Category Archives: Opinion

Tripping in Rifters

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I put a frigate pilot in RvB recently, and this was a good choice.  A few highlights of the whole RvB experience: People tend to pay attention to comms and be somewhat focused.  This is a great change of pace from some small groups I have previously flown through hostile space with. The PvP ON button.  As long as I get on between lunch and midnight (US TZ), there is usually a 30-40 man fleet cruising around, looking to find the other fleet and make some fun happen. Cheap ships are fun.  I fly T1 fit Rifters, because if I loot one wreck every few fights, I pay for all the ships I lose and then some without really trying. RvB communication.  They tend to try and balance fleets against each other to make the fights at least interesting.  This is not to say there is not some blobbing, or stragglers caught out, but it is generally attempted to make things fair-ish. 89-9 kill ratio, at this point, with 99.5% efficiency.  That’s just sick, and more indicative of how the other fleets call primaries as compared to my skills in a Rifter.  And the fact that my Rifters cost about Continue Reading →

Mass Effect 3: A Lesson in Player Investment

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I don’t often post about other games here, but I wanted to take a look at the uproar over Mass Effect 3 and the endings, and something it says about games and gamers in general.  I promise there is a tie in to Eve at the end, but to explain the ME3 situation will require a lot of background. <There are ME spoilers here, so be warned.  Also I have always played a paragon female Shepard, so I refer to Shep as “her”, and may have only directly experienced portions of the game available to a paragon.> If you have been living under a rock for the last few weeks you may not have noticed the anger amongst players of ME3 over the various endings available.  There are a few complaints, briefly: The ending is illogical, employing a dues ex machina once the Crucible is activated. The behaviors of the team mates are illogical, with them all teleporting to the Normandy, as is the consequence of the Mass Relays being destroyed. The sudden change of the nature of the synthetic-organic conflict does not take into account anything the player has done. The 3 endings are, aside from colors and types Continue Reading →

Homogeneity

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Over at Jester’s, there was an interesting post highlighting what I think is a common view in multiplayer games.  A commenter posted that Eve doesn’t have smarter players, it has less players doing more with alts, and also that CCP has failed to deliver on the “Dream of Eve”.  The poster seems to imply that because players are using alts, and focusing on optimized play-styles, Eve is dead to him.  Ripard seems to take that same premise and draw the opposite conclusion, that optimization is good.  I think both slightly miss a larger function of Multiplayer gaming in general.  The older a game gets, the more people learn the “right” ways to work, and many players will gravitate towards this. Take WoW as an example.  I played a hunter for some time, and during each expansion, there came a point where the optimal gear for each build was known, and if you didn’t use that build and gear, finding a raid spot was tough.  This took some creativity and trial to learn, but once it was found, most groups with progression on their minds demanded you work towards the optimal.  This holds true across classes. Look at TF2.  Each map Continue Reading →

Blog Banter 33: More Options

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Blog Banter 33: The Capsuleer Experience Like mana from Valhalla (yes I know I’m mixing my religious metaphors), the latest Dev Blog by CCP Legion asks questions which make for perfect Blog Bantering. To quote him “…we want to make the first days, weeks and months in EVE enjoyable and not just something ‘you have to plough through in order to get to the good stuff’” and the newly formed Player Experience team will focus on “…where and why people lose interest in EVE…”. “We invite you to pour your heart (or guts) out and tell us what you think is good or bad with the current new player experience and what you think could be done about the problems.” So let’s get self-eviscerating. Banter on.  Cheers, Seismic Stan Response  I started trying to come up with targets tied to the “first days/weeks/months”, but as I wrote this became more of a list of features I would like to see in Eve that would improve not only new player experience, but all player experience.  Without further ado, here is a list of changes I think would benefit all players. Skillbooks Get rid of skillbooks.  Completely remove them from the game.  Having Continue Reading →

Blog-a-Day 19: CSM7

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Poetic Stanziel sometimes posts community discussion questions, with the most recent being: Question #019 Do you know who you will be voting for in the upcoming CSM7 elections? If not, who are you following closely? Here is my response: First off, I have not decided who I will vote for.  I will not be voting for null bloc candidates, as I assume they will have no trouble getting the votes needed.  Those blocs will game the system a bit to try and split the other voting blocs, which are much less organized.  Others have written about this already, and Mittens has talked about the shortcomings and benefits of the CSM voting system in more than a few places.  I am also not terribly concerned about most of the incumbents.  If they are running again, a vote for them is effectively a referendum vote. I am following a few candidates though, so here are my thoughts on the ones I am aware of.  And yes, I used most of Seismic Stan’s links for the candidates, because although I have been browsing Jita Park, it was easier. Hans Jagerblitzen I have a post up already on this guy.  He seems to have Continue Reading →

CSM7: Hans Jagerblitzen

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So Hans Jagerblitzen, in an effort for publicity and to court my vote, went so far as to find my blog and put a comment up linking to his blog, and even posted the comment on a post that talked about CSM7.  He’s got my vote for organization at the very least! But seriously, I read Hans’ manifesto of sorts, and I think he is a very thoughtful  addition to the CSM 7 race.  Although I do not agree with all his stances, I find the effort he spent thinking about issues, compiling his thoughts in a mostly coherent document,  and crediting/admitting lack of knowledge on some issues are all good qualities in a CSM candidate.  He should pique interest, especially in the Faction Warfare and High Sec player bases he seems to be courting.  Hans seems to know where he stands (on the outside, looking in on the bloc voters and the fractured high sec mobs), and does not claim to be the end all candidate, but rather someone who wants to provide a reasoned voice to the CSM and CCP. I agree with many members of the Eve community who have already given most, if not all, of the “full” Continue Reading →

KOTM: Turberfield Edition

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Of The 843 Exhumers destroyed in Jan 2012, 409 were in high sec, 10 low, 406 null and 18 wormhole space. – CCP Diagoras If I am reading this correctly, somehow 409 Exhumers were killed by high-sec belt or mission rats in January.  What?  How?  I have a Hulk.  With literally any shield mod you care to throw on that ship, this should not be possible.  You can walk away for fifteen minutes and come back to find a belt full of high-sec rats plinking away at your shields to no avail. I have no further words for this.Update:  Apparently 121 of those were in Incursions, I assume doing that mining thing I’ve heard about.  But that still leaves 288 taken out by other NPCs

CSM7: The Blanding

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 I am waiting for something to happen in CSM7 land.  So far we know most of CSM6 is going to run again.  Here are my brief thoughts on each, with asterices: The Mitanni – CFC will get him elected, so no point in even paying attention. UAxDeath – Not sure what he ever did. Two Step* – I like this Two Step, talks a lot, even if I do not agree with some of what he says. Seleene* – Useful knowledge of CCP and Eve Meissa Anunthial* – Posts frequently on the forums, so hooray! Trebor Deahdoow* – Another communicative CSM. Prometheus Exenthal – Who? Elise Randolph – Again, who? Not already on the CSM but making noise: Kelduum Revaan – Eve Uni CEO, no substantial info or platform yet. Mintrolio – “I Love All Secs!” campaign is funny but uninformative. T’amber – Moar pink ships, smaller boobs and Serious Business.  Probably more interesting than Prometheus, but hey, that’s not hard. And that’s about it so far.  I think I saw someone nominating Chribba, but I have doubts.  Ripard Teg made a pass at the pretty girl in the bar, then talked himself out of it in a weird bait-and-switch Continue Reading →

Titans and Supercaps

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Update:  My original link went to the wrong post, so I fixed it. Over at 2nd Anomaly From the Left, I read an interesting post.  Orakkus talks about potential ways to increase the multiplayer aspect of supercarriers and titans in order to make them, essentially, more of a logistical problem to use on the battlefield.  He proposes a Voltron-like solution.  It’s a very interesting idea. Doomsday FIIIIIIIIRE! After thinking for a few seconds, I thought why not take an in game model, strategic cruisers, and apply it to these behemoths?  I leave figuring out skill system tweaks to others, but you would end up with something where multiple players would each control a portion of the Titan, and each portion could be targeted independently and have an impact on the overall performance of the Titan.  The ship could function with less than the full crew, but with some form of penalty. Here is a sketch of the idea. Titan Roles Navigation – Controls flight, jumping, and movement related tasks. Gunnery – Controls the onboard weapon systems and the doomsday device. Engineering – Controls defensive and power/cpu related tasks. Communications and Electronics – Controls targeting and jump bridge operations.  Would receive Continue Reading →

Blog Banter 32: Mechanics and Education

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Seismic Stan occasionally posts questions to the Eve blogging community.  His most recent is: “A quick view of the Eve Online forums can always find someone complaining about being suicide ganked, whining about some scam they fell for or other such tears. With the Goons’ Ice Interdiction claiming a vast amount of mining ships, there were calls for an “opt out of PvP” option.  Should this happen? Should people be able to opt-out of PvP in Eve Online. Should CONCORD prevent crime rather than just handing out justice after the event? Or do the hi-sec population already have too much protection from the scum and villainy that inhabits the game?” Seismic Stan asked us if there should be a way to remove non-consensual PvP from Eve, which I will take to mean, should there be parts of High Sec that do not allow non-consenual PvP.  I cannot think of another way to reframe the question that makes sense.  So we are either talking about PvP free islands or a PvP free High Sec.  I vehemently disagree with the removeal of PvP in high sec.  I would cautiously support development of very small islands of low value, PvP-free High Sec, but Continue Reading →