  Refitting at the POS. YES PLOX. This is faaaar overdue and while they may be sifting through spaghetti code to fix this, it needs to be done. I find having to keep multiple hulls of the same T3 just to do what they were designed to do in the first place rather insulting.
  Killing all tower, even C1. Uhh....you can? Sure C1s can be a biatch to kill but why the heck do you care about killing a C1 tower in the first place. The sites aren't going to get you much and I doubt the residents are really there for anything but carebearing.  Take what you can through the hole and do the deed. It'll take a while, sure but it can be done.
  Logs for everything done in a POS. I'm sorry but it's rather unforgivable that this is not already implemented. It may not stop thieves, but it lets us know who the thief is so seriously....get it done.

  Wormholes
    "Maybe higher classes"...I'm going to assume this means they're thinking of adding classes. In which case, I am unsure why that would be so. Class 6 wormholes (the highest in game) are fine being the top of the mountain, so to speak. The sites are harder and there are less C6 systems, which means you can effectively chain roll your static and find whoever you want in a short time since the list is so much shorter. This leads to tons of bling fleets looking for people to stomp each; ie AHARM and Rooks and Kings. I don't see a need for higher.

  More "wilderness" wormholes? Where you can't live and is more hostile? That is rather vague unless they mean Sleepers sitting on wormholes to say hi when you jump through. How do you make a system more hostile exactly? A lot of things CCP says and does just shows me they really don't play their own game.

  Adding more WHs between regions...another vague one I don't really understand.

  Sleepers
    More random triggers and possible new sites for groups in all classes. More random triggers would be a good thing, since any PvE site can get boring due to predictability. Keeping everyone on their toes will require more attention, skill and interest. This may not be a good thing in higher classes, though, since cap escalations require the group to whittle the Sleepers down to negligible and then drop the cap into the site. Making it more random means you might clean out the site on accident and never get to escalate safely.  I may have to make this a topic all its own some time.

  Sleeper dreadnought. Again, a big yes please. A sleeper dread would make things very fun, as long as it is implemented in a way that won't make running a site impossible or require a huge group of bling. Heck, I wouldn't mind that dread showing up at a POS and laying siege so that you have to defend from the very residents of the system. It would certainly make sense, lore-wise, and add flavor to the wormhole life. CCP seems to think, though, that this should be done in sites because "it's too easy to cap escalate Sleeper sites." Perhaps if you have a ton of people or have a perfect system for doing so. But I do not find them "easy" since logi pilots need to be good at what they do and everyone else needs to not screw around and get themselves exploded. Maybe that's just me....

  I would also echo someone in the thread for new nebulae in wormholes. Redoing it for kspace..sure most people live there, I get it. But don't leave us out to dry, eh? We like pretty things too!

Apparently everyone hates blackhole effect wormholes, as they should. The effect sucks to work in but I disagree with removing them entirely. Taking it out is just a way to make things easier and in this case I don't see why it should happen. Wormholes are hard and there are many times you need to adjust your tactics or mindset to adapt to your surroundings. A black hole is no different, so just don't live in one and you're fine. I don't run into them all that often so when I do, I adjust accordingly.

  Overall
  There's good stuff there and certainly more that can be suggested or already has been. On the one hand, liven things up a bit and show people why wormholes are the best space. They truly are the endgame, despite what the nullsec dwellers may tell you. At the same time, don't make them increasingly difficult just to say that you did or for some random arbitrary reasoning. Pushing it too far may turn people off and instead of flocking to WHs, they could just leave or stay away.

I've been dealing with a lot of burnout lately so this has been good to refresh my WH love. It has gotten to be a slog for me lately and I may have to take a break soon. I am about to graduate (if anyone needs or knows someone who will hire a Graphic Design graduate, please let me know :D)  and I have a ton on my plate. The game is starting to feel like an obligation and a routine instead of an enjoyment.

  Let's see if CCP can reignite it and not let all this potential fall flat.
-Mem

The Line

I have been rather lazy in keeping up with the happenings of fanfest, only having watched one or two recording of events. There has been all sorts of news about DUST, CSM elections, modules and so on. Some of it is pretty cool but I have learned quickly that what is said at Fanfest is usually just hopes and dreams. As long as nobody listens to Meissa about wormhole stabilizers, I'm happy.

Specifically on the CSM elections, I’m quite satisfied that Two Step pulled as many votes as he did. While he was part of the backup in the last CSM, he now has a more prominent place and I hope that translates to wormholes being taken a bit more seriously. It certainly means one less null sec rep to whine.

But of course, now the only talk concerning Fanfest is the Mittani’s stupidity. It always surprises me how people forget how vile Mittens can be. He’s a Goon, do people really expect things to change simply because he happens to be on the CSM? Just means he has a pulpit to more prominently spew forth.

The issue is that he drunkenly and flippantly encouraged players to harass a capsuleer, giving out his name during the panel, through ganking and all the fun stuff that Eve allows. That’s fine, ganking is an everyday thing and welcome to Eve. Where I draw the line is encouraging player harassment to the point of suicide.

The discussion about the threat’s validity is moot. Suicide is an issue that is far too common in the world we live in and to make a joke out of it is sociopathic. I would rather the line get drawn at racial slurs and bigoted jokes, but for Eve I know that is asking too much. That would get rid of most of the local banter. It is just a game, but game or not words can be powerful and one is not somehow absolved of all responsibility once they are behind the screen of anonymity the internet provides. Mittens even less so, since he is in the public eye through CCP’s broadcasting. Some may think otherwise but the EULA does cover out of game harassment. Mittens telling people to gank him isn't covered, but pushing someone to commit suicide is pretty obviously cyber bullying with clear intent.

Oh that that apology of his after he sobered up? I don't believe it for a second, especially when something like this suddenly shows up:


GSF Policy Update
During the Jita undock hellcamp. All gankers must send the victim this evemail and it must be spammed in local:
"Are you feeling distressed by this game? Like you might do something you regret? In the U.S., call 1-800-273-8255! National Suicide Prevention Lifeline"

  Threats of suicide becoming an Eve meme is just sick. I expect better of players, but perhaps I am simply too hopeful for the majority of humanity. Think whatever you want, but this is black and white, not some blurry line. One is a game while the other is real life and while ganking is fine in the game, pushing someone to commit suicide is clearly wrong.

  I'm out.
-Mem

It's Scary Out There

credit goes to Bion Beefhammer

The ISK Balloon

  There is an interesting thread on the EO forums right now talking about ISK inflation and what may be causing it. I'm sure many of you have seen the constant rise in cost of goods, to the point where now a PLEX is on the market for around 500 million ISK while Tech 3 ship prices have shot through the roof.

  Much of the blame is being thrown at the feet of Incursions. CCP Soundwave commented to the effect that globally, Incursions are not a big issue for isk. Then an unknown posted a few interesting numbers that I am unable to find a backing for, so take it with a grain of salt

"Fun Facts:
In the month of Feb:
~8.6T ISK in Incursion Payouts
~4.8T in Mission Rewards + Mission Bonuses
~32T in NPC bounty

So of the combined Incursion/Missions/Ratting/etc ISK faucet
~81% comes from non-Incursion activity"

  So 32 trillion ISK in the game is being produced by nullsec activities. And of course the nullsec posters want decreased bounties and so on in highsec. Cute.

  In that same thread, the nullsecers seem a little hurt that more people aren't coming out to their space to play. And for good reasons, I'd say. If the space isn't full of bots, it will more than likely be filled by douchebags that accept you to corp and then blow up the carrier you just brought out. There are some nice people out there, sure, but they aren't easy to find in my experience. All I have run into is smack talk and epeen waving. I'm getting derailed, however.

  There is certainly an argument to be made for a lack of ISK sinks with the introduction of incursions. Running sites will reward the fleet with liquid ISK and CONCORD LP. There is a new faucet, but is there a new sink?

  CCP's logic to counter all this?

"Right now we're considering everything form increasing taxes to lowering bounties across the board."

In my opinion, CCP losing their economist is going to be the worst thing for them. Lowering the amount of isk being added will not do what they hope. The increase in isk amount is related to increase in goods cost, but they are not the same.

  So after all that blathering, what solution would I propose? I have a few vague ideas but I'm an designer, not a numbers man. Sadly, I can only comment on the issue rather than try to help fix it. But I know my readers are smarter than myself, so what would you propose if CCP asked you?

  I'm sure we will hear more closer to and at Fanfest, but I'm staying reserved on it. All I know is that it is getting harder and harder to play the game without having to spend RL cash to sub and still be able to buy ships.

  Eve...the only game I've cared about an economic issue. Lol
-Mem

In-Game Channel

  I'm slacking, I know. My show is finally done so I am taking the weekend to relax and enjoy the return of my freedom. I got second place and all while being a color blind designer, lulz.

 Right now there's a blog banter I want to try to get on, some fights to talk about and plenty of game news with a new expansion and a few rumors. But this post is simply to say that I started an in game channel, Progression's Horizon. Clever name, I know. Just a place to hang out if you are ever bored. I have it up when I'm playing so make sure to say hey and play nice.

Cheers!
-Mem